What is Webmail?

What is Webmail?

One of the features which is being offered by some hosting providers is Webmail. But what is Webmail and is it useful to you? Before we talk about Webmail let’s look at e-mail.

E-mail is one of the most useful tools of having a hosting account. It allows you to send and receive messages to anyone on the Internet in just a minute. You can attach documents to e-mail, you can send files with e-mail and a whole lot more. Usually to send or receive a message in e-mail you configure or setup a computer that you are using on a regular basis to handle your e-mail. This computer you use is programmed with the settings of your e-mail account. When you want to send a message you will open your e-mail program (Outlook, Pegasus, etc.) and type in your message. When you want to read your e-mail you will look in your inbox on this computer. All your e-mail is handled from this computer. But what if you need to send a message and you are not at your computer? This is where Webmail comes in.

Normally if you are not at your computer which handles your e-mail you can’t send or receive e-mail. Now if you have access to another computer you could then set up that computer to send and receive your e-mail as well. But what if you travel? Do you want to set up every computer you come along to handle your e-mail? No. That’s where Webmail comes in. Webmail allows you to access your e-mail account wherever you are in the world and whenever your want.
All you need is a computer with Internet access. You don’t have to configure anything. To access your Webmail all you do is type in your website address something like: http://webmail.mysite.com or http://www.mysite.com:2095. (What you type depends on what version of Webmail you have; your host can provide you with your correct address.)