Types of Web Hosting Email Services

When you sign up for web hosting, your web host will ask you what kind of email services you’d like with your web hosting package, or they may already have specific services they already use. Either way, you’re going to need to have at least a basic understanding of the services that are available, and how they operate.

The email addresses that your web host provides will be email addresses that, typically, point someone to a business. (ex. jack.smith@xyzcompany.com) Web hosts will typically offer a certain number of email addresses and typically, the more you get the better. Try to have one account for each person in your company or, at the very least, one email address for each different department. As to what kind of email service you use, you’ll most likely have four different choices.

POP (post office protocol) email is a feature that stays on the web server. With POP, incoming emails are stored on the server and, when you open an email program such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird – and only then – will the emails be transferred to your computer.

IMAP (Internet message access protocol) email work very much like POP email services, but it is actually considered an improvement over the latter. Instead of your messages being stored on a web server by your hosting company, they’re stored on an Internet server. They still remain there until you open them up and read them with the same types of programs, Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird.

Web-based email, unlike many people think, doesn’t have to even be hosted by a web host, but can be used by anybody. These are also stored on an Internet server, but a person must log into a website in order to open and view them. These are sites such as Hotmail and Gmail. After signing up and creating a username and password, you can then use that same information to log in and look at your email.

One type of service that web hosts do specifically offer is that of email forwarding. This is especially good for businesses that receive a lot of inquiries over the web, or have a mailing list that they want people to sign up for. In cases like these, the email can be something very generic such as subscriptions@xyzcompany.com, and they’ll be forwarded to the individual responsible for creating and maintaining that subscription list.

Email services are just one of many that your web host will offer, and they may ask you what kind of email service you’re most interested in. The one you ultimately choose will depend on how you want to use your email, and how many people will be using it. Regardless of the type, always be sure that you’re provided with enough email addresses for everyone, or every department, in the company.