In case you have a mailbox with your own personal domain name instead of a 3rd-party one, you’ll be able to use an email software app such as Apple Mail, Outlook or Thunderbird to check and administer your email accounts. The advantage of using such applications is that they also offer other features, such as address books and calendars. There are two different email retrieval protocols that you can select from when you configure the application of your choice to access your email account – POP3 and IMAP. With the first protocol, all email messages that are received will be downloaded onto your device – mobile or desktop, unless you decide to keep a copy on the mail server. With the second one, the messages will be displayed at your end, but they will remain on the server all the time, so you can set up the account on numerous devices and access the messages from any location. You will also be able to view old emails in case there’s a problem with your Internet connection, which is an immense advantage over web-based email services.