Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

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Toons
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Toons »

Have never paid for an email address.
Still use the yahoo one i started out with in the mid nineties.
Gmail is my main one though. :happy
"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity" –Bruce Lee
Gemini
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Gemini »

I was on the verge of paying for an email but then I came across Protonmail. I see no need to pay as I now use Protonmail. It is free, secure, and has a mobile app. There is also a paid version which affords one more storage. I see no reason to pay for email at this point.
bloom2708
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by bloom2708 »

We still pay $19.99 per year for our original Yahoo email with no ads. This is from ~1994.

There are a number of good options and we have other email address from outlook.com and gmail.com.

But we have all the history. Not changing is worth paying the $20/year at this point. It continues to work great and I get good value from the $20. :shock:
new2bogle
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by new2bogle »

Tabulator wrote:I will never use free mail. It "bogles" my mind that so many people, apparently, are unwilling to pay less than 1.70 USD per month for quality mail hosting.

dm200, you are correct to pay for email. It's just that Earthlink might not be the best choice. There are many great choices out there. Gmail, iCloud etc are not the answer.
dm200 wrote:Both aol and gmail (Hotmail as well, I think) have the benefit of being portable - and not tied to service that can change such as comcast.
Technically, this is not incorrect. But I still think it is a great misunderstanding. Obviously it's good for one's mail hosting to be independent. But that doesn't mean you have to go with a company that rips you off in every possible way except cash. Unless, of course, one really does have a strict cash budget of zero. But I'm afraid people generally don't think this through.

I am a human being and a customer; I am not merely a product to be bought and sold to advertisers.

What service do you use for $1.70 per month?
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magellan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by magellan »

It's relatively easy and cheap to get your own domain and set it up to give you personal email addresses that you own and control.

Namecheap offers $10-15/yr domains that include free email forwarding. This works great if you want to create several email addresses tied to services you use and have them all under one umbrella domain. For example, you could buy myemaildomain.com, set up email forwarding to myrealemail@gmail.com, and then create custom email addresses for each service you use. When you register with bogleheads, you'd use bogleheads@myemaildomain.com and then bogleheads wouldn't be directly connected to your gmail account.

If you want to send email from addresses attached to your domain, you'll need an email hosting service. Zohomail offers a decent free service. Their free offering includes pop and imap access, and you can configure it so all your domain email gets forwarded to your gmail account, and so you can send email from your custom domain from within gmail. This workaround lets you use a custom domain with gmail without having to pay gmail $50 a year.
Ninegrams
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Ninegrams »

I see no reason to pay for email service, unless you need special add-ons( domain name, etc.) that don't come free. To my knowledge there's no service out there that has been independantly audited by a reputable security company to certify that the highest standards of privacy and security are maintained. It's generally a matter of the providers being trusted but not verified. As with mutual funds, paying more doesn't guarantee performance.
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JamalJones
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by JamalJones »

Novine wrote:Companies that focus primarily on e-mail likely do a better job on securing their mail systems.
This is true.
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mouses
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Re: Thanks, everybody!

Post by mouses »

Bammerman wrote: PS: remember the sound a modem made when it dialed up and went through that long noisy hand-shake protocol? Remember how cool and futuristic and advanced and plugged-in you felt? Wow, Star Trek right there in your own house!
I heard that there were people who could whistle to talk to a modem.
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wassabi
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by wassabi »

Add me to the list of those who use Fastmail. I love it. The service is nothing short of excellent. I rarely need to contact support, but the few times I've had questions or mild difficulties with my email I have loved having a direct support email and prompt response (within few hours).

I pay such a small amount but I use the smallest plan. I do not store a lot of mail online because I just don't trust leaving it in the cloud. I trust Fastmail - they are industry experts - but I don't trust my own computer becoming compromised.

The iPhone app and web app are extremely fast and polished. I typically use the stock Apple apps for mail, but sometimes use webmail just because the Fastmail interface is so polished and good to use.

The only concern is if they one day go out of business. I have my own domain which I have not yet made my primary email address. I need to finally make the switch to my domain name so that if something happens to Fastmail, I can take my email address to a new provider with little effort.

All that said, I love Fastmail and would pay for it the rest of my life or as long as email is still something we use.
aredhel
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by aredhel »

I still have my Earthlink account, and have no intention of dropping it any time soon. I have a lot of information stored in that account, it would be a pain to forward it all to a new service, and since I'm happy with Earthlink Webmail, why would I switch? The cost is relatively trivial compared to so many other things (cable and smartphone, I'm looking at you!).
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Pajamas
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Pajamas »

JamalJones wrote: You can set up numerous aliases.
You can do that with Gmail, too, you just add a plus sign and then whatever you want. Gmail ignores anything after a plus sign, any periods, and letter case. Of course you can just set up separate accounts.
Bammerman wrote:$72 each year for the privilege of sticking with Earthlink
You could probably switch over all your email address in three hours. That's $24 an hour you would save in the first year. If it took six hours at $24 an hour, it would take two years. That's not bad considering you probably need to clean up your saved emails and address book anyway.

For social contacts you could send one mass email using BCC for the addresses or just copy & paste the same email.

It would give you a chance to establish a separate email address for financial accounts, too.

I had Earthlink internet years ago and just looked at their email website. It looks like a website from 10 or 15 years ago.
inbox788
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by inbox788 »

Pajamas wrote:I had Earthlink internet years ago and just looked at their email website. It looks like a website from 10 or 15 years ago.
I used to have Earthlink dialup. :happy
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Tabulator
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Tabulator »

Today I read the following pitch published by a mail host I will not name, and indeed I will redact its name in the quotation. I just thought it raised some important points some here might want to consider, if they are still seeking a new host.
1. You are our customer, not our product
We proudly charge money in exchange for a great service. As such, we only serve you, our customer. We have no split loyalties, no mining of your personal data, no sharing it with third parties, and no ads, ever.

We provide support directly to our users, and do our best to help resolve any service issues you might have. Our roadmap is aimed at making [name redacted] better for you, not an advertiser or anyone else. Itʼs a simple, direct business relationship, which in todayʼs internet, we believe is quite refreshing.

2. Your data belongs to you
We support open, standard protocols, and drive the development of new and better ones rather than closed, proprietary mechanisms. Your mail, calendars and contacts are stored in open formats and can be downloaded or backed up using any number of standard tools that speak standard protocols. We have fast servers that donʼt limit your freedom to migrate elsewhere, should you ever decide [name redacted] is not for you. The incentive is always on us to keep being the best so we keep your business!

3. We are good stewards of your data
We take the responsibility we have for your data very seriously. We go to great lengths to ensure it is always available to you, and never lost, damaged or corrupted. We focus on usable security measures that meaningfully protect your data from falling into the wrong hands, and have a comprehensive backup strategy to save the day should you accidentally delete the wrong thing.

4. We are a good internet citizen
As an open, interoperable communication standard, email is unique and vitally important to a healthy open internet, rather than a series of walled gardens. Openness, however, leads to a greater risk of abuse. We have a responsibility to protect our users from spam, and to stop our service from being used to abuse others. These are continually evolving challenges that we build ever more new capabilities for.
Cruise
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Cruise »

My wife and I have different situations, so there are different solutions:

She: Been with the same university for about 50 years, first as an undergrad,then as a grad student, professor, and now top administrator. Early in her life as a professor, this thing called email was invented, and she got one of the fist ones (as I did too). When she finally decides to retire and claim "emeritus professor status," that email account will be her's for life.

Me: I stopped using the university email account when my business boomed and I realized two things: (1) Not cool to use an educational facility's resources to run a business, and (2) My business branding would be better accomplished with an email address containing my business name. I've had this for 20-something years, and plan to keep it even when I fully retire (although may change it to "retired@xxx.com).

In my quest for value, I buy the lowest cost storage plan, but I backup everything automatically to my free Google email. I find that the Google service has the best search function of any provider I have tried. And, unlimited free storage!
k4carbon
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by k4carbon »

I have had AOL email address since 1992 when I got my Gateway desktop computer in the cow boxes. I think AOL initially had a small fee but fee ended 12-15 years ago so it has been free. Last year, Verizon bought AOL and I just got notice from AOL that effective in July, the AOL fee will be $4.99/month. I will probably keep the AOL service. I think AOL has over 40MM subscribers so Verizon stock should go up.
mouses
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by mouses »

I used to use the email address from my ISP, Cox. However, Cox has been undergoing an email upheaval for weeks that has been causing them to intermittently lose some email, features are broken, etc. It is not clear when or if this will get fixed, so I got a gmail address as my main address.

As a retired software engineer, I am staggered by the lousiness of some software that makes it out to the world nowadays.

The last time I changed email addresses about a decade ago, it took me a day to convert everything and then I kept the old email address for a few weeks to catch stragglers. This time it has been more drawn out, and I don't like the fact that gmail insists on spam filtering, which of course catches real email as well. But it's not like I had a lot of choice.

I use thunderbird, so I have my email on my pc and back it up myself.
mouses
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Re: Thanks, everybody!

Post by mouses »

mouses wrote:
Bammerman wrote: PS: remember the sound a modem made when it dialed up and went through that long noisy hand-shake protocol? Remember how cool and futuristic and advanced and plugged-in you felt? Wow, Star Trek right there in your own house!
I heard that there were people who could whistle to talk to a modem.
Yes, this was true, although I did not have this skill myself :-)
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pondering
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by pondering »

I just started compiling the email addresses of the 1100 alumni from the college I attended in 1985 through 1987.

I will report the email address domain counts soon.
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bogglizer
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by bogglizer »

Yet another Fastmail user here. Very happy with it. I no longer use a separate calendar or address book tool, just their web interface and app.
bogglizer
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by bogglizer »

wassabi wrote:Add me to the list of those who use Fastmail. [...snip...]

The only concern is if they one day go out of business. I have my own domain which I have not yet made my primary email address. I need to finally make the switch to my domain name so that if something happens to Fastmail, I can take my email address to a new provider with little effort.

All that said, I love Fastmail and would pay for it the rest of my life or as long as email is still something we use.
I use my personal domain at Fastmail. Given the number of users here that are on Fastmail, going out of business seems unlikely. Nevertheless, all I would have to do is change by domain's DNS entries to another service.
taguscove
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by taguscove »

Novine wrote:"Email services offered by gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc. are vulnerable and have been hacked."

Anything that interacts with the Internet has the potential to be hacked. Companies that focus primarily on e-mail likely do a better job on securing their mail systems. But don't fool yourself thinking that paying for that service gives you some significant level of security over the free services.

The biggest threat to your privacy and security is yourself. Most of the problems that people encounter online aren't the result of mail providers getting hacked but from actions/inactions that unintentionally compromise computers and personal information.
Agree with all this. Use gmail and avoid clicking on spear fishing and other malicious links.

Everyone I know uses Gmail because it's a great email service. It's a loss leader to build the largest corpus of natural language data on earth.

I suppose you could be paranoid and avoid using Google maps, Google search, etc. The reality is that individuals are disproportionately the source of compromised security.
Tabulator
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Tabulator »

taguscove wrote:I suppose you could be paranoid and avoid using Google maps, Google search, etc. The reality is that individuals are disproportionately the source of compromised security.
Large tech companies are disproportionately the source of compromised privacy.
mouses wrote:But it's not like I had a lot of choice.
Why do you say that? I see nothing if not an abundance of choices. But maybe I just don't get what you meant.
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telemark
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Re: Thanks, everybody!

Post by telemark »

mouses wrote:
mouses wrote:
Bammerman wrote: PS: remember the sound a modem made when it dialed up and went through that long noisy hand-shake protocol? Remember how cool and futuristic and advanced and plugged-in you felt? Wow, Star Trek right there in your own house!
I heard that there were people who could whistle to talk to a modem.
Yes, this was true, although I did not have this skill myself :-)
I used to use an old acoustically coupled 300 baud modem, the kind where you dial the number and then stick the handset into some foam rubber cups. When I was very bored I would try whistling at the modem on the other end. With a little practice you could fairly easily fool it into thinking it had made a connection, and then it would warble a bit to send the login prompt, which was short because it was 300 baud. I don't know if anyone ever managed to transmit coherent data in the other direction: that would be much much harder.
zuma
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by zuma »

I've been a paying FastMail customer for more than 10 years. It's a VERY good product. They also provide reliable DNS hosting, some basic web hosting features, and solid calendar tools (CalDAV). It's a great company and I'm happy to support them.
Rebecca Junter
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Rebecca Junter »

I've few doubts, for your own personal use a free account could be more than enough, but for some specific needs, and sometimes are not so rare, a paid email account can offer what you need.
I need to manage several customer's domains and several emails account and I'm using two good providers that match my needs.

the first is www.servermx.com and it's very useful to manage in one single place multi-domains and allows strong filters to manage email and related attachments.

The other one is https://protonmail.com/ for the customer's addicted to privacy's issues.

Rebby
guppyguy
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by guppyguy »

JamalJones wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 7:18 pm
Tabulator wrote:
JamalJones wrote:Let say you really like history so you could use the domain "historybuff". And then you're signing up for a drawing at a wine event to win a case of wine. So your email alias could be "winelover@historybuff.33mail.com".
Would you have to set up the alias before the wine event? Or could you make one up on the spot as you are signing up for the drawing?
Tabulator,

You can set up the alias on the spot. Because you would have already set up your domain name, for example: "historybuff", when you sign up for a 33mail account, you can then just create any name you choose to represent your email for that purpose.

I like to choose names that are related to what I'm buying/signing up for. So for example, if I bought some tires at Discount Tires and they asked me to sign up to be put on their email list, I would simply use the name tireguy. They entire email address being: "tireguy@historybuff.33mail.com"
But then you would have to remember the new email address when you got home and configure your email server to accept incoming emails?
wfrobinette
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by wfrobinette »

Tabulator wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 10:19 am I will never use free mail. It "bogles" my mind that so many people, apparently, are unwilling to pay less than 1.70 USD per month for quality mail hosting.

dm200, you are correct to pay for email. It's just that Earthlink might not be the best choice. There are many great choices out there. Gmail, iCloud etc are not the answer.
dm200 wrote:Both aol and gmail (Hotmail as well, I think) have the benefit of being portable - and not tied to service that can change such as comcast.
Technically, this is not incorrect. But I still think it is a great misunderstanding. Obviously it's good for one's mail hosting to be independent. But that doesn't mean you have to go with a company that rips you off in every possible way except cash. Unless, of course, one really does have a strict cash budget of zero. But I'm afraid people generally don't think this through.

I am a human being and a customer; I am not merely a product to be bought and sold to advertisers.
It bogles my mind why people are so afraid free e-mail yet at the same time they use credit cards to make purchases, use streaming services/watch cable TV, register thier vehicles, have a driver's licenses, cell phone, internet provider, etc.

Unless you are only using cash and living off the grid you are a product being bought and sold to advertisers. But I'm afraid people don't generally think this through.
mptfan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by mptfan »

Pajamas wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2017 7:01 pm
JamalJones wrote: You can set up numerous aliases.
You can do that with Gmail, too, you just add a plus sign and then whatever you want. Gmail ignores anything after a plus sign, any periods, and letter case. Of course you can just set up separate accounts.
Yes, but some services do not allow + signs in email and will reject it. Also, it's not really an alias in the true sense of the word since it is obvious what your real email is.
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Vulcan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Vulcan »

I pay for a family domain name so our email addresses never change (it's about $10/yr now, though it was more when I first registered in the early 2000s).

Over time I used various free email providers to forward the mail arriving to that domain to, ultimately settling for Google's G Suite (it was called Google Apps at the time and I was grandfathered into their free 50-user version).

So at this point we login to GMail with our personal email addresses, e.g. vulcan@vulcans.us. We get the best of both worlds: unbeatable functionality and security of GMail and cool-looking email addresses that are fully portable and ours to keep.

Alas, this option is no longer free for new G Suite customers, but you can still register your domain and forward your mail to your @gmail.com account (or any other, though I honestly think GMail is in a league of its own).
Last edited by Vulcan on Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. ~Ronald Coase
mptfan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by mptfan »

bogglizer wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2017 12:55 am Fastmail doesn't scan my email like google and friends, and the prying eyes of the US gov't can't read my mail, since it is stored in Australia, which doesn't allow foreign spying on email.
I think you are mistaken about where Fastmail stores your emails... Fastmail's main server is in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and their secondary server is in Seattle.

Our main servers are located at 365 Data Centers in Bridgewater, New Jersey, USA. Their facility is a high-security, video-monitored location with backup power, air conditioning, fire systems, 24x7x365 monitoring, and onsite technical support.
...
Our secondary sites at 365's Seattle location have equivalent physical security.

https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/arti ... re-service
mptfan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by mptfan »

Bammerman wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:48 am - Do you still pay for an email address? If so, why?

- Did you switch over to a free email address? How hard was the process of changing everything over?
Your question implies that someone used to pay for email and then they switched to free email. It's the opposite for me, I used to use a free email provider and I switched to paying for email using Fastmail, and I am very happy that I did.
Last edited by mptfan on Thu Jan 20, 2022 1:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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nisiprius
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by nisiprius »

Was anybody else burned once before by mac.com? Steve Jobs announced it around 2000, in words that after the fact seemed very, very carefully phrased. IIRC he made a big deal of saying something like "It's the only email address you will ever need, and it's free to boot." It really sounded as if he meant it would always be free. "Free" lasted quite a while, maybe six or seven years, and then became part of a bundled $100/year package called iTools which mutated and morphed a few more times and then died.
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Vulcan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Vulcan »

nisiprius wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:37 pm Was anybody else burned once before by mac.com?
After going through several "free for life" email addresses in the late 90ies (USA.net, anyone?), I knew what I needed to do if I wanted to never have to change my email address again, so when I came to the US 22 years ago, my first online purchase with my new debit card was registration fee for my very own domain.

Even at $70/yr back then I felt it was a great deal. At ~$1/mo now, I can't afford not to have it.
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. ~Ronald Coase
squirm
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by squirm »

A professional using a Gmail account and the likes comes off as cheap and not professional.
My personal account is a freebie.

If you want a freebie for personal use, go with something like Gmail or Microsoft. Both have very good security.
MadAsgardian
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by MadAsgardian »

bogglizer wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2017 12:55 am the prying eyes of the US gov't can't read my mail
Unless the above sort of thing keeps you awake at night, you're probably fine with free email.

Will I have to switch from gmail.com one day? Probably, but as others have said that's an afternoon's work.
mrb09
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by mrb09 »

Vulcan wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:21 pm I pay for a family domain name so our email addresses never change (it's about $10/yr now, though it was more when I first registered in the early 2000s).

Over time I used various free email providers to forward the mail arriving to that domain to, ultimately settling for Google's G Suite (it was called Google Apps at the time and I was grandfathered into their free 50-user version).

So at this point we login to GMail with our personal email addresses, e.g. vulcan@vulcans.us. We get the best of both worlds: unbeatable functionality and security of GMail and cool-looking email addresses that are fully portable and ours to keep.

Alas, this option is no longer free for new G Suite customers, but you can still register your domain and forward your mail to your @gmail.com account (or any other, though I honestly think GMail is in a league of its own).
Yea, that's what I do, I forward my custom name email to gmail, my DNS provider (gandi.net) has a forward function for that. If I want to send email as my custom name (which I rarely do), gmail let's me select a custom mail gateway so the mail records (spf/dkim) make spam filters happy for the recipient. 16 bucks a year also includes an SSL certificate for a matching web site.

As an aside, if anyone does do this, make sure your DNS login is secure, otherwise if you're compromised, am attacker can switch your mail DNS to their own. My provider uses 2FA with google authenticator, so I feel safe enough.
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Vulcan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Vulcan »

mrb09 wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 1:48 pm Yea, that's what I do, I forward my custom name email to gmail, my DNS provider (gandi.net) has a forward function for that. If I want to send email as my custom name (which I rarely do), gmail let's me select a custom mail gateway so the mail records (spf/dkim) make spam filters happy for the recipient. 16 bucks a year also includes an SSL certificate for a matching web site.

As an aside, if anyone does do this, make sure your DNS login is secure, otherwise if you're compromised, am attacker can switch your mail DNS to their own. My provider uses 2FA with google authenticator, so I feel safe enough.
I went through several registrars/DNS providers and ultimately found that I like Google the best (even though it's not the cheapest - but it is cheaper than many, including gandi).
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. ~Ronald Coase
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JamalJones
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by JamalJones »

guppyguy wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:04 am
JamalJones wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 7:18 pm
Tabulator wrote:
JamalJones wrote:Let say you really like history so you could use the domain "historybuff". And then you're signing up for a drawing at a wine event to win a case of wine. So your email alias could be "winelover@historybuff.33mail.com".
Would you have to set up the alias before the wine event? Or could you make one up on the spot as you are signing up for the drawing?
Tabulator,

You can set up the alias on the spot. Because you would have already set up your domain name, for example: "historybuff", when you sign up for a 33mail account, you can then just create any name you choose to represent your email for that purpose.

I like to choose names that are related to what I'm buying/signing up for. So for example, if I bought some tires at Discount Tires and they asked me to sign up to be put on their email list, I would simply use the name tireguy. They entire email address being: "tireguy@historybuff.33mail.com"
But then you would have to remember the new email address when you got home and configure your email server to accept incoming emails?
Well, yes. But the alias will be logged in your 33mail account. So when you log on, you would see the, for example, "tireguy" alias on you list. You can sort by creation date, bandwidth, etc. So yeah, it will require some organization.

You don't have to configure anything. The 33mail account is tied to a traditional email address that you use to sign up with (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, protonmail, fastmail, etc.).

So let's say your email is JonSmith@email.com. You sign up at 33mail.com with that "traditional email" (JonSmith@email.com) and you choose your domain (let's say "historybuff") then all those emails at the @historybuff.33mail.com will get forwarded to your JonSmith@email.com email. If you don't want a certain alias any longer - let's say you no longer want communication from Discount Tires - you can log on to your 33mail account and block the "tireguy" alias (tireguy@historybuff.33mail.com).

There are other anonymous email forwarding services as well:

https://app.anonaddy.com/register and https://app.simplelogin.io/auth/register

Those might be more to your liking.

Also if you have an Apple device, they have a "Hide My Email" option that is essentially the same thing.
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michaelingp
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by michaelingp »

Bammerman wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:48 am (I really have no idea how many there are, but it's got to be a big number) accounts -- commercial, social, utility, medical, etc., etc. -- that I would have to update with the new email addresses (self and wife) -- and I shrink back in horror. It would take days!
In my experience not days but years. I changed from paid (our own domain) to Gmail years ago and despite manually changing a ton of places, there were still emails coming in a year later. I put up an auto-reply and a forwarding rule, but it took a couple of years before I felt confident getting rid of the old email account. Of course this depends on how ruthless you are as far as not caring about getting emails addressed to the old device. My wife was very worried that some doctor's office or someone important would have the old address years later.
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Tejfyy
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Tejfyy »

I pay for a Protonmail account and have for several years. It's what I use for banking and business.
calwatch
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by calwatch »

I own a domain name and use my main email address as an inbox at that domain name. I also have aliases for signups so that I can see who is selling my information. The vendor I use is Namecheap - $15 a year in addition to the cost of the domain name (so around $30 a year total).
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Vulcan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Vulcan »

Vulcan wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:21 pm I pay for a family domain name so our email addresses never change (it's about $10/yr now, though it was more when I first registered in the early 2000s).

Over time I used various free email providers to forward the mail arriving to that domain to, ultimately settling for Google's G Suite (it was called Google Apps at the time and I was grandfathered into their free 50-user version).
Wow, just as I was writing that, google was writing this:

"If you have the G Suite legacy free edition, you need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription to keep your services. The G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting July 1, 2022."

https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217

It sure was nice while it lasted.
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22twain
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by 22twain »

Vulcan wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 9:59 pm "If you have the G Suite legacy free edition, you need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription to keep your services. The G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting July 1, 2022."

https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217

It sure was nice while it lasted.
Must be at least five years now. That's how long ago I signed up for a paid G Suite basic account in order to use my domain name with Gmail instead of my domain registrar's / web-host's (Namecheap's) free email service. Free Gmail no longer had that feature.
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by softwaregeek »

Office 365 family includes ability to use your own domain. I buy it anyways to store documents in OneDrive.
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Vulcan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Vulcan »

22twain wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 11:57 pm
Vulcan wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 9:59 pm "If you have the G Suite legacy free edition, you need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription to keep your services. The G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting July 1, 2022."

https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217

It sure was nice while it lasted.
Must be at least five years now. That's how long ago I signed up for a paid G Suite basic account in order to use my domain name with Gmail instead of my domain registrar's / web-host's (Namecheap's) free email service. Free Gmail no longer had that feature.
Eleven years for me. Some signed up even earier.

ETA: On the dot. 1/21/11
Last edited by Vulcan on Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. ~Ronald Coase
squirm
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by squirm »

Does anyone still have a AOL.com address?
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Vulcan
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by Vulcan »

squirm wrote: Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:26 pm Does anyone still have a AOL.com address?
Image
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. ~Ronald Coase
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22twain
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by 22twain »

squirm wrote: Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:26 pm Does anyone still have a AOL.com address?
One of my long-time friends still has an aol.com address, although it’s now apparently run by Yahoo.

I still have a paid yahoo.com address from the days before I got my own domain and set it up with G Suite (now Google Workspace. I think I’ll finally be able to ditch it sometime this year.
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by andypanda »

9/2/21 - www.theverge.com/2021/9/2/22653652/yaho ... ate-equity

"Verizon originally purchased AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion, and acquired Yahoo in 2017 for $4.5 billion. After completing its Yahoo acquisition, Verizon placed both brands under the woefully bland “Oath” brand. “#TakeTheOath” proclaimed AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. The media divisions, which include properties like Yahoo Sports, TechCrunch, and Engadget, were officially renamed “Verizon Media” in 2019.
Yahoo will now be run by CEO Guru Gowrappan, and will operate as a standalone company under Apollo Funds. Apollo is a private equity firm that owns assets like crafts retailer Michaels and the Venetian resort in Las Vegas."

Why I follow the twists and turns...

I was a FiOS customer for many, many happy years. When Verizon closed their email business and forced users to move to AOL, we were allowed for a period of time to select to keep our @verizon.net email address. I got married in 2018 and sold my house. My wife's house is in Comcast-and-only-Comcast territory and I'm still using my @verizon.net. It's still works.
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Re: Does anybody else out there still pay for an email address?

Post by andypanda »

The best part of the article:

" Verizon announced it was selling the properties to Apollo Global Management in May in a deal said to be worth $5 billion, around half of the nearly $9 billion the telecom giant originally paid for them, and a fraction of the hundreds of billions the two companies were worth at their peaks."
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