[ale] [OT] email forwarding service recommendations

[DJ-Pfulio]

When a registrar doesn't list your name in the records, then you
probably agreed to them providing a "privacy service" so your identity
doesn't get leaked for anyone on the internet to know.

That has advantages and disadvantages.

I've always separated the 3 layers of internet services
a) Registrar
b) DNS
c) hosting (web, email, voip, whatever)

This means any single company probably won't screw me over.  It also
means an understanding of each layer is required, so if something bad
does happen, it is on me to correct. Or get the broken provider to fix.

Swapping out any single layer is pretty easy if I'm unhappy too.

However, I've never had **any** issues with a or b since my setups are
trivial.



On 02/20/2017 11:47 AM, Tim Watts wrote:
> Thanks for your input.  See below.
> 
> On Mon, 2017-02-20 at 16:06 +0000, Lightner, Jeffrey wrote:
>> I can't answer about the forwarding service as the ones I'm aware of
>> charge significantly more than $40/year.  However, I as curious what
>> you meant by DNS hosting. 
> 
> I just mean providing access to the DNS records.  I'm using DynDNS for
> that now.  I can set the MX record (and other entries).  I suspect my
> ISP (Earthlink) would reject traffic if I point it at their mail
> servers.
>>
>> If you're running your own DNS servers you can point your MX record to
>> any provider that allows you to do so.   That is to say you can
>> control your own DNS even if you're using external mail hosting and/or
>> web hosting and I highly recommend you do or at least do your own DNS
>> registration.   
>>
>> Here we do a fair number of acquisitions and have run across "hosting"
>> providers that did the original domain registration and take the
>> attitude they rather than the client own the domain.   Since they did
>> the registration ICANN considers them the owners so you end up having
>> to pay them to allow the registration transfer to your ownership OR
>> sue them with the latter meaning you're going to be down for some
>> time.  If you own the registration you can change which DNS servers
>> you point at any time so that you can also change MX and web addresses
>> without such hosting providers blocking you.
>>
> RE registration ownership.  Perhaps you can clarify this for me.
> 
> Registry Registrant ID: DYNDNS422346
> Registrant Name: Tim Watts
> ...
> Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited 
> Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited 
> 
> So does this mean I'm not the actual owner?  With DynDNS, my
> understanding is that this effectively binds me to the "lease" of DNS
> record hosting I paid for.  That is, I could move it to say GoDaddy's
> servers when the lease is up (or pay a penalty).  But the terms are
> completely controlled by DynDNS -- they could if they wanted to say
> "Nope, it's ours and you can never move it" but I don't think that's
> their current policy.