Why would you need more than one e-mail account? Free e-mail accounts live on a very public server, so they can be accessed from anywhere in the world. If you have an e-mail account at work or at school, it might be a good idea to get another address to have your personal e-mail sent to. That way, if you leave your job or graduate, you won't lose all your email and you'll still be able to get your mail at the free account. They can be slightly more secure than normal (especially company) e-mail accounts too. They are also, more permanent. As long as you keep your account in use (it will get deleted if not used for several months) it will be accessible even if you change ISPs.
An extra address can come in handy for posting on bulletin boards or USENET so that your primary address isn't exposed to spammers. Also you to access many e-mail accounts through a Web interface, so you can check your e-mail virtually anywhere in the world. Plus, you don't need any software except an Internet browser!
Some features that you might look for in choosing a free E-Mail program are:
- Address Book - Most e-mail programs have an address book where you can store names and e-mail addresses of people you send -mail to often.
- Auto-responder - this feature allows you to send an automatic reply to people who send you e-mail. This is useful when you are on vacation or you have a mailbox set up just to send information back to the sender.
- Attachments - most programs allow you to send and receive files that you attach to your e-mail such as images, sounds or programs. large attachments can fill up your mail box in a hurry and can take a long time to download. They can also contain software that can damage your computer called viruses. So be careful about using attachments. Don't ever open an attachment from someone you don't know. It might even be a good idea to call them and ask what the attachment is before opening it.
- Consolidation - some e-mail programs allow you to handle mail from several e-mail accounts in one convenient place.
- Custom signatures - most programs let you have one or more standard signatures that get automatically attached to the end of your e-mails
- Forwarding - All programs let you forward email to someone else. Some will automatically send email with a particular subject, on to another email address.
- Folders - some programs allow you to store your e-mail in convenient folders that you set up to file your e-mail in (i.e., personal, work, mom, humor, etc.)
- Filters - this feature allows you to block e-mail from people you don't want to hear from including unsolicited advertisements called SPAM. You can also have mail automatically filed into folders.
- Spell checker - a few programs have spell checkers built into them.