If you use an e-mail program on your computer rather than webmail you don't need to be online to prepare your mail.

That's important because it can take a long time to write a mail and you don't want to be paying for the connection.

So, you could write a message 'offline' for hours and then go online for a few seconds to send it.

Work offline

An e-mail program can be running on your computer even if you're not connected to the net.

If you just want to read old messages that you may have received some time ago and decided to store rather than delete, then you can start your program, open folders and look at the messages.

You can also write new messages without going online, but as soon as you want to send them or check to see if anyone has sent you mail, you'll need to establish a connection to the net.

That's because e-mail is sent and received via an e-mail server run by your Internet Service Provider.

Once your messages have been sent and you have transferred received messages to your own computer, you can disconnect from the net again.

This is really useful as it means you can save on your phone bill by using e-mail carefully.

Webmail

If you are using webmail you will have to be online.

That's because the screen you are writing your e-mail into isn't coming from your computer but from the computer of the company that offers your webmail.

If you are not connected then you won't be able to access your mail.