[QuizMaster]

Hello everyone.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of web-based mail and e-mail clients? I'm thinking about installing Mozilla Thunderbird as an e-mail client but I wanted to find out the up's and down's of both sides.

All help is appreciated.

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Web based you can log into it from anywhere on the planet usually.
E-mail client you need the computer it's on. A laptop same principle applies but may not be able to get an internet connection.

[Neil Jones]

Web based you can log into it from anywhere on the planet usually.
E-mail client you need the computer it's on. A laptop same principle applies but may not be able to get an internet connection.

[QuizMaster]

How about the security? Will I get infected faster if I received a malicious attachment from someone if I use e-mail clients?

[Throoper]

How about the security? Will I get infected faster if I received a malicious attachment from someone if I use e-mail clients?

Not really. You still have to download the attachment to your computer to open it.
Attachments should be saved to a folder and scanned with AV and Anti-spyware before you open them anyway, web-based or client.

On your original question, most ISP's offer a web interface for mail. You can log in to the site and access your mail from any computer or use a client to download the messages and store them locally.
With Thunderbird, you can have it leave messages on the server and they can still be accessed from another computer by going to the web-site.
If your ISP doesn't have mail accounts, you can do the same with G-mail (Free account) or the paid version of Yahoo mail.
E-mail clients usually give you more flexibility in composing messages than the web-based mail.

[QuizMaster]

Thanks for the reply, Throoper. I use the free version of Yahoo! Mail so I probably won't be able to use e-mail clients until I get a GMail account.

[FilePage]

How about the security?

In browser from you login web based mail stays cookies which can be used for stoling you password...