These ad-supported services are convenient if you spend a lot of time on the Internet, especially when traveling. They store your mailbox on the server. You can access it from anywhere on any computer, including the for-pay PC-to-Web kiosks located in airports and convention centers. Most of these services can automatically forward your e-mail  to another e-mail address.

E-mail also comes as part of the package with online services like America Online, MSN and CompuServe. However, these services provide Internet access first and e-mail second. If e-mail is your primary consideration, you're better off with a commercial e-mail program and  an ISP, or a free e-mail service.

Of course, free Web-based e-mail services can't match commercial  e-mail programs like Outlook, Eudora Pro or Outlook Express. Those apps offer advanced formatting, excellent performance and superior  message-management features
 
Q: What is antispam, and how does it work?
 
A: Omron Advanced Systems' SpamEx, Solid Oak Software's CyberSitter AntiSpam, Unisyn Software's MailJail and other antispam products combat spam by working in conjunction with your e-mail program to detect spam as you download it; they then either delete the spam or  move it into a spam folder.

No antispam software or service can completely rid you of this nuisance. Most use rules, or filters, to detect specific incoming messages and then route them to a mailbox or play an alert sound. The best  products come with preconfigured rules that detect common types of  spam messages, but also allow you to add your own rules. Look for one  that automatically builds rules based on messages you identify as being  spam. You also want to be able to set rules that identify messages as not being spam. This lets legitimate e-mail through in case the software is overzealous.
 
Q: How can you get messages forwarded from an old e-mail address to a new one when you change service providers?
 
A: If you've already changed, find out if your old ISP offers a forwarding service. Some do, either free for a limited amount of time (usually one to three months) or for a monthly fee of around $10 or less.

The best way to forward messages, however, is to act before you  change ISPs. Sign up with a free e-mail and forwarding service like Bigfoot.com. You get a Bigfoot address ([email protected]), and you can set up your Bigfoot account to forward your mail to your current ISP's mailbox. When you change ISPs, you don't change your  public e-mail address, just the mailbox to which your Bigfoot account  forwards. Most Web-based e-mail services also offer forwarding features.
 
Q    How do you send anonymous e-mail?
 
A:  Simply blanking out the Return Address in the Options dialog in your  e-mail program doesn't keep an experienced Internet e-mailer from  discovering who you are, but it's a good place to start. The classic strategy for making e-mail anonymous is called "remailing." Remailing chains e-mail addresses together, strips away the sender's real name and address, and replaces it with a dummy address. Web sites like Anonymizer and Replay Associates provide this service for free.
 
Q: What are MIME, Uuencode and BinHex?
 
A: These encoding schemes allow you to send attachments in e-mail.  MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) and Uuencode (Unix-to-Unix Encode) work with all types of e-mail programs on many  types of computer platforms. BinHex (Binary Hexadecimal) is primarily a Macintosh standard. MIME supports a broad range of attachment  types and appears on its way to becoming the primary standard,  although almost all e-mail packages support all three schemes.
 
 Q: What are the privacy issues with LDAP?

 A:  Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an Internet standard  protocol that reaches out to public name-and-address books, such as Bigfoot, Four11, Switchboard and WhoWhere, to let you search for  people's e-mail addresses.

Unfortunately, your e-mail address, home phone number and mailing  address might be listed with these services without your knowledge. If  you're concerned about privacy, visit these Web sites and search for your name. Most of them let you update your record to remove your phone number or street address. If not, you can request that they delete  your record.
 
Q:What is S/MIME?
 
A: S/MIME (Secure MIME) is a recent extension to the MIME nontext file protocol that supports e-mail message encryption. S/MIME is based on  RSA Data Security's public-key encryption technology, which is similar  to other public-key encryption methods, including PGP (Pretty Good  Privacy). Public-key encryption uses two software keys, a public key and a private key. The person sending the message uses a public key (known to everyone) to encrypt it. The recipient then uses his private  key to decode and read the message. Eudora Pro, Netscape's Messenger, Outlook 98 and Outlook Express support S/MIME, PGP or both.
 
Q: What is the HTML mail feature offered by most newer e-mail  programs?

A:  HTML mail can display an e-mail message as if it were a Web page.  Eudora Pro and other packages use a Microsoft-supplied component  version of Internet Explorer to display HTML messages in e-mail. If the recipient's e-mail client doesn't support HTML mail, the message shows up as plain text.
 
Q: How can I access e-mail from multiple computers?
 
A: You can configure your e-mail program to leave messages on the server after retrieval, which allows you to mirror received messages to two  installations. When you use your notebook PC to access messages, it  leaves the messages on the server. You can then access all your  messages from your desktop PC when you return to the office.

However, this method doesn't let you access messages you sent from your notebook computer when you return to your office PC. To do that,  you need to use your e-mail software's rules or filters to capture your  outgoing messages to a folder that you later copy from your notebook to  your office PC. Or you can e-mail a copy of outgoing messages to  yourself, then access the messages from the server when you return to the office.
 
Q: What is instant messaging, and how does it differ from  e-mail?

A: Instant messaging is probably best described as private chat. It uses a registering server and local client software, such as AOL's Instant  Messenger or Mirabilis's ICQ, to let you identify other users of the software and server connected to the Internet at the same time as you. You create a list of approved people in your instant messaging circle,  and when one or more of them are online while you are, you can open a  chat window and type text messages back and forth. AOL, CompuServe and other online services have had this capability for years,  but it's relatively new on the Internet. Although different from e-mail,  instant messaging provides another way to pass text messages back and   forth with friends, family and business associates.
 

                                                     SOURCE:  Zdnet and Computer Currents