Understanding Basic Email Definitions
Email Account
For individuals, the term “email address” and “Email Account” mean one and the same thing. A virtual location on a server managed by an Email Service Provider (ESP) for recieving and sending email. What additional information can be stored with this email account is determined by the ESP.
In Outlook, the email accounts that are configured for the Outlook profile are listed in <Account Settings> under the Email tab
Email Account Types / Protocols
The mechanism by which email accounts are accessed by an Email Desktop client regardless of whether that is from a laptop, tablet or mobile phone. The most common protocols are POP3, Imap, SMTP, EAS, MAPI, Exchange. For more information on individual protocols see “Understanding Email Protocols“
Email Desktop Client
The program installed locally on your computer/device used to send/receive email. Many email desktop clients go well beyond the scope of just email, like Outlook provided as part of the Microsoft Office Suite, and are comprehensive PIM (Personal Information Manager) programs. The application used on a mobile device is as much a distinct email client as one installed on a laptop with the primary difference being the functionality available when using that “program”.
One item that is sometimes the cause for confusion for those new to Windows 8/8.1 and Microsoft Office (Outlook) is the WIn8 Mail applet which is identified as Outlook in the upper left hand corner versus the full Outlook desktop client that is part of the Micorosft Office suite.
Accessing the Mail applet is done by clicking on the <Mail> tile whereas invoking the Outlook desktop client would be done via the tile which also identifies which version it relates to.
If your email client looks like the following – you are using the Windows 8.1 Mail applet which is completely different from Outlook the desktop client
As a comparison, if you were using Outlook ‘2013, it would look like the following:
“In the Cloud”
A mis-understood phrase meaning different things to different people for different purposes. When used in the context of email, technically, for most people all “email” is “in the cloud” at some point since it must be delivered to a server managed by their ESP. The second part of email related activities center around information related to contacts, calendar and tasks. If the these items need to be accessed across multiple devices, then this information is typically being stored “in the cloud” as part of their email account otherwise it is “local” to a single computer/device.
Other scenarios involving “the cloud” are related to such things as file storage, backup services and SAAS (software as a service) – subscription based computing. Clouds can be public or private. An individual can maintain their own private cloud using an enternal hard drive with the appropriate capabilities to be accessible from anywhere as long as it’s connected to the internet. For the purposes of these articles, all email accounts are considered to be “in the cloud” ignoring locally managed email server environments such as Microsoft Exchange.
Internet Service Provider (ISP) versus Email Service Provider (ESP)
The ISP is the organization that provides you with internet access which may or may not include email services. In North America, an individual’s ISP is frequently the same company providing their cable TV services. When people travel outside of their standard network area and connect to the internet using a different ISP, it’s frequently necessary to change email settings to conform to local authentication requirements.
The ESP is the organization that provides the capability to send and recieve email which for many people is also their “Internet Service Provider” (ISP). However, there is no requirement that the ISP also acts as the ESP. People with custom domain websites provided by Web Host Providers typically also provide ESP related services as part of the web-hosting account. Other examples of an ESP would be free email services such as Outlook.com, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail.
Personal Information Manager (PIM)
A program designed to be a <personal organizer> for such things as contacts, calendar, tasks, to-do lists etc. Dedicated PIM programs generally do not include email capabilities and are a completely separate and distinct program from the email desktop client. Outlook is both an email client which also includes the functionality of a <personal organizer> which is why it is also frequently referred to as a PIM program as much as an email desktop client. Some people use Outlook exclusively for its PIM functionality to organize contacts as an example while others only use it primarily for email.
WebMail
A browser based client used to directly access an email account via a web interface. The actual user interface, capabilities and available features of any given WebMail browser client is determined by the ESP. Accessing the email account requires an active internet connection since all communication is directly with the email server. Webmail clients cannot be configured as a “default” email client and cannot be invoked by a “send” function from a given application program.
If you are using webmail with your Outlook.com account – the email component would look like the following when accessing it via Internet Explorer
To access other functionality within your Outlook.com account, you would click on the dotted square in the upper left hand corner
If you were accessing your Exchange Account via the browser based Outlook Web Access (OWA) client – it would appear as follows
Category: Understanding Outlook
