what is a 'web based mail'..?

The best thing about web based mail is that you can access it from any computer and if you change your service provider you don't need to change email address. It's so much simpler. Choose a good one. Most are free to use and are secure. Some have virus checkers and spam filters to check all incoming emails. You should get all the standard features, like address book and folders too.

Web based email means you can access you E-mails thru your web browser as long as it is supported but mostly, you can access it using firefox, netscape and Internet explorer browser. It also means that you don't have to install a software or application on your computer to setup your POP3,IMAP or your mail server.

When the Internet started, emails are sent and received only via dedicated email programs that need to be installed on the PC. When the emails are received, they are automatically downloaded from the email server to the email programs (known as client). Web-based mail, as its name implies, mean the access of emails via a web browser. What this do is you do not need to download the email from the email server to your PC. Instead, you access the email via the browser to the email server and read the mails from there. Unless there are attachments, you then choose whether to download the attachments to your PC. Web-based mail is more convenient simply because as long as you have Internet access, you don't need to install specific email software to check your mails...