email from different ISP how does it work?

[Blintok]

Just curious why the following works.

I have my home email set up on my laptop ( DSL - phone company )
When i take my laptop out of my home WIFI zone i can still get and send email as if i was at home.

for instance. At work the internet is thru a different company (Cable internet - Cable / TV / Internet company )

 

[Smoove910]

same way you access a yahoo or gmail account regardless of what ISP you use. It's the same principle (without going into the technicalities). ISP is only a method to connect to the service

 

[AnonymouseUser]

You are connecting to mail.ISP.com, ISP.com/webmail, or something similar, not a local LAN address. It works just like when you browse any other web server such as yahoo.com or anandtech.com.