Modern Vespa

Well, after being with the same paid email provider for 14 years, they have decided to go out of business at the end of this month.

So, I had to get another email provider. I went with Fairpoint since I have my phone service and internet DSL with them. The email service is included but I never used it because I didn't need it until my present server bailed.

What a pain! I spent a couple of hours on the phone with them yesterday because their program would receive but not send. I wanted to add them to my existing Thunderbird email. I had tried 6 times during the previous week to get it set up, having to delete the whole process and start over. I had already gone through 3 techs on the phone and nobody could fix the problem. Thunderbird seems to be a bit touchy and some of the settings it installs by default are not compatible with Fairpoint, so they have to be manually installed. Finally, It was up and running late yesterday. The existing email will still be active until June 30th.

So, I was able to send emails to everyone in two of my address books informing them of the change. I still have to do my wife's.

Still, I am far from finished. I do my banking on line with 2 different banks. I pay all my bills on line. Every one of those needs to have my new email on record or I won't get the statements or the bills. The more I dug in, the more I found. Insurance companies, credit card companies, mail order prescriptions, any place that sends me information or notices even occasionally, needs to be updated. I just remembered SS, the outfit that does my E-file and my credit report subscription. I have a list going that has a couple of dozen more that need updating. It is very tiring to say the least. However, in the long run, I will prevail.

For reasons like this I'm happy to pay the few £ a year to register my own domain name. I can then forward my domain based email address to my current mail provider of choice (gmail at the mo, but I used to use my ISP).
I've been able to keep the same address for a very long time now.

Could be worth doing before you change your address everywhere.

That's the primary reason I use the big anonymous e-mail providers (Google, Yahoo, Hotmail). Since it's not tied to my internet service, I've had the same Hotmail address for 15 years. Granted, it's now just used as my junk mail box, but it's still active, even after I've switched internet providers at least a half dozen times in the intervening years.

Me too. It's very inexpensive at GoDaddy and I have a friend that's hosting my domain for me. I'm slowly switching all my email over to my domain address.

I've had my domain name since 1998 or thereabouts. I would be in such a world of hurt if I had to change it so I won't ever rely on my ISP for my email address.

I have had the same email address since May, 1991. (Yeah, I know that was before email proper, but my address was MPFrank on America Online, which became mpfrank@aol.com)

Thinking of having to change it gives me the willies, but maybe at least starting to convert to my web site (michaelpfrank.com) would be a good idea.

I've got my own domain, also. I've watched friends and colleagues struggle through SPAM, changing ISPs and their policies, etc.

Besides, I didn't want to become doug28374634247363@gmail.com

Oh dear, I hope didn't just now cause some other doug to have to change his email address

Here too.

I used the same provider from 98 through to 2010, and they decided they didn't want to trade any more.

so I set up with servage - I have 8 domain names, 3 active sites, all with email - works really well!

I vote GoDaddy, too. I host my web site and that of my bands. Lots of email names. Plus, as administrator I can add space as needed.

My neighbor was with the phone company. He once switched to using a different company, hated it, went back. Only to find he had lost all of his address book entries and saved emails as the phone company deleted everything the instant he switched.

Remember that Google and others have been mentioned in regard to the Prism thing. I do not even use Google for searching anymore.