email sync

My desktop runs on Vista Home Premium. My laptop runs on Windows 8. All I want to do (this seems so simple) is to be able to see and use my email on both computers. My email address is @embarqmail.com, so I thought if I could use Embarq (now CenturyLink), for my email, I could bypass the issues with non-compatible versions. Not working. I can see the incoming mail on the laptop, but when I select it, it disappears. Shows up on the desktop. Maybe it is simple and I just don't get it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm not familiar with that email site. But many of the old reliable pop3 mail programs can do web mail. For example Thunderbird. Instead of "syncing" per se, I would just set Thunderbird on one PC to leave messages on the server for like a week. The "subordinate" computer I would set to 2 days. So I'd end up with 2 copies with no formal syncing. It's fine if you are not charged by the byte. Plus it acts the same from XP to W8. The old new thing.

In the case of web mail if you wish to leave copies on the server "forever" then set Thunderbird to never delete the mail on the server.

You may need to find out if the web mail supports pop3 access and what server name string to use.