There are lots of web-based mail service providers that you can resort to, but using an email account with your very own personal domain will grant you more credibility if you have a business, for instance, not to mention that with web-based services there are limits on the 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 won’t encounter such problems and you will be able to use any software program on your PC to check your emails, including Outlook, Thunderbird or Apple Mail. You can even set up a mailbox on your smartphone. The difference between the two protocols is that with IMAP, an email message is displayed at your end, but remains on the email server, while with POP3, the message is downloaded to your personal computer, unless you configure the program in such a way as to leave a copy on the server.