Frequently Asked Questions

I download my email via POP to my home computer, but sometimes want to access it while I'm at work as well. How can I do this and still be able to download the message to my home computer later?

Usually if you download a message via the POP3 protocol, the default behavior is for it to get deleted from the email server, so you can't access it again from another device later. Most email providers allow you to change this behavior though, so that a copy of the message is kept on the server (in Gmail for example, if you go to "Settings" and then "Forwarding and POP/IMAP", under the POP section you can select "When messages are accessed with POP -> keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox"). This is only a partial solution though, because POP3 doesn't handle access from multiple devices well.

A much better solution would be to use an IMAP interface. IMAP provides two-way  communication between your email clients and your email server, so you can access your email from multiple places, and all of your email clients are kept in synch (i.e. if you make a change such as deleting an email on one device, that change is automatically reflected on your other devices).

If your email provider doesn't support IMAP access, you could open a new email account with a provider that does (for example, Gmail supports IMAP for free). If you want to keep your old email address, you could change the settings associated with it so that email sent to it is automatically forwarded to your new account that supports IMAP.

I'm using Outlook Express on Win XP. Should I upgrade, and if so what should I upgrade to?

Outlook Express does most things pretty well. If it's working for you, and not missing any important functionality that you need, then there's really no need to change (i.e. if it's not broken, don't fix it).

If you're using (or thinking of using) the other Windows Live services (see http://get.live.com), then you might want to consider upgrading to Windows Live Mail. If you just want an email program with a slightly friendlier interface, you could consider upgrading to Thunderbird.

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