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E-Mail Hosting?

Posted by Cliff on from the finding-things-your-ISP-won't-provide dept.

nmx asks: "Apparently my cable modem provider decided that I can't run my Webserver and mailserver anymore from my cable connection. Webhosting services are easy enough to find; I can just change the DNS to point my domain name to any of several free services. But what about the mailserver? I have several addresses @ my domain (most of which get forwarded to my main account). I don't want to (and can't afford to) lose those addresses; are there any (free or otherwise) services that can help me out?"

22 comments

  1. MailHost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Check out www.bn3.com You can do what you want for free.

    1. Re:MailHost by segment+fault · · Score: 1
      That's actually the service I use for my domain. I must say that I'm not entirely happy with it, though. It's slow, doesn't allow you to send large messages (with attachments) through them, and isn't incredably reliable.

      They also tag a little ad for themselves on the bottom of both your incoming and outgoing e-mails. They and at this time, you must have them host your DNS (though they have said that they're planning a paid service for people who want to have their DNS hosted elsewhere).

      Personally, I'd look for another provider before you chose bn3.

    2. Re:MailHost by segment+fault · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, they support web baised e-mail and POP3/SMTP. So you can use whichever you prefer.

  2. Free POP/IMAP email accounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    But I think with Yahoo you must agree to receive spam to get a POP3 account, otherwise you're limited to web-based mail. I left Geocities because of this (after Yahoo took over).

    myrealbox.com and mailandnews.com are good POP3/IMAP services (they also offer web-based mail). They even allow you to use SSL connections to retrieve your mail. eudoramail.com also offers POP accounts, but it seems undocumented (just set your pop server to eudoramail.com, use APOP authentication if possible - SSL isn't supported). I think flashmail.com is another one, but I haven't tried it in a while.

    1. Re:Free POP/IMAP email accounts by Prior+Restraint · · Score: 1

      ...I think with Yahoo you must agree to receive spam to get a POP3 account, otherwise you're limited to web-based mail.

      True, but there's an easy way around that, which I use myself:

      • Create your Yahoo! address (foo@yahoo.com); when you sign up, you must provide another real account (foo@isp.com)
      • Create a new "throw-away" account (bar@yahoo.com), which also refers to foo@isp.com
      • Go back to foo@yahoo.com, and make bar@yahoo.com your "real" account
      • When you "enhance" your foo account for POP3 access, you get a choice: spam goes to foo@yahoo.com; or spam goes to bar@yahoo.com (select bar)

      You may now use foo@yahoo.com without receiving any spam on that account; just remember to occasionally login to bar to delete the piles of spam it accumulates ;)

  3. DNS registry as a solution by psychosis · · Score: 1

    There might be a way to use a free DNS registrar for your problem. You use them to change your MX record to another server. If that server is a friend with DSL or another access method that permits servers, you could create the same named accounts and pop it off or use another access method.
    Kind of a kluge, but I think it's about the only way to preserve your existing e-mail addresses.

  4. Re:schmim.com by Paul+Carver · · Score: 1

    I think you're overestimating your needs. A T1 is enourmous overkill for one person's email. There is really no genuine need to run a mail server for one person, it's just a geek vanity thing. Even if you're really popular and a really fast reader, setting your computer to retrieve mail every 2-4 hours by modem is plenty. What you really want is just an email address that will stay constant.

    There's only one way to really be sure your email address will never change. Register your own domain name. I've used Domainmonger, but they aren't the only low cost registrar. If you've registered your domain name you can change hosting companies without changing email addresses and you never have to worry about the owner of the domain taking away your right to use the address of your choice (unless of course you get into the whole trademark/domain squatting thing).

    Once you've registered your domain name, you just need to host it with a web hosting company that also provides email. I pay $10/month to www.csoft.net for web hosting which includes unlimited email forwarders and unlimited POP mailboxes, both configurable through a simple CLI (i.e. login to a shell via ssh). There are many other web hosts that offer similar service.

  5. Re:send or receive? by Van+Halen · · Score: 1
    I ran into this problem with my old dialup and practically pulled my hair out trying to get sendmail to use my dynamic dialup hostname in its greeting. I finally gave up and went with qmail. You can configure its "default host" on the fly simply by putting it in /var/spool/qmail/control/defaulthost. (all qmail configuration is done via text files in that directory).

    I hacked up a quick script to interrogate my dialup hostname via nslookup on the IP and put that in the above qmail config. Then I added that script to /etc/ppp/ip-up. I also added a line to /etc/ppp/ip-down to put my internal hostname back for when I was offline. A hack for sure, but it worked.

    Now, if your provider doesn't have reverse DNS setup for its dynamic IPs, the only other thing I can think of is do what I do now. I own bikegods.org (hosted elsewhere), so I just set my qmail defaulthost to that for all time. If a mailer on the other end wants to contact postmaster, etc, it will still get back to me. Do something similar if you own a domain (or know someone who doesn't mind you doing that).

    --

    Say hello to zMac.

  6. Re:schmim.com by _vapor · · Score: 1

    Well, I wouldn't recommend that anyone *really* count on us -- if you want serious, permanent, commercial hosting forever,then you certainly should go elsewhere. However, we'll be up and running for at least two more years. As far as the university's AUP, I already said in my original post that we can't help you if it's for commercial purposes. If you just want some free web/email hosting for fun, though, we're available. I've read the university's AUP 7326 times, and I know the guys who are in charge of enforcing it -- as long as it's not pr0n, and not commercial, it's all good. Whatever.. yeah, I admit this is a shameless plug... oh well. ;-)

    --
    www.poak.net
  7. schmim.com by _vapor · · Score: 1

    If your site is non-profit, non-pr0n, and doesn't get spectacular amounts of traffic, we'll do it for free at schmim.com. We have (currently) three computers on a university (i.e., FAST) connection and do free email/webhosting/etc. for the fun of it. Our uptime is virtually 100%. Send an email to imran@schmim.com or glenn@schmim.com and we'll talk. (The same goes for everyone who reads this)

    Glenn

    --
    www.poak.net
    1. Re:schmim.com by nmx · · Score: 1

      I'm the guy who asked the question. It'd be nice if I could "spend a few bucks" to buy a T1 or some other permanent connection so that I could run the server myself. Unfortunately I'm a poor student and I can't really afford this, so I'm looking for someone else to host it for me. Thanks to all who posted! I've decided to go with BN3 for now; their webhosting isn't that great but I was really just looking for a way to save my email addresses.

      --
      "Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try."
    2. Re:schmim.com by Royster · · Score: 2

      How could anyone count on you? You're using a university connection? How long is that going to last? It must be against the AUP of the University to use it for commercial purposes.

      The guy who asked the question should spend a few bucks.

      --
      I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
  8. POP? by Enoch · · Score: 1
    I have been looking for something very similar; though, I am in the market for a pop server. Basically, I want to acquire an account that I do not have to worry about connecting to the server through any ISP, or the domain changing, etc. I thought about setting up my own, but I want something more permanent than that i.e. a service provider for it.

    Plus, I hate having to use web-based email to solve this. Has anyone heard of this?

    Enoch

    1. Re:POP? by John+Jorsett · · Score: 2

      Your post didn't say whether you want a personalized domain or not. If you don't care what the actual email address is, Yahoo will give you a free email account that you can access using POP. I've done that myself, using Outlook Express to pick up my email. They also offer SMTP service, so you can use your emailer to send email that appears to originate from the Yahoo account.

  9. clearlight.com by beagle · · Score: 1

    I was a long-time customer of Don at Clearlight.com, and he is (from what I can tell anyway) a great guy. I had my email with him for several years, until I was able to host my own domain at my office. He's a little more expensive than the ones already mentioned, but his customer service is great, and he always responded to my issues (and still responds to my occasional email) with incredible speed and accuracy for a hosting operation.

  10. send or receive? by amsel · · Score: 1

    I had/have a similar problem, in that I use a dialup-by-call ISP (i.e. no registration, no user name), for which they don't provide an smtp server. So I can receive mail using something like the methods mentioned above, but if I send mail using sendmail on my linux laptop, a number of hosts will try to do a domain name/IP lookup on me and reject the mail as being spoofed. In the end I've been using an open mail relay a friend has at his work, but: is there a more legit way to send mail via a free DNS/IP matched smtp server somewhere?

    1. Re:send or receive? by jfrisby · · Score: 2

      I can't speak for other services, but the only way you'd be able to do this with Everyone.net (disclosure: my employer) would be to use the web-based client instead of setting up a forwarding account.

      You'd be able to send and receive e-mail but you have to use our client, and you'd be limited to 6MB of space.

      -JF

      --
      MrJoy.com -- Because coding is FUN!
  11. Email Hosting by Gorstag · · Score: 1

    My company does unlimited email hosting for $5 a month. forward or pop. Included your own control panel to create/delete pop/forward addresses. HJ Consulting

  12. Cheap email hosting by myke_hines · · Score: 2

    I know that the company that I use provides real cheap email hosting, its something like $5 a month.. you also get web-based email and stuff a la TWIG. Check out http://www.inner8.com

  13. cxhost.com by falconfor · · Score: 2

    I've been with CXHOST at http://www.cxhost.com for awhile. their tech support is great, whenever I send them an email asking a question I get a reply within minutes! and I only pay $10/month for everything, plus they sell domains for $15 and you get a domain for free with most of their packages

  14. Everyone.net by jfrisby · · Score: 3

    Everyone.net (disclosure: my employer) provides free web based e-mail, branded to how your site looks and to your domain. You can however just sign up, point the MX to us, and then set up forwarding accounts to alternative e-mail addresses...

    The end result is that you'll get your "me@foo.com" e-mails sent to "me@suckycablemodemprovider.com"...

    -JF

    --
    MrJoy.com -- Because coding is FUN!
  15. even cheap web hosts provide mail hosting by defective · · Score: 3

    Many low cost web hosts provide email hosting as part of their service. My web development company often reccomends Impulse Internet Services

    For $10 a month (paid anually), they'll host your website and email.

    There's many more out there just like these guys, you can try the builder.com directory of hosts.

    BTW, if you sign up with Impulse, tell them that Katz & Mouse sent you their way ;)