Most people think very carefully about which emails they choose to read. And many people decide when and how often to read incoming mail. But few take the time to consider HOW they actually read mail. Maybe you didn’t even realize you had choices about how you read your email. Your options will vary, depending on who your email provider is.
Suppose you use a cable modem and have Internet access through Comcast. Mail that is sent is physically stored on a mail server maintained by Comcast. You have a password that gives you access to the account. You can turn on your computer, open your browser (for example, Internet Explorer), navigate to the Comcast.net page, and sign in with your email name and password. You will be able to see your mail, read it, sort it, reply to it and delete it, all from the browser.
Actually, it performs all these functions while you are online. You can log out when you’re done. With this method, you haven’t downloaded anything to your local computer, so you haven’t used any hard drive storage space. And as long as you haven’t opened any attachments, you probably haven’t exposed your computer to any threats from viruses, Trojans, or other “bad guys” (the official term is malware). Messages that you haven’t deleted after reading them will remain on the Comcast server, where you can read them again. You can consider this your online backup storage for emails.
If you prefer to retrieve your messages and store them at your location, you have the option of using an email client such as Outlook Express, Eudora, Incredimail, or Pegasus to do this for you. It does require a bit of setup, but once it’s set up properly, it’s pretty easy to use on an ongoing basis. You can use both methods at different times. If you’re out of town, you can check your email anywhere you have Internet access. You can then download the messages you want to save when you return to your computer. Pretty slippery.
Many of the popular free services, like Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail, were originally designed to read email online. With a little work (and sometimes an add-on product that’s also free), you can set them up so you can download messages to your computer for offline reading too.
What about business email that is sent to your website? Most web hosting companies provide an email service that allows you to choose whether you want to read it online (this is often referred to generically as “webmail”) or have it automatically forwarded elsewhere (like your Comcast account). ).
You can also choose to forward part to one place and part to another. You may have different email addresses set up for your company and you want the email addressed to [email protected] to be forwarded to you and everything else to your assistant. Please note that if you choose the webmail option, you can always choose to forward individual messages after opening them. Remember, if you read and manage your email while connected to the Internet, you will not be using storage space on your local computer.
The options are yours. Look at the volume of mail you receive, think about who needs to deal with it (and where and when) and deal with it in the way that best suits your particular situation.