Email Glossary

Attachments
These are files which you can send along with your email, for example, graphics files, word processing documents, spreadsheets, etc. Any file you want to send along with your email. Most free email providers have a maximum size limit for attachments.
Definable Reply-To Address
When you send an email and the recipient clicks "reply," normally the email address that the message was sent from will automatically be used. This feature allows you to specify an address other than the one the email was sent from for replies to be sent to.
Download Message
Allows you to save a copy of an email message to your own computer which will be stored as a distinct text file.
Email Address Finder
Service that allows you to search for other people's email addresses by entering their name, address, etc.
Filters
Filters automatically move incoming emails into separate folders according to criteria that you specify. These criteria may be based on who the email is from, the priority, the subject, the main message, etc. This is a useful feature if you have a lot of incoming emails that need some way of being automatically organized.
Forwards
This feature indicates that the provider in question can also automatically forward incoming emails to another email account.
POP3
This is a computing standard that enables emails to be retrieved from a remote mailbox. That is, it allows you to collect emails from an account that you have on another computer (called a server, or host) to your own email software, such as Outlook, Netscape Messenger, Eudora, Exchange, etc.
Reminders
Some free email providers allow you to set up reminders, which are messages that will automatically be sent to you on a certain date to remind you of important events, such as anniversaries, birthdays, etc.
Search Facility
Allows you find email messages in your folders based on certain criteria that you specify - very useful if you have a lot of messages stored in a large number of folders.
Signature
A small "footer" that is added to the end of your outgoing email messages which contains text that you specify. This is usually used to specify your name, email address, website, address, phone number, etc. or anything else you want to be on the bottom of all the messages you send! When sending a message you can usually specify whether or not you want the signature to be appended to that message. Some providers allow you to set up more than one signature and you can select which one you want to use (if any).
SMTP
This is a computing standard that enables emails to be sent through another computer (called a server) from your own email software, such as Outlook, Netscape Messenger, Eudora, Exchange, etc. It is complementary to POP3.
Spell Check
Checks an email message before sending allowing you to correct any spelling errors. This feature is usually similar to the spell checkers found in word processors.
Storage Limit
Most free email providers have a limit to the amount of disk space your emails can take up on their computer. This is usually somewhere between ½MB-10MB.
Vacation Reply
This is an email that is automatically sent out from your account whenever an email is received, to the sender of the email. This is also known as an autoresponder. Some systems allow you to set up more than one vacation reply (autoresponder) and it will select which one to send out based on features of the incoming message, which you specify. For example, any messages from your colleagues may receive one message, whereas messages from external clients receive another.
Web-Based
An email account accessible by browsing the worldwide web. Click here for more details.