Free webmail hosts like hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc are all web based email engines. If the mail needs to be checked, you will need a browser like Firefox or Internet explorer to do so. But, there is more to mails than the traditional browser based mails. It would be a great advantage if the mails can be stored on your hard disk to be read anytime without the need of an internet connection.
E-mail clients like Outlook and outlook express have been doing their rounds for a few years and have gained popularity. These run on Windows only and is extremely popular with IT companies. There are some free ones like Mozilla thunderbird which is gaining popularity. Each of the mail clients offers different features but they are mainly used to download mails and send mails. Each mail client differs from one another with the ease of usability and different features it can offer like rules, signatures, etc.
To configure your email using a mail client, you would need much more than a free webmail. You need a mail service which offers POP or IMAP service as well. Mail clients work either on POP or IMAP service.
Once a mail service is subscribed which offers POP or IMAP, the next step would be configure the mail client. Every mail client needs 4 fields for mails to be downloaded. We would necessarily need information like incoming mail server, outgoing mail server, username and password. With these four fields, we can configure a mail client.
Configuring and tricks of mail clients would be discussed in the next article. If you have any questions regarding mail clients, feel free to discuss here.
