By KIMBERLY DEMUCHA
demucha@newsroom.byu.edu
All e-mail service providers were not created equal.
Research is a must when deciding on which service to subscribe to if students prefer to use an e-mail system other than the Route Y supplied by BYU.
Keeping with current trends, many companies are offering free Internet access, and they have added to their package free Web-based e-mail, according to www.free-email-address.com.
Free Email Address, a Web site dedicated to reviewing free e-mail services, takes guesswork out of choosing the service, according to the Web site.
According to Free Email Address, three different types of e-mail services are available to consumers. The first is Web-based, or HTML, e-mail.
Web-based e-mail is considered the simplest kind of e-mail because it is easy to access anywhere in the world, from any computer that has Internet access and a Web browser, said Jason M. DesRoches, Free Email Address Webmaster.
'Once you sign up for such a service, you simply return to the Web site whenever you want to access your mail,' DesRoches said.
According to a MailSpace.com news release, one of the major advantages of Web-based e-mail is the ability send and receive messages from anywhere that will always be available because they are stored on a central server on the World Wide Web.
Web-based e-mail has become quite powerful with the option to include message attachments and write to multiple addressees, he said.
Another type of free e-mail is POP email.
A POP account works differently than Web-based email in that the messages are downloaded off of a server onto a local drive. This allows users to archive old messages because the only space being used is their own.
However, in order to use a POP email account users need an email client. A client is a type of software that communicates with a POP email server to download mail messages and clean them off of the server.
The last type of free e-mail service providers is mail-forwarding services, which also offer free accounts.
The premise behind using a forwarding service is simple. If planning on using different e-mail accounts, students simply give out a forwarding account as a primary account to contacts, and it will send mail wherever specified, DesRoches said.
'With mail forwarding, you can change your account without ever informing your contacts of your new information; you simply update the information on your forwarding account,' he said.
According to www.Ask.com, over 700 different free email providers offer a wide variety of perks.
At MailSpace.com, students can now have their choice of over 1,000 different e-mail addresses, all at no charge.
This particular e-mail service provider specializes in providing consumers with personalized e-mail addresses specific to their own interests. Depending on personal interests, students can choose different addresses that fit their needs.
Alta Vista e-mail also offers its customers the option of personalizing their e-mail address. There are several extensions available to choose from, many relating to occupations.
Additionally, Alta Vista e-mail is available for life and will not be taken away unless rules are broken.
Some providers, like ApexMail.com, cater to a broader, bilingual audience. ApexMail offers their services in both English and French.