This is a pretty common problem (the Outlook thing) so I will try and explain how it works.

First, there are basically two types of ways to retrieve and read email.

1) You have an email address with a 'place' that has their own email server and you download and read your email at one specific computer. If someone sends you an email it actually goes to an 'email server' somewhere in the world. Then you can access that server via the email program on your computer (Outlook Express or Windows Mail) and it downloads the emails to your computer locally and deletes them from the server. So, thats pretty simple, but the problem is that if the computer crashes and the emails on the computer are not backed up properly then its a crap shoot whether you will ever see them again.

2) You have an email address with an email provider like Hotmail (Live), Yahoo, Gmail, etc... These email addresses are free and whenever someone sends you an email it is sent to the server. Then you access the server via the Internet and login to your email account. You can read, delete, sort, block, etc all on their server, eliminating the 'downloading to your computer' issue. Its all done online.

So, with that said, its really a preference thing. I own my own domain name and server. So, I use Windows Mail on my laptop to download the emails from my server and then they are stored and backed up by me. BUT, I also have access via the Internet to those emails that I have not downloaded yet. That means that if I dont have my laptop with me I can access my email from any computer or my cell phone. But, when I get back to my laptop I download the emails and they are solely on my laptop.

I do have the option of leaving a copy of the emails on the server but then when I access the server on my cell there would be too many to sort through.

As far as Outlook is concerned, you have to know some details in order to actually use it like its intended. I will use my email as an example.

Username: collie
PW: ***********
Incoming mail server: mail.L63H.com (aka POP3 account)
Outgoing mail server: mail.L63H.com (aka SMTP account)
Port number for outgoing mail: 465

Now, if the people that own your domain name require a SSL connection then you will have to change that setting, but thats not as common.

If you know all the above info then you should be able to set up Outlook or Windows Mail with no problem.

See? Easy!