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.
Re: (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.
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Interesting)
GoDaddy's email service is horrible. It's ridiculously slow. Besides, you're lucky if you can order it before having seizures caused by their web site.
I've had clients use Fusemail with positive results.
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:4, Insightful)
>>>I feel that having GMail or Yahoo email domains on my business card isn't really a professional touch.
I have both a yahoo and google domain for my email, and I don't feel ashamed by it. If my future employer or customer is that "stuck up" about something so trivial, then I don't want to deal with them..... they're more likely to make unreasonable demands or frequent returns. I'd rather just avoid those people.
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Insightful)
Well I have to be honest with you, having any webmail service provider domain name instantly makes your company look amateurish from a prospective customer point of view, a real fly by night company. Don't be foolish register a domain name, a get your ISP to handle your email routing, most medium sized ISP's do it at very competitive rates and it is well worth the expenditure to create a more professional impression with potential customers.
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:5, Funny)
Again, having ****@gmail.com helps weed-out those with unreasonable expectations who might be more headache than they are worth.
I have a funny feeling that you'll be getting a lot more "business offers" in the very near future.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well..... I AM just a one-person "company". If they are expecting the kind of service from me they receive from an amazon or other major corporation, then maybe I'm not the right fit for that customer.
Maybe you aren't, but may I suggest not using "Worse customer service than Amazon.com" as your slogan?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, the interesting thing is, his email is saying exactly what he said to us. It's saying, I'm too small to get my own domain ($20 or so a year plus $10 or so a month for hosting) so don't expect great service. And don't expect the CFO to not know what hosting a domain email would cost. Hell, I have piggy backed one domain onto another clients just to take advantage of a 15 meg link and I give them a 10% discount on the billing to do it.
I remember one web programmer who failed to get a promotion changed o
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Interesting)
First option, 1 min, second option 10 min. Cost first option, $2, second option $20. Since the split is about 5:1, that's savings of over $100 in my time every week.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You just described what I consider "stuck up". I guess "elitist" is the non-slang term. The person behind the yahoo account (me) might very well be working for Lockheed Martin, and merely doing some work from home, and using his/her home account to ask some questions about product. Do you really want to "brush off" a potential sale to Lockheed Martin (me again) or some other purchasing agent for a major corporation???
IMHO, you shouldn't prejudge people upon arbitrary & meaningless characteristics
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if you were dealing with someone face to face I suspect you would get a lot more response as a potential client by saying you are representing Lockheed Martin than saying you are electrictroy uid = 912290 from slashdot(if fact you see a similar effect on slashdot... people with lower uids are often seen to be more impressive than higher... I once had a very lower uid but lost it due to neglect and really noticed the differene in mod points).
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Interesting)
I have to disagree with "childish," unless the poster works in IT himself. Most people, even in computing, do work that has nothing to do with managing domains and email servers. When someone hires a consultant to write Java middleware, or write Flash games, or port Fortran code to C++, or help a company move to a distributed build system, they don't give a damn whether he receives mail at his own domain. It has nothing to do with his job.
Setting up and administering your own domain is an IT hobby that people outside of IT (including most professional programmers) have little appreciation for. To them, it's like the difference between sewing your own clothes and buying them in a store. Sounds like a lot of work -- who would bother unless it was a hobby they enjoyed?
Godaddy Mail's Benefits are Subtle! (Score:5, Funny)
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]
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 int
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I have my own domain (~$15/yr), with super-cheap hosting ($8/m). Take your pick- for E-Mail you almost can't go wrong.
Setup your domain with a POP account, use GMail to pull & filter the spam.
It works for me. Accessable anywhere (work, home, travel), and you get your own spiffy domain that looks better than a @gmail.com
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I've been running my own mail server for over a decade now, using a DSL connection and a Linux box thrown together from spare parts for most of that time. (I finally bought a cheap refurbished rack server a few months back, but that certainly isn't a requirement.) I ran QMail for several years but have been running Exim for the last three or four. I use Debian but setup of a mail server is trivial on any modern distro for anyone with a geek bent. I don't have hard records but would estimate that my downtime
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Likewise. Myself I use a Linksys NSLU2 running debian off a 4GB USB stick. I run Postfix for SMTP and Dovecot for IMAP.
Just find yourself an ISP that can give you a static IP and doesn't mind sorting out rDNS for our domain, plus a registrar that will let you do SPF - job done.
Re:Yahoo! Mail (Score:5, Informative)
gmail actually has small business options, my girlfriend's domain is directed to gmail, her mail comes through gmail and leaves through her domain. Her website, email, everything is handled for no charge. My main employment also has gmail handle our mailservers, we're on the paid plan for support, however it's very reliable and still pretty cost effective.
http://www.google.com/apps/ [google.com]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I second the tuffmail recommendation. I've used them for several years now, and service has been great. Ditto their spam filters -- very flexible, easy to "train."
- Robin
My domain (Score:5, Funny)
example.com is where I would go.
Fastmail (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.fastmail.fm/ [fastmail.fm] is still around, for a reasonnable 40$/year, and is a very good option which provides pretty much any feature you might want...
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.
Re:Fastmail (Score:5, Informative)
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:Fastmail (Score:5, Interesting)
The webmail is the old-school bit -- no AJAX
This, of course, is a feature. Not only do they not use AJAX, but they even provide a non-javascript version which works great with the text browser of your choice.
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: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:4, Insightful)
Yeah, Fastmail is insanely cool. They have a very refined (albiet oldskool HTML) interface that works VERY well.
They are incredibly geek friendly, you can pass you own scripting to the spam filters, lots of aliases, manipulating the email from fields, accessing IMAP over non-standard ports, they were among the first to offer mobile access, etc, etc, etc! Everyone I have set up on it is very happy.
And for $20 a year, you get REAL support!
Re: (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
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).
use gmail? (Score:5, Informative)
It also supports existing domains so you don't have to register new one.
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: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: (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 r
Re:use gmail? (Score:4, Interesting)
They often do know.
Outlook detects gmail's changed address, and displays the from address as:
So, while you can change your gmail "From:" address, outlook neuters it, and makes you look rather unprofessional. Of course, this only affects people who read mail via outlook. However, if you're trying to change your email address, you're likely sending email for business purposes, and business users are likely to use outlook.
Whee.
Re:use gmail? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:use gmail? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but that was stupid.
Re:use gmail? (Score:4, Funny)
Use of "fixed that for you" shall be considered proof that the user is a perfect genius.
There, Fixed that for you!
Re:use gmail? (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, that joke is great! Nobody has ever come up with that one before!
Re:use gmail? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but the OP was also under the wrong impression that Google Apps is not intended for home users.
The thing is that it satisfies every single need the OP has. It's free, as reliable as anything else you'll find, supports IMAP and has a decent webmail interface to boot. The only reason not to go with it is if you have some kind of objection to the company.
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:use gmail? (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone out there know of (an)other service(s) that satisfy all the OP's needs *and* deliver a, in your opinion, better-than-Gmail/Google Apps webmail interface?
Your question assumes that there is a better interface for webmail than GMail. After searching around, I've never found a better one. GMail just works so well for managing large amounts of email that I'm hard pressed to think of a better way to do it.
Re: (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
Re:use gmail? (Score:4, Interesting)
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
Now it's not very clear what his real concern there is. Instead of buying a domain, he'll just have a domain? Instead of using Google Apps, he'll just use an e-mail provider that provides e-mail? I'm not sure what he's trying to distinguish from what.
He says he doesn't want to use Google Apps because it's not fitting for "home use" (and I don't know what about it isn't fitting for home use), and yet he doesn't want to use a straight-up Gmail address because it won't look good on a business card. Well is it for home use, or business? And then on top of that, he says he has a business address but doesn't want to use it. I wonder what his real use for this address will be, and whether his company would have a problem with him conducting business through a non-work address.
In short, it's not very clear to me whether the original submitter has valid needs and objections to any of these things, or if he's simply on crack. If you work for a company and your work e-mail isn't meeting your business needs, then ask your IT department, not Slashdot. If your IT department isn't meeting your company's needs, then complain to management. As someone who has run an IT department, I hated it when users tried to go outside our system. Forwarding your work e-mail to Gmail is an unnecessary security risk. If my e-mail servers weren't doing a good enough job, I would have preferred it if my users would let me know about it so I could get the whole thing straightened out.
Re:use gmail? (Score:5, Funny)
You've just described every single Ask Slashdot, ever. It's always "How I can do something any way but the right way ?" with a side of "How can I do something that makes absolutely no sense"
There are obvious solutions to the OP's problem, he/she just doesn't want to follow common sense. Slashdot is not the place to ask this question, when there are many excellent forums that specialize in hosting.
In 2008, failing to Google should be a felony.
Rackspace (Score:5, Informative)
easy one. (Score:5, Informative)
that was too easy [google.com]
gmail (Score:2)
Gmail will also do this for you. Most domain hosting companies can do email as well, while most don't do Imap, a few offer MSExchange (Yuck) if you're into Outlook (not so good).
Seriously, why is this on Slashdot?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that if the OP were capable of (or wanted to) run his own mail server, s/he would do so. These days, it's almost not worth it, though. Dealing with spam is such a pain, and it costs a lot to have high availability (which most professional hosting will provide.) The only reason to run your own mail server is legacy (I inherited a domain and system for a small number of users, and I don't want to kick them off, but I want to keep my e-mail address) or paranoia (you don't want anyone having access t
Re:gmail (Score:4, Insightful)
As a person who use to be into the DIY solutions... It just isn't worth it anymore. From 97-2006 I hosted my own domain, had an irc server for a few years, mail all through the years... you know... geek stuff. I was proud of every bit of it.
Unfortunately, I grew past that stage and went onto bigger and better things and didn't need to be bothered by the latest sendmail, apache, webmail exploit. Google Apps gives me the ability to offload that to Google and not have to worry about it any longer(although they don't offer an IRC Server yet).
As far as slashdot... I think the popularity of the site has changed the demography of its users. Slashdot users are not the small, proud group of nerds they once were.
Now, I whored out gmail for two reasons. 1. It works. 2. Some of us want to devote our time to other things.
Hook your domain up to Google Apps. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.google.com/apps/ [google.com]
Give it a go, it's free!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Runbox (Score:4, Informative)
I'm quite happy with runbox.com.
Google Apps? (Score:2)
...and what exactly is wrong with Google Apps not being intended for home users? It has everything you want (big, reliable email with IMAP) and more. You just don't have to use the other 90% of the features. So?
Google Apps (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:2, Informative)
Everyone.net (Score:2, Interesting)
Yahoo personal address (Score:2)
For a few years I ran my little side business using Yahoo's personal address service. It may have changed, but at the time it was $35/year. However, if you procure and maintain your domain through another entity it is only $10/year. You get Yahoo's unlimited storage and the web/POP3 (not sure about IMAP). You gain the benefit of Yahoo's reasonably good spam filtering, excellent (and free) integration with Blackberrys (if you need/want it), and you can also assign up to 4 other accounts. I believe it's t
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.
Seeking Advice? (Score:5, Funny)
Just ask Sarah Palin! c/o gov.sarah@yahoo.com
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
GoDaddy (Score:2)
But, I have a few domains registered with them and they include a free (I think it is 1GB now) email account with a domain purchase. I know they support POP3, SMTP, and have a nice web interface. I am not sure about IMAP.
They have upgrades to better (non-free) accounts available as well.
Re: (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].
Just use Google Apps (Score:5, Insightful)
You are making this far to complicated for a simple email issue. Just use Google Apps. They have a free version for people just like you. The reasoning that Google Apps "isn't actually intended for home users" is silly at best. It's EXACTLY for people like you.
It's incredibly easy to set up and will provide you with a "professional" looking email address. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/editions.html [google.com] Just sign up for the standard version.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Domain (Score:4, Insightful)
What's wrong with buying a domain? I don't have one now, but I've had a few in the past. They're dirt cheap. If all you need is an email address, my old host register4less.com will register and host a domain for fifteen bucks a year and forward your mail.
You can set it up so multiple addresses get forwarded to different places. With mcgrew.info, I'd have my mail go to my ISP email account (at the time insightbb.com) and my daughter's to her yahoo email. steve@mcgrew.info went to mcgrew@insightbb.com and patty@mcgrew.info went to her email account at yahoo (I don't use insight any more and the mcgrew.info site has lapsed; I got bored with it).
You get 5 megs of space for a web site, too. I used them for mcgrew.info, theFragfest.com, rudies.us and a few others. They've all lapsed, but if I decide to open another web site I'll use my old host/registrar, I was very happy with them.
Try hush.com (Score:2, Insightful)
Hushmail (hush.com) can do all this plus handle your personal domain for one or many users. The upside is that Hush uses end-to-end encryption, so you can read your mail with strong security, even using their web client. Try it for free... (standard disclaimer... I don't work for them, etc.)
Use Google Apps (Score:2)
Let me add my voice to the resounding consensus and say that you should just buy a domain and use the free version Google Apps. It's easy to set up, and it's a really great mail solution.
gmail unprofessional? (Score:2)
I'm not so sure I agree with the idea that gmail is that unprofessional. With yahoo I get your point. Yahoo feels kinda kiddie, everyone has a a yahoo address, and sometimes they get blocked by spam systems, etc. Gmail doesn't quite suffer from the same issues, and, at least for a while in the beginning, having a gmail address was a geek badge of honor, even though everyone could get one. Basically if you are dealing with anyone remotely nerdlike I'd say your gmail address isn't a bad thing. However, i
Roll Your Own? (Score:2)
Search terms "imap email hosting" delivered a bunch of hits, this being one of the first. http://www.fusemail.com/cost/ [fusemail.com] Chances are excellent there's a smaller provider and a little hungrier providing the same service a few pages back.
Otherwise, roll your own. I've got a *great* DSL provider who had no problem hosting my own mail server. (sonic.net) You need a static IP and something as simple as the NSLU2 should do great. http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZLinksysQ20NSLU2QQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZR40QQ_mdoZ [ebay.com]
Anual? (Score:2)
Almost thought the submitter was ok with an anal fee for a moment...
Do the editors not have spellchecks?
After 8 years trying different email providers i.. (Score:2)
Now have just completed moving all my personal domains to Google Apps.
I had never even had a gmail account before (always using IMAP / SquirrelMail via h2hosting.com most recently), but after testing out the Google Apps Gmail I was instantly sold.
Highlights:
- The BEST IMAP implementation I have seen in 8 years! Beats imapd, cyrus, Exchange IMAP anyday!
- 6 GB free, but I'm just about to upgrade to 25GB for peanuts.
- The gmail interface is slick! So much so that I have now actually given up on using an IMAP c
How should I quench my thirst? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm getting really thirsty, and wondering what to do about it. Besides drinking fluids (which are generally used by professional athletes), what do Slashdot readers think I should do about my problem?
Re:How should I quench my thirst? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing wrong with gmail or yahoo (Score:2)
I think you're digging a bit if you think that printing gmail.com or yahoo.com on your business card is "unprofessional". They're common names, most people will be familiar with them, and they're easy to remember.
With the domain space as crowded as it is, you're probably not going to get your idea domain name, leaving you to be identified as "bob@sf1nct3r.com" or something. Whatever it ends up being I guarantee it's not going to improve anyone's opinion of you.. and good luck reciting that address over the
Try these people (Score:2)
Real men host their own e-mail (Score:3, Insightful)
What is all this pansy-ass nonsense about GMail and Hushmail and blahblah.com?? This is Slashdot you cretins! Install Linux on a Pentium II and host your domain and e-mail yourself with exim with greylisting enabled.
I do.
With better uptime, better spam filtering, and more storage space than the 'professional' hosting company that handles my office e-mail account.
GMail.... services.... pfft. I'm ashamed of you people...
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Real men also build their own houses, plough their own fields, catch their own buffalo, direct their own episodes of "24", etc.
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.
been doing this for clients for years (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's what you need -
Set up your DNS with mydomain.com (you can use them as a registrar if you wish, I highly recommend them, but they offer free DNS even if you don't register the domain with them!) and use their mail forwarding service (mydomain is somewhat rare in offering this as part of their free DNS) instead of setting up a MX record.
Create a gmail account and set up an alias for the domain including reply-as.
Done! Totally free, pretty easy, and very reliable.
Sorry I don't have time to do a walk thru of each step I imagine others here can fill in the details...
I use everyone.net (Score:2)
I use a service called everyone.net - allows me to have my own domain name, they support both IMAP (my preference) as well as POP.
They also support secure IMAP/POP/etc. over SSL.
Good service overall and have not had any problems over the last 2.5 years or so that I have been using them.
Industry Square (Score:2)
I get my email hosting [industrysquare.tv] from a company called Industry Square. They are a smallish hosting outfit but the reliability is good. They don't offer a lot of space but after trying a few companies I got sick of servers going down all the time and slow support response. Industry Square are pretty quick on support and not had a server problem that I have noticed in the last year or os. Not sure about IMAP though as I only use POP3.
Tuffmail (Score:2)
I used to host my own personal email, until it became too much of a hassle. Among the many out there, I settled on tuffmail.com, as they have really amazing spam filtering, as well as low rates and reliable service. Their smtp grey listing is really amazing.
I don't have anything to do with the company, except being a happy customer.
How about DirectNIC? (Score:2)
They register names for $15/year and offer a POP3 service for another $10/year. I don't think they support IMAP, though.
See: http://www.directnic.com/help/faq/?question_id=517&topic_id=44 [directnic.com]
DirectNIC is located in New Orleans and survived Hurricane Katrina. I've used them as a registrar for perhaps a decade now. Great customer service.
I wouldn't let any of my business customers set up a GMail account. Businesses need more privacy for their messaging than Google offers.
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: (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.
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:Dreamhost.com (Score:5, Interesting)
What about their, um, minor billing issues [hylobatidae.org] earlier this year?
They have loads of features, yes - but reliability often hasn't been high on the agenda, assuming it's been on the agenda at all. Random outages lasting much of the day, the aforementioned billing issues, you name it. Cheap, cheerful and easy to do stuff with, but don't use it for anything remotely serious.
Plus, my IMAP email stuff is about eleventy billion times faster and more reliable since I moved to a virtual server somewhere else entirely.
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: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.
Virtual Server (Score:3, Informative)
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: (Score:3, Interesting)
True, but I find that Debian + Postfix + Archiveopteryx is a solid enough platform that maintenance is infrequent and easy. If you can dedicate one machine to it and don't do anything else on that machine to break your mail setup, it's even more solid. None of the packages i listed above are anything less than rock solid.
Also, setting up my own mail server means I can have as many addresses as I want, such as a dedicated one for mailing lists which I can subscribe to as many as I want without fear of runnin