Outlook and Windows Mail

Outlook Express and Windows Mail:

Well anyone that has asked me the question will know I am not to fond of these services offered by Microsoft. But I will try to hold back on the bias and stick with the information at hand.

There can be benefits to using these services and also serious downfalls, and of course I will list them both and let you make the choice on this one. First for those of you that don't know what this is, I will explain in as much detail as possible.

What is it?

Outlook and Windows Mail is a third party e-mail service program that collects your e-mails from the main site that it is being hosted. In example if I have an e-mail account with Verizon, then I can set up this Microsoft program to get my mail for me and send mail out as well.

So instead of having to log into Verizon's website and check my e-mail through there, I can click a button in my start menu and it will pull my mail from the website for me. If I want to send mail, it will send the mail out through my website e-mail without me ever having to visit the Internet.

Basically this is like having a third person go and get your mail every day and then having a third person send your mail, this seems quite silly, and to me really makes no sense.

Pro's and Con's:

As with everything there is an up side and a down side to this type of service. The first is in setup, if I set it up with standard settings, when I get my mail using this program, it is going to "EMPTY" my website e-mail (meaning my actual "REAL" account on the Internet), Which means if I go to my Internet e-mail and look for messages, there will be none, they are now only on my computer saved onto the hard drive (HDD). The program automatically pulls all my e-mails out of my online account and deletes them, sending copies to my computer.

Now in the case where say my computers hard drive crashes, all of the e-mails on my computer are now going to be lost. I have officially placed all my eggs in one basket. If something happens to my computer where I loose my data, I have now lost all of my e-mail history and contacts list.

Any contacts I create will be stored in the program only, again if my machine fails, then I also loose all of these too. You can go into the settings and change them to only make copies of your e-mails from the Internet website, and to not delete the ones on the Internet. However in doing this you will have to continue to visit your website e-mail to keep it cleaned out, as most e-mail providers will start asking for money once your Internet account gathers so much space with old e-mails piling up left and right.

The upside of this type of service is for those FEW people that are SPAMS. This program allows you to upload images into your e-mails easily and then you can spam the world with your image laden junk, or send photo images to friends and family. With the image in the e-mail itself. If you get adds and those crazy chain letters with pictures in them, likely someone made that e-mail using Outlook Express or Windows Mail.

SO THE PROS ARE:

You can click one button to send and receive e-mails.
You can embed images into your e-mails.

AND THE CONS ARE:

It deletes copies of your e-mails that are safely stored on the Internet.
Saves only one copy of e-mail onto your machine where the data can be lost.
Does not update your Internet information with your contacts list.
Has to be configured properly to send and receive e-mails.

CONFIGURING MAIL:

When setting up your Windows or Outlook mail you have to go to your Internet providers information page or google it for the correct mail routing information. Example if I had Verizon I would probably google search "configuring Verizon in outlook" or "Windows live mail setup for Verizon." You then have to get the POP address information and get it all set up.

Some Internet e-mail providers demand to get added services in order to configure your e-mails to work with Outlook and Windows Mail. A good example is yahoo. you need to buy their premium account or they won't route your e-mails through.

I say leave Windows mail and Outlook in the dust. Your data is safer on the Internet instead of on your computer, I have tried to route all my mail into one account as I have 10 e-mail addresses, and they don't all work. Your best bet is to learn how to access your REAL e-mail account and become free of allowing other people do your mailings for you. Take control of your e-mail and contacts list. Like I said I have 10 e-mail accounts and I log into them each and do upkeep on my mail manually, that's part of the adventure.

A TIP:

Here's a good tip. I have many e-mail addresses and there is a reason for this. Each has a particular purpose. Example, for my friends and my family I use my hotmail.com e-mail address, for business related issues I use my Gmail.com address, and when I am gaming on the Internet I use my Yahoo.com address. But when I am signing up for junk or offers on the Internet? I use a completely different yahoo e-mail, this way spam and junk mail never go to my "REAL" accounts ... neat huh.

Another thing is that I talk to a lot of people that pay for e-mail services that don't need to be. Ok if you have Verizon Internet for example, you don't have to pay AOL.com for your e-mail account, you have a free one with Verizon for one, and in the second place, there's a ton of free e-mail services out there like yahoo and hotmail and GMail. If you pay for Internet service, you should never have to pay for e-mail service. Don't be tricked into thinking otherwise.

Again I thank you for reading,
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If you live in Missouri,
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Thank you.