[ale] OT: tech support hell at Mindspring--followup

[Alan Dobkin]

I've run into this problem many times over the past several years,
mostly from people switching away from AOL to a real ISP, but also
between different ISPs.  My recommendation is always to avoid using
any ISP's e-mail account as your public e-mail address.  The best
solution is to get your own domain (heck, they're less than $10/yr.
now) and then forward your e-mail, if necessary, to your ISP's
account.  This way, you can change ISPs whenever you want without
having to change your e-mail address with anyone else.  All you
have to do is update the forwarding destination in one place.

The same advice goes for using work e-mail accounts.  You could
instantly lose your e-mail address with any employer and be forced
to change your address on all of the items you mentioned below.
So, it's best to use your work e-mail address only for work-related
mail, then if you leave the job (voluntarily or involuntarily), any
bounced mail will be the responsibility of your employer.  If it is
something you care about personally, you should always use your
personal e-mail address, preferably in your own domain.

So, to answer your question, my suggestion is to first register your
own domain and set up your new e-mail address.  (Remember, this does
not have to be a POP/IMAP mailbox account, only a forwarding address.)
Then, set up your account with your new ISP, and tell your old ISP
that you want to convert to the cheapest account they offer only for
you to keep your e-mail address.  Most ISPs have a plan for this,
where you only pay a few dollars per month, but if they don't, you
could at least switch from DSL to their cheapest dial-up service, or
something similar.  This gives you enough time to migrate your
accounts to the new e-mail address.  Then, once you're no longer
getting important mail at the old address, cancel the account.

The best advice I can give here is to not make the same mistake
with your new ISP.

Alan

-- 
Alan Dobkin, Principal
Maestro IT Services, LLC
Phone/Fax:  (678) 254-4055 ext. 2
www.MaestroIT.com

--On Monday, March 22, 2004 8:15 AM -0500 Dow Hurst <dhurst at kennesaw.edu> 
wrote:

> Jim,
> How are you dealing with your legacy email address that others
> might know? Plus, how long did it take to move all your listservs
> and subscriptions over to the new email?  A full day to work thru
> all of it? I am just curious since I am seriously planning a
> switchover and making a list so I don't forget any login that
> might be needing to send email to the new address.
>
> Think about it:
> Phone company
> Credit card companies
> Every site you've bought from
> Every software package you've registered for Listservs
> and so on.
>
> My list is getting too long for comfort.
> Dow