In case email messages are a key part of your electronic correspondence with business partners or family members, it would be better if you used an email address with your own domain and a mail service provider that supports the POP3 and IMAP email retrieval protocols, instead of relying on a web-based service that entails restrictions as to the maximum size of the attachments. Thus, you will be able to check your mails on any desktop or mobile device using any application – Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple Mail, and so forth. With the IMAP protocol, you’ll be able to see the email messages locally at your end, but they will be on the server at all times, while with the POP3 protocol, all emails will be downloaded on the device, unless you choose a copy to be saved on the mail server. Plus, you will be able to take advantage of a lot of other useful options – calendars, contact groups, etc., not to mention that if there is a brief problem with your Internet connection, you can still check your emails as they’ll be on your desktop or handheld device.