E-mail has become a common a means of communication rivaling the telephone and conventional mail, which is known in the online world as "snail mail." It is a fast, easy and economical means of personal and business correspondence. Most e-mail is the standard Internet e-mail, POP3 (Post Office Protocol ver 3). There are other types but this is the most common and what I refer to here to as the standard e-mail. This e-mail can be used with mail client software (e-mail programs) and also through web based programs know as "web mail." Some types of e-mail can only be used through the providers interface and are limited to the functions and features that the provider places in the interface. Examples of this type would be AOL mail and Juno mail. Because they are not true POP3 e-mail they can not be used with an e-mail program and you do not have the choice of choosing your own software with the features and ease of use you want or need. They also use the program as an advertising platform to flood the user with ads. In addition these types of e-mail may have problems communicating with standard e-mail, especially when attachments or links are involved. You are not able to use an e-mail program with these online e-mail services. Features and ease of use are two of the important reasons to be able to use an e-mail program. Everyone has, at least, some different ideas when it comes to how they want to use their e-mail and how they perceive ease of use. Because of they great variety of e-mail programs you should find one that will fill your requirements and be pleased with. Remember with true Internet e-mail, the choice is yours not some service provider's. Many of the e-mail clients are free or have free trial versions that have advertisements. Of course if you pay a, usually small, fee it would be updated to contain more features and no ads.

Using regular mail involves a post office, Internet mail has an equivalent. With regular mail there is only one post office everyone in a country uses, in the case of the United States it is the U.S. Post Office. The Internet has many "post offices" and they are called mail servers. Each Internet Service Provider (ISP), which is the company you get your Internet service and e-mail address through, has different mail servers. Web sites have their own mail servers for addresses at that site. There are two types of servers, one for incoming messages and one for outgoing. The incoming server is the POP3 server and the outgoing is sometimes refereed to as the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server. When you set up your e-mail software you will need to enter the names of these servers in the initial steps. Your ISP or, if it is for a web site's e-mail, your hosting company will supply you with this information. You will also enter in the e-mail address or address you will be using with the program. These are the ones you picked when setting up you Internet service or have set up in your hosting account.. Remember, e-mail addresses from different service providers or different web sites will have different incoming mail servers. In many cases, but not always, the only outgoing mail server you will use is the one provided by your ISP. Although most Internet users are familiar with e-mail it still remains a mystery to some and that causes some confusion. E-mail is no different that conventional mail in the way it works. Here's a simple comparison to show how alike they are, with a few desirable exceptions:

Regular Mail	E-Mail
Get out the typewriter	Open e-mail program
Put paper in typewriter	Click button to create new email
Type the message on paper	Type the message on screen
Find the address, type on envelope	Type or select it from address book*
Fold and place in envelope	Not needed with e-mail
Add extra enclosures (if any) to envelope	Add attachments (if any)
Lick and put stamp on envelope	Not needed with e-mail
Walk to mail box	Not needed with e-mail
Place letter in mail box	Click on Send button
Wait several days for delivery	Delivered almost instantly
Remember to buy more stamps	Not needed with e-mail