Guide to Email Providers Basics

Using reliable business email providers to communicate with customers

By Michelle Cramer

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find an email solution that meets your communication needs

One of the basic services that an email account provider should supply is an easily understandable inbox structure and messaging system. It should also allow you to keep track of your contacts' email addresses with an easily accessible address book. While you likely won't find a provider that doesn't include these features, you need to make sure they are simple and secure. If you need a step-by-step guide to send an email message, then that service is unnecessarily complicated and will waste too much time in the long run.

I recommend: Free email providers like Yahoo! Mail offer features that make reading email and organization quick and easy. The hosted email provided through Everyone.net blocks 98% of spam, which makes checking your business email a much more pleasant experience.

Save time and money by using a business email provider

Before email existed, businesses would have to communicate by traveling to a centralized location or holding a telephone conference call. While such meetings are necessary in some situations, they can be costly and time consuming for regular communication. Find email service providers that supply features with their service that make communication with others quick, easy and convenient, saving your business time and money.

I recommend: MailStreet offers an email services that includes enterprise-class messaging as well as collaborative and group scheduling features so that co-workers can communicate on various levels, making for smoother business practices. Apptix offers email and calendar synchronization so that, if you make a change on your mobile device, the service automatically reflects that change on your laptop or PC.

Use corporate email providers to multitask communication

Not too long ago, you would have to make one telephone call after another, back and forth, to communicate with multiple investors, providers and other contacts. With today's technology, obtaining an email service through a provider is a necessity for the smooth operation of a business. Now, what would have taken 10 telephone calls and hours of work, takes one email to multiple recipients completed in a fraction of the time.

I recommend: Among many other features, with LuxSci you can annotate shared emails so that everyone in the company that reads the email will also see your added follow-up notes. Share calendars and address boxes with co-workers through the Swishmail service.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Other features you should consider when examining the services business email providers offer include the amount of storage space available, the maximum size for email attachments, and chat and auto-response capabilities.

Guide to Email Providers

Email solutions provide a painless way to stay in touch, wherever you are

By Michael Berman

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Sign up with a Web-based email provider

Web-based email services are usually free, although they may charge you for extra services such as email filtering for spam, extra space or multiple email addresses. These are a good email solution for people who need to access their email from various locations.

I recommend: Among the more popular web-based email service providers are Earthlink, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL. Earthlink, which is the only one of the quartet that charges a fee, has been more effective in handling spam and other cyber intruders than the other web-based services and offers free tools to protect your inbox. Yahoo and Hotmail, which are free services, do an adequate job, and AOL, which is also free, has the reputation for being the least effective.

Check with your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Your ISP may offer web-based email service that you can access from any computer, and they may have already set you up with an email address.

I recommend: Email access is usually included when you sign up with an ISP. All cable and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) ISPs, such as Comcast, Time-Warner, Verizon and AT&T provide free email services for their subscribers.

Check for dial-up services

As with anything in life, the connection to your ISP may go down, leaving you without access to your email. Many web-based email services offer dial-up service enabling you to access your email using a telephone line and a modem.

I recommend: Check with your ISP or email provider to see if it offers dial-up service. A couple of email services that do are Earthlink and AOL.

Download your messages to your PC

There are many good email tools available that can access your email account, filter out spam, and organize and delete messages from your inbox.

I recommend: Use a good email reader such as Eudora or Microsoft Outlook to download email from your email service provider to your desktop. These can also download email from multiple providers.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you have your own web page, your host may provide you with an email address and a mailbox connected to your website. Unfortunately, you probably have to pay extra for spam filtering.
• •  Check your spam folders on a daily basis for important email that may have been misdirected or erroneously tagged as spam.
• •  Check to see if your email service provider offers a dummy email address you can use when you order items online or fill out forms on the Internet but don't want to be bothered by advertising and other materials they generate.
• •  Many web-based email service providers have space limits on their mailboxes. Clean your mailbox often by either going into the website and deleting messages or by downloading messages to your desktop using an email reader.

Guide to Working with Email Providers

Know what features are necessities when seeking a reliable business email provider

By Michelle Cramer

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose from email account providers that offer ample storage space and attachment sizes

Since email is the most popular means of business communication, you will need to have plenty of space to store those important messages that you need to retain for future reference. Typically, when buying a hosted service, the more you pay, the more storage space you receive. Additionally, you will often send documents and files to contacts as email attachments. Most providers limit the size of these attachments, so you need a service that will allow you to send larger files.

I recommend: Register.com offers companies that need more than 25 email boxes up to two gigabytes storage space and a maximum size of 20 megabytes for email attachments. Some free email providers, such as Yahoo! Mail, offer unlimited email storage space.

Optimize organization with business email providers

Most email providers offer a way of managing and organizing the emails you choose to retain, typically with the use of folders. Find a service that makes this organizational feature as simple as possible. Likewise, you need to use an email solution that allows you to efficiently organize and access your contacts.

I recommend: HyperOffice providers email storage folders that you can customize, as well as a search feature to find a specific email. BlueTie prides itself on a contact manager that will help you to easily organize and access your contact list.

Seek out corporate email providers that supply extra features for ease of use

Some extra features that will help you to stay organized include a calendar function, reminders and auto-response. A calendar that synchronizes with your handheld device and a means of setting up email reminders for calendar events will help you to make appointments and meet deadlines. An auto-response function is important for when you won't be reachable by email for a time and want to convey that to those that may be expecting a prompt response.

I recommend: Tuffmail provides a large number of extra features outside the parameters of your general email needs. Among other features, EnterpriseMail provides a group calendar so that your employees can synchronize their schedules.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Consider looking into an email account provider that supplies LAN-based email. A couple of the features of LAN email include the ability to access your email while offline and the capacity for accessing multiple email accounts all at once.

Guide to Email Providers Key Terms

Understanding the different types of email provider services available

By Michelle Cramer

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

ISP

ISP stands for Internet service provider, including AOL, Netscape, Comcast, Earthlink and Mediacom on a national level. Most ISPs offer email service as part of their Internet connection.

I recommend: Visit Boutell for more information on ISPs.

SMTP

SMTP stands for simple mail transfer protocol. SMTP is the standard Internet protocol for transferring email messages from one computer to another by specifying how the two computers interact and the format of the messages.

I recommend: Studio Whiz provides more information on SMTP and email configuration.

POP

POP stands for post office protocol. It is a means of sending a client's email directly to his computer or server, with all files and folders stored on the computer, rather than the client having to access an email service through the Internet.

I recommend: For more information on POP email service, visit Javvin.

IMAP

IMAP stands for Internet message account protocol and gives users access to email and files stored on a server.

I recommend: Access The IMAP Connection, provided by the University of Washington, for more information about IMAP.

Webmail

Webmail, also known as web mail or web-based email, is an email service accessed through a web browser and Internet connection. The most common webmail providers offer a free service, such as Yahoo!, Hotmail and Google's Gmail. Most of these services provide unlimited storage for emails and folders for ease of use.

I recommend: Tech-FAQ explains webmail in more detail.

Postmaster

In the technology world, postmaster refers to the individual in charge of an email server. They look for errors in email transfers, analyzing them and making necessary adjustments to correct the issue. When there is an error, you may receive a message from 'postmaster@domain.com' stating the problem.

I recommend: For more information on the postmaster's role, visit OnPedia, the online encyclopedia.