Email Types

With the growing popularity of the Internet, email has become a part of almost everyone's life. Whether you use your email to correspond with family, friends, business associates, or all three, you need to be perceptive to your vulnerabilities when sending and receiving your correspondence. There are two basic types of email available to users of the internet.

If you get online using an Internet Service Provider (ISP), whether you have a dial-up account (you access the Internet with a telephone line and modem), a cable connection, or satellite connection, you are provided at least one mailbox for email, and sometimes several, with your account.

 

These accounts are called POP3 accounts. POP3 refers to the protocol or language your computer and the mail servers located at your isp use to communicate with each other. To access your mail account you will need what is referred to as a 'mail client'. A mail client is a simple application or program used entirely to receive and send email.

 

Many viruses are written to be specifically activated by usage of the email client, which comes with Internet Explorer, Outlook Express. Therefore, always be cautious of any email you receive, even if it is from a friend, when using Outlook Express. Microsoft works diligently at overcoming these vulnerabilities in Outlook Express, but the internet hackers work just as diligently at overcoming these security features. Your only protection is to be aware of the problem, keep your email client updated with all patches and security fixes made available, and use your anti-virus program, keeping it current with all new updates also.

 

The primary advantage to the POP3 type email account is that it is usually not restrictive of the size of files, which you can send or receive. If you are, for instance, a music buff and love to share your mp3's with friends, this type of account will usually accommodate the large files.

 

 

The second type of email available is what is termed 'web based email'. This type of account is found free from dozens of internet services, such as Hotmail and Yahoo.

Advantages to a web based email account. Filters are easy to use, cutting down drastically to your receipt of spam. Another advantage is that you can access your account from any internet-connected computer anywhere in the world. With a POP3 account, you usually must be logged onto your isp and set up the email client on the computer you are using to be able to receive of send mail. Another huge advantage of web based email accounts is that many of them automatically prescan all your received attachments for viruses before you download them onto your computer. This allows for the catching of many viruses, which might otherwise infect your computer if received through your POP3 account.