Slashdot Mirror
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?"
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...
GoDaddy's email service is horrible. It's ridiculously slow. Besides, you're lucky if you can order it before having seizures caused by their web site.
I've had clients use Fusemail with positive results.
Developers: We can use your help.
Here to second you about godaddy - slow and unreliable. I have some mail take ~ 6 hours to get thru to me for some reason. We are changing as soon as we get some time in our schedule.
What about their, um, minor billing issues earlier this year?
They have loads of features, yes - but reliability often hasn't been high on the agenda, assuming it's been on the agenda at all. Random outages lasting much of the day, the aforementioned billing issues, you name it. Cheap, cheerful and easy to do stuff with, but don't use it for anything remotely serious.
Plus, my IMAP email stuff is about eleventy billion times faster and more reliable since I moved to a virtual server somewhere else entirely.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Nothing to do with stuck up. I get about 20 requests for information per week from people "who found our company on the web and want to know more about our xyz technology". If the request comes from a generic mail provider, it gets the generic reply package. If it comes from a @webuybigthings.com address it gets a custom reply, the right attachments and a follow up.
First option, 1 min, second option 10 min. Cost first option, $2, second option $20. Since the split is about 5:1, that's savings of over $100 in my time every week.
I'm aging rapidly, I bought a new game and had no idea if my machine was good for it.
I have to disagree with "childish," unless the poster works in IT himself. Most people, even in computing, do work that has nothing to do with managing domains and email servers. When someone hires a consultant to write Java middleware, or write Flash games, or port Fortran code to C++, or help a company move to a distributed build system, they don't give a damn whether he receives mail at his own domain. It has nothing to do with his job.
Setting up and administering your own domain is an IT hobby that people outside of IT (including most professional programmers) have little appreciation for. To them, it's like the difference between sewing your own clothes and buying them in a store. Sounds like a lot of work -- who would bother unless it was a hobby they enjoyed?