problem E-mail

[LunarMist]

The #@$%! at ISP are discontinuing e-mail in early May.
Needless to say this is a major hassle as I have a myriad of online accounts using multiple addresses.
A number of them have unkown passwords, etc.
I surely don't want to suffer through the process again, so what 3rd party do you recommend?
I don't want anything that is free or the Google, but not crazy expensive either. Thanks.

 

[Handruin]

The #@$%! at ISP are discontinuing e-mail in early May.
Needless to say this is a major hassle as I have a myriad of online accounts using multiple addresses.
A number of them have unkown passwords, etc.
I surely don't want to suffer through the process again, so what 3rd party do you recommend?
I don't want anything that is free or the Google, but not crazy expensive either. Thanks.

Might be worth getting a domain name (I use and recommend Namecheap) and then having a service manage the email from your domain that way you can move it if needed in the future. I know you say no Google, but you can have them host and manage your email and if you need to move it somewhere else later you can.

Edit: looks like Namecheap also offers email hosting. I've not used it before but might be worth considering for $9.88/year if it meets your needs.

 

[Howell]

Consider you want at last as good a spam filter as you have now.

 

[timwhit]

Check out https://www.fastmail.com I've read about people moving there from Google.

 

[sechs]

The #@$%! at ISP are discontinuing e-mail in early May.
Needless to say this is a major hassle as I have a myriad of online accounts using multiple addresses.

I guess that you've sat on the same ISP for a *very* long time.

I quit using ISP e-mail over ten years ago. Too much hassle when switching.

Have you considered rolling your own server? You'll never be dependent on someone else to provide you with the service, ever.

 

[CougTek]

My oldest e-mail address is with them (fastmail).

 

[LunarMist]

I guess that you've sat on the same ISP for a *very* long time.

I quit using ISP e-mail over ten years ago. Too much hassle when switching.

Have you considered rolling your own server? You'll never be dependent on someone else to provide you with the service, ever.

Not only is that beyond my knowledge level, but I'm mainly going offline.
I just want to have multiple e-mail boxes for different purposes, accessible by Andriods phone and computer, and to be able to download and save them in the computer.

 

[time]

In that case, you definitely want FastMail.

I'll give you an example. I used sub-domain addresses (eg. adobe@myemail.fastmail.com and photoshop@myemail.fastmail.com) to register two Adobe products. When Adobe got hacked, I started receiving at least 50 spam emails a day to each of those addresses. In the end, I just set a filter on the FastMail server to delete anything directed to those two aliases.

Meanwhile, my main address and assorted aliases remained untouched.

My actual Fastmail email account is myemail@fastmail.com (obviously not my real email address!)
When I registered the Adobe products, I just added an arbitrary prefix so I could filter any crap if it became necessary in the future. I've used the same trick to work out who has sold my email address (an alias of course) to spammers.

Fastmail also has a cool web interface that demonstrates how utterly pathetic Google software is. IMO, it's one of the best parts of the internet.

 

[LunarMist]

I can have one $5 account with multiple email addresses? Do all the e-mails arrive with different addresses? I'm trying to understand what that would look like in the Outlook.

 

[time]

I can have one $5 account with multiple email addresses? Do all the e-mails arrive with different addresses? I'm trying to understand what that would look like in the Outlook.

If you want to keep them separate, it's just a case of creating a folder with the same name (eg "Adobe" in the example above) and Fastmail will automatically filter it for you. Easy as pie.

You can also have multiple real email addresses under a single account, but I'm pretty sure that costs rather more than $5. Compared to Logmein and especially DynDNS fees, I think it would be great value even at $100. By way of comparison, commercial GMail was $60 pA, but Google is now spruiking an upgrade that's $120 pA.

BTW, I assume you're using Outlook as an IMAP client? Frankly, it sucks royally at that.

 

[Tannin]

Check out https://www.fastmail.com I've read about people moving there from Google.

This. Costs bugger all, works perfectly. Or so I'm told by people who know their stuff and use it. I'd use it myself if I didn't have my own servers.

 

[LunarMist]

Well, I tried it but no luck. :cursin:

 

[timwhit]

Tried what?

 

[LunarMist]

Tried what?

I signed on for the Fastmails, but it won't work properly on the desktop. I tried both IAMP and POP3, but it only receives and will not send.

 

[Newtun]

I signed on for the Fastmails, but it won't work properly on the desktop. I tried both IAMP and POP3, but it only receives and will not send.

Did you follow this guide: https://www.fastmail.com/help/clients/outlook.html?

They claim "The instructions and screenshots in this setup guide are for Outlook 2013. However, previous versions of Outlook are very similar, and you should be able to more-or-less follow the same steps to set up."

Caviats: Outlook needs its own app password to access your information. If you use your normal password or your FastMail two step verification password on an external account, syncing to an external service won't work and you will see a password error.

 

[LunarMist]

Did you follow this guide: https://www.fastmail.com/help/clients/outlook.html?

They claim "The instructions and screenshots in this setup guide are for Outlook 2013. However, previous versions of Outlook are very similar, and you should be able to more-or-less follow the same steps to set up."

Caviats: Outlook needs its own app password to access your information. If you use your normal password or your FastMail two step verification password on an external account, syncing to an external service won't work and you will see a password error.

Yes, I did all that. I checked the port settings, created a new profile several times, and even generated several of the 16-digit "app" passwords. It continues to pop up the password dialog box.
I don't see any limits on which Outlook is used. I have all the same settings for the ATT account that functions properly. I even tried the mail.messagingenginemail.com server that the Andiorods use.

 

[LunarMist]

Yes, I did all that. I checked the port settings, created a new profile several times, and even generated several of the 16-digit "app" passwords. It continues to pop up the password dialog box.
I don't see any limits on which Outlook is used. I have all the same settings for the ATT account that functions properly. I even tried the mail.messagingenginemail.com server that the Andiorods use.

Update: I also tried the Mozella Thunderbird with similar results. WTF can be causing this?

 

[Chewy509]

WTF can be causing this?

Have you confirmed that your ISP will allow direct sending of email outbound via a 3rd party SMTP server? (Some ISPs block all outbound email unless going through their own SMTP server to help stop SPAM being sent from their network).

Also double check the IP Port for outbound email (some use port 25, others use 587), and the authentication type used when sending. (None/Basic/NTLM)

You can also manually check the outbound service using techniques described here to at lease ensure you are seeing the correct server: https://www.port25.com/how-to-check-an-smtp-connection-with-a-manual-telnet-session-2/

 

[LunarMist]

Have you confirmed that your ISP will allow direct sending of email outbound via a 3rd party SMTP server? (Some ISPs block all outbound email unless going through their own SMTP server to help stop SPAM being sent from their network).

Also double check the IP Port for outbound email (some use port 25, others use 587), and the authentication type used when sending. (None/Basic/NTLM)

You can also manually check the outbound service using techniques described here to at lease ensure you are seeing the correct server: https://www.port25.com/how-to-check-an-smtp-connection-with-a-manual-telnet-session-2/

The SMTP port is supposed to be 465, but I've tried the others and they don't work either. If they are discontinuing e-mail you'd think they would allow SMTP to other servers. It just doesn't make sense that ATT functions (also a third party). What can I do but try some other services?

 

[Chewy509]

If they are discontinuing e-mail you'd think they would allow SMTP to other servers. It just doesn't make sense that ATT functions (also a third party). What can I do but try some other services?

Not necessarily, just because they don't want to host mailboxes for customers doesn't mean they don't still want to run a virus-scanning/spam stopping gateway service. Also they may also white list some 3rd party services as well?

Also have you contacted either your ISP to ensure there's no blocking going on, or Fastmail to ensure your account is correctly setup in their system?

 

[time]

Fastmail SMTP Settings without 2-step authentication:

Server = either mail.messagingengine.com or smtp.fastmail.com (note that mail.messagingenginemail.com is incorrect)
Port = 465
Username = your full email address
Authentication = Normal password
Security = SSL/TLS

See https://www.fastmail.com/help/technical/servernamesandports.html for info on using a proxy and any port you desire. That's probably a quick way to check if your ISP is the problem.

I'm a bit busy so won't be able to experiment with 2-step and app passwords until Easter, sorry.

 

[LunarMist]

Moo9om

Not necessarily, just because they don't want to host mailboxes for customers doesn't mean they don't still want to run a virus-scanning/spam stopping gateway service. Also they may also white list some 3rd party services as well?

Also have you contacted either your ISP to ensure there's no blocking going on, or Fastmail to ensure your account is correctly setup in their system?

I just have the trial Fastmail for now, so no support.

 

[LunarMist]

Fastmail SMTP Settings without 2-step authentication:

Server = either mail.messagingengine.com or smtp.fastmail.com (note that mail.messagingenginemail.com is incorrect)
Port = 465
Username = your full email address
Authentication = Normal password
Security = SSL/TLS

See https://www.fastmail.com/help/technical/servernamesandports.html for info on using a proxy and any port you desire. That's probably a quick way to check if your ISP is the problem.

I'm a bit busy so won't be able to experiment with 2-step and app passwords until Easter, sorry.

Thanks. It still doesn't work with the proxy. I think they are just screwing with us.

 

[LunarMist]

I finally got it working. It think there was something in the password.

 

[LunarMist]

If you want to keep them separate, it's just a case of creating a folder with the same name (eg "Adobe" in the example above) and Fastmail will automatically filter it for you. Easy as pie.

You can also have multiple real email addresses under a single account, but I'm pretty sure that costs rather more than $5. Compared to Logmein and especially DynDNS fees, I think it would be great value even at $100. By way of comparison, commercial GMail was $60 pA, but Google is now spruiking an upgrade that's $120 pA.

BTW, I assume you're using Outlook as an IMAP client? Frankly, it sucks royally at that.

I'm planning to use the POP3. If I understand correctly only the main account can send e-mail, whereas the aliases are good for incoming e-mails such as accounts with online websites.
I will start with two basic accounts and go from there.

Thanks all for the help.

 

[Tannin]

Good to see you've got a working solution Lunar.