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Email Help Needed! Having problems with your email service, or with the email software you're using? Post your questions and answers here! |
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13 Feb 2017, 09:35 PM | #1 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 9
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One main email for life
The short story is COX has screw my email up and can't even get it on my phone. I will go to AT&T after I move but my question is would it be better to use gmail so no matter where I go or what provider I use I will have only one main email for life?
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14 Feb 2017, 12:28 AM | #2 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,937
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If maintaining a single address for the rest of your life is a concern, you're far better off buying your own domain and having it hosted with a mail host provider (i.e. FastMail, EUMX, Runbox or Rollernet). Free services such as Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo are always at a risk of shutting down, and you'd lose access to the email address.
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14 Feb 2017, 04:54 AM | #3 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 2,908
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15 Feb 2017, 04:12 AM | #4 | |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 371
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Quote:
It's not even about the companies shutting down, but they could someday decide to discontinue their e-mail services, or discontinue the "free" aspect of their e-mail services and start charging money. Or they could simply change the terms of service to something onerous that might make you wish you had hosted your e-mail elsewhere. Having your own domain is about the only way to guarantee that your e-mail address will be completely portable, and you won't be stuck with a mail provider that you might someday regret. |
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15 Feb 2017, 09:37 AM | #5 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,937
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22 Feb 2017, 06:16 AM | #6 |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,748
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I think the surest way (though nothing is certain) is to purchase your own domain and use it for email through a wide variety of services. I would venture to guess that Gmail is by far the safest of the major free services simply because it is a core functionality of their entire being as a business--with all of the others they do something else that is their major source of revenue. For example, Outlook.com would probably never go away, but I could envision a scenario where MS decides to start charging for it or make it only available to those who subscribe to some other MS service. Sure, smaller players, like FM, seem very reliable and I wouldn't hesitate to use them and count on them for the long-term, but you never know what will happen.
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10 Apr 2017, 11:42 PM | #7 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown
Posts: 2,341
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Another option, although via a loophole, would be to purchase your own domain and create a forwarding email address. No matter what free email provider you have, if you'd ever change you just change the "forward to:" email address to which your forwarding address under your own domain sends the messages.
That way, you don't have to move your domain away from the DNS of your registrar and not worry about whether eg Gmail, Mail.ru, Yandex, etc will continue providing free mailboxes that allow using your own domain. |
11 Apr 2017, 12:20 AM | #8 | |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 371
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Quote:
Of course, if you're using a free e-mail service like Gmail, you pretty much have to use a forwarding service anyway, since you can't just point your own domain to Google's servers and expect them to receive mail for it unless you're a G Suite user. |
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11 Apr 2017, 01:08 AM | #9 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Manchester UK
Posts: 2,616
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11 Apr 2017, 05:31 AM | #10 |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,748
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POBox.com specializes in receiving your domain emails and then forwarding them to one or more destinations, though they do offer a regular webmail interface if you want it. I have several domains that POBox.com receives my email for and everything forwards to a Gmail Inbox that I use. I have Gmail set up to send as my email addresses from the various domains using the POBox.com SMTP server. Works very well and is easy to setup. Only $20 per year too.
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11 Apr 2017, 07:58 AM | #11 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 2,908
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26 Apr 2017, 05:10 PM | #12 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 2
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Gmail or outlook dude. AoL is pretty decent too. The best thing about Gmail is it's ability to integrate with everything and is therefore, more useful in this age of IoT.
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30 Apr 2017, 04:54 PM | #13 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 119
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Quote:
I echo what you say about the smaller players. I prefer them to the big fish, but I still have accounts with Gmail, Outlook, Yandex, etc just in case the smaller companies close down. There's always that worry. |
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1 May 2017, 06:11 AM | #15 | |
Master of the @
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Tel-Aviv, ISRAEL
Posts: 1,666
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Best online deal I've ever made! |
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