I move every few years and have never been forced to change ISPs. Do your ISPs only cover specific areas?
Outlook Express has been able to tap into Hotmail accounts since about '98 or '99 I think.
I don’t know about the OP, but back in the day, email was considered to need a mail client. Particularly if you’re on dial-up. My parents, bless them, can’t conceive of using email any other way, because they have only recently got broadband. Before, they’d dial up once to collect their mail, then disconnect and compose their replies, then dial up to send them. Quite sensible given the costs.
Then Hotmail and its imitators came along and showed that you didn’t need a client to handle mail - but there’s still an offline archival problem. At work we use an IMAP mailserver - this is similar to webmail in that the mails remain on the server, but you can use the client to browse your online mail, but it also downloads individual emails to the mail client on my laptop as well. I get about 300 mails a day. If I’m on a flight or a train, I often need to be able to access those mails.
To access them offline, copying and pasting each individual mail, the sender, time of sending, etc. etc. would be a total and utter pain in the ass. And so would the format on my machine - how do I order by date? Sender? Subject? Etc. etc.
So what I do is I use MS Outlook to store them on my machine, while the originals stay on the company’s mailserver. Also, my company (in its wisdom) only gives me half a gig on the company mailserver, so I have to archive older mails to my local machine - and I use Outlook to do this too - to stop my account exceeding its storage limit. Outlook Express does a similar job as Outlook, but with pared down features from Outlook.
That’s work, anyway. For personal mail I use Gmail, because most places these days have broadband, and I chuckle every time I use it because it’s so damn clever. I did once try to combine Gmail with a POP client, but at the end of the day, the features Gmail offers aren’t there, so there’s no point.
It exists because of an evil shadow government named MicroSo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am compelled to point out that it is possible (I do it) to use both a web based client and a local POP client on the same web mail account (gmail in my case) You just need to configure your POP client to not delete incoming messages from the POP server when you check your mail.
This way your web-mail account works just like an ISP based account, but you can also access it from anywhere on a borrowed machine.
In addition, you can access the same account via POP from several machines, as each local client will keep track of new vs. old messages.
The only time I have to use the web-client on one of my machines is when I want to use the mail account for backing up files…I just compose a message with the file(s) to be backed up as an attachment and save it as a draft.
Actually, this is an issue with the person who created the link, and piss poor web design.
Back when everyone had a POP client on their computer, web designers used a “mailto:” link in order to send e-mail. This automatically started the POP client on the computer with the To: address already entered; you could start typing the e-mail and send it.
But now that a large proportion of people have web-based clients, the mailto: link doesn’t work for them. Either it brings up Outlook Express – which isn’t configured and can’t send mail – or it doesn’t work at all.
The answer is to create a web-based form (see SFF Net for an example). Thus, people can send an e-mail no matter what they’re using.
I’ve been using Outlook Express for years (since 98 or 99) as my mail client for Hotmail, mainly because I do not much care for the web interface. I’m sure there are better mail clients out there, and I can pop my hotmail from outlook, but I like keeping my business mail account separate from my personal accounts.