Continuing a series considering the essential services the average person should expect from a computer, and some of the choices that are available. The intention is to outline the diversity of solutions and to build up a picture of what a well-functioning and reasonably up-to-date computer looks like. We previously considered the office suite and the Internet. This week we turn to email.
Email is a great example of a “killer application” - something that single-handedly leads to mass adoption of a technology. The spreadsheet program is credited with the sudden popularity of early personal computers, and email is credited with the explosion in the use of the internet. Web browsers followed of course, but it was email that people could instantly understand, use and benefit from.
Today, email software offers more than simply the ability to compose an email and send it. Indeed, email software is now on the defensive, fighting off a global barrage of spam, viruses, trojans, and spyware while simultaneously trying to add extra functionality such as news feeds, automated responses and time-saving tricks.
Popular email software, known as the email 'client', includes the ubiquitous Microsoft offerings (the free Outlook Express, or the more sophisticated but expensive Office Outlook), the free Mozilla Thunderbird, and products such as Pegasus or Eudora which are free so long as you accept ads every time you use them or pay for an ad-free version. What they all have in common is that they are configured with your email address and its associated password, and they download all your emails to your computer. In other words, all the emails you send and receive are stored on your computer, which makes it your responsibility to ensure that they are backed up (along with your address book) or otherwise kept safe from loss or damage to your computer. Email clients can be set to connect to the Internet, download any waiting emails while sending any outbound emails, and then disconnect as soon as completed – minimising the connection time for dialup users.
An increasingly popular alternative to an email client is to 'outsource' your email software – championed by HotMail, many readers will be familiar with the entirely web-based email facility offered free of charge with basic amenities such as anti-spam and possibliy anti-virus. If you pay a subscription fee, you get extra storage space and extra facilities such as a larger address book, better anti-spam etc. Yahoo! and Google also offer free web-based email, amongst a host of others. And if you want highly secure email, try Hushmail – also free at the basic level, with extras at a charge. Using web-based email frees you from the worry and hassle of backups, but does mean you have to be connected to the Internet the entire time you are reading and writing emails.
It is worth noting that many web hosting providers include a web-based email service, which enables a business to use customised email addresses (eg.
instead of
) – but they tend to be more basic and offer much less storage space.
