email portability?

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gerhardd

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Hi all

I recently became an ADSL user with Cybersmart. I was reading the posts re the problem with ISP users not able to move between ISP's, due to the fact that they can't keep their email address. Shouldn't there be some ruling regarding this, similar to what happened with cell phone users now having the option of number portability, to move between cell phone operators? In this case, there should be email portability, where you can keep your email address and easily move between ISP's. This will clear the arena for proper competition between ISP's, especially because Mweb has such a monopoly in this market, and many people stick with them because of their email addresses.

How easy would this be to implement by ISP's, if at all possible?

Gerhard
 
gerhardd said:
How easy would this be to implement by ISP's, if at all possible?

Gerhard
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The dns itself would probably preclude true portability though an ISP could allow you to keep the email address on their server but there are obvious disadvantages to this especially for the ISP. What they could do is set up forwarding to your new email. This would be less taxing for them.

On the other hand an ISP could/should embrace your using their email address because its free advertising for them but that would be progressive thinking and therefore highly unlikely. :p

People stick with their Mweb (insert ISP name here) because they're lazy.

Edit - when a company sends me correspondence from an ISP account it goes straight into the bin. If they dont take themselves seriously why should I?
 
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They all seem to offer forwarding, but at a price.
Easiest is to register your own domain. You'll have an email address for life (and the family). Cost is about R30-40 pm at WebAfrica / Hetzner / others. Usually includes a few mailboxes, aliases, limited Website and FTP. You'll still need an ISP, but you won't be bound to any specific one.
 
HvRooyen said:
They all seem to offer forwarding, but at a price.
Easiest is to register your own domain. You'll have an email address for life (and the family). Cost is about R30-40 pm at WebAfrica / Hetzner / others. Usually includes a few mailboxes, aliases, limited Website and FTP. You'll still need an ISP, but you won't be bound to any specific one.
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I agree completely. Loose the ISP specific or company specific e-mail addresses. Company e-mail should only be used for company business, while a separate account should be used for home and personal stuff.

A GMail account for the latter is fine, although I have my own domain which is mine for life (thus an email address for life as well).
 
I think there are a couple of ISP's where you can keep your mail addy should you leave, but I don't think it is widely advertised. Don't ask me who, cause I can't remember. Personally I have a domain for official stuff and a GMail account for arb forum registrations, etc.
 
If you're running a company, get your own domain name

Privately you can get away with the many free providers, but rather stick with the larger ones for continuity, as some of the smaller ones might suddenly stop to exist.

BUT DON'T use your ISP's email addresss even it comes for free
 
Its rather easy to register your own domain as well and rather cheap. Companies like brinkster offer domains at $9.99/year for 5 mail boxes and will do the domain registration free of charge.
 
Personally, I've registered myself a domain on freeparking.co.uk. They handle .co.za domains as well. I registered a .co.uk domain, though, because at the time (about 7 years ago), it was significantly cheaper. (Well, though them, anyway.) Costs me 15 pounds per 2 years.
For that price, they maintain the dns on your domain, which you can point at another dns server, point at a web server, or even (like me), point it at a google home page. They also allow you to manage your own dns zone file, if you know what you're doing. Also, you get 10 email aliases, each of which can either be a basic web mail, or can bounce your email to a specified email address (I bounce mine to gmail). They allow up to 20 pop3 mailboxes. (Limited size, but you can purchase more space if you want). They allow you to manage your own mx records, if you want to send your mail directly to a local mail server instead.
Anyway, they've got a whole bunch of services, everything is web based, works well, even for people who are not particularly technical. I've been with them for about 8 years now, so I don't think they're just gonna dissappear... ;)
 
i just use gmail + za.net + zoneedit[dns, forwarding etc]. have not worried about changing for a few yrs :) all while i get new/different mail boxes i need to use.
 
I registered my surname as a .co.za ... so I can now have the same email address (just like my family members can) for the next decade ... and more ...

;)
 
RazorSA said:
I registered my surname as a .co.za ... so I can now have the same email address (just like my family members can) for the next decade ... and more ...

;)
Click to expand...
What a geek :p

Jokes - I did the same (but as a .us)
 
RazorSA said:
I registered my surname as a .co.za ... so I can now have the same email address (just like my family members can) for the next decade ... and more ...

;)
Click to expand...


Same here. Do this, but unless you want to sign a life-long free-support agreement don't advertise this to other family members. The lesson I'm busy learning is that family members cannot be trusted with this.
 
argh just when I was thinking thats a great idea :)
Thanks for the reminder chiskop :)
 
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