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Old 25 Nov 2010, 03:30 PM   #48
ScottS
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 2
Reply to Optimizing the "get your own domain" solution

I haven't found a clean integrated solution, so I went with a "Plan B" option of using E4ward to create custom aliases using my own domain name, and Spamex to create custom or random aliases using the spamex.com domain. Both services offer unlimited aliases with reply masking for around $10 per year.

I use E4ward and my own domain name for my "A-list" senders that I always want to receive mail from. Each sender gets their own alias, and mail to invalid recipients is bounced back to the sending MTA. If anything ever happens to E4ward, I will find another forwarding service and recreate all my aliases, or I can globally forward everything sent to the domain. I really don't like the option of global forwarding because spammers will often send their crap to common addresses like "sales" or "webmaster", but at least it will keep the messages flowing until I find and configure another forwarding service. The downside of E4ward is that you need to login to their web site and manually enter both the alias name and the web site name each time you want to create a new alias. The process is somewhat clunky, but at least I know I won't have to change my email addresses if my forwarding service goes out of business.

For less important senders and/or web sites where I simply need an immediate e-mail address to get into their site (like this newsgroup), I use Spamex. Spamex works a lot like emailias in that they have the links button that quickly creates a new alias and automatically associates it with the current web site. This is a much easier process than E4ward, but I'm back to square one if Spamex tanks. Since I only use this for non-critical senders, I can live with that risk.

The bottom line is that I choose whether I want stability or simplicity. I estimate that 20% of all my emailias aliases were for critical senders where stability is important, 40% were for non-critical senders, and 40% were for obsolete senders that I never took the time to clean up.

Note to Spamex: If you guys would ever get your act together and reply to support requests for using custom domain names, we could avoid all this crap and use you for everything.
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