what is the difference between outlook and a web based email?
thanks

Outlook/express is what's called a POP3 client, meaning it's a standalone application that retrieves and sends email by contacting a remote server that you specify, usually the one provided by your ISP.

Webmail works muchly the same way, only the interface is built into a web page, and it usually only accesses the email of the server it belongs to, (yahoo to yahoo, hotmail to hotmail, etc).

You can configure Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.. to check multiple email accounts at the same time right fom your desktop without going to a web page & manually logging into each account to retrieve email, which is fairly convenient. The catch is that some email accounts such as Yahoo & Hotmail charge you a monthly fee for having/using POP access with their email services. Your ISP includes free email with their internet service package that they provide. Accessing Gmail with Outlook/OE is also free.

Web-based E-mail is read and maintained on the server. Outlook provides a means to download the E-mails from the server to your hard drive for storage and reading. Applications generally use POP E-mail, and will allow you to establish "accounts" for each different E-mail source.
Regards,
John