Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
With a little planning it's possible to have an email address that does not need to change each time you change your internet provider.
Is there a way to keep my email address when I change my ISP?
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Cell phone carriers are now required to let you keep your cell phone number if you switch providers but unfortunately no such requirement exists for ISPs. So probably not. But there are definitely a few things you can do this time to make it possible to keep your email when you switch next time.
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If your email address includes the name of your ISP such as @aol.com, @msn.com, comcast, attbi, earthlink and so on, that email address is tied to that ISP forever. The only way you can keep that address is to keep some kind of account with that ISP.
You can however create an email address that is independent of your ISP, and therefore one you can use regardless of which ISP you have or use. There are several approaches.
Webmail: Services such as Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are based on the web and are accessible from just about anywhere. The basic service is also usually free. The downside to web based mail services is that you are tied to their service for all of your email needs. Your storage and other capabilities might be limited and as discussed here you probably won't be able to use your favorite mail program to get your mail. But as I said these services are quick, free, and ubiquitous.
Mail Forwarding Services: Another approach is to sign up with a mail forwarding service. When you sign up you are given a new email address at one of the domains the service supports. You then configure that service to forward all email received on that address to your "real" email address at your current ISP. You never hand out your ISP-based email address, only the one that goes through the forwarding service. Then when you decide to change your ISP you simply reconfigure the service to forward to your new email address. There are many services around including Netforward and Mail.com. A new spam protection service called MailBlocks can also be used in a similar way.
Your Own Domain: If all you want to do is forward email owning your own domain name isn't very complicated at all. Most of the domain registrars include mail forwarding as part of their service when you register with them. In fact the most difficult part might be finding a domain name you like that hasn't already been taken! Once you find that domain name then not only can you typically get email forwarding for one email address, but ANY email address at that domain - even made up ones - can be forwarded to the address you specify. There are several low cost domain registrars out there and right now I'm partial to Simple URL.
Article C1860 - November 11, 2003
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I currently have a pacbell account (which is now AT&T, I believe). I also have purchased a personalized business email account, which is tied to this pacbell account. I want to change to comcast, so I know I will lose the pacbell account, but can I transfer the business email account to a new comcast account? Both the pacbell and business I believe are owned by AT&T.
05-May-2011
Posted by: Kate at January 28, 2011 10:09 AM
Sorry for the 2nd post. I just looked more closely at the business email I have. It is a "Small Business" account I believe through Yahoo mail. But definitely somehow tied into the pacball email account. Thanks for your response
Posted by: Kate at January 28, 2011 10:19 AMI have switched from att to cox internet. My primary email is an att address, subaccount is @yahoo. When I cancel the att internet, will I be able to keep the @yahoo address, or will it go because it is tied to the att account?
Posted by: Mary at February 4, 2011 3:48 AMsbc / att just sent subscribers notification that they *will* be able to keep their email addresses if they cancel services. we received our notice on 4/12/2011. good timing, since we are switching isp's next month!
Posted by: Kim at April 14, 2011 9:30 AMWe have had our present e-mail addresses since we went on the Internet in 1997. I keep it because I do a lot of WWW posting about family history research and there are numerous postings of my current e-mail address on the Internet from which I receive e-messages continually. However, I have been on a dial-up local ISP, my electric power coop. We live out in the country and can't get a fast internet ISP here. We are considering getting Hughes Satellite Internet but would like to learn if we can keep or have our e-mails forwarded to our new Hughes ISP e-mail addresses. We use IncrediMail 2.0 as our e-mail program. Is there anyway to have our present e-mail account e-messages automatically forwarded to a new ISP service such as Hughes Satellite Internet Service??? Thanks!!!
Al Barrs
Bascom, Florida
{email removed}
18-Sep-2011
Posted by: Al Barrs at September 18, 2011 6:09 AM