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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?"
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.
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.)
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...
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
Yes, but the OP was also under the wrong impression that Google Apps is not intended for home users.
The thing is that it satisfies every single need the OP has. It's free, as reliable as anything else you'll find, supports IMAP and has a decent webmail interface to boot. The only reason not to go with it is if you have some kind of objection to the company.
You're right. Why is this here? The Slashdot crowd will simply whore out gmail, fastmail, or dreamhost.
I'm surprised at this, actually. 8 years ago I would have seen more DIY solutions instead of everyone just whoring out Google.
Anyone out there know of (an)other service(s) that satisfy all the OP's needs *and* deliver a, in your opinion, better-than-Gmail/Google Apps webmail interface?
Your question assumes that there is a better interface for webmail than GMail. After searching around, I've never found a better one. GMail just works so well for managing large amounts of email that I'm hard pressed to think of a better way to do it.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Probably not fair to label the parent Flamebait. It is an honest observation and actually a good topic of discussion.
As a person who use to be into the DIY solutions... It just isn't worth it anymore. From 97-2006 I hosted my own domain, had an irc server for a few years, mail all through the years... you know... geek stuff. I was proud of every bit of it.
Unfortunately, I grew past that stage and went onto bigger and better things and didn't need to be bothered by the latest sendmail, apache, webmail exploit. Google Apps gives me the ability to offload that to Google and not have to worry about it any longer(although they don't offer an IRC Server yet).
As far as slashdot... I think the popularity of the site has changed the demography of its users. Slashdot users are not the small, proud group of nerds they once were.
Now, I whored out gmail for two reasons. 1. It works. 2. Some of us want to devote our time to other things.
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.
Yeah, Fastmail is insanely cool. They have a very refined (albiet oldskool HTML) interface that works VERY well.
They are incredibly geek friendly, you can pass you own scripting to the spam filters, lots of aliases, manipulating the email from fields, accessing IMAP over non-standard ports, they were among the first to offer mobile access, etc, etc, etc! Everyone I have set up on it is very happy.
And for $20 a year, you get REAL support!
Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
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.
>>>I feel that having GMail or Yahoo email domains on my business card isn't really a professional touch.
I have both a yahoo and google domain for my email, and I don't feel ashamed by it. If my future employer or customer is that "stuck up" about something so trivial, then I don't want to deal with them..... they're more likely to make unreasonable demands or frequent returns. I'd rather just avoid those people.
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
Well I have to be honest with you, having any webmail service provider domain name instantly makes your company look amateurish from a prospective customer point of view, a real fly by night company. Don't be foolish register a domain name, a get your ISP to handle your email routing, most medium sized ISP's do it at very competitive rates and it is well worth the expenditure to create a more professional impression with potential customers.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
You just described what I consider "stuck up". I guess "elitist" is the non-slang term. The person behind the yahoo account (me) might very well be working for Lockheed Martin, and merely doing some work from home, and using his/her home account to ask some questions about product. Do you really want to "brush off" a potential sale to Lockheed Martin (me again) or some other purchasing agent for a major corporation???
IMHO, you shouldn't prejudge people upon arbitrary & meaningless characteristics (image, color, sex, or email address). At least wait until you've had a conversation with them before you judge whether they are serious customers; otherwise it might cost you a lost sale.
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
Does Lockheed Martin not have a VPN and policies about conducting all company activities through company resources? Most of the large companies I have worked for do. Often for security reasons it is a disciplinary offense to discuss business matters via non company means. I have not worked for Lockheed Martin but have worked for (Australian) security and defense and financial service organisations in the UK and Germany.
Even if you were dealing with someone face to face I suspect you would get a lot more response as a potential client by saying you are representing Lockheed Martin than saying you are electrictroy uid = 912290 from slashdot(if fact you see a similar effect on slashdot... people with lower uids are often seen to be more impressive than higher... I once had a very lower uid but lost it due to neglect and really noticed the differene in mod points).
Well..... I AM just a one-person "company". If they are expecting the kind of service from me they receive from an amazon or other major corporation, then maybe I'm not the right fit for that customer.
Maybe you aren't, but may I suggest not using "Worse customer service than Amazon.com" as your slogan?
Fnord.
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.