Many of us use Outlook or Outlook Express as our "local mail client." With Outlook you must download your mail from your Internet Service Provider onto your computer. (Windows 7 no longer supports any local mail client such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird. However if you purchase Office you can still use Outlook).
At CrexTechs we recommend you do not use a "local mail client" such as Outlook for the following reasons:
1) The very act of downloading mail onto your computer leaves you vulnerable to mail born viruses and malware. You could be downloading viruses, spyware and other malware contained with your email along with spam and other unwanted advertising.
2) Not only does your email have to be filtered, it must also be scanned. Your service provider has filters that catch some of the bad stuff but not everything. Vipre (CrexTech's recommended Antivirus/Junk protection) or other anti-virus programs scan each piece of email as it is downloaded to help insure that is safe. Scanning for viruses during downloading is affective and absolutely necessary but ...
3) ...you will notice that downloading and scanning takes time and robs you of computing power just when you are getting down to business. You will notice this slowdown on "High Speed" Internet, but if you have dial up Internet Service this process becomes down right painful.
Why does it have to be so slow?
Every email needs to be scanned, including attachments. Some of these files, ones you may not even want, can be very large and will really slow you down as they are downloaded and scanned. So if you use a "local mail client" plan to give Vipre time to do its thing. Go get a cup of coffee or chat with your kids.
Or, you can do what we recommend....
CrexTechs recommends reading your mail on-line. Here is why and how:
Why: You will be safer and you will not have to spend time waiting for your mail, even the stuff you don't want, to download and be scanned.
How: You can access your mail through your Internet Service Provider on their website or you can set up an email account through Google (Gmail) or Yahoo or any other trusted web portal that offers email. These email accounts are almost always free of charge.
CrexTechs recommends Gmail:
1) It is easy to switch over and you will enjoy the functionality.
2) Gmail in particular has a great spam and junk mail filter which you can train to reduce junk mail to near zero!
What about your contacts?
You can export your contact list from Outlook into a file that you can then import into your new email account. The data is not always perfectly imported so you may have to spend a little time inputting some of your contacts. However, if you send out an email from your old account to everyone on your contact list, giving them the new email address and asking them to send you an email at that address, you will be able to easily add them to your contact list on the new account.
Or, you can keep your old account and receive your email from your old account through your new Gmail account. You will need to configure your old account POP or IMAP to have this mail sent to your Gmail or Yahoo mail account. For a small fee, CrexTechs can help you with this process .
And here is another advantage to using a web based email provider. You can access your email and your contacts and use your familiar interface from any computer in the world!
One more "word" to the wise (or one less word): No matter what mail system you use - DO NOT USE WORDS FOR YOUR PASSWORD! It is best to use a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. Such as your initials with letters numbers and symbols #jlsdjd2010 (two persons initials and a significant year plus a symbol.)