There’re many web-based mail service providers that you can resort to, but using an email account with your own personal domain name will provide you with more credibility if you are running a company, for instance, not to mention that with web-based email services there are limits on the maximum size of the attachments that you can send or receive. If you use an email service that supports the POP3 and IMAP email protocols, you will not bump into such problems and you will be able to use any software program on your computer to check your mails, including Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird. You can even set up an email account on your mobile phone. The difference between the two protocols is that with IMAP, an email message is displayed locally at your end, but remains on the email server, while with POP3, the message is downloaded on your computer, unless you configure the program in such a way as to leave a copy on the server.