These days it seems like everyone has at least one email address and for the business world the idea of not having at least one or more email addresses would make it impossible to compete in the modern business world. There are many different email carriers on the web some of which are used mostly for private emails while others are more for business. Which type of email account you use may also depend heavily on the operating system you are running. While all of them are capable of running on Windows and Linux some such as qmail are better suited to one more than the other.

Top Email Providers

Msn Mail is a professional, easy to use free mailing service provided from Microsoft. > Read More

Created to be an internal Google email service, now available to the public for free.  > Read More

With the unique features Yahoo is working towards becoming king of the free emails. > Read More

Experience icontact.com email marketing software for high impact campaign. > Read More

The "qmail" Option

One of the biggest issues with any email program is security; with the large numbers of hackers on the internet keeping your email private has become a very difficult task. In 1995 Dan Bernstein wrote a new MTA or Mail Transfer Agent specifically aimed at the UNIX environment and for those who used Linux to run their servers.

It was created to replace the Send mail program that came prepackaged with UNIX and makes use of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP to integrate with other MTA protocols on other systems.

The original Sendmail program was full of security problems and as the Internet began to fill up with less than scrupulous people these security flaws began to become intolerable. A new far more secure system was needed that could also handle bulk deliveries for business use.

Qmail is the most common mail service used in the world of ecommerce and is particularly popular with mass mailers. This is largely due to the fact that it has far less bugs and it offers much more flexibility than Sendmail could ever come close to offering.

One of the reasons qmail is used is that it queues outgoing emails for later delivery so that it can continue processing outgoing mail as the resources become available and sending them out in batches. If the system had to process multiple requests continuously for outgoing mail such as requests to be removed from mailing lists, the server would soon be overloaded and crash causing multiple problems. This is particularly important to merchants who rely on mass mailings in order to do business.

This actually gives the mass mailer the ability to continue sending emails out for a set period of time after the request for removal arrives. In most cases web sites will tell the person asking to have their name removed that it will take up to 72 hours to have their name removed, this is typically how far in advance outgoing sales emails are loaded for delivery. Once they are queued for delivery they cannot be stopped.

For those who are in any kind of ecommerce where the use of mass mailers is a part of daily life and are looking for an MTA that will send out your emails in a format that will get past most spam filters qmail is the one program you should be using. Fast, secure and very user friendly qmail has become the second most popular SMTP server on the Internet and is capable of handling over 200,000 messages per day on an average server. This makes qmail one of the most popular programs available for those marketers and businesses that send out thousands of emails every week and need speed and security all in the same package.

The Mail Server

Now that we have used the term "mail server", perhaps we need to take a few minutes and explain exactly what a mail server is and how it works. In essence the mail server operates much like the old fashioned post office. In other works when you compose an email and send it out, your email program must connect to the Internet in order for the mail to be forwarded to the intended recipient. Once your email program connects with the mail server it reads the delivery email address just like the post office would read the one written on an envelope.

One of the most common mail servers being used today is qmail and it relays the email you have sent to the mail server that is attached to the recipient ISP or email host such as Google or Yahoo. When it arrives at the destination mail server (think the mailbox outside your house) it will sit there waiting for the person you sent it to retrieve it using their email program. Thanks to the use of mail servers it is possible to send email all over the world as they are all designed to work with each other and the various operating systems in use.

MSN Email

For one reason or another it seems as though many people want an MSN email account, however getting an .msn email account is not as easy as it may seem.

At one time an msn email account was standard for many people; today the default email you get when you sign up at Microsoft is a Hotmail account. If you feel you must have an msn email account you can get one using their premium service package.

When Windows first came out an msn email address was actually one of the first emails available unless you got one from your ISP as there was not much in the way of free email services available and the free msn email that you got with outlook express was considered as an added bonus.

Today very few people use an msn address instead, it seems to be that the only people who use an msn address are professionals and business along with the over 40 crowd.

For those who are in the marketing business the msn email looks far more professional, most people who receive emails from the free servers tend put them in the same category as spam. This can result in the loss of many possible sales which is definitely no something any type of marketer can afford.

The Email Virus

Of all the problems you can encounter when using email for either personal or business use the one thing that can cause more damage to your computer and anybody who is in your email address book's computer is the email virus. Over the years there have been a great number of them. In the early days of the Internet most people were not even aware of the email viruses and there was not much in the way of software to protect computers from it.

The email virus is still the most commonly spread virus in the world as far too many people are lax in what they open in their email box. Those who write these malicious programs take advantage of the fact that some people will open any email they get. This is a terrible mistake and is the fastest way for a virus to spread.

In most cases the virus is included in an attachment, as soon as the user opens the attachment the virus is released and goes to work. The best plan of action is to never open an email or an attachment if you do not know the sender and make sure that your anti-virus software is kept up to date at all times.

Getting Your Email for Free

If you are running a business that relies on email to contact customers, make sales and send out newsletters using one if the many free email accounts available online may not be the best choice. Sure you can save a little money and if you need lots of different emails those pay accounts can add up. These accounts work just fine for the individual private accounts that everybody has, but if you are going to trust your business to them it could cost you a lot more that they are going to save you in the long run.

One of the biggest problems is that the majority of free email accounts store you email on their servers, so if there is a crash at their end you could lose all of your email. This also opens your email account up to being hacked much more easily, which could also have the same result. One your account is hacked you may never be able to recover the lost data and finding customer service can be a nightmare. The best thing you can do if you are going to use free email accounts is to download your email to your computer using an email client.

Using Hotmail for Your email

Hotmail is the original free email service and was founded by Jack Smith and Sabers Bhatia in 1996. It was actually launched on Independence Day as a way to give the public the freedom to choose the Hotmail email service over those owned by the ISPs. On top of which for the first time a person could access his email from anywhere in the world. According to the developers the name Hotmail email came the letters HTML which is the primary coding used to create web pagers. Initially it was written as HoTMaiL to symbolize this relationship.

In 1997 Microsoft bought the company for a reported $400 million and it became a part of the MSN service package available. This simple to use free email service caught on quickly around the world and by 1999 had over 30 million subscribers. It has gone through many different changes over the years as it became MSN/Hotmail and now Windows Live Hotmail. Today it is still one of the most widely used free email accounts and is used by thousands of marketers both legitimate and otherwise due to its continued easy registration process.

Yahoo!!!!

Yahoo did not begin life as an email giant in fact it was started as a book by two graduate students at Stanford University in 1994. The two students Jerry Yang and David Flo had written a book called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web"; however it was retitled as "YAHOO" as the writers like the general definition of the word.

With proper financing the 2 launched Yahoo.com in 1995 and began life as web portal. The Yahoo email service began life as Rocket Mail until Yahoo acquired it in 1997.

In recent years with the competition for email clients heating up Yahoo email have been undergoing some very positive changes that will definitely help the online business that still prefers to use a free email service.

One of the biggest changes is unlimited storage, they are the first free email service to offer this feature along with extra goodies like direct RSS feeds, the ability to drag and drop into emails and full integration with many of Yahoo's other features. With its many new and unique features Yahoo is working towards becoming king of the free emails services available.

Gmail Email from Internal Email to World Leader

The original Gmail email program was created to be an internal Google email service and ran that way for several years before it was released to the public. It was released in 2004 in the beta testing phase and with limited users, in fact it was still in the "beta" phase until July 2009 when Google finally announced the completion of beta testing in the hopes that it would attract more business users.

Despite being attacked and hacked over the years Gmail email services have continued to improve. One of the great services available is the Gmail application that allows users to access their Gmail accounts via their cell phones, this is an innovation that no other free email service offered at the time of its inception and has gone a long way towards making Gmail email very popular with business users, especially those who are in marketing and need to have constant access to their emails.

When on business trips, they can’t recharge their notebook batteries often. Although high quality batteries, such as Dell Inspiron 1300 Battery, can keep charge for more than 4 hours, it’s very convenient to be able to access your email account via your cell phone. This fact also adds to the growing popularity of Gmail Email throughout the world.

The competition for email accounts is very fierce in the industry whether it is a Gmail email account, Yahoo or Hotmail the corporations that own them know that millions of dollars can be made with these free accounts. With more innovations coming on line every year their use the business owner continues to improve, while paid emails can be great the free ones will give you just as much service without the cost.