Moving e-mail addresses to a new provider.

[Campbell]

With BT currently, but hunting down a better Std B/band & land line deal. Still not too clear on the transfer of existing e-mail addresses which we want to keep. Some say no, some say no problem, others say yes but via Google mail.
BT seem to want £5 mth to retain each address used by other providers.

Who's done it successfully and with what provider?

 

[foxbox]

I've recently set up a farm email address which I'm accessing through Googlemail. It works really well so you can definitely use non Google addresses in this way but I'm not sure how you get around the whole not paying BT thing. Moving to a new independent email address is painful but may be better in the long term?

 

[Dry Rot]

I've tried several (don't go near 1&1 or 123reg) and ended up with Godaddy. You are asked to score the operator after he's answered your query and that seems to keep them on their toes.

I have several different email addresses for different web sites and setting them up was not a problem. A major factor with me is how quickly they answer their help lines and how good they are at helping and explaining stuff.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

With BT currently, but hunting down a better Std B/band & land line deal. Still not too clear on the transfer of existing e-mail addresses which we want to keep. Some say no, some say no problem, others say yes but via Google mail.
BT seem to want £5 mth to retain each address used by other providers.

Who's done it successfully and with what provider?

Register your own domain then you can move it to whatever provider you like. There are free email hosting providers like zoho, and loads of good new top domains now available, not just the old .co.uk and .com so you can fairly creative. See https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/tlds-2012-02-25-en for inspiration.

The days of having ISP domain email tied to an ISP should be relegated to the dustbin.

 

[DaveShaw]

I wonder if BT would set up a forwarder for you, so your old BT email just redirects emails to your new address.

 

[Campbell]

I wonder if BT would set up a forwarder for you, so your old BT email just redirects emails to your new address.

Yes they can, costs £5/mth and I have recently discovered it only applies to the main account and not to all sub accounts as I thought. So not that bad. But the market is nuts with B/Band and line offers from £17/mth but then we discover we are in a high cost area due to the exchange set up, so soon back to near where we are with current BT.

 

[DaveShaw]

Yes they can, costs £5/mth and I have recently discovered it only applies to the main account and not to all sub accounts as I thought. So not that bad. But the market is nuts with B/Band and line offers from £17/mth but then we discover we are in a high cost area due to the exchange set up, so soon back to near where we are with current BT.

Yeah that's robbery really, you could have a whole hosting package for that, with your own email addresses, website. I guess that's how they keep you as a customer... you could just bight the bullet and change to gmail or whoever and keep BT going for a month or two, for every BT email you get, you contact that person/company and update them to your new address until there are no more emails coming to the BT (only the spam ones you don't want anyhow)

 

[Farfrae]

I've tried several (don't go near 1&1 or 123reg)

Why not I've been using 1&1 since 2001 for numerous domains. They may not be quite the cheapest but they have functioned flawlessly for 16 years; they have a comprehensive web interface and have always done what I want.

As many have said use Google Mail or register your own domain. Probably best to bite the bullet now. Get everything organised. Notify all your existing email users then ditch BT when you have everything sorted. That said (and it usually takes around 3 or 4 phone calls) you can usually get BT to match other deals by contacting the 'retentions team' and threatening to leave. Still best to have an independent email address though.

 

[Dry Rot]

Why not I've been using 1&1 since 2001 for numerous domains. They may not be quite the cheapest but they have functioned flawlessly for 16 years; they have a comprehensive web interface and have always done what I want.

As many have said use Google Mail or register your own domain. Probably best to bite the bullet now. Get everything organised. Notify all your existing email users then ditch BT when you have everything sorted. That said (and it usually takes around 3 or 4 phone calls) you can usually get BT to match other deals by contacting the 'retentions team' and threatening to leave. Still best to have an independent email address though.

As I understood it, the OP wanted his own email address with his own individual name in the address, e.g. [email protected].

1&1 was fine until I wanted to try another provider. They pulled the plug leaving me high and dry, no email or access to the Internet, but still kept taking the money. I cancelled 123reg as soon as I discovered they didn't answer their help lines (they may be better now, I don't know) and I've just discovered they have been taking my money for two years in spite of my cancelling by recorded delivery to their head office.

If your experiences have been good, that's fine. Mine weren't! But I really can't fault Godaddy. They are one of the biggest for a reason.

 

[J B]

Why not I've been using 1&1 since 2001 for numerous domains. They may not be quite the cheapest but they have functioned flawlessly for 16 years; they have a comprehensive web interface and have always done what I want.

I've had 1&1 for about ten years now - no major problems.

Just one small issue recently in that when I ask Screwfix to send me a VAT invoice (a simple pdf) 1&1 think it has a virus and block it! They are still 'looking into it' but it's been a month now .....

 

[Richard III]

1&1 are famous for being hard to cancel the contract with, I had major fun, they threatened me with a court summons for cancelling the D.D. despite emails and a registered letter. The account was opened by my ex wife, so I had no passwords or anything. In the end I managed to recover the account details and go through a convoluted cancellation procedure, which included logging onto a separate website and finding and clicking on the word here in blue, in the middle of a large page of terms and conditions.

They are a good company till you want to leave, I hate them with a passion.

It was quite a few years ago now.

 

[Campbell]

Update on home B/Band, landline and emails. Signed up to EE with a best offer of £25 x 18 mth all in contract, [BT was averaging £60 out of contract]. As predicted by @Farfrae, I was soon contacted by the BT retentions team, who after bit of banter, agreed to match EE and supply a new router. . So staying with BT for now, keeping all our email addresses etc. Will certainly consider the Domain name email system again, just needs better planning.
Not impressed by the way BT conduct their business, taking you to the wire on loyalty. But as they own most of the network, it should continue to be good...

 

[eyezwideopen]

It is easier to host your own email server by using iredmail - you just need an old pc , it doesnt need to be anything fancy even an old 486 will do (thats what i use) then ask your internet provider to add a cname record on dns to use it. it;s so easy to set up and use. Mine has been running for 3 years with only a few down times due to a powercuts. And best of all it's free.

 

[bravheart]

It is easier to host your own email server by using iredmail - you just need an old pc , it doesnt need to be anything fancy even an old 486 will do (thats what i use) then ask your internet provider to add a cname record on dns to use it. it;s so easy to set up and use. Mine has been running for 3 years with only a few down times due to a powercuts. And best of all it's free.

Thanks for the info here, no idea what the acronyms stand for but I'm sure it all works ok, just seems to me that if power cuts are the problem would a laptop not be a cure all.

 

[Philip Watkins]

Thanks for the info here, no idea what the acronyms stand for but I'm sure it all works ok, just seems to me that if power cuts are the problem would a laptop not be a cure all.

Unless you have power back-up to your router you aren't connected to the internet during a power-cut so a laptop is no help.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Thanks for the info here, no idea what the acronyms stand for but I'm sure it all works ok, just seems to me that if power cuts are the problem would a laptop not be a cure all.

An email server really needs to be on 24x7x365, with as few outages as possible. Remember an email server is not the same as an email client (like on your laptop or phone) - the email server needs to be very reliable and have reliable internet connectivity.

Personally I’d recommend using a cloud based hosting provider for the mail server (there are quite a few free ones, or ones that have free hosting plans like zoho).This way your email service is hosted in a proper datacentre, has redundant network connections, UPS power etc. Plus they do the heavy lifting with respect to setup and software maintenance.

You can try doing all that from home, and its ok for cheap and cheerful, but your computer hosting the email server needs UPS power backup as does your router. Your internet connection should also be more than just barely reliable.

If not and your email server is bouncing up and down on a regular basis, then whomever send you emails will start get get long convoluted timeout messages about your email server being unavailable - which is neither very professional or convenient.

The other thing to bear in mind is that some ISP block you from running your own SMTP (email sending) server due to security reasons.