Emails can be accessed using any supported Email Client or directly by web based email service. Regardless of the mode with which you use your email there are few things which will always be in common.

You always will have a unique Email address

Email address is just like your home address which is unique across the globe. Email id consists of two parts separated by the ‘@’ sign. Text written after the ‘@’ sign is the name of your email service provider. Example: Gmail, Hotmail etc. Text before the ‘@’ sign is your unique user ID on your service providers server.

Password

Password is the key to access your email account. Without this your login request will not be accepted / validated.

Root Folders

  • Inbox – Folder for incoming mails
  • Outbox – Folder for sending mails
  • Drafts – Folder for saving unsent mails
  • Sent Items – Folder for keeping a copy of sent mails
  • Trash – Folder which contains deleted mails

Getting started

To write an e-mail, click on the Create New Mail option. The title might change depending upon your service provider. In the new mail window you will find some boxes like:

To Box:

This is the box for typing the address of the recipient – the email ID of the person to whom you are sending the mail

CC Box:

This is the box for typing the email ID of the person to whom you want to send a copy of your email

BCC Box:

This box is not visible in most of the “New Mail” windows but its purpose is to send a copy of your Mail to somebody without letting other recipients to know about this. BCC stand for Blind Carbon Copy and all the ‘To’ and ‘CC’ recipients will not come to know if there was any BCC added in any mail.

Mail Box:

This box is to write the content of the mail. It’s a multiline text box and users can write the actual body of their mail here

Attachment:

This option is used for attaching a file to the Email. You can send pictures, music, video etc as an attachment along with your email message. All Email Service providers have their defined set of rules for handling the email attachments as this is one of the mode for spreading infections. Some Email service providers don’t allow you to send executable files as attachments. All the providers have a size limit too so before sending a large email attachment you should know if your email service provider will allow you to do so.

To access your emails on Email clients like Outlook, outlook Express, Windows Mail, Live Mail etc you need some more information other than your username and password. Information like:

  • Incoming mail server address (POP)
  • Outgoing Mail Server Address (SMTP)
  • POP port number
  • SMTP port number along with the security mode

The Email clients these days are capable enough to fetch these details directly from your email service provider’s server, but this works only for the major players like, Gmail, or Yahoo etc. For configuring other providers you need to have this information handy by yourself.

Working on Email through an Email Client gives you more and better options and capability to read your downloaded mails without even connecting to the Internet.