What's a good way to get a permanent email address?

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

When I last changed my address I just set my old one to forward any messages II receive to my new one, I still occasionally get messages on that account and whenever I do I correct the sender. It is completely transparent except the To bit gives my old address instead of my current one.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Many email services don't provide a forwarding feature. I know that the
free MSN Hotmail and free MSN mails do not. I would assume the same is
true for paid MSN mail.

Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFF7FDZCMEe9B/8oqERAsaMAJwMrnGzo3J71wtEX+Xh5AHOI2Tf6QCfexIQ
yHhe1ophT067Rvo+8q3EG98=
=lEn+
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Many college alumni associations provide an e-mail address that is transparent. You get the prestige of an @*.edu and can change your ISP at will. Just notify them of the new forwarding address.

This is as near permament as one can get.

I agree with everything Leo said, but would like to expand on it a bit.

There are two types of email addresses: those with a real mailbox/inbox and those that are nothing more than a forwarding rule. To borrow a phrase, for the second type of email address, there is no there there. Personally, I have one inbox and a couple dozen email addresses. All but one of the email address are simply forwarding rules, and they all forward messages to my one inbox.

The companies that register domains (mylumbercompany.com) are called Registrars. To register a domain, simply visit the web site of a Registar with a credit card in hand. All Registrars offer a search feature on their web site where you can check whether your desired domain name is taken or not.

I have dealt with more than my share of Registrars and recommend directnic.com which, at the time of this writing, charges $15/year for a domain. GoDaddy is a very popular Registrar and I've found them to be average - not the best and not the worst. They currently charge $9/year for a domain.

But there probably isn't a lot of money to be made registeriing domains, so Registrars also offer email services and web site hosting. The services offered and pricing varies greatly. Often some bare bones email and website hosting is included in the price of the domain registration.

When reviewing email services, be aware that the common term for a real mailbox (as opposed to a forwarding rule) is a POP3 account. In general POP3 accounts cost more and/or are more limited than forwarded email addresses. I assume it's a more expensive service in that it requires storage space on a server and possibly virus scanning and spam filtering.

Directnic.com includes free email forwarding when you register a domain with them. Real mailboxes are an extra charge.

The email services provided by GoDaddy when you register a domain are very confusing. Their marketing term is "complete email", but after looking all over their web site, I could not figure out exactly what this means (and I checked both while logged in and not). I think it includes a single real mailbox and email forwarding, but don't hold me to it. They offer two different plans for buying additional email services.

Register.com does not include any email services when you register a domain with them. I'm not a big fan of Register.com.

If email is your priority, there is no need to have any web site connected to your domain. The common term for this is "parking". Often the registrar will create a single page web site for you automatically. It serves as advertising for them and provides notice to the outside world that your domain name is taken.

Interestingly, if you have a website hosted with a company other than your Registrar, then you can get email service from either your Registrar or your website hosting company.

Finally, if you own your own domain, guard the userid/password for your account with your Registrar carefully. It is the keys to the castle.

Leo, I am trying to drop my old service provider, "Carolina.net". Can I have my email, associatetd with them, forwarded to a new address for a period of time. They , Carolina.net, do not provide that service.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

No, not unless they provide the service.

Thanks,

Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFGZ4keCMEe9B/8oqERApYxAJ91kTW58gceJ9cBzddiB7n+dq9VgACcDGI3
gxjkVhr2+eUbbE2reFrVPEY=
=NQ3P
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Dear Leo,

Thankyou!

For years I have been changing email addresses here and there but for the past 7 years have had one with my ISP. It was reasonably private and all but I realized I had one with my domain that I never used. Now I'm keeping my email with my ISP open for two - three years, following the pointers in this article, while I migrate everything I have (I'm quite the enthusiast and have my email on possibly thousands of systems). Thankyou so much, you've made quite a difference in my tech-life with this article.

Dan.

thank you

Leo, you don't have to post this. I was just trying to understand it better before I jump into the water.
1) What happens to my registered domain name if my registrar goes out of business?
2) Can another registrar pick up my domain name
3) Isn't a registrar essentially agreeing to keep your domain name active on a DNS?
4) Isn't a domain name synonymous with an IP address?
5) Is it possible to get a .net domain instead of a .com domain? I only want it for my family, not for a commercial business.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

1) What happens to my registered domain name if my registrar goes out of
business?

Usually as part of going out of business the registrar transfers all
registrations to another registrar.

2) Can another registrar pick up my domain name

Aside from going out of business, or perhaps selling their assets to another
registrar, they cannot - at least not without your permission. You can elect to
transfer, of course, to another registrar.

3) Isn't a registrar essentially agreeing to keep your domain name active on a DNS?

Yes and no. Your registrar must keep a pointer to the DNS servers that define
your DNS entries. That DNS Server may, or may not, be owned and run by the
registrar. Again, up to you.

4) Isn't a domain name synonymous with an IP address?

No.

A domain name may point to several IP addresses. (It's a poor form of load
balancing - you can assign multiple IPs to the same domain name, and people
accessing the domain name will get one of those addresses at random.)

Similarly, several domains may point to the same IP. A good example would
be several sites hosted on a single server.

5) Is it possible to get a .net domain instead of a .com domain? I only want
it for my family, not for a commercial business.

Sure. Just check with your registrar for availability. Example: I own both
ask-leo.com and ask-leo.net.

Leo

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)

iD4DBQFHHmjxCMEe9B/8oqERAn+jAJjuMQ1le8RVDt1owHTDC1tPjm/6AJ40df0u
iCnfYWNvN61uN7tTYjWxSg==
=HWII
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

To post a comment on "What's a good way to get a permanent email address?", please return to that article's main page.