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Changing email providers

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Diamond
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Location
Webster Groves, MO
I started with a local ISP then Earthlink bought them. It was fine when customer support was in the US but since they moved it to India, it has been terrible. I have suffered with it for years because so many people have my address in their files that it would be extremely difficult to change them all. It has finally reached to point that I have to do something. I need a US company and to forward emails sent to my present address to the new provider. I am unfamiliar with the present providers, so need some advice.

Bill
 
The forwarding has to be setup by the ISP that owns the domain, and it will last as long as they want it to. Depending on your email client you may be able to set one up yourself, but you would have to keep the account alive.

The new email addy will be whatever you want- if you get a gmail or other free account, you won't be married to an ISP. If you own your own domain it's easy to setup a simple mail server but you need a static IP address.

It's a PITA to change email addresses.
 
This is where user MakeeZee could come in handy as I will be planning to do much the same.
The problem is that your current mail provider may or may not offer the forwarding service ( mine does not ) so you will have to figure it out on your own.

I am thinking: There might be something available that is an automatic 'bot E-mail client which can be set up to automatically ( say every 5 minutes )
logs onto your current account, download the mail, forward it to your new one and automagically sends a reply to the sender clearly stating your NEW E-mail address.

This would not solve all the possible headaches which comes along as only real people will be able to actually change their record, but at least you will:
a: get your E-mails ( though with a 5 minute delay )
b: The old server still has them and you will be able to delete them as-needed
c: You'll know what automatic senders ( such as ones from say McMaster, MSC, Hardinge etc ) need to have a personal attention by you to change.

Nonetheless, I am foreseeing a couple of years or so to get all of it sorted out for me.
 
If you own your own domain it's easy to setup a simple mail server but you need a static IP address.
Did that for years until it became too discouraging. I can't recommend it now. Some time back all the highly-trained brilliant mail server admins decided that if you weren't a Big Name you were automatically spam - even if you had done everything correctly, down to the spiffydiff record. These days if you do your own mail you have to get whitelisted just about everywhere.

The number of websites that do a similar thing - "Someone looking from from China ! Must be spam !" is also discouraging. All I want to do is see what a ball pein hammer costs but I guess that's privileged information ...

It's a PITA to change email addresses.
You ain't just whistlin' Dixie :(

There are some places that just do email services and will accomodate your own domain tho. It's not too expensive, just a few dollars a month for a small account. Let them struggle with the idiots, I guess ...
 
It has finally reached to point that I have to do something. I need a US company and to forward emails sent to my present address to the new provider. I am unfamiliar with the present providers, so need some advice.

If you want to have your own domain, and fully control your email address, I recommend namecheap.com. It will be ~$10/year for the domain, and ~$10/year for the email service. I have it connected to my phone, and I use a desktop email program. They also have webmail, but I never use it. Their support is easy to deal with, and I haven't needed much support because the service works well. They are also easy to change away from. I currently use them, but I have moved a domain away from they a while back, and it went seamlessly. Best deal I'm currently aware of. Once you have your domain, there are other providers you can switch to, and not have to get a new email.

For your old email, I would just leave it active. Reply to all emails that you want from your new address. People using Outlook will need to clean out their cache so that when they start typing your name the new email comes up.
 
Don't you just love off shore call center customer service? The internet service ones are the worst. I am pretty sure they are just reading off a list. Many times I have started my call by explaining everything I have tried yet they will turn around and start with "Do you know how to reset the modem?", right after I told them I already did that. I have satellite internet and that is all that is available here, it is a nightmare.
 
You have my sympathy. I went through such a change a while back and what I discovered is the best way is to bite the bullet and notify everyone of the new address.

This isn't as difficult as it sounds if your email program can create a list from existing contacts. You boiler plate a brief message with a title that clearly indicates a change of address and send it to yourself at the new address with a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) to everyone on the list. Using the BCC function protects everyone's privacy versus just using the normal Carbon Copy.
 
We use Bluehost and it's been trouble free for the most part. They have a lot to offer as far as Web tools and domain hosting.

Make Chips Boys !

Ron
 
The title and first post don´t match.

Do You wish to change email providers ? -- as per title ..
or email addresses .. as per OP explanation.

Details are critical in IT stuff.
And in machining or engineering.

1. IF you have an email address like [email protected] it is easy to change providers.
2. IF you have an email address like [email protected]_domain_name.com it is still fairly easy to change providers.
You can use a workaround.
You yourself can setup an automatic forwarder and an automatic reply, from the old subdomain / mail address.

Typically, something in auto-reply like "the email address has changed. Please use [email protected] in the future".
But ALL the old-address emails will still come to you.
You just need to pay the 200$ or so for a year for the old email service, until everyone has gone to the new email address.

You just setup a forward / redirect / copy / bounce from the old address to the new email address.
And an auto-reply advising the sender to change to the new address,
and a second one to Yourself to remember to check up on them to change the email contact details.

Endless technical options, and most don´t require any real money or real IT or internet skills.
And multiple options do not require your old ISP to participate at all.

You could read your "old" email address every one minute, and auto-forward and auto-reply to each email as per above.
Using an old dedicated obsolete pc, 30$, to do so, 24x7x365.
Since your email volume is tiny in "´net" terms, it would work just fine.

You can/could use MS outlook (yuk for security) or any email client + script you like.

The server-based solutions for same were above 700 emails/sec back in 2002, even 15 years ago when I was in the business industrially.
 
If you want to have your own domain, and fully control your email address, I recommend namecheap.com. It will be ~$10/year for the domain, and ~$10/year for the email service. I have it connected to my phone, and I use a desktop email program. They also have webmail, but I never use it. Their support is easy to deal with, and I haven't needed much support because the service works well. They are also easy to change away from. I currently use them, but I have moved a domain away from they a while back, and it went seamlessly. Best deal I'm currently aware of. Once you have your domain, there are other providers you can switch to, and not have to get a new email.

For your old email, I would just leave it active. Reply to all emails that you want from your new address. People using Outlook will need to clean out their cache so that when they start typing your name the new email comes up.

NameCheap is great. Easy to setup and administrator yourself which allows you to add multiple addresses if you want them in the future with just a couple clicks (and a payment of course). And its a one stop shop... you can purchase the domain, have them host DNS free, and they host the email. So no finger pointing. Only complaint is a lot of stuff I used to refuse at the server level when I ran my own now makes into the spam folder in my email.
 








 
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