Email-only Providers? 601
Amiralul writes "I feel that having GMail or Yahoo email domains on my business card isn't really a professional touch. Yes, I do have a work-domain email address, but it lacks IMAP and it's rather non-responsive from time to time, so I choose not to depend on it for the time being (the previous mentioned free services are actually more reliable). Besides buying a domain and using Google Apps on it (which isn't actually intended for home users), I was thinking on having a domain of my own and choosing a commercial email provider that should provide just that: email (POP3, SMTP, IMAP, with a decent storage space). I don't need storage for my website, I don't need an ugly web interface (if provided and looks decent, maybe I'll use it, but it's not a must-have). If it's free, it's ok, but it doesn't bother me if it has a decent monthly or annual fee. So, do you Slashdotters know any providers that would satisfy my email-related needs?"
Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Informative)
Only problem might be if Microsoft ends up acquiring Yahoo!. You'll end up with a webmail looking like MSN Hotmail.
use gmail? (Score:5, Informative)
It also supports existing domains so you don't have to register new one.
Rackspace (Score:5, Informative)
easy one. (Score:5, Informative)
that was too easy [google.com]
Hook your domain up to Google Apps. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.google.com/apps/ [google.com]
Give it a go, it's free!
Runbox (Score:4, Informative)
I'm quite happy with runbox.com.
Re:Fastmail (Score:5, Informative)
I jumped ship from Gmail to Fastmail back when Gmail didn't have IMAP, and I've liked it so far. They're a fairly powerful, old-school mail provider -- they give you SMTP, POP, IMAP, and webmail. The webmail is the old-school bit -- no AJAX, but you can edit Sieve scripts and do lots of other fun stuff from the Options screen. I recommend them.
Google Apps (Score:3, Informative)
Still Google Apps (Score:5, Informative)
So ignoring the most obvious free solution is a good idea. Google is popular for a reason. Setting up Google Apps takes about 10 minutes, you don't even need to host your domain(you can do it with just access to DNS) and it never goes down. Enabling POP/IMAP takes only a few minutes and you are done. The only reason not to use google apps is if you are paranoid about people looking at your emails. If that is the case then you should be setting up Postfix or Sendmail.
Re:use gmail? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, either use gmail for your own apps (Google Apps for domains is fine for home use, there's no restrictions), or just forward your work email address to gmail. You can change the From: address in gmail to be your work email address, so the people you talk to wont even know it's being forwarded
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:2, Informative)
GoDaddy [godaddy.com] offers this service much cheaper, I think, with at least as many features. If only I could make heads or tails of their site anymore... it's so fully of crap these days it's hard to find the actual stuff you want to buy.
pobox.com (Score:4, Informative)
pobox.com's "MailStore" has outbound secure SMTP relay, IMAP and POP3 access, as well as webmail. Plus their excellent anti-spam stuff.
I've never used that, but I've been using their forwarding service since 1999. Originally to my ISP's mail account, and later to a SMTP server on my home LAN. (From which I run my own secure IMAP and webmail service.)
It's not free. I think that's a feature. I don't want to be a "product" sold to advertisers, I want to be a customer.
Re:Hook your domain up to Google Apps. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:use gmail? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Your ISP ? (Score:3, Informative)
In addition, the poster wanted a domain name and, at least the ISPs that I know about, do not provide domain name.
Cheap provider (Score:1, Informative)
I use 3ix.org for $12.00 per year. It has 20 email accounts and web hosting. I've only used it for 3 months so far, but have been happy.
http://www.3ix.org/one_dollar_web_hosting.php [3ix.org]
Re:Still Google Apps (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Fastmail (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:3, Informative)
I have my own domain (~$15/yr), with super-cheap hosting ($8/m). Take your pick- for E-Mail you almost can't go wrong.
Setup your domain with a POP account, use GMail to pull & filter the spam.
It works for me. Accessable anywhere (work, home, travel), and you get your own spiffy domain that looks better than a @gmail.com
But Gmail can consolidate... (Score:3, Informative)
Eh ? Just use Gmail to consolidate your accounts using IMAP/POP using the Mail Fetcher or via forwarding on your own work account. Add your work email address/any other email addresses to Gmails list so you can use it to send email from this address. You can also use the labels to differentiate accounts.
And that should be it. Gmails interface and benefits for all your accounts at once, and only one account to check.
I do this with my work address : which offers IMAP and forwarding, and my University address which offers only POP and it works like a charm.
Simple: hostingdude.com (Score:3, Informative)
Simple recommendation for op from my experience, use http://www.hostingdude.com/ [hostingdude.com]
I've been with them years. Cheap domain names and ultra-cheap and user-friendly email plans that work with standalone programs or with a web interface.
Have a quick look at this page that gives a quick overview of accounts available: https://www.securepaynet.net/gdshop/email/personal.asp?prog_id=register_cheap_domain_names_cheap_web_hosting&app_hdr=&ci=12931 [securepaynet.net]
Reliable, fast (enough) and with all the features op is looking for.
I notice that their sales page now implies there's no calendar with their standard email packages - yet I have such a package and there is an online calendar app.
Re:Dreamhost.com (Score:4, Informative)
You get unlimited domains, unlimited mailboxes, unlimited aliases. You can choose to use their anti-spam service or not (at no extra charge).
However, Dreamhost has made a deal with Google whereas all new customers have their mail hosted by Google. So if all you're looking for as an email service, might as well go straight to Google itself.
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Informative)
gmail actually has small business options, my girlfriend's domain is directed to gmail, her mail comes through gmail and leaves through her domain. Her website, email, everything is handled for no charge. My main employment also has gmail handle our mailservers, we're on the paid plan for support, however it's very reliable and still pretty cost effective.
http://www.google.com/apps/ [google.com]
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Informative)
Stay away from GoDaddy's hosted email, if you care about actually receiving mail that is sent to you [coonrod.org]
Re:use gmail? (Score:5, Informative)
For folk thinking of doing this, please make sure any SPF records [openspf.org] for your domain list google as an authorised sender. Otherwise a lot of mail you send will be going to /dev/null
Re:HOTMAIL (Score:5, Informative)
I recently set up my own mail server. It's easier than you think (well it was easier than I though it was going to be) and you can have your own domain permanently and sure that it'll never be yanked out from under you. I wrote a full guide on setting up the mail server using Debian and the outstanding mail server package Archiveopteryx. You can read it here:
http://www.mrnaz.com/?s=publish-blog&entryid=197 [mrnaz.com]
Re:GoDaddy (Score:3, Informative)
Stay far, far away from GoDaddy for email hosting. GoDaddy's email hosting is set up to bounce any messages that contain a URI for a page hosted with certain competitors. I am not joking [coonrod.org].
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:3, Informative)
I've been running my own mail server for over a decade now, using a DSL connection and a Linux box thrown together from spare parts for most of that time. (I finally bought a cheap refurbished rack server a few months back, but that certainly isn't a requirement.) I ran QMail for several years but have been running Exim for the last three or four. I use Debian but setup of a mail server is trivial on any modern distro for anyone with a geek bent. I don't have hard records but would estimate that my downtime averages a few hours a year. You need an ISP that allows you to run services. I used Speakeasy for awhile but they aren't available where I'm now living, so I use a small local ISP.
I do to, I'm running a scalix community edition in a VM behind a spamassassin/amavisd gateway in a 2nd VM; my outgoing mail is forwarded through my ISP so I don't have to deal with blacklists etc.
The trouble is I'm receiving easily 100,000 spam a day, and I'd like to have deal with less. The gateway does a fabulous job of filtering it, but its just a constant stream that I'd prefer just not to have on my network at all.
So I'm happy running my own mail server, but want to outsource the initial spam filtering, preferably to a company that isn't going to keep copies of my legitimate mail.
Re:use gmail? (Score:3, Informative)
Do the forward thing. It's trivial to have Gmail use your "real" non-Gmail address for the From line, just check the options. nearlyfreespeech.net will take care of the actual forwarding for ~$7/yr if you want to get rid of responsibility for handling SMTP entirely. Those guys are great, by the way, so toss them some cash. I did it for years.
If you have other gripes about Gmail, maybe Yahoo or Hotmail can do it. The only thing the webmail provider has to support specifically is handling the From line. The rest has nothing to do with them.
If you want a "serious" setup, Rackspace does a nice managed Exchange service with all of the trimmings: mobile messaging and whatnot. I'd never use it again, and it's way overkill for one guy (they charge per-user, but there might be a minimum that's >1), but there's a for-pay recommendation if you need one. I hate Exchange with a passion because it's so far from everything I'm used to, but I moved a few clients who were married to Exchange to it so I wouldn't have to answer Windows email questions anymore. They don't have problems.
Re:Fastmail (Score:5, Informative)
I absolutely recommend fastmail [fastmail.fm]. Fastmail is the system that I would have liked to design. They really understand IMAP and they have the only webmail interface that doesn't make my skin crawl. I am extremely picky about email (I professionally set up email systems for small and medium sized businesses, and I've been a happy fastmail customer for about seven years.
Even if you don't pick fastmail, you should get your own domain name that you use for email. Typically your domain registrar will allow you to set up forwarding to whatever addresses you wish. This way, you aren't locked into your ISP or other email hoster if you wish to change. If I stopped liking fastmail tomorrow, I could easily switch to another provider by just changing a few DNS records. I've had ISPs and hosting companies screw up my mail before, and I enjoy the freedom to switch if necessary. Though I don't anticipate switching from fastmail whom I've been with for about seven years.
Let me also state why one shouldn't use your ISP's system. Your ISP doesn't win or lose customers by the quality of their email service. For them, email is nothing but an added expense which they run because they "have to" and because it creates a lock-in opportunity. This also applies Gmail. Who knows what their business model is, but keeping email customers happy probably isn't the core of it.
Free services (yahoo, gmail, hotmail etc.) have the caveats of free services: You get little support; Terms and Conditions change more rapidly than most others; advertisements; crappy IMAP support; and they are used by spammers leading to all mail from those services being more likely to be filtered. Fastmail does offer a "free" (advertising supported) service, but I've never used that.
There are some competitors to fastmail. You should look them up as well. The last time I seriously looked at these (2004) to provide a recommendations for a client, fastmail was still the best bet IMO.
Other than being a happy customer, I have no connection to fastmail.
Re:Fastmail (Score:2, Informative)
Re:HOTMAIL (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Rackspace (Score:1, Informative)
Rackspace has a "email specific" arm also, called Mailtrust [mailtrust.com].
I have used mailtrust from before they were aquired by rackspace, and have been happy with the service. I have their "noteworthy" plan, not the exchange plan, so can make no comment on the exchange hosting.
I would assume it is the same service as rackspace email, but I'm not sure.
Re:use gmail? (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.advogato.org/article/816.html
Virtual Server (Score:3, Informative)
Do you need phone support with your email? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:HOTMAIL (Score:5, Informative)
I used to run my own mail server at home, too. It wasn't very hard, it didn't cost much, and it was very fast and responsive, eating spam like a champ with Amavis.
It was all very hands-off and worked just great, until the hard drive crashed.
And then, I realized I had to put it all back together. And, then, I realized that I needed to also put together and use a backup system. And then, I asked myself, "What happens if my house burns down?" And then I thought about carrying backups off-site, or automating backups to a box at someone else's house. I carefully considered all of the extra expense and ongoing maintenance that all this stuff would require.
And then, I said "fuck it," switched my MX entries over to Google, and haven't looked back.
YMMV.
Re:Fastmail (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Fastmail (Score:4, Informative)
I've been using them for more than 4 years. I have an enhanced account. Before that I did my own mail server, but that's just too much hassle. They give me all the flexibility without the bother.
BTW, the downtimes were worse than that IIRC, but that was years ago. They since fixed their infrastructure and I haven't had a problem since.
Support is excellent.
X.
Re:HOTMAIL (Score:4, Informative)
No-ip.com.
They have a POP3 service available that can host your Domain's e-mail service for you.
See Here. [no-ip.com]
Re:use gmail? (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah - I'm going to have to second that. I've been using Google Apps for my personal domain for a couple years now and I have had ZERO problems. I certainly have less downtime than when I was running it myself with Postfix and Courier on a cable modem.
Re:Fastmail (Score:3, Informative)
Fastmail.fm is the real deal and thoroughly recommended. Do not confuse them with fastmail.com, a completely different, and inferior, service.
To get a feel, take a look at the independent (though Fastmail representative visited) forums at http://www.emaildiscussions.com/forumdisplay.php?&f=27 [emaildiscussions.com]
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Informative)
It's pretty simple to do actually, it just requires you to already *HAVE* an email provider to send a verification code to.
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:3, Informative)
I second the tuffmail recommendation. I've used them for several years now, and service has been great. Ditto their spam filters -- very flexible, easy to "train."
- Robin
Rollernet (Score:2, Informative)
Re:use gmail? (Score:3, Informative)
I also wish you had the options of both folder and labels in gmail. However, there's a nifty trick to make labels work great in IMAP. Just put a / in the label name. It shows up in IMAP as a folder with subfolder. For example, if I created labels "friends/bob" and "friends/jill", I'd get a main folder "friends" and two subfolders of it, "bob" and "jill." Downside being that you have to use the gmail interface to create the label.
One of my biggest peeves is the glomming together of mail and chat. "All Mail" should not include chats.
Re:Fastmail (Score:2, Informative)
GoDaddy? (Score:3, Informative)
For God's sakes, why in the world do geeks still use GoDaddy? I honestly don't understand. Every other month, there's some story about GoDaddy's sleazy tactics like shutting down a domain or stealing a domain, yet geeks still use them. It's not like we're a ma and pa with an interweb page to promote our scrapbooking business. We all know how GoDaddy operates, we all know we're putting our domain at risk when we use them, and yet, for every story that hits the front page of ./, digg, or reddit, I run into some IT professional that recommends them. This isn't like high speed internet where you're limited in choices. There's a ton of other registrars around.
Re:Fastmail (Score:4, Informative)
Interesting service, but with all the WiFi nowadays, I would really have liked an option to have SSL. Do they do that as well? It isn't on their pages (and it is probably rather expensive to buy the CPU power / SSL off-loader + certificates for them to handle it.
Yes, they do SSL very well. For the webmail just use the "secure login" button. For everything else, just configure your mailer appropriately. They've done SSL from the beginning (or at least for a long time).
Re:Fastmail (Score:5, Informative)
The webmail is the old-school bit -- no AJAX, but you can edit Sieve scripts and do lots of other fun stuff from the Options screen. I recommend them.
And apparently the owners read Slashdot. Oh wait, that's me! ;) OK, so that makes me a little biased...
But I should add to your comments above that a new interface full of Javascripty goodness is on the way - it should be in beta in the next couple of weeks. You can see a mockup here: http://mockups.neilj.fastmail.fm/revision30/inbox.html [fastmail.fm] (some things like the images on buttons aren't working in the mockup). There's lots of keyboard shortcuts, like '/' to search, and '.' to bring up an action menu. And of course, being FastMail, it downgrades gracefully - so if you don't have Javascript you can still use every feature.
To find out what other folks are saying, see this thread on the (independently run) FastMail forum: http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=1560 [emaildiscussions.com]. It has over 300 comments about the service, written over the last seven years.
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:2, Informative)
After a little testing, now it makes more sense. Message-ID is set by the client. I just sent myself an email by manually doing the smtp (I just made up a message ID and it worked fine).
So it depends where you send it from, not so much the service.
Also, if you really wanted to, you could relay outside of gmail for sending the messages (which would avoid this issue completely), though that might get you flagged as spam (if the domain's mx record doesn't match where the email came from).