In case you have an email address with your own domain name instead of a 3rd-party one, you will be able to use an email software application such as Apple Mail, Outlook or Thunderbird to check and administer your mailboxes. The advantage of using such apps is that you can also take advantage of other features, such as address books and calendars. There are two different email protocols that you can select from when you set up the app of your choice to access your email account – POP3 and IMAP. With the first protocol, all email messages that are received will be downloaded to your device – desktop or mobile, unless you opt to save a copy on the mail server. With the second one, the messages will be displayed locally at your end, but they will stay on the server all the time, so you can set up the email account on multiple devices and view the messages from any place. You will also be able to access old emails if there’s a problem with your Internet access, which is a huge advantage over a web-based email service.