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

[Robert Heaven]

OK, forgive my ignorence but, how does one go about setting up their own 
domain and personal email address? Doesn't there have to be an IP 
address and sendmail server involved somewhere? Who provides this kind 
of service and how much does it cost?


Alan Dobkin wrote:

> 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
>