2 questions that'll only take a minute

1). Could anyone please link me to a good program that will hide my IP address?

2). What's the point of using Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.? What advantage do they give you over just logging into your e-mail website (Gmail, Hotmail, yahoo!, etc.)?


Thank you.

BTW, if this is in the wrong forum, please let me know where to post these things in the future.

1) There is no such program. You need an IP address to communicate over the internet! Just disconnect if you do not want an IP address.

Rethink the question. What exactly do you want to achieve? You want to get back into some forums or chatrooms or game servers where you made a complete idiot out of yourself and got banned? You want to check out some child porn? Learn to make bombs? Avoid prosecution by your oppressive government? Who do you want to hide from and why?

2) The first advantage is that you are actually able to use mail servers that do not offer a web interface. (You know, there is more to e-mail than hotmail+msn+yahoo) The second one is that you do not have to be online to work with your mail. The third one is that you can use your own spam filters in addition to the crap your service provider has (*cough* Microsoft *cough*). Fourth.. You have a fast and powerful mail application that lets you do more than any pretty "user friendly" web interface.

On the flip side,
a web based email will never infect your pc (unless of course you open any/all attachments)

and can be accessed from any hotspot to both send and receive email anywhere in the world,
whereas an email client can read but frequently can not send except when accessing your ISP (due to open relay concerns)