Changing my email address

[MotCO]

I will be moving soon and my current broadband provider does not provide broadband at my new address. Consequently, my email address, (provided by my broadband provider) will be closed and I need to establish a new email address.

I'm not particularly keen on setting up email address with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc (who seem to be monopolising the world), but am struggling to find email addresses not linked to broadband providers. Does any one have good experiences with email address providers other than the broadband providers or the big corporations?

 

[AM9]

I will be moving soon and my current broadband provider does not provide broadband at my new address. Consequently, my email address, (provided by my broadband provider) will be closed and I need to establish a new email address.

I'm not particularly keen on setting up email address with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc (who seem to be monopolising the world), but am struggling to find email addresses not linked to broadband providers. Does any one have good experiences with email address providers other than the broadband providers or the big corporations?

The big e-mail providers that aren't also internet service providers e.g. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc., seem to be the only ones that can last indefinitely. I registered a hotmail.com address which was just my first name and surname in the '90s when I was on NTL, and is still in use today four ISPs later. I also registered the same name to hotmail.co.uk when it came out a few years later (to minimise any chance of impersonation or even just confusion). Hotmail works well with any e-mail client and of course browsers. The security also seems to be quite hot (pun not intended) and there are various id verification methods available. They are all big-boy benefits.

 

[nlogax]

Honestly, Google is pretty good for this. The two factor authentication is rock solid and the spam filtering second to none. I've had an email account with them since Gmail went beta in 2004 and I've never looked back or needed to consider an alternative.

You can always stick a personalised domain & address in front of a Gmail account to give you the benefits of personalisation alongside the Gmail feature set.

 

[birchesgreen]

Gmail is ok, i've had an account for years (since it launched indeed) though i find it does hide important emails quite frequently.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

PlusNet?

They own the e-mail brand I use through a takeover many years ago and I've never had a problem with them.

 

[341o2]

Have a look at mail.com.

 

[pdq]

I bought my own @surname.me.uk domain from Fasthosts, which provides a paid for email package - £20 a year if I recall. Gives some personalisation for my whole family with us each having a firstname - at- surname.me.uk address.

 

[Trackman]

Honestly, Google is pretty good for this. The two factor authentication is rock solid and the spam filtering second to none. I've had an email account with them since Gmail went beta in 2004 and I've never looked back or needed to consider an alternative.

You can always stick a personalised domain & address in front of a Gmail account to give you the benefits of personalisation alongside the Gmail feature set.

I second this.
You are right Gmail is rock solid, you really cannot go wrong and it's user friendly using the web interface plus you can set it up for an email client.

 

[D6130]

If you are looking for an ethical broadband and IS provider, I can recommend the Phone Co-op - recently renamed 'Your Co-op'. They also provide mobile phone services (using the EE network) and landline services. Complete or partial packages are available and they can give you an '@phonecoop.coop' email address.

 

[etr221]

Another one I would suggest worthy of a look is gmx.com/co.uk ... or possibly zoho .

For the main free providers (at least), you might like to think about grabbing Motco@~ (or whatever) wherever you can - so you'll have it if required.

 

[Devonian]

I've used Zoho with no problems for many years: their free e-mail service is webmail only now, though (so you can only read your mail through a web browser), but their full service starts at just under £12 a year.

 

[ainsworth74]

Another vote for Gmail even if you are, understandably, wary of one of the big tech firms.

Gmail is ok, i've had an account for years (since it launched indeed) though i find it does hide important emails quite frequently.

That sounds like a setting got mangled somewhere along the line. I've been with Gmail for donkeys years (fairly sure it was when you needed to an invite from a friend to join whenever that was) and never had any issue with emails going missing. Let alone important ones!

Had the issue of forgetting about an email that I'd previously read but that's an issue with the human operator of the email account not the provider itself!

 

[birchesgreen]

Another vote for Gmail even if you are, understandably, wary of one of the big tech firms.


That sounds like a setting got mangled somewhere along the line. I've been with Gmail for donkeys years (fairly sure it was when you needed to an invite from a friend to join whenever that was) and never had any issue with emails going missing. Let alone important ones!

Had the issue of forgetting about an email that I'd previously read but that's an issue with the human operator of the email account not the provider itself!

Well they don't go missing, just into the wrong folder. Seems quite inconsistent too. To be honest its only been happening over the last year or so.

 

[SteveM70]

Well they don't go missing, just into the wrong folder. Seems quite inconsistent too. To be honest its only been happening over the last year or so.

Theres an option to “teach” gmail which folder emails from a sender should go into - if you drag it to where you’d like it to go a pop-up asks “do you want this to happen for all future emails from this sender” or similar

 

[birchesgreen]

Theres an option to “teach” gmail which folder emails from a sender should go into - if you drag it to where you’d like it to go a pop-up asks “do you want this to happen for all future emails from this sender” or similar

Yes but i don't find it work very well, some emails from the same sender (even the same thread) go into different places.

 

[capitalconnect]

I will be moving soon and my current broadband provider does not provide broadband at my new address. Consequently, my email address, (provided by my broadband provider) will be closed and I need to establish a new email address.

I'm not particularly keen on setting up email address with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc (who seem to be monopolising the world), but am struggling to find email addresses not linked to broadband providers. Does any one have good experiences with email address providers other than the broadband providers or the big corporations?

Here is one that you could use:

Authorization

mail.yandex.com

It is free of charge and not related to, Google, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc, or any broadband provider.

 

[birchesgreen]

My mail email is Apple's icloud one, i find that works pretty well though you need to be a slave to the Apple eco-system like me of course.

 

[Randomer]

I'd be as suspicious of Yandex as any of the other big tech firms. Yes they aren't a US big tech firm but they are one of the biggest if not the biggest Russian ones, think a Russian Yahoo (before Yahoo lost all its market share). Apart from the whole FSB repeatedly demanding the encryption keys for there entire email system (as well as legally having the right to have them under Russian law) they have had repeated instances of admins leaking credentials to email accounts to bad actors.

Proton mail has been recommended to me by several people who work in the information security sector both civil service and business side. Founded by 2 people who worked at CERN weirdly. Not based in a 5 or 14 eyes country or anywhere or with mandatory government logging like Russia or Belarus. If you are prepared to pay for it the basic package provides up to five addresses for about £50 a year. Yes if you do anything illegal under Swiss law they can and have provided information to authorities but then any of the other big tech providers will as well and frankly are more likely to, Swiss law makes challenges to orders a public record unlike in the UK or US. Personally I don't think the free version is particularly good but I do know other people who use it and are happy with it.

Personally I have a Hotmail/Outlook account I opened just over 20 years ago, a Gmail account that I use for things I don't want registered to something that is close to my name (e.g. this forum) and then keep a throwaway Gmail account I use to sign up to things that might be less secure or scrupulous about sending my address to others that gets dumped every 6 months or so. I'm steadily moving over my most important stuff to couple of proton mail accounts.

Note that I don't suggest using 6 email accounts like I do without some form of password manager like Lastpass or Keepass which tell you what address you have used to register for things.

 

[87 027]

The OP may desire to avoid direct dealings with a large player; however a little due diligence may reveal that the smaller players are running over infrastructure provided by the very same large players via their cloud platforms.

As others have alluded to, using email tied to a particular internet provider risks restrictions or closure of the account if the customer switches provider, or the provider no longer deems it worthwhile to offer the service.

 

[D365]

My mail email is Apple's icloud one, i find that works pretty well though you need to be a slave to the Apple eco-system like me of course.

I'll agree on both counts.

 

[GusB]

I've had a Hotmail account for years, and switched to Yahoo for a while. When Gmail came along (it was when it was invite-only) I switched to that and have been using it ever since.

One handy feature is the ability to have <username>+anyword @Gmail.com where you can use anything after the + sign, and use filters to separate out mail sent to each variation.

Gmail does occasionally flag genuine stuff as spam, but I think this is due to other people signing up for mailing lists etc. and marking email as spam when they don't want it any more, rather than unsubscribing.

 

[bspahh]

PlusNet?

They own the e-mail brand I use through a takeover many years ago and I've never had a problem with them.

I wouldn't switch to PlusNet for their email service. There is a 1GB limit on storage for your email, which hasn't changed in ages, the same as the background infrastructure, like the Webmail interface. It doesn't feel like its one of their frontline products.

At the moment I use a PlusNet address for my email. I might switch from Plusnet to spend €4 a month for https://protonmail.com/signup so that its less of a hassle to switch ISP.

 

[dgl]

Just use Outlook, supposedly far superior to Gmail and MS don't target you with ads through your email. Been using Hotmail/Outlook for ~25 years with no issues.
Personally I wouldn't suggest anyone without at least some IT knowledge goes for their own domain as it can become a minefield.

 

[AM9]

Just use Outlook, supposedly far superior to Gmail and MS don't target you with ads through your email. Been using Hotmail/Outlook for ~25 years with no issues.

Likewise. It is also pretty good for sorting junk mail. In the early days there were a few suppliers that didn't handle hotmail messages properly but that seems to have been fixed (either by IT experts or by natural wastage).

 

[Crossover]

I've had a Hotmail account for years, and switched to Yahoo for a while. When Gmail came along (it was when it was invite-only) I switched to that and have been using it ever since.

One handy feature is the ability to have <username>+anyword @Gmail.com where you can use anything after the + sign, and use filters to separate out mail sent to each variation.

Gmail does occasionally flag genuine stuff as spam, but I think this is due to other people signing up for mailing lists etc. and marking email as spam when they don't want it any more, rather than unsubscribing.

Yes, that came in useful for an EMT offer a few years ago!

If I recall correctly, you can also add dots anywhere within "your" portion of the email address and it will all reach you, too (i.e. [email protected] and [email protected] are treated the same)

 

[dakta]

I use a personal domain and server registered through fasthosts but the server sits under the sofa (low power laptop with the screen removed)

for checking emails i use outlook app or gmail which through a google account actually lets me add the email accounts hosted on my server so i can use their frontend.

Do it that way because google's spam filters are much better than those in outlook but the lag between sending and actually receiving email is a bit pants.

 

[westv]

I started with a Freeserve email account way back.
Have had a Sky email for years with Gmail as back up.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I wouldn't switch to PlusNet for their email service. There is a 1GB limit on storage for your email, which hasn't changed in ages, the same as the background infrastructure, like the Webmail interface. It doesn't feel like its one of their frontline products.

At the moment I use a PlusNet address for my email. I might switch from Plusnet to spend €4 a month for https://protonmail.com/signup so that its less of a hassle to switch ISP.

My e-mail is under the Freeuk.com domain ( which is owned by PlusNet ) and I couldn't comment about the storage limit because I have it feeding into Outlook on my computer. I can look at mail on the server via my phone when I'm out and about, but as soon as I get home it goes onto the computer where it's a lot less fiddle than on a phone.

 

[bspahh]

I wouldn't switch to PlusNet for their email service. There is a 1GB limit on storage for your email, which hasn't changed in ages, the same as the background infrastructure, like the Webmail interface. It doesn't feel like its one of their frontline products.

At the moment I use a PlusNet address for my email. I might switch from Plusnet to spend €4 a month for https://protonmail.com/signup so that its less of a hassle to switch ISP.

Plusnet's email service has been down today, with no further update until 8am, 24 hours after it went down.