There are numerous web-based email providers that you can use, but using a mailbox with your own domain will provide you with more credibility if you are running a company, for example, not to mention that with web-based services there are limits on the size of the attachments that you can send or receive. In case you use an email service that offers support for the IMAP and POP3 email retrieval protocols, you will not have such problems and you will be able to use any software program on your PC to check your email messages, including Apple Mail, Thunderbird or Outlook. You can even set up an email account on your mobile device. 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 onto your PC, unless you configure the program in such a way as to store a copy on the server.