Free Email Providers Basics

Save money by using a free email address

A free email account is one of technology's exceptions to the old adage that you get what you pay for. A number of websites provide very comprehensive and full-featured email for no charge, though most companies support the service by ads on the page. Other providers offer free and pay-for levels and hope most customers will decide to opt for the pay-for option at some point.

The features and interface offered varies with each of the free email providers. Basics you should look for in the way of features include the following:

1. Choose a free email provider that supports POP3, SMTP or IMAP if you want to check your email using a desktop email client.

2. Look companies that offer spam filters and virus scanners to keep out unwanted emails and viruses.

3. Find free email providers that offer bigger mailboxes which provide more storage space and allow you to receive larger attached files.

Find free email providers that offer web-based email

The benefit of web-based email is that you can access it easily from any computer. It is also not tied to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), so you can keep it even if you move or change jobs.

Look for free email accounts that support POP3 and IMAP access

Post Office Protocol (POP3) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) are standard methods email applications use to communicate with an email server to download email. Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is another less common way to retrieve email. Most free secure email providers offer virus and spam filters, not encrypted services.

Get free personalized email along with other message features

The connectivity of the Internet and the increasing digitization of many forms of communication make it easy to bundle email, voicemail and fax services. Instead of having a dedicated fax machine, receive faxes in your email and print them from your computer. Check voicemail on the Internet or receive it as a sound file attached to emails.

• Keep one free email account from a web-based service such as Gmail as a backup to your regular email to use when you switch between email addresses or if your regular email has an outage.

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