Hi all, pasting below article, which get from another list. Regards Wahid ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Big companies tend to rely on Microsoft Outlook for their email. Private users tend to favour free Webmail services. BERLIN: Big companies tend to rely on Microsoft Outlook for their email. Private users tend to favour free Webmail services. But there is a way to combine aspects of both to get the best of both worlds for private users. Webmail is universal these days, mostly because basic versions of so many systems are free online. But there are a lot of services out there beyond Google and Yahoo, the two biggest names in the field. The advantages are obvious. You can get your mail from any computer with an internet connection and the files don't have to be downloaded onto the computer, which can take time with bigger attachments. Plus, the services filter out spam, which makes up the majority of today's email traffic. That would be enough for a perfect world. But, although many people use webmail and are happy with it, online forums are full of complaints about slow reaction times, poor search functions, bad management, overzealous or lackadaisical spam filtering, floods of ads or too little storage space. And, at the core of it, is the fact that you have to be online to do anything with your mail. Plus, many people have collected mailboxes at different services over the years, all of which have to be checked individually. That means that, more often than not, people find they need some kind of client software for their webmail, so they can save and manage their email. Microsoft Outlook is the classic, but it's not free. And, in the newest versions of Office, from 2010, Outlook is not packaged in with the cheapest set, Home and Student, which costs 90 euros (127 dollars). To get Outlook, customers need to seek out Home and Business, which costs 260 euros. But there are free alternatives. Mozilla, the designer of the Firefox browser, offers its free client, Thunderbird. One advantage of its newest offering, Version 5, is an assistant to set up email accounts. Previously, users had to know the protocols like POP3 or IMAP or STMP for each service during setup, which was a high hurdle for some. The new function only requires name, email address and password to be entered. The assistant finds the rest in its database. Just like in a web browser, Thunderbird can be used to open individual mails in tabs, stacking them on top of one another. The search engine has been outfitted with a quick filter, which immediately shows results as the search is typed in. There is also a timeline for helping people to quickly get to the right message. There is a news archive for permanent storage. There's also a group folder where users can put together incoming mail from diverse mail accounts as well as sent or archived messages. And, just like Firefox, there's a bunch of additional add-ons for extra functions. Norwegian browser specialist Opera integrated its email client right into its browser. Even though it looks like a webmail service, the mails are saved directly onto the hard drive and are accessible offline. As soon as an internet connection is available, Opera synchronizes the machine with the mail server. Instead of the normal folders, Opera Mail uses filter views, for example, for news or for specific people or topics with a programmed keyword. ----- Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
