There are quite a few e-mail providers out there.  One important feature that some companies offer is to add your mobile phone as an additional security step.   Some use it to verify login… some use it to verify password reset etc.  It is definitely a feature everyone should look into as getting your email compromised is no joke.  It’s not just about you but also the people you know that may be fooled by someone pretending to be you.

Gmail is a very popular service and they have a 2-step verification process that you can read about here http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=1056283&topic=1056284 you will need to generate application specific passwords for some things like android phones, outlook, etc.  In the end this is a very important feature to have enabled and you owe it to yourself to look into it.