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Email-only Providers?
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 will be able to do that for you as well for $34.95 /year.
Only problem might be if Microsoft ends up acquiring Yahoo!. You'll end up with a webmail looking like MSN Hotmail.
example.com is where I would go.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
http://www.fastmail.fm/ is still around, for a reasonnable 40$/year, and is a very good option which provides pretty much any feature you might want...
Surely it must do this ... All the big ones do.
The only thing that might be problematic would be the "decent storage space" bit. But even there most isp's are good, and if they're not ... change ?
Gmail supports mail for your own domain aswell. See here
It also supports existing domains so you don't have to register new one.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Check out Rackspace. You can get just email from them or email and server space if you want. http://www.rackspace.com/solutions/mail/index.php
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
that was too easy
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
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?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Google?
I run my domain through google apps. Works well. You can have as many accounts as you need, 6gb mailbox, etc etc.
http://www.google.com/apps/
Give it a go, it's free!
link1
link2
Google already provides this service for free. If you want more features, you can pay for it.
I'm quite happy with runbox.com.
...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?
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
You answered your own question.
Running your own domain isn't exactly "intended for home users". Google apps makes it easy to get your domain email through a decent webmail interface. What's the problem, exactly?!
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
Google has a service just like that, for free. You only have to supply your own domain, they do the rest.
I have been using everyone.net for years and it is quite good. It's reliable, and has a full featured ajax interface. It also has an HTML version for slow connections. It supports POP and IMAP. The price has gone up in the last few years, but it is still decent. Their base plan now comes with 10GB of email storage.
besides Google Apps
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.
Actually my company used http://everyone.net/ and they provided a decent e-mail setup. Might be worth checking out.
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 targeted at individuals who want to get a domain with their own name, but it was very inexpensive and very effective for my mini-business.
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.
Just ask Sarah Palin! c/o gov.sarah@yahoo.com
God: When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
I know some of the negative things about GoDaddy have been mentioned on Slashdot.
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.
Check out Dreamhost.
They have a promotion on right now where a pretty good plan is only $6/month. Normally it's about $10/month. They provide webmail, POP and IMAP email access. Over the 5+ years I have been a customer with them, they have been exceptionally reliable.
They also have tons of other features you might never use, but are good to have available just in case. This includes stuff like Subversion repositories, SQL databases, easy to install web apps (WordPress, Joomla, and a few other popular apps), video streaming, etc.
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 Just sign up for the standard version.
Hostmonster.com with your own domain name. imap email, huge storage, cheap. Had them for most of a year and absolutely no complaints.
I have been using tuffmail for about two years now and they have IMAP service. It's been good. I don't use a custom domain but it shouldn't be hard to get one with them.
Why not setup and email forwarder in the DNS management for your domain to a Gmail address then in Gmail you can configure to be able to send email from your forwarded domain. Best of both worlds.
The whole reason for the complex invitation system is so that it WOULD be professional. Just think of someone famous who uses Gmail and pretend to yourself that they invited you, maybe half by accident.
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.
Free Martian Whores!
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.)
you can try Gmail's UI + Storage for your own domain name www.google.com/a is the link for you or you can also try out Zimbra
somethings are best left unsaid , I am one of those things
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.
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, if you are dealing with nontechies or suits then yes you are probably going down the right road. I just wanted to throw that out there in case it could save you some time.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Search terms "imap email hosting" delivered a bunch of hits, this being one of the first. http://www.fusemail.com/cost/ 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 DSPAM + Postfix + Dovecot IMAP and a few hours learning Postfix. At this basic level, it isn't rocket science.
I've contemplated setting up a service for individuals like yourself, but I don't see what I could provide that's special besides sieve support and overtly supporting Evolution, kmail, and Thunderbird. Any recommendations are welcome.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
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
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
Most registrars (I use godaddy) provide email forwarding. I have a domain for email - I can forward any id in the domain to anyplace. There is a wildcard address for all ids not explicitely forwarded. Most get forwarded to either my or my wife's gmail account.
They used to be known as webmail.us. They provide IMAP, POP and a nice web interface. It comes with 5 mailboxes, calendar, mail aliases. I think I paid $5/year to use their DNS console so I can point at my dynamic IP address for a web server. They don't "do dynamic IP". I check to make sure the entry is correct every couple weeks/months.
Almost thought the submitter was ok with an anal fee for a moment...
Do the editors not have spellchecks?
why is everyone using gmail?
the actually read you email.
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 client 90% of the time!
Martin.
PS. I don't work for Google - I actually work for one of their competitors!
That's a broad statement that makes no sense. Google is PERFECT for the home/small business user.
I switched to tuffmail.com two years ago and am very pleased. 100% uptime so far and there is never any lag. Webmail is pretty much your choice of squirrelmail or imp. I would highly recommend them.
This is one of the few decent free email providers left, and this should meet your needs.
As per the name, they have sort-of a clue about security. But, since they're javascript only, it's rather contradictory with their name.
Still, I've used it and it's a reasonable service. You have to pay to get the extra features.
I own a couple domains that I'm currently using exclusively for e-mail. I used 1and1.com, it provides e-mail forwarding to my g-mail account for 5 bucks a year. Plus, my g-mail account can mask the "from" on outgoing e-mails so it looks like I'm using my domain to everyone on the outside.
That sounds like exactly what you're looking for.
I have been using Fastmail for several years and love it. Well worth $20.00 per year for the benefits it provides. Try it for free until you bump into the limits, then pay.
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?
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
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 phone if you ever need to.
I've used my own domain for email for nearly 10 years now, and it always takes a painfully slow recitation for someone to get the address down correctly, which is irritating to both them and I. If I ever actually did any business under my own name, I'd probably simplify things with a gmail account.
http://mail.uk2.net/
My web domain.
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...
vpslink will give you a full linux environment of your choice to set up as a mail server (or whatever else your little heart desires) and at $7/mo. You can't beat the value if you want any sort of flexibility/control over your mail.
if you DON'T have the skill/desire to run your own, fastmail.fm, lunarpages.com, or any of a host of others are available. But really, go with google apps. Its simple, it works, its reliable, lots of storage, etc etc.
Unless you're a google hater, then you can pay someone else for what google gives you for free.
Every second wounds, the last one kills.
dotster.com offers an email only hosting plan. I use it and have very little problem with it. Was $12.95/yr last time I checked.
offers e-mail forwarding on your domain for about $7.00/year
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.
Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
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...
closed minded is as closed minded does
I use both of these for different purposes.
Luxsci is very geeky and sound like what you are looking for.
http://luxsci.com/
MailStreet offers features such as blackberry \ windows mobile support, which I feel is a must for business communications. Both are extremely reliable providers with very mature systems.
http://www.mailstreet.com/
Both offer spam filtering from MXLogic (the best).
AOL offers free email hosting on your domain. You also get access to IMAP and their craptacular webmail interface. (And most people won't know your email is running off of AOL's servers... unless they take the time to read email header logs)
http://domains.aol.com/byod_landing.jsp
what about a plan and simple email forward? from your "business address" to gmail?
SDF, Silence is Defeat, and other providers that come up if you search for "public access unix" should fit the bill. The price for basic E-mail should range from free to a few dollars a month, and other services like DNS and domain registration should be pretty easy to set up. The best thing of all is that these systems usually have a nice community of users and one or more admins who can give personal attention to whatever services you're paying for. I have some personal experience with SDF, so I can say with some assurance that it is a nice community, the way more of the Internet used to be.
http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/catalog.aspx
Geekisp has a couple of email-only plans. $30 a year for standard email, and $50 a year for one with a separate domain.
gmail has BEST IMAP now? You must be kidding.
I am sure it will get there, and it is nice they are supporting it, but their imap is quite slow and not as reliable yet as a real imap server.
This feature is still experimental and I would not depend on it imho.. But they will get there, as with everything else. sigh
I really hate to say it because I worked for them, but HostMySite(http://www.hostmysite.com) has 2 packages that I know would work for this situation.. 1 being a blog plan(like $5/mo) which gives you a free domain and email(along with a useless blog that can be used as a website) and an "email only" plan that gives you a free domain and email with no webspace for like $10/yr . Either way they're both cheap and sounds like what you're looking for.
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.
I get my email hosting 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.
fusemail.com cotse.net fastmail.fm http://www.simplymailsolutions.com/
Visit http://www.crunzh.com/ for free software. Mac/Lin/Win
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.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
I've used 123-reg before for domain registration. They seemed okay. Haven't used their email services, but http://www.123-reg.co.uk/email would seem to do what you want for 83p/month.
Buy a domain name from GoDaddy, set it up through ZoneEdit DNS(5 free), then have ZoneEdit mail-forward to your Gmail account. Your POP3 client (Thunderbird) can then connect to your Gmail acct and look like your sending and receiving email from your domain. Works great!
I know several people using SwishMail. They're a commercial provider but relatively inexpensive. They offer POP3 and webmail (not sure about IMAP though) and they have a pretty good admin interface. And, if it matters to you, their systems are built on Free Software - FreeBSD, Apache, and PHP.
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 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.
You don't need google apps to get the free gmail backend. I use it for my domain's mail and I get a boatload of mail storage.
Simple recommendation for op from my experience, use http://www.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
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.
Concrete analysis...
I used ipower when I needed a website and they included email for the domain. It included email forwarding that I setup to send to Gmail. Gmail has a feature that you can set an alias and for email you receive that has that domain, you can reply as that email address. For ~$100 per year it was a good deal (but it included a lamp stack that I used for the web page).
Mine costs $4 a month with free domain registration.
I get email plus "unlimited" web hosting (which I don't really use except for storing a backup of my work on there and for sending files to people via a email links).
I can make as many email addresses as I want so things like slashdot get "slashdot@xxxx,com". This really helps in binning spam (and for finding out who's leaking your email address).
I won't mention the ISP here because I don't think this sort of thing is anyhing special - there's dozens of ISPs to choose from. You could figure it out via whois on the link.
The only hard part is coming up with a decent domain name which isn't already registered.
No sig today...
You answered your own question: "buy a domain and using Google Apps on it". Who cares if it "isn't actually intended for home users"? If it works for you, then it is for you.
I use it for my personal domain and it was extremely easy to set up and works great for me.
For me, tuffmail has been super. I've used them for 3 years, no downtime, and they're even willing to restore my accidentally deleted trash from backup at no charge. They also have roundcube (ajax) available in addition to horde & squiremail.
I hope you're aware of the following facts, 1) Gmail is no longer invite-only and 2) Even when it was invite-only they were giving away invites to pretty much anyone who wanted one.
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
You won't be ""bob@sf1nct3r.com", you'll be "bob-sf1nct3r@hotmail.com.com" - and that's just as hard to recite over the 'phone.
No sig today...
And you deserve the +1 too.
I suggest Tuffmail.
They have the geekiest options out there.
The MX server restrictions are amazing.
A cheap domain name at GoDaddy with Google Apps mail is the best bang-for-buck email solution going right now.
http://lavabit.com/
If you are a member of a professional organization, some of them offer e-mail hosting for their members. It looks a bit more respectable then using some domain like goatse.cx
Have gnu, will travel.
Check Gandi.net. If you host your domain with them, you'll get 5 email boxes for free with 1Gb par box and IMAP access. They have a nice policy of not throwing a zillion adds at you, good ethics and have very good support. You'll also have the possibility to host a blog. This for the price of 12EUR per year!.
What sig ?
I have two domains that I have Google Apps on. I never worry about e-mail even when my web host has the odd burp. The service and reliability have been A1 from the beginning and the spam filtering is second to none. I hear guys like Pirillo blowing on about their enterprise e-mail hosting and I laugh. There's a reason why he's always angry. He spends too much money. :)
I just got Exchange hosting for my business, and it was one of the best decisions I've made. Plain ol' email really just doesn't cut it for me. POP/IMAP, are really just different flavors of plain ol' email. Exchange Server offers so much more, that I really can't see ever going back to POP/IMAP/web-based email. You pay a lot more for it, but with most things, you get what you pay for.
I don't respond to AC's.
Why not just use Google Apps to host your domain E-mail? They have IMAP, and it's free.
I don't understand why Google Apps is not appropriate for your use.
I have an extremely old domain -- registered over 10 years ago. I receive, on average, 30k spams a month. I am loathe to change it because it is my last name; simply abandoning my email address really isn't a functional alternative for me.
For a long time I did my own email hosting on a Linux/qmail/spamassassin/procmail box, and was still overwhelmed by spam and the maintenance it took to keep it all running. So I investigated alternatives, and settled on Google Apps. It seems to me that Google Apps meets all the criteria you've specified:
I use it every day. I don't mess with the rest of the Google Apps product, as I really have no need for it. But compared to the price of a commercial service and/or an annoying challenge-response spam filter service, it's a bargain.
Remove the caps and hold to a mirror.
Emailhosting.com has been great for me. I was one of those poor souls who got sucked into oblivion when RegisterFly tanked, and took a chance on Emailhosting, and I have to say I've been quite pleased. $20 a year, decent spam filters, fast servers, it's been all I need for my site.
...Lavabit? They are insanely private and offer great service all around.
I use http://www.retrosnub.co.uk/ for this (http://www.retrosnub.co.uk/email), at about £1.50pcm (assuming you're from the US since you didn't specify, around $3 I gather) for their basic Email package (2GB space, unlimited mailboxes with POP IMAP and webmail access, and other useful stuff) and they've been great.
I use webhostingbuzz.com and I pay $60 a year.
5TB transfer, 375GB disk, unlimited domains and emails.
They're using their grammar skills there.
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
I hate printers.
Grad school!
As for the gmail recommendations, yes, gmail is well designed and convenient, but a lot of people seem to forget that Google isn't an email company, it's an advertising company. When you use gmail, you're not a customer, you're part of their product. A lot of people seem to be comfortable with that. I'm not.
panix.com - your $home away from home. shell account rox
GMail will host your domain.
Not much better / more reliable / etc. that I have found.
--Toll_Free
Postfix
Try these guys. Great prices, great packages (some even include FREE domains, renewed anually at no cost) They even provide e-mail only services starting at $1 per month. Here's the link: http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=14579989 Cheers...
buy your domain, point the dns to zoneedit.com servers. then setup the email addresses on zoneedit and forward them to your gmail account. all email at user@example.com will be forwarded to youraccount@gmail.com.
gmail allows you to configure it to send an email that appears to originate from your new domain user@example.com
zoneedit allows you to have 5 free zones (separate domains) so it should be free for you.
I have used the (well named) Geek ISP for years now. All open-source, secure, and the guy really knows what he is doing.
http://www.geekisp.com/prices/plans.php
More info: they have IMAP, POP, at least 2 different webmail suites, SpamAssassin and (for those really into anti-spam) TMDA.
Buy your domain, point the dns to zoneedit.com servers. Setup the email addresses on zoneedit and forward them to your gmail account. All email at user@example.com will be forwarded to youraccount@gmail.com. Gmail allows you to send an email that appears to originate from your new domain eg. user@example.com Zoneedit allows you to have 5 free zones (separate domains) so it should be free for you.
I use Lime Daley. Very responsive, geek friendly.
If you work for a company with others, then work towards getting your "work-domain email address" corrected by the powers-that-be... Not only will you benefit, but others that use the same work domain will as well...
If this is a one-man shop, peruse the other suggestions....
I set my wife's office up with Network Solutions. They're very happy with it. http://www.networksolutions.com/
I will second the vote for DirectNIC. I have been an email-only customer of theirs in the past. While $15/year is a bit higher than the going rate for domains, it's still not much, and they are very reliable on their mail hosting. If you later decide to do more than that, they also provide various web hosting options, but only if you want it.
www.wavefront-av.com
Honestly, I'm a little surprised you've got to ask this question, since there are so many options out there...
First off, there's Google Apps. I know you said that it was never intended for home use, but I don't see why that matters. I've got a personal domain that I registered through GoDaddy a few years back, and have pointed the email service at Google's stuff. It took about 10 minutes to set up. I've only got about 5 email accounts that I'm using. I've got craptons of storage, nice webmail, POP3, IMAP, and all sorts of other stuff I'll never use (GTalk, Sites, whatever). If you're looking for free/cheap email you really ought to look at Google's offerings - all you need is a domain.
If you're looking to register a domain, GoDaddy has them cheap and I've had no trouble with them so far. They also provide email if you want it. They're cheap. I pay about $50/year for some web hosting and the domain name, and I had more email accounts than I would ever use. I switched to the Google Apps largely because I prefer their webmail - the stuff at GoDaddy is pretty crappy. But if all you want is POP3 or IMAP they're certainly an option.
There are also other companies out there that will sell you email service... One that I've heard good things about, but never used, is Fastmail.
Plus, just about any hosting company will sell you email service.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
POP, IMAP, Webmail, with focus on stability and security.
Good old school email provider who knows what they are doing.
They are also active in local BSD community (NYC).
www.loftmail.com
I find fastmail web interface to be better than google's in a number (>0) of ways. It is much faster for 'delete-next' for example.
Gmail has threading, so that's nice, and integrated https-based chat (so works through proxies).
It all depends on what you value. Fastmail also has a free version that you can try. I find myself still paying fastmail, even though gmail is free. Worth a look at least.
Max.
I've been using SpamCop for many years, and have been able to keep the same domain name all that time.
They have a minimal yearly fee, do a fantastic job of filtering spam (no surprise there), have IMAP, POP3, and web interfaces (the web interface is based on Horde). SpamCop can be set up to grab email from other accounts, too.
I'm sure that there are many other sites that can provide the same services, but SpamCop works for me.
Just a happy customer,
Doug
I'm not sure if Fusemail has been mentioned yet, but I switched to them about a year ago after my web host wiped out about 25% of my IMAP mail. Their service is perfect for small business or individuals that need a good email service. They offer the usual IMAP, POP, and SMTP services along with SSL/TLS encryption, and they offer alternative ports in case your ISP is blocking certain services. On top of that, their web mail interface is great (also SSL-enabled).
There are no limits on the number of domains that you can host nor the number of third part mailboxes that can be "fused" into your account. You pay per mailbox or per GB for storage. Cost is $2/mailbox/month with a $10/month minimum.
ÕÕ
Mobile Me. http://www.me.com/
You don't really need different email provider.
Use gmail; register your domain with registrar offering email forwarding; setup your gmail to recognise your email alias (gmail sends email to this alias to confirm it) and voila!
Let's talk about the other thing you'd use an email-only company for: mailing lists. For obvious reasons, it's good to go with a legitimate provider when sending out mass emails, even to people who requested to be on them. Any good/cheap hosts of mailing lists?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
You can get a free account at DynDNS, get any domain they offer, or get one from GoDaddy for about $9.
Set up a linux machine at home, stick it on the internet, make IMAP, POP3, etc...and it is all secure and available from anywhere (via DynDNS and your purchased domain.
If you pay for the services, it will cost under $50 a year, but I believe DynDNS gives ONE free account, and the domain is $9, so you could get away with it for under $10...
I have a server that has been running non-stop and without error for 3 years.
--E--
Go with a hosted Exchange account, that way you get true "push" email and calendaring services on many devices, including iPhone. http://4smartphone.net/ is a popular choice. There are others.
Amiralul, I recommend www.simplicato.com for your email hosting. I've had a couple domains with them for a while and they have always been reliable and friendly to deal with. They offer POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Webmail, Mobile Mail and more storage space than I will ever need for email. Good luck.
I think usually the problem is not about setting up your own mail server, but to ensure that it is protected against newer and newer vulnerabilities and also making sure it doenst break something when u update patches. (in short maintained properly)
By setting up your own mail server, you promise to dedicate some time to check its status of working. If he would goto commercial providers (at either free of cost or at some charge), they take care of all of these and also take care of server-wear-and-tear, energy costs etc.
Used these guys for a few years now, spot on service and great prices. Best thing about them is the support though. http://www.simplymailsolutions.com
I run a mailserver off my DSL connection. Certainly, the network uptime is only ~90%, but I compensate for this with backup MX from DynDNS
Works well enough for my needs. If I were starting from scratch today, I'd just use Google Apps (sorry to be redundant).
Mailhop Forward and Mailhop Outbound. Cheap, efficient, nobody will know you're using either of them.
Outbound is simply an SMTP server that you can use. Forward is a mail server. You just add the appropriate MX records to the DNS.
http://www.dyndns.com/services/mailhop/outbound.html
http://www.dyndns.com/services/mailhop/forward.html
Sigs are for Terrorists.
www.postmaster.co.uk is pretty good. it has IMAP/POP and a web interface.
Roller Network (www.rollernet.us) provides email service under a different model; one price for unlimited domains/mailboxes and no quotas. Account levels are based on how many megabytes of mail you send and receive. Extremely affordable once you realize how much you get for their entry level account compared to other providers. Also one of the few that offers Sieve filtering. They also have DNS services, but they pretty much focus on email.
This was an option, but this requires having a PC running all the time. I sometimes have a FTP server for my personal needs, but hosting an email server 24/7 for business is out of the question, at least for the time being.
get your own domain and point the MX records at Gmail for Domains! I did this for both mine and my wifes small businesses. Which means in practice one user per account. You get your own domain and a FREE managed mail service. The best of the both worlds.
I've had a personal web page hosted with pair.com for a long time, and the email service through them works great.
You have to be kidding. Gmail's IMAP implementation is incomplete and quite buggy. It doesn't implement some parts of IMAP at all, it incorrectly implements other parts of IMAP, it goes down frequently (sometimes multiple times a day).
If you're interested in seeing a comparison of IMAP server implementations based upon protocol compliance and reliability, look at
http://imapwiki.org/ImapTest/ServerStatus
The only two fully compliant servers are Dovecot 1.1.0+ and Panda IMAP. Close on their heels are UW, Isode, CommuniGate Pro, and Sun.
Godaddy is the most wonderful mail server. You see, their spam filter blocks all my customers' e-mails. So, I don't have to do any work. The only problem is it leaves me with a lot of free time during the hours of 9-5. Fortunately for me, Godaddy's spam filter also let's all those viagra and penis-extension and stock tips come through to my inbox so I can fill those empty hours responding to the offers. So, Godaddy is working out well for me.
a known provider such as Gmail or Yahoo if you want reliability...historically yes i've had the odd occasion where i couldnt access Gmail for ten minutes perhaps but the problems i've had with webhosting companies who host my domain and provide POP & Web access has caused me to be more unprofessional than having myname@gmail.com will ever be.
my advice, use a known reliable service.
I like The Message Center (www.themessagecenter.com). They have dirt-cheap Exchange hosting, and they don't run their equipment out of a closet like some hosting companies I've come across.
I have an virtual private server that costs me $7.99 a month. It provides root console access. Tektonic offers servers starting at $15/mo. I've had mine for a very long time, so I'm sort of in the "rent-control" land of server hosting (and at a sister provider of them). I run my own domain, and some very simple spam filtering that keeps my spam level to effectively nil.
SIG: HUP
I have been using them for the last 3 years or so. Absolutely no problems. Support IMAP, POP, etc. I started using it for the same issues you described in your post.
I like to recommend EnterpriseMail (www.quexion.com). They are full service business email, for companies that do not want to deal with the technical issues themselves. Not really targeted to single email accounts, consumers or /. geeks. They answer the phone on the first ring and are good if you don't mind paying a bit more to get real tech support on demand.
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.
Kid-proof tablet..
Pretty much ANY commercial webhost will offer you an email-only (pop3) hosting package (same as their web/email packages, but with all of your allocated space dedicated to mail) along with domain hosting. It should do everything you require of it for a reasonable annual fee. You'll not need to dedicate time to administering the server-side as your host will take care of that. There are plenty of small companies around offering this, and you can generally find someone fairly local so that you know you'll be able to ring them anytime and talk to a human if needs be, plus they'll also be in your time zone ;)
tuffmail is _the_ imap provider for an advanced user.
"sure that it'll never be yanked out from under you." Until Comcrap decides to tell your modem to block port 25. Been there. Burnt the tee shirt.
Tuffmail.com provides encrypted IMAP, POP, and webmail, and has several plans to fit box size needs and budgets. Their service has been done perhaps twice very briefly over the years I've used them, and their support has been very responsive.
I've been using tuffmail.com for ages, and it has been great. Not a single problem with an outage I can remember, they are very responsive when I've had a question about setup, great spam filtering, different plans depending on what you want. Highly recommended.
bab
No-ip.com.
They have a POP3 service available that can host your Domain's e-mail service for you.
See Here.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
When you register a domain with Register.com, it comes with a free webmail account with two mailboxes. Their webmail interface is pretty primitive (last I looked anyway), but it allows you to configure email forwarding. So I forward to my Gmail account, and setup Gmail to use my personal domain on outgoing mails.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Hotmail and gmail are the biggest, but that's no reason for "professionals" to use them.
If somebody's strutting around like they're a big fish then they hand me a card with "hotmail" written on it then I assume they're a bullshitter until they prove otherwise.
First impressions count. There's no need to put yourself at a disadvantage for the sake of saving $2 a month.
No sig today...
I had a mail server at home and it all worked fine until Comcast said "You can't use port 25 unless you have business service". Of course, they didn't tell me in advance. After pricing their business service (lower speed for more money), I moved my MX to Google.
--Steve
emails with "Get! Yahoo! Toolbar! Today!" tagged on the end make me want to punch the sender in the face.
It's like those "free" business cards (free so long as you have the printer's advertising on the back). They generate a negative impression of the person who hands you them.
No sig today...
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 running out of space, and then use IMAP to provide perfect sync between as many PCs as I want.
No commercial company can offer even close to the flexibility you get running your own, so in my books, it's worth it.
I hate printers.
for less than $5/month if you pay a couple years in advance, site5.com will give you unlimited web and email hosting. I've had them for 2 years and have been nothing but pleased. They are quick to answer tech support questions...which are rare given pretty good online documentation, standards compliance, and *great* uptime.
They also support lots of scripting languages, including Ruby and PHP. You have free, unlimited access to Fantastico, which installs lots of free web-based programs with a single click.
In fact, the only problem with Site5 that I've found is a lack of support for WebDAV.
Also, many comsumer level ISPs block various ports, (like 80 and 25) to prevent you from hosting such servers.
Hosting a server is usually a violation of the ISP's TOS.
Shameless plug alert: Game server control panel
I'm a little late to the party here, but all of my stuff goes through 01.com. They host all the e-mail for my domain with Zimbra. If you pay 44.95 for a year, you get free smartphone calendar/contacts/email push. Far, FAR more reliable than hosting my own (which I've done).
Karma: Chameleon - mostly influenced by bad '80s New Wave music
Damn straight my mileage varies. My mail server is hosted in a data center and has RAID1 over 4 drives. I pay for it by hosting email for a few organizations and charging them nominal fees just to pay for the colo fees.
I hate printers.
I have an account with Netidentity (now owned by Tucows) under my last name, and it's been pretty horrible. Service outages that last for days is quite normal with them. Plus, their web interface is pathetic.
Since you're already at +5, I can reply to you rather than upmod you. ;) Thanks for the write-up! I've been wanting to set up an IMAP capable mail server for a while, and always had troubles. Hopefully things will go more smoothly this time. :)
If You like Your gmail then use just the gmail for businesses. $50/year. Isn't the cheapest but has the nice gmail UI.
register yourself a domain on godaddy... then create yourself a username at your new domain and forward it to your gmail address. In gmail you can then do a send as your new username at your new domain name... you can use the godaddy link on my site... http://travel.billcantley.com/
Besides using the cheapest ($0), quickest (a few minutes), most reliable (uptime for Google, anyone?), easiest way to do this, what is the cheapest, quickest, most reliable, easiest way to do this?
Oh, and Webmail is a plus.
Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.
They silently drop messages they think are spam with no recourse on your part. You can't turn off this filtering and you can't inspect messages that are dropped or even find out how many are dropped.
I was a fairly satisfied customer of their paid email plan until they turned this "feature" on and I started losing messages. Email sent from Japanese cell phones, for example, seemed to get dropped about 50% of the time.
I've since switched to Tuffmail and haven't looked back.
The big issue alot of people have with running their own mail server is the unwillingness of ISPs to provide a PTR record unless on a leased line. The best way around this is an SPF record (http://www.openspf.org).
Obviously a lot of posts here about various email providers and strategies. You have some interesting requirements for your email which raise questions for me: - What's wrong with user@gmail.com? A ton of people I know list Google as their personal email address. As a brand, it beats yahoo, hotmail, and aol for professionalism. There are other services, but do you want to risk things on a fly-by-night? Just pick GMail and stick with it :)
- Why not add IMAP to your company's email facility? Is it that the company is too big and you couldn't possibly influence this decision? Or too small, and you can't figure out how to do it?
- Do you really want to conduct work-related business on an outside server? Look at the trouble Gov. Palin's getting for that.
Having said all that then your main option is to just get a domain and pick a cheap plan from a decent-sized hosting business.
I agree that having a professional looking domain on your business card is a plus.
Domains are very cheap (on the order of $10 a year) and most domain management services provide email forwarding. So it's a simple matter to set up a mail address of "me@myfullname.com" that points to your gmail or yahoo address. Some of them even have web mail services so you wouldn't even have to use a separate free account. (Besides, you get to look at Danica Patrick... Mmmmmm, Danica....)
I was self-employed for awhile. I chose a company name that nobody had registered yet, and registered a domain and LLC at the same time. Back then domains ran about $30 a year and registering an LLC was $50/year (in my state -- your mileage may vary). I forwarded email to an existing address at a local ISP for which I was paying $30 a year for an email-only account. So I had my own company name on my card and my email address was my_name@company_name.com, with a total expenditure of $110/year. That's less than $10 a month to be able to show a professional face to the world.
Some mailers support munging the From: and/or Reply-to: fields, so you can completely disguise the fact that you're using gmail.
These days registration is a lot cheaper and email is essentially free. It should be very easy to do what you're trying to do.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
www.runbox.com - Runbox offers a bunch of domains (like FastMail), POP and IMAP access, interesting support of text-messaging notifications, lots of storage (including FTP file storage access) for a pretty low price. I've been using them as a provider for many years now, and have been very happy with the service.
Friend of mine runs Syminet. Best damn admin I ever saw. Running everything on Debian with a remarkable uptime and a direct phone line to him in case of outage. Runs everything out of the same Datacenter as Youtube in downtown L.A. (http://www.syminet.com)
I went through a similar experience - but for me it was realising how much time I was spending maintaining the spam filters on my home servers. I still have a home server, but Google Apps catches my mail. I then download from Google to home via getmail and access mail via IMAP. To the "outside world" it looks quite professional - my own domain, etc - and to me its easy to access mail from anywhere (I have Squirrelmail running on top of my IMAP for when I don't have an IMAP client nearby, and in the worst case, I can access my email at Google (although without the folder organisation I get on my home server)).
Here's what I do: I have several domain names. On each one, I have John@_____ forwarded to my Gmail account. I then set up Gmail so that I can have my reply-to set to be that account. I can put my own domain name on the business card, which satisfies that requirement. But I can have the reliability and availability of Gmail. Sounds to me like it would meet your needs.
There are a large number of providers that offer hosted MS exchange with IMAP/Active Sync/OWA for about $10-15/month per user. I know Microsoft is evil, but I'm addicted to having my desktop calendar/contacts/email constantly synced with my PDA.
I have a domain (for which I pay about $4 per year). I get a number of email addresses (about 100 I think, although I only use about 4 for myself and my family).
Each of these can be set up to forward to a gmail address, which you can read using gmail's normal web interface, POP, IMAP, etc.
You can also set up gmail to "send as" another email address (e.g, recipients don't see @gmail.com in the reply address, they see your email address on the domain that you own) simply by proving that you can send and receive email at that address.
It works very well, is very cheap and allows you to use pretty much whatever email client you want including a nice web-based one.
In terms of providers, there are two in this setup:
- The one through which you actually read your mail. Although I personally use gmail, I believe yahoo also allow you to do the same thing (all they need to do is allow you to send email as a different user than your yahoo email address).
- The one that people send mail to. Pretty much any domain registration company will do. I personally use 1&1 who seem quite good (I have used them without any problems for several years, after transferring from another provider which seemed to take up to a week to forward the email).
1and1.com will give you 2GB of mail, 5 mailboxes, POP, IMAP, spam filtering, etc for $12/year. ipower.com will give you 200 mailboxes for $15/year. Both support SSL and alternate ports. I've used 1and1 for ten years, and ipower for one year. They're both pretty reliable and responsive. If e-mail is the criterion, I'd go with 1and1 - you can't train the ipower spam filter, and it's only mediocre.
what about internet redundancy? what about data redundancy (we know about how reliable hard disks can be).
That said, I agree that "I can have as many addresses" is something unique to your solution and no provider can give u that much freedom. But that comes at a cost. If you balance that out, you will know whether its worth the pain.
www.usermail.com
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Postfix https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PostfixBasicSetupHowto https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PostfixDovecotSASL Don't be scared at the mass of information. Just read alittle bit everyday for a couple of weeks and soon you will be a master
"It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."
This has probably already been mentioned (didn't read all three pages of comments).
I had the same problem; I decided to go with Fusemail. Their minimum charge is $10 a month, which is quite reasonable, and for that you get 5 mailboxes and 50GB of storage. I think that is a fair deal, but YMMV. You can add on mailboxes if you need to, and they have good uptime as far as I have seen (only been with them for about a year, but no downtime at all yet).
Of course they will register a domain for you for a nominal fee (the usual $10 per year), or will let you buy your domain somewhere else and just point the MX records to their servers.
For outstanding imap service check them out. I have been a happy customer for years. Included in the account is a reliable roaming smtp server with several possible configurations.
Dennis Onstenk
Yes, I second your suggestion to use Google Apps for Domains. I use this for my personal email, and I just re-use my domain. In the setup instructions, Google tells you what to put in your DNS so that email is handled properly through GMail. Works great!! People will email you at _______@example.com (or whatever) but it actually is handled by GMail. :-)
You can use the GMail web interface (I prefer it) or access via a standard mail client program (my wife prefers to do this instead.)
I use the hosted Exchange solution provided by 1and1.com. It does cost a few dollars a quarter, but for me it's well worth it. I have Outlook installed on my desktop and enjoy all of the bells and whistels that it brings, but the key is that I have the corporate Exchange web interface avaiable when I'm at the office or on the road. The other good thing is that you can register your own domain and personalize your email address.
I don't want to have a domain and use google apps for email... but I was thinking of buying a domain and using another free or pay provider....
not to be a troll, but that's a dim statement...
Google Apps takes like 30 minutes to set up, is free, and integrates with fun stuff. Why are you still searching for someone to take your money for you?
I've dealt with wedohosting.com for several years now, they do e-mail only hosting. They are a Canadian company and therefore not bound by US law when it comes to losing your privacy. Decent price points in Canadian funds as well.
Use gmail hosting. You can either buy the domain from godaddy or direct from google. Its free and you can even use your existing domain. its reliable and it works great. Its basically exactly like gmail and its free. You can even do other nice stuff for your business like calendar, gtalk, homepage, etc.
I like it and it has been my email host since it started a couple years ago.
Some care about security, some care about other things...
See comments that explain what each one's selling point is.
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/E-mail/
DMoz is what Google Directory's based on
( why should Goog do all the work, when DMoz can do the work & have the results rebranded as Goog & presented as such? )
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/E-mail/ for them of us who prefer Goog's modded version.
Try "Free", "Services", or "Web Based" subdirectories, and explore to yer heart's content.
I had this very same issue two years ago. I did some searching around and after a long comparison to the Email only providers that I found, Fusemail came out on top by a mile. They are cheap, storage is cheap and they have awesome features! I've been very happy with them and hope they never go out of business! I've even suggested them to several small businesses and these business are using them and very happy with Fusemail as well. Give them a look. www.fusemail.com
Im very very happy with Sherwebs hosted microsoft exchange. For around $10 a month, I get a 1gb (or maybe 2gb) mailbox, and a Outlook license included. It syncs like magic between my work Outlook install, outlook on my laptops, and my windows mobile phone. The email works perfectly, and it also syncs contacts and calendar. I couldnt live without it now. Android has a BIG obsticle to overcome if it wants to beat Windows mobile, just because of the Exchange sync. Sherweb also has web access btw, and can host your email for your domain (just point MX at their SMTP servers). Im unsure if POP/IMAP is available, because ive never needed them. Obviously not a solution for Linux people, but for Windows folk, its the best (IMHO). I think there may be 'free' exchange providers out there too to test it out. Trust me, if it works with your choice of OS, you wont go back. George
Take a look at what 1and1.com has. You get decent email with just getting a domain for $7/year. Get quite a bit more for $12/year and they have something else called mailxchange for like $60/year. I'm not endorsing any of this stuff. I don't care for their domain billing practices but I'm not going to discount their mail services.
http://rollernet.us/ is EXACTLY what you want. They're an email provider. $5/month gets you your IMAP box. Plus oodles of email-related features and an uncluttered web management interface.
I really like the SmarterMail application that Crystal Tech offers.
They're hosting is REALLY inexpensive and VERY VERY nice. Also the service is absolutely top notch. Someone actually answers the phone and speaks a language you'll understand.
What happens when the datacenter burns, is hit by an earthquake, or knocked apart by a tornado?
And, the big question: Is your time so useless as to be worth nothing?
I can maintain a good, proper, redundant, and secure mail server (and, indeed, it is part of my day job to do so). I even enjoy some aspects of it.
But there's a long list of other stuff that I'd rather be doing instead of playing system administrator just for one lousy email address, especially since Google does that stuff for free.
Kid-proof tablet..
One reason that he does not want to use Gmail might be the same reason that I've found out, namely that IMAP folder names have a length and/or depth limit. I realized this when I tried to replicate the folder structure from my university when I left. While their tagging and threading interface is nice, using it as an IMAP-only service is sub-optimal. That, and the fact that google basically reads your mail. Not in the sense that Sarah Palin's mail was read, but still.
Move sig!
http://www.mailtrust.com/noteworthy ... reliable service. pop+imap or ms exchange.
Rock solid IMAP, plugs into my domain with no hassles at all. They're not free, but I'm happy to pay the price knowing that my mail's actually run by people, not a cloud. I'll be renewing, come the day!
Similar story here, my company needs to manage some 20 email accounts, we had an in-home based system based on OSX Server, very nice to administer, also I had a mirrored RAID system that never crashed, but backing things up was such a pain that I eventually switched to an off site provider.
This was a couple of years ago, when IMAP was not very popular yet, I selected the provider on the basis of IMAP. They were very fussy and used to throttle our bandwidth - and we had a paying business account.
When gmail offered IMAP I switched to google free enterprise and never looked back. BTW: I could never figure out what would the paying service actually give me. Maybe for larger organizations...
- Fabio
www.gawab.net is a stable email provider since 2000. Affordable prices as well.
They provide forwarding, IMAP and webmail, so I can use it even when I'm at customers where they block outsiders' email.
And I get way less spam, which was my orgional reason for using them.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
I've been using Noteworty from rackspace.com (previously webmail.us) for years now. Service is fantastic. US $5/month for several GB storage, multiple email accounts, nice web interface, IMAP, POP, SPAM filters, etc... I just pointed my mx DNS entry to them and everything has "just worked". I've been very impressed and happy with the service from them.
My ISP pacbell provides an email box. That gets pulled by a beige box and massaged by a few filters and then its forwarded to gmail where I get the thrice washed contents. So on the road, I still get my beige box email and people still mail me there at a reasonable address. The beige box actually has a domain so eventually it will be even more 'professional'. The key is the .procmail forwarding script that does spamasassin then bogofilter then forward to gmail (who have their own quite good spam tech). A good soln for me since its accessible to me via iphone when I am out and about. Worst case, terminal into the beige box and read remotely. (pine/alpine etc).
H.
Have you contacted your alma mater? Most will happily continue to forward mail for your old email (it's just a .forward file for them), and Google can be configured to set the From and Reply-To addresses correctly. It's a cheap and easy way to get a professional email address. I have two such (one from the university proper, the second from its computer science department).
Try MAD Dog Domains and Cattle Co. Get free Email with your domain.
I love it !
Why not just use gmail for your domain. Its pretty simple to setup and allows you to use gmail as your main email provider while still using your own domain (and managing your own email accounts).
It works great, and is more reliable then any service I have used (own mail servers, work servers, free service). There are also all ready gmail for your domain for the blackberry and Iphone.
TruePunk | Games
Since when does using a gmail or yahoo account seem unprofessional?...
I've been using NetIdentity (formerly MailBank) for more than 10 years just for email. It features a decent (not impressive) web interface and POP3.
I can only remember it being out for a total of 5 days in all this time, and I always got all my emails (not aware of any lost).
My 2 cents.
http://www.netzero.net/free
Provides 10 hours of free dialup a month.
Nancy McGough has been compiling a list of IMAP providers for many years:
http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/imap/isps/
I tried to use the mydomain.com free dns, but it seems it's not available for dotster-registered domains, because they use the same service, registerapi. In fact, logging into mydomain.com caused my dotster.com window to become a mydomain.com session. They are lightly skinned versions of one another.
PTR records are a good idea to pass rDNS or even FCrDNS checks. mail.domain.com. A 64.62.120.162 162.120.62.64.in-addr.arpa. PTR mail.domain.com. But what does that have to do with SPF, which ultimately resolves into a list of authorized sending/connecting/outgoing IP addresses? Even the SPF "ptr" mechanism relies upon the ISP's published PTR records; it's not a way around their refusing to publish PTR records. Besides, only a small subset of mail servers check for SPF's TXT (or SPF) type records, and the reason is not the same as checking for rDNS or FCrDNS but rather to detect email delivery attempts that spoof/forge an email domain name.
I don't really understand the problem of having a Gmail-address posted to your business card. Really. You are not the owner of darth.vader@gmail.com, are you?
this sig is useless
i use doteasy.com just for that propouse.
i registed my domain, and foward it to gmail.com
Do what I do and just forward your work-domain and other email addresses to Gmail. That way you can use a single Gmail account to organize and read your emails and you can control the address that other people see.
For example, I use a particular address for all of my on-line orders, so if I start getting spam I can just shut it down.
Seems like a quick web search would have answered your question, rather than making it a big deal and getting it on slashdot.
I used to use 1&1's email service. It was decent, and inexpensive. Now I just forward all mail from my domains to a gmail account.
It isn't clear from your guide why you've thrown Archiveopteryx into the mix.
Postfix can be configured to send/receive mail directly - and handle all the authentication.
Just on the basis that you've downloaded it outside the Debian package tree suggests it might get out of date in the future.
If you need it to do IMAP/POP3 handling, etc, then you might want to look at dovecot.
Also you say "postfix handles more mail"; that might or might not be true. But if you're handling such a high volume of mail that exim4 can't keep up your best bet is to look at adding a second MX machine - and as soon as you do that the fun really starts.
ObBias: I run a mail filtering service...
Fusemail is a great provider. I use them for our email solution. It has IMAP,POP3,SMTP for a very resasonable price. You set how much storage you want. I think they have plans as low as like $10, but it has been a while since i looked.
Check out BlueTie. I've had clients use them in the past, and they're very good.
Also, you really shouldn't be using a personal e-mail account for work. Besides the obvious unprofessional image, it's also a security risk and liability for your employer. Your corporate e-mail or communications policy may even prohibit such use, and if it doesn't, it should.
I currently use everyone.net for email only services. Excellent provider.
I don't know why you think Google apps is business only, I use it for my personal email and it works great. You get all the benefits of gmail with your personal domain.
I used to run my own mail server, but since I now live in a rural area with poor Internet connectivity options, I decided that I wanted to host my email elsewhere. I don't want advertisements inserted in my email, so that ruled out the free services. I wanted a a business-class provider providing IMAP service, with technical competence and the ability to serve non-WIndows users (I primarily used Linux at the time, but have since switched to using a Mac for most purposes). I've seen far too many companies with shiny web pages but no brains behind them. After doing some research, I picked out Tuffmail. They appeared to provide the services that I wanted at a price that I was willing to pay, and their web page was heavy on technical details and light on flashy clip art of people wearing nice clothes and phone headsets.
I've been happy with their service, and their spam filters seem to work well for me. They offer IMAP, POP, and a web mail interface. I have had no trouble using their IMAP server from Linux, Mac, Windows or my iPhone. Their Bayesian filter is easy to train by dropping mis-identified emails into appropriate folders, and they also have both blacklisting and whitelisting, accessible from a web page. I set up my account to automatically dump mailing list traffic into folders other than my main inbox.
I'd recommend them without hesitation to any other technically-savvy folks who need good email service. I also would happily use them for business email if I ever found myself starting up a small company and I didn't have a business need to host my own server(s).
I've got to recommend Luxsci (http://www.luxsci.com) for business class email. I have used them for a few years now originally because their spam detection and management is second to none. However, their service is excellent. I'm in the UK and yet I am more than happy to use a service in another country. It's not free but really worth every penny (or $!!). Chris Nesbit utopia365
Chris Nesbit
If you are running e-mail on your own server on your own network, you can also tunnel SMTP and POP3/IMAP through SSH for secure communications -- a big plus, IMHO.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
I have a domain hosted at EasyDNS. They also have my my MX record, and a list of my own 'domain' email accounts. I set up forwarded mail accounts so that mail destined to 'user@myowndomain.com' goes to 'user@rogers.com' at my email service provided to me by my Broadband provider [Rogers].
For my mail through the Rogers webmail service, the "from" account is configured to send out as "user@myowndomain.com" rather than "user@rogers.com", so outbound mail looks like it's coming from my own domain
From my email client on my laptop (Tbird), I actually send mail through easydns and it acts as an outbound service for 'myowndomain.com'. Also, the "from" account is configured to send out as "user@myowndomain.com" rather than "user@rogers.com", so no hassles there either.
It was easy enough to add an account for "dad@myowndomain" for my father's own use, sending to his internet service account (Bell sympatico). It's done fine for us so far.
I'm not sure if this approach would work for everyone, but I'm quite satisfied with it. I also know that there are other settings I've tweaked with (SPF record at EasyDNS, etc)so that my mail doesn't get trapped as 'spam' everywhere I go.
All you need to do is buy a domain name that you like and then set up the MX records in the DNS to point yur incomming mail to Google.
As others have said you can set up your own server but you'd need to add some backup servers to for the times when yours is down. And you'd need to keep off-site back ups for all the data. This is the best why to go if you have a larger company with several offices but is to much work for a smaler outfit.
Bottom line: forward your MyName@MyCompany.com mail to google and that's it.
You could use Domainmonger.com.
It has a service called DNS Plus, at no additonal cost then your registration. One function of the service is to set up mail forwarding. This is great if you just want to use a domain for email.
You define the email address then the email account where the mail should be forwarded too.
I think you can set up upto 20 email account per domain. You can even configure the service not to forward.
If you use Gmail you can set up Gmail so that you can reply with the account name that is forwarded. Then no one knows you were in Gmail, no additional cost and you get POP and IMAP access.
You'll have to go take a look at their docs, but I can see no reason why you cannot point MX records for a domain you control (you can use a registrar's DNS) and just set up your gmail account to accept mail from your domain. You can also set it up to SEND your mail with FROM set to your domain by default. Technically you can get mail via username@gmail.com as well, but so what?
They support IMAP and POP3, so you really don't need to use the gmail web interface. It is fast, reliable, and offers a lot of storage capacity. I don't really see a downside.
Besides, you may think IMAP and POP3 are all you want, but realistically there is always that day when you aren't anyplace you have client software and need to just check your mail. Web interfaces are damned handy for that, you can hop on any machine and just browse your mail.
I can't honestly think of a good reason why anyone short of at least a small business would need anything else, and even most smaller businesses/organizations don't need anything more than that.
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." -- Jefferson
I have had one university-server outage or failure in the last five years (server down for scheduled maintentance/replacement), and three ISP-server outages or failures. The old Sun imap-server used to have problems about once every three months (disk-space problem where my boss sent too many messages with huge Office-file attachments).
I now average more imap-failures per DAY with gmail than I had ever experienced per YEAR with the other systems!
gmail stinks!!
"My opinions are my own, and I've got *lots* of them!"
Amen to that...
However, I considered the GMail route before I actually deployed anything on my personal network. I also have only 2 actual accounts there, one of which is rarely touched (the WAF is kinda low on this despite being infinitely more reliable than our own mail server).
Another option I considered is having a small hosting company (that I once worked for long ago and still know the admins, natch) provide EMail-only service. The advantages compared to GMail include being outside of Google's 'collective' and knowing that I could reach an admin nearly instantly if I needed any assistance. However, I'd have to pay for that service and just isn't worth it for an EMail-only account.
So - Google it went. Even for a home user with only 2 accounts.
My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating. -- Ashleigh Brilliant
As a web developer, and having previously worked freelance before joining a company again, Google Apps really is th best option I've come across. The company I work for also used to host email and we charged them for it however with servers going down and spam filters working incorrectly they were horrible to try and maintain and justify. Instead we set them up on Google Apps and they're off.
I chose Aox over Dovecot because the idea of storing mail in a DB appeals to me. Furthermore, Aox easily does strong encryption, enforced TLS auth, SMTP submission, message parsing and sanitation to rfc 2822. Also, user management is a dream.
Having mail in a DB means there are lots of other funky things that can be done to extend functionality later on, should I desire.
Finally, installing and configuring Dovecot properly is not easy, whereas Aox is so easy a sysadmin newbie can do it.
I hate printers.
I've had the same ISP handled email address for about 12 years now. It's not that my time is worthless, but that the massive advantages that running my own mail server bring outweigh the investment. So I spent a week learning about mail server admin. It's a week that will now pay off for another 12 years or more.
I hate printers.
You can always use a custom domain name through Google Apps for your Domain.
See https://www.google.com/a/
I have my name as a domain. Used to run an in-home email server, but I did have sporadic outages. Did a little checking and found a webhost for my email. $15 a year is what I pay to have my domain name with POP3 and a web interface for my email. Not sure about IMAP, was never a big IMAP fan.
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.
http://clichehosting.com/uk/
I use their service. It works, I do not do anything major (slahsdot.org would not work there) but my sites that gets mail and some hits a day have no problem (I guess thousands of hit a day is ok, millions will not work)... The main advantage is the price.
The ceapest (in the UK) is 1 p a month - that is about 20 cent a year... can't beat that I think...
www.cotse.net I've been using these guys for years, and have been very pleased with them. (No I don't work for them, or have any business relationship with them besides being a longtime customer.) They are focused on privacy, having an excellent privacy policy, giving out no information. I find this to be the opposite of yahoo, google, and hotmail. They have secured access to all their servers, including SMTP, allowing you to keep your ISP out of your email entirely. They offer multiple alternate ports on their SMTP server just in case you're being blocked by your ISP. It all costs around $7/month. They are willing to setup personal domains. I would post as a user, except I don't have an account on Slashdot.
I guess those are good reasons. But I will say that dovecot is ridiculously easy to configure, and that configuring postfix to do TLS AUTH & SMTP submission is also very simple.
I'm a little set in my ways - I'd not install software from outside the Debian repository without a very good reason. For me your reason isn't good enough, but if you're happy with it and it works for you then that's fine :)
Exactly what you need - email only provider with IMAP, spam protection, good pricing and no useless junk.
I am surprised they were not the first answer.
"Oh dear, this person understands that it's cost effective to outsource work that isn't a core part of their business so that their whole operation runs more smoothly. Clearly, I don't want to do business with someone who might outclass me in business savvy. I'm steering clear of this contract, and going back to searching for anti-spam haikus in random email headers!"
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
I know some will complain about a MS solution, but they purchase the domain for you for free, give you free email and a web page. I haven't actually used the email so I don't know what the interface is like, but I have used them to reserve some domains that I thought I might want in the future. Also, when I transferred the domains away from MS to godaddy I got to keep the remaining time for the registration (up to a year) and got a free year on top of that. Here is the link: http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/
Gravity Internet Email hosting (http://www.gravityinternet.net/services/hosting/email.html) POP3, SMTP, IMAP, ClamAV, Spamassassin and only £19/$35 per year.
Do or do not, there is no try.
Check out http://hover.com - its a new service that focuses on making domain and email management a lot easier than it is with most providers. You can use our email service (pop/imap, 2gb storage, etc.), or point your domain at the mail server of your choosing.
"Although we may build the technology that we define as tools, we must be vigilant that those tools do not define us."
Outblaze which runs the free www.linuxmail.org (with pay-for extra services as space and IMAP funtionality) is one of the world's largest and (said to be) most reliable providers of e-mail service.
You can check their product pages here:
http://www.outblaze.com/product/prod_info.php
I have been using (and paying for) their services for almost 8 years now. And I don't have a single complaint on both their free e-mail service, or their paid-for services at all :)
What kind of dog barks "BOFH! BOFH!"? A rootweiler of course...
I set up my own domain and use the mail service from
Network solutions. They charge $20.00 per year.
I have been pleased with the service.
That is what I do. I tell my domin to forward all e-mail to my GMAIL account.
I have my GMAIL account setup to send e-mail as if it was sent from my domain. The person who receives the e-mail message has no idea I sent it with GMAIL, and I have a one stop shop where all my e-mail accounts end up.
In GMAIL check "Settings" than the "Accounts" tab.
If you have more than one e-mail address forwarding to your GMAIL account than enable:
"Reply from the same address the message was sent to"
That way when you reply the "FROM" always matches the addy that the original message was sent "TO".
You can pick one e-mail address to be your main one that will be where you send the most e-mail from, but while in the COMPOSE menu you can always change to one of the other accounts.
BEST of all you are not totally locked into GMAIL. If you decide to use another provider, you just change some settings on your domain, and you never have to notify anybody you e-mail with!
40 email addresses for 6.95/mo (12 month subscription).
Concentric also offers email security, premium junk filters, Hosted Exchange. Concentric is a one stop solution for all your email needs (including dial up access for when you are traveling).
You can also add email addresses as you need them or upgrade to other accounts.
I use sherweb exchange hosting. I have a 3gb inbox that follows me everywhere. home, work, phone, web... anywhere! it syncs all my contacts, notes, and calendar as well. i think i'm paying 8.95 a month, worth every penny
I would recommend these guys: http://www.rakserve.com/ Cyberdog Internet Solutions. Professional and Intelligent enough to customize a solution to fit what you need.
If your company's e-mail service is slow and unreliable, your company's IT Department isn't doing their job.
Why aren't you approaching them instead of sneaking around looking at outside services?
I have web hosting with 1&1, which includes both a free domain name and shitloads of email boxes. I use one of my domains there for a "my very own" email. The most basic service is about $3/month. For $5/month, I get 120GB of space, 1200 mailboxes (WTF am I going to do with all those?!) with POP3, webmail, and forwarding among other features, instant control over all my mailboxes, and good customer service. I've had the service for almost 5 years now and no complaints.
Shameless plug affiliate link: http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=6761404
In short, register whatever domain suits your fancy, and use it with whatever name you want on your mailbox. Ignore the hosting if you don't need it. (But it is SO nice to have all that handy space...)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Buy a domain name from google and they provide free email, same setup as gmail but lose the gmail.com part with your domain name.
I've had my own vanity domain for about 10 years now ... it's may last name. So my email address is my-first-name@my-last-name.com. I thought back then that it would be cool and all and that it would carry some 'cachet' as you said. In fact, it hasn't really mattered at all. 100% of people that I give my email address to could not care less what the actual text of the email address is. Also, none of those people that I thought would come out of the woodwork now that they have a way to easily find me, have done so. Maybe if I was more popular in high school or something ...
So to summarize: don't bother. Nobody actually cares what your email address is, despite what you may think. Even business associates won't care.
And then I thought about carrying backups off-site, or automating backups to a box at someone else's house.
YMMV.
My backup solution for my home email server is to simply have a seperate gmail account set up that pulls mail in from my home server at frequent intervals.
Obviously not appropriate in every situation, but since this is a low volume server, it's good enough for me.
I was using dreamhost.com servers and over (a short) time the spam became unbearable and I sought other solutions. I chose tuffmail and all my problems went away. I'm now in year 2. Maybe a single spam slips through now, a day.
Google Apps can support your own domain, but beyond your business card you might be concerned about what happens to your mail. "Free" is not free, it's ad-supported. Big difference. I run (and own, in part) www.emailthatworks.net. We have numerous customers who came to us because they were concerned about various parts of the fine print over at gmail. One of them especially pointed out the part about "your email might be hosted in another country". Of course, we have customers all over the world and they don't seem to mind hosting their mail in the US. But we don't argue with the customers.
I host a lot of domains with Loftmail, they are very reliable and have a great anti-spam protection.
Is it considered very tacky to use your ISP-given e-mails address in a professional setting? (for future reference)
Right now, I have my school e-mail and a gmail account with my full.name so I'm covered until shortly after I graduate, but it's always good to be planning ahead
meh, I use google apps for myself. And I only have 2 users. It's rather nice, reliable and has that nice gmail web interface. And best of all it's free.
1and1.com is cheap and will do what you ask.
Very nice spam filtering too. This is what I use.
I recently DIDN'T setup my own email server... I said WTF am I doing this yet again... every 2-3 years for the last 2 decades ... setup email yet again on the latest server we are migrating to.. Yes, I do know how to roll my own and in fact we have been using the same (similiar) exim config for more than 10 years. But still it was getting truly boring and annoying...
What I did do was simply migrate all my personal accounts and our corporate accounts into gmail...
Done.. I suspect that should be the last time I have to setup email now until I retire in 10-15 years.. Google will probably outlast me by a far bit.
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
I've got a few comments on the guide and things to consider before running your own mail server.
I don't want to discourage people from learning about and playing with running mail servers, but I would strongly recommend that you do so only with non-critical mail domains. Keep the mail that you really need hosted by professionals.
Prime numbers are exactly what Alan Greenspan says they are -S. Minsky
I use a combo of a domain registration and e-mail forwarding to GMail. In G-Mail, you can set an outgoing address of youruser@yourdomain.com - problem solved neatly.
-Franco
Love them. Try it.
How do you scan the mail store for viruses? New viruses, phishing scams, etc. will often slip through undetected and need to be cleaned out after new antivirus definitions come out. A nightly scan of the mail store is a must. Does Archiveopteryx provide you with a mechanism to scan and remove suspect messages from the DB?
After 9 years of running my company's mail server, I've learned enough hard lessons to be afraid of sysadmin newbies running their own mail servers. Hell, it gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach to think of how clueless I was when I started. I wouldn't let me (circa 2000) anywhere near a network!
Many universities these days allow you to use their domain name even after you graduate (or with the almumni prefix on it). Then you can have it forwarded from their servers to whatever your email provider of choice is. For example, my school email is ********@uwaterloo.ca and I have my messages forwarded to gmail, because gmail owns. This may or may not be helpful depending on your line of work, ties with academia, etc. Also, it looks like shit if you went to like... I don't know... Kansas City Community College
imho, the best email-only provider is http://www.tuffmail.com/
I have been using doteasy.com free email with my domain now for nearly 8 years with virtually no problems, it is free. I think if you want a really large mail box you have to cough up a small amount per year, but if not then its free and has been since i started using it.
I personally just use ZoneEdit, a DNS provider, to forward email from my domain to my Gmail account.
Forward your company's email to your gmail address (assuming your server is not continuously down, it should eventually forward your incoming mail).
Read your mail on Gmail.
Set-up your Gmail so it sends the outgoing mail with a proper "From:" address. Same for the "Reply-to:".
Reply from Gmail.
Works for me... (and my company's email server has been misbehaving for year, and has a very very shitty web mail).
Have fun
SouthX
Until Comcrap decides to tell your modem to block port 25. Been there.
Yeppers, no surprise there.
I should put something clever here. Maybe someday.
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.
New customers (and new user accounts created for existing customers) have the *option* to use Google Apps for domains, including Google Mail, but it's certainly not compulsory.
Were it not for my custom SpamAssassin setup on Dreamhost, I probably would have ditched them a long time ago in favor of GMail, especially if GMail had supported IMAP at the time.
I will agree that Dreamhost's email service has been pretty solid, if a bit slow. But it's still been an excellent value!
1and1 is great. I have domain hosting (6 or 8 bucks a year, I forget) and a small $12/year email package - 5 email accounts, unlimited aliases, spam filtering, some virus checking.
Easy to use, easy to admin.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
Been using Simplicato for 5 years. Registered my own domain and costs like $2/month. Grant you its only 25Mb storage but that combined with gmail for archiving works pretty good. You can increment your space for minimal monthly amounts. IMAP access and SquirrelMail for Web.
We're up to 4 pages by the time I'm reading this so maybe I just missed it and someone else already said it, but why not just put a forward on your work email server to your gmail account? Or if that doesn't work for you, use the gmail POP feature to download the mail from the work server at regular intervals? I have my verizon.net account forwarded to my gmail.net account so that I don't have to check both. No real lag on getting mail from it either.
- No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades really cramps his style.
I use Jumba's 29.95 a year budget option to host my website (The empty shell of a thing that it is) and that obviously includes mail as well. I know you said you didn't want webspace as well but for the price it is the best I've found, considering you can setup as many subdomains as you want and there are no limits on the number of aliases you can have
btw i'm not a shill just a satisfied customer
Look over their, it's a grammar nazi
I didn't know they had a package that small and cheap -- good to know for people who just want the most basic service! I have several friends who need the basics but can't afford even the $3/mo. account.
And yeah, they've been nothing but great the whole time I've had my hosting there. Tech support may take a day or two to get back to you, but it's always a Real Human With A Clue.
And they're reasonable about billing screwups too. Mine got out of whack a while back and rather than cancel my account like most places would, they made an extra effort to contact me A SECOND TIME (their first effort had apparently been eaten by the Space Moose) and get it straightened out. That made me really happy!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned these yet.
SDF has 80MB free pop/imap/web mail. or $36US for lifetime membership with 600MB storage.
register4less.com has $14.95/yr+$24.00US gets you a domain and webmail/pop/imap.
I highly recommend Tuffmail. I've been with them for several years, and their service is excellent, both technically and support.
Check out csoft.net (who used to advertise here on Slashdot back in '95). They are completely focused on reliability (e-mail is hosted/replicated on multiple servers), Unix-friendly, and they sponsor a number of open-source projects as well. They use the Postfix MTA along with a local delivery agent called mailprocd , which provides you with a persistent SpamAssassin process under your own UID.
Besides the solution to my problem, what is the solution to my problem?
I use Bluehost.Com for hosting and email services. They're currently 6.95/month with an annual prepayment for email, domain registration and web hosting. I use email for consulting and family addresses and set up small business web sites while I was free range consulting. You can arrange SSH access and get away from the browser GUI if you desire.
I run my own mail server. Backup isn't that hard to manage. rsync to a local box, rsync to a remote box, email the results of the backup jobs to yourself. What is more of a problem (alluded to in your comment) is the time needed to get it back up and running when the HDD dies. Of course it helps if your backups actually work... as I discovered recently.
The expense of backup options is pretty minimal. I have fairly modest needs when it comes to storage 100GB ATM, so the cost for me was ~$70 per box (2nd hand box) + (at that time) $100 / HDD. At the time I bought more than one box to have one spare box if I needed spare hardware.
At some point in the future I'd rebuild the whole thing (mail server, file server, onsite backup, offsite backup) with some new boxes, RAID 1 etc.
This is pretty much the same problem as storing your own local files, just with emails.
meh
Echoing that, I find the same.
Running my own mail server was (at the time) a financial decision. The cost of hosting it myself was about the same as 1 year of paid hosting. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Plus I can run some really neat filtering against emails that come in.
meh
Check out https://geneticmail.com/. Focus is on standard protocol support (SSL, IMAP, LDAP, XMPP, etc.) and security more than features. But the web mail is very usable when you need it.
GeneticMail - E-mail For Mutants http://geneticmail.com/
Using Gmail for any kind of business transactions would seem unprofessional to me. Both incoming and outgoing emails are scanned and this would create a privacy issue for the business.
If the paid version of google apps allows you to turn off the Gmail profiling and have a true delete, I think Gmail would be fine.
Damn straight my mileage varies. My mail server is hosted in a data center and has RAID1 over 4 drives. I pay for it by hosting email for a few organizations and charging them nominal fees just to pay for the colo fees.
A little OT, but RAID 1 is disk mirroring and by definition includes only 2 drives. So, do you have two mirrors setup or...some quasi RAID solution that allows you to mirror the contents of one drive to multiple other drives? I've never heard this called "RAID 1" before.
Get a linode (http://www.linode.com) and install Zimbra on it. You'll then have a fully featured, account unlimited setup with more bells and whistles than most email providers.
It's not worth it:
-you have to have a server running 24/7 for that
-many ISPs block necessary ports
-you have to handle the spam filtering yourself
-you have to admin the mail server (patches, etc) yourself
-you have to back it up yourself (including off-site backups)
-any downtime (internet, power, hardware failure, software bug, etc) and the mail doesn't get delivered (unless you buy some sort of mail forwarding service that will hold it during downtime)
-a large amount of mail servers won't even accept your mail, as most DNSBL list your IP as a "consumer" internet connection, and basically "have no business talking to a MX directly"
etc.
I let gmail handle it all. No worries, no work, no troubles, no headaches. Setup your MX record, done!
www.mail2web.com for webbified access to the email, and myhosting.com for a basic hosting service has worked for me for many years.
[disclaimer: I have no commercial affiliation with these people, I am a satisfied customer]
I use Tuffmail, based on extensive web research. My requirements were very simliar to yours: solid provider, pay or free, reliablity and IMAP being the most important factors. Tuffmail has worked out very well (6 months or so now).
I pay $25/yr I think for 2GB storage (plus other limits, including bandwidth limits that I haven't gotten near). It's bring your own domain (though they do have an option not to).
My choice came down to Tuffmail and Fastmail; both seemed about equivalent on price and features, but Tuffmail just *seemed* more reliable in the way they described their own services and wrote their FAQs. Very focused; no web space, no file storage, just email. That's good and bad; but I already have semi-reliable web space for cheap, with email I want specialized reliablility.
http://www.compsnet.com
Just inquire -- they will offer very affordable prices and large amounts of space and can do just about whatever you need, if it strictly email that is fine.
My small biz uses mailtrust.com (formerly webmail.us till they got bought out by rackspace.com).
Very reliable, great customer service, and they entertain user feature requests - quite unheard of these days.
I would also recommend going with Yahoo Mail Professional, Google Apps or Fastmail.fm (they are around)
I would not recommend running your own server for the administration headache falls on your shoulders. If you have the time and energy to spend keeping your server up and running, do it... it's fun.
Good luck.
I was very happy with GoDaddy.
I did not use their hosting service; I used their _forwarding_ service. This is free with your domain registration, and works like this: pick an email address from your domain (e.g., me@example.com). Then tell GoDaddy to forward this to your "real" email address (e.g., s.palin@McCains.net). All email sent to that address will _immediately_ be forwarded to your "real" address.
GoDaddy doesn't want to store that mail (it costs them money to store it), so you can be sure they zip it along quickly.
Later, you can migrate to any other hosting setup you like while maintaining your same email address. It is essentially a permanent email address that _you_ control.
All for $6.99 per year.
YMMV
http://www.mailtrust.com/
Sorry, but as someone who both hires people, contracts out work, and works with customers on projects it _does_ matter. Whether or not it should is a completely different, and largely irrelevant, question but disputing the fact is foolish. This is similar to someone claiming that it doesn't matter how they dress, since fashion has nothing to do with their job, and just as dumb. You want work, especially good projects, you present a professional appearance. If you don't give a damn about competing purely on price against the off shoring guys, then go ahead and show up in a Quiet Riot t-shirt, no business cards, and scribble your @yahoo email address on a borrowed piece of paper and see how that compares to when a real consultant/contractor shows up.
Remember, when you're a one person company marketing is just as much your responsibility as coding is.
Well, it seems I didn't see the forest because of all that trees. Thank you all for your kind replies, the solution for my problem is obvious: Google Apps. I don't know why I had the impression that Google Apps only targets organizations and such and I didn't want to abuse their service and someday to find my account suspended. I already have a domain so the most easy, cheap and comfortable way will be to use Google Apps on it. And if Google fails to satisfy me, I have a few dozens options, including some offers I got on my email. So thank you all.
professional groups like the ieee offer email forwarding though one of their domains(like name@ieee.org) free with the membership
A number of notable features including:
what looks to be some good Spam Filters,
SSL encryption on IMAP and SMTP
Server Side Sorting
Multiple E-mail Addresses Per Account - multiple domain names, but want them all pointing to a single e-mail account,
Catchall Address - redirect all of the e-mail for a domain that isn't addressed to a valid user into a specific catchall account
and plans range from FREE to $8-$16 per year. This place is worth a read. Kind of has an aura reminiscent of nearlyfreespeech.net (webhost) maybe they should team up.
I've been comparing some email hosts and many look like they get expensive if you want a few domains / variations and a few addresses even for light use. I'm pretty certain the above features would work great for receiving. Maybe a naive question, but when sending email out from different addresses, to the recipient will it truly look like it is coming from a seperate account / domain?
Check-out Zoho Mail @ http://mail.zoho.com from Zoho (www.zoho.com).
Here http://pyrabang.com/go/mentormatt8
Forward you working address of domain to you google account and if you want, add it to the "send-as" list in gmail.. Presto ! You have IMAPS, POP3S and webmail.. for smtp just use the one from your provider if you need it. And it's free ( as in beer)
you know, there is this new search tool called google that let's you enter text and then presents you with matching websites from all across the interwebs. Usually people use it to figure out stuff for themselves ...
___
No power in the 'verse can stop me
http://www.port995.com
UK Based. Used to be owned by Metronet. Now owned by PlusNet.
I've found LCN to provide me with a decent email hosting package. Can't really fault them. Good customer support too
http://www.lcn.com/email
You can set up a "Catchall" E-mail account on GoDaddy.com. They're extremely Fast. Use whatever name on your Business Cards you want to use. If a person writes you and misspells the name on the card you get it anyway. If you wanted to you could actually print different business cards with different names for them to write keyed to their specific location, then set up Message Rules to divert 'their location' incoming mail into the different Mail Folders.
Say for instance you wanted to use cards in Las Vegas and wanted to know who responded to your card mail address from Las Vegas, a Msg Rule would Move LasVegasCustomers@YourWebsite to the Las Vegas Mail Folder. (If you write me I'll know it came from somebody on SlashDot.) Glad to be able to assist you in your Search for (Mail) Truth. Here's a page that will help you with that immensely => http://www.newpath4.com/pdflistfor2008.htm .
"Besides buying a domain and using Google Apps on it (which isn't actually intended for home users)" While it may not be intended for "home users", if you've got a domain name I wouldn't consider you an average home user. As you know, Google Apps will do everything you need. Unless you have some other issue with Google Apps, just go ahead an use it.
--
Luck is just skill you didn't know you had.
I have 2 personal GMail accounts (one @gmail.com, one on a personal Google Apps account) and we recently migrated to Google Apps at my company, and I have had exactly 0 problems treating the "labels" like folders in Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird. So far as I can tell, the only difference is that one message can have multiple labels, and thus deleting it from a folder doesn't necessarily delete the message altogether, but I'm perfectly happy to live with that.
Try it. It's really not that problematic.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Get a Gmail account, buy your own domain and point some or all addresses at that domain to forward to your Gmail account. Set Gmail account reply-to address to one that matches your personal domain.
Bingo, local IMAP copy of your mail on PC/iPhone/whatever, copy stored on Gmail's servers accessible over the web at any time, and it all syncs up seamlessly, and appears to come from yourdomain.com.
I've used Everyone.net for a couple of years now. I've had a pretty good experience with them. And their rates are comparable to other providers.
I know Microsoft is a bad word sometimes on /., but Hosted Exchange is ideal for this.
Google Apps for domains is a good solution as well, if you don't want the MS solution, but if you're interested in things like OWA, shared calendars, Activesync and those kind of things hosted Exchange is good.
It sucks that they were bought out by some company that made them clean up their homepage. Here's an excerpt from http://web.archive.org/web/20030417233012/http://www.illfuckinghostit.com/
"HEY KIDS! Are YOU homeless?? Do you need a place to stay here on the INTERNET INFORMATION SUPERDUPER HIGHWAY? WELL YOU'RE IN LUCK KIDDO! Motherfucking illfuckinghostit.com has got all the goods for you to have a good time and SAVE MONEY! Shit dawg for $0.00 a month we can get you set up with just about anything your ass is looking for! Thats right! I SAID FREE! but only for a limited time, so GET YOUR MOTHERFUCKIN SHIT TOGETHER AND SIGN UP! (due to our infancy here at illfuckinghostit.com free registrations only include a website that points to http://yourusername.illfuckinghostit.com/ anything more you must first sign up then ask services@illfuckinghostit.com to set it up for you.) You need web space? I'LL FUCKING HOST IT! You need email? I'LL FUCKING HOST IT! You need dns services? I'LL FUCKING HOST IT! You need a whole fucking bunch of shit for a buisness internet site? shit dawg, I'LL FUCKING HOST IT! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SIGN THE FUCK UP!"
Mod me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
That's all they do - email hosting. Rock-solid support at stupid hours of the day (3am questions often replied to immediately), they give us notice for *potential* downtime (that rarely impacts performance), and pretty reasonable pricing.
It's not as big as other providers(1G), but it's upgradable.
Been using them over a year now, and it's nice to farm email support to somebody else. They do a good job.
Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high...
I have used NetAddress for more than 10 years. I pay something like$30/yr for 500GB of storage.
I use them for past two years and I have to say, they rock. Webmail is based on Horde so if you are noob then it may be too much for ya ;)
There is one major flaw with the argument of hosting your own web server: most ISP's block incomming SMTP messages as hosting servers is generally against their TOS unless you have a business account WITH A STATIC IP. That's right folks, most ISP's don't even let you host servers on a normal (read, dynamic IP) business line.
Then there is the electricity bills and physical maintenence to contend with. And I have to agree with other folks - keeping up-to-date with security for it can be a pain.
What's done's in the past, forever shall last.
Work is work; life is life; fair is not!
On day one it is easy to have your own e-mail server. This changes once, you start maintaining the spam filter.
Busy helping non technical users of OpenOffice.org - http://plan-b-for-openoffice.org/
Register with GoDaddy and you'll get 100 E-Mail forwards thrown into your domain registration.
Now you can use your own e-mail address and use the server of your ISP or GMail, Yahoo, etc. Only make sure your outgoing mail is configured correctly to show your own domain as sender and probably or at least the Return To: field as such.
But then you can also go with GoogleApps and ignore the rest.
K<o>
P.S.: What ever provider you use, make sure you keep the domain registration separate (no opportunity to hold it hostage) and that you backup regularly to some local media.
Busy helping non technical users of OpenOffice.org - http://plan-b-for-openoffice.org/
Another option is Hushmail, which adds security (signature and encryption).
Busy helping non technical users of OpenOffice.org - http://plan-b-for-openoffice.org/
One week?
It may have taken you a week to learn it, now you have to do it.
Security holes being discovered leading to forced installs of new versions of various mail server componentry, causing issues for other components, which then need upgraded, even though they'd been working just fine. But now, the configuration file is different, so all of that needs redone. Over and over.
And then, you find out that you need a new kernel. So you install it, it doesn't boot correctly, and much time is wasted.
A week, you say. Hah.
Kid-proof tablet..
Aplus.net has a wide range of plans. I would suggest the smallest business setup on a shared UNIX platform. I would also suggest having your domain(s) registration through a different company. This way should anything sour your relationship with the mail services, etc., you will not place your unique domain(s) in jeopardy should you have a financial showdown with the service provider. It's much harder to recover a lost domain name than to move to another service provider (can be done in an hour if you have site and database backups ready).
Be as you would have the world become.
In many cases trying to deal with an IT department is just one big PITA and paying a bit of money from one's own pocket can save one lots of work time (while still being paid the same salary and not having to suffer through trying to get someone in the IT department do something that might actually improve work).
The first thing I did when I got my work email address was setup email forwarding to my FastMail account. The IT dept cannot do basic things like configure exchange to send out email without gibberish or to configure Apache not to declare the wrong encoding on webpages. And the guy in our department that's in charge of working with the IT department just told me that "I'm own my own" when it comes to getting anything done that's not on the IT dept's agenda. He stoped expecting anything from them in the early 90's.
So the ritual is that if you want things to work you do it yourself and you keep quiet so no one wili undo what you setup for yourself. If you're still new you try to make things change until you find out there's no use (and everyone else was correct telling you there's no use) and then you give up or else you have to work more to achieve the same results.
The email provider I use is netaddress.com, which provides my email ....@usa.net (kind of nice and short and official looking). I've been with them longer than I can remember, at least more than 10 years, probably more than 12 years. They started out free, and have been commercial for most of that time. They do meet all your requirements.
As a side note, I've been meaning to switch to a domain I acquired through Yahoo, especially since they map my domain as email to my Yahoo email account, but haven't really gotten around to it. I been with my usa.net email for so long, its hard to give up. Anyway, this latter option is cheaper than a commercial email provider.
Been running now for a month or so, no worries. Feel free to check back with me if you like, but I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. I'm new to mail server admin, not server admin.
I hate printers.
Fastmail.fm has been focused professionally on providing e-mail only services for years.
+++OK ATH
You actually LIKE that crap where they map IMAP folders to Tags? And multiple tags doesn't mean multiple folders?
That implementation sucks, to be frank. How can you call that the "best" IMAP implementation?
+++OK ATH
I might do that. It'll be interesting to see how much time it has stolen from you, and whether or not you still think it's worthwhile.
I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about, too -- at least reboot, for a kernel patch, the mail server at work had uptime of 609 days, with zero unplanned service interruptions other than the occasional connectivity snafu.
It's not rocket science by any stretch, but keeping this stuff rolling and secure does require a fair bit of time.
Kid-proof tablet..