EMail- Good, Bad, Ugly

[imoldernu]

Picking an Email program is like getting a tattoo. Act in haste, repent at leisure.

My initial rant is about the Google decision to change the mechanics of Gmail by forcing members (eventually) to change to a new user interface. I don't like that at all... BUT in considering the idea of changing Email providers, the option to change is really unthinkable. Gmail began in 2004, and many of us switched from older providers... Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo etc., and now are signed in to websites, banks, insurance companies and even government entities that are necessities.

How does one switch to another mail source, when there could be hundreds or maybe even thousands of people and companies who are using your current email address to contact you? In effect, doesn't your Email address become part of who you are?

I seem to remember a free program that would notify anyone who sent mail to the "old" address... should now use the "new" address. Not perfect, but at least a start on weaning away from the original address.

Changing a phone number seems to be easier (for me) since we have relatively few contacts that are really important, and those are most often backed up by the email address.

Any thoughts on this? Ways to change over? Experiences from anyone who has made a change? And recommendations for the best program.

Biochips will eventually solve this, but until then?

 

[rbmrtn]

Keep your old address, forward incoming mail to your new address. When replying, put a note in regarding your new address. On your old account, send out an email to your contacts informing of the new address. For business related things you'll have to login and change your profile info.

A change of address can be a good thing, it'll take while for spam crap to catch up to your new address.

 

[Arifriekinel]

If you're not into changing, there's always a way to change back to the old layout

How to Get the Old, Non-Tabbed Gmail Inbox Back

As far as switching, I'm with rbmrtn, forwarding is a great way to ease the transition.

 

[jimbee]

Picking an Email program is like getting a tattoo. Act in haste, repent at leisure.

My initial rant is about the Google decision to change the mechanics of Gmail by forcing members (eventually) to change to a new user interface. I don't like that at all... BUT in considering the idea of changing Email providers, the option to change is really unthinkable. Gmail began in 2004, and many of us switched from older providers... Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo etc., and now are signed in to websites, banks, insurance companies and even government entities that are necessities.

How does one switch to another mail source, when there could be hundreds or maybe even thousands of people and companies who are using your current email address to contact you? In effect, doesn't your Email address become part of who you are?

I seem to remember a free program that would notify anyone who sent mail to the "old" address... should now use the "new" address. Not perfect, but at least a start on weaning away from the original address.

Changing a phone number seems to be easier (for me) since we have relatively few contacts that are really important, and those are most often backed up by the email address.

Any thoughts on this? Ways to change over? Experiences from anyone who has made a change? And recommendations for the best program.

Biochips will eventually solve this, but until then?

Don't use a web browser for email. It's like taking a bath with your socks on. You can stick with Gmail, just use the IMAP interface, with a proper email client. I use Thunderbird, with Gmail, and use email forwarding with my registered domain. It's worked well for almost twenty years, and I get to use the same email address no matter where it is hosted.

 

[Animorph]

I use my own domain name, a hosting service for email, and the old Eudora email program. I can transfer the domain and email hosting anywhere without changing my email address. The domain name costs about $10/year, and minimal hosting costs about $12/year. I can create a ton of email addresses if I want to keep things separate.

 

[rbmrtn]

If you want something more permanent, then register a domain and use the hosted email service ( not free but it's relatively cheap these days )

Example
A Personal Email Address Packed with Features | Network Solutions

 

[Katsmeow]

I actually like Gmail. However, for my personal email I have my own domain name that I've owned for years. I have all Gmail go fetch all that mail and Gmail can send email from me uses that email address. So, if I suddenly decided I didn't like Gmail any more I would use something else to get my email (for years I used a program called The Bat) but would still keep my same email address.

 

[FIREd]

I have had the same email address for 13 years. But because of long and unexplained recent outages, I am moving to another provider. The old inbox was clogged with spam and commercial emails so I see this move as an opportunity to start fresh.

 

[HillCountry]

Getting your LastName.com or LastName.org. Then use google hosted email. Set up a catch all account.

So if you need to sign up some service that you think they might spam you, use somethingelse@LastName.com. And all validation email and subsequent spam will go the catch all account.

You only give out your real email to friends and reputable business/web site.

Hope you don't have a common last name. For me, there are tens of millions of people with the same last name. But I do own my last name dotcom

 

[Texas Proud]

I have a really old email account at Excite....

But, I get SO much spam at that address I really do not use it much... it still is connected to a good number of accounts like you mention as I do not want my 'new' (maybe 10 years old) Yahoo account to get as bad...

I am getting spam at my Yahoo, but not nearly as much as the other...

 

[easysurfer]

Don't use a web browser for email. It's like taking a bath with your socks on. You can stick with Gmail, just use the IMAP interface, with a proper email client. I use Thunderbird, with Gmail, and use email forwarding with my registered domain. It's worked well for almost twenty years, and I get to use the same email address no matter where it is hosted.

I just switched from Outlook Express to Sylpheed as my email client and am quite happy with that switch.

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/i-need-a-good-email-interceptor-66071.html

 

[MichaelB]

Gmail does a ver good job of filtering spam, so I use it but via Eudora - I still prefer to download and store my email. This thread reminds me that it's time again to look for a fresher email client. Easysurfer, thanks for the link to that earlier thread.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I've been using Aim Mail for about four years now and I'm sick of it. It's part of AOL. My daughter got me onto Aim because she always liked it. Then I started to get a message in a big black box every time I go to log on. The message says "Your buddy list, expressions, settings and some other functions are temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." Until I click on the OK box, the whole computer is locked up. I'm thinking about changing to GMail. I have a GMail account but don't want to use the acount name I used to sign up. So, I'll have to figure out how to change that. Big PITA!

 

[target2019]

I have my own domains, and use my primary business contact email with gmail, as it has the best spam filtering.

There is no reason to get rid of the old email, and has been pointed out you can set up filters to copy email sent to any other inbox.

 

[target2019]

I've been using Aim Mail for about four years now and I'm sick of it. It's part of AOL. My daughter got me onto Aim because she always liked it. Then I started to get a message in a big black box every time I go to log on. The message says "Your buddy list, expressions, settings and some other functions are temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." Until I click on the OK box, the whole computer is locked up. I'm thinking about changing to GMail. I have a GMail account but don't want to use the acount name I used to sign up. So, I'll have to figure out how to change that. Big PITA!

Just get a new gmail account. It is that simple. Keep the old one for use where you have to submit an email address, but really don't want to give out info.

 

[Katsmeow]

Gmail does a ver good job of filtering spam, so I use it but via Eudora - I still prefer to download and store my email. This thread reminds me that it's time again to look for a fresher email client. Easysurfer, thanks for the link to that earlier thread.

I love the spam filtering on Gmail which is a big part of why I use that. I did set up Thunderbird IMAP to also periodically download my Gmail so I would have a local archive of my email.

Does anyone use anything to backup Gmail in case Gmail were to go poof?

 

[rbmrtn]

I love the spam filtering on Gmail which is a big part of why I use that. I did set up Thunderbird IMAP to also periodically download my Gmail so I would have a local archive of my email.

Does anyone use anything to backup Gmail in case Gmail were to go poof?

You would use thunderbird ( any email client ) to backup gmail. So you basically already have it in place.

There are a few third party apps, here's one I ran across ( have not used it )

Gmvault: gmail backup

Some info
Guide to Backing Up Gmail and Other Webmail

 

[ERD50]

You would use thunderbird ( any email client ) to backup gmail. So you basically already have it in place. ...

I use a gmail account and Thunderbird on my machine to access it. The problem I have with the web interface is, I can't (or don't know how) to sort the messages by subject, sender, date, or other column. Yes, you can 'filter' them, but then you just get those messages, not an ordered list that I can visually scan. But this is just a click with Thunderbird (or any email program I've used)

Here's something that I need to think about - if I go on-line to gmail, and delete some messages there, when I start up Thunderbird later, it 'syncs' and deletes the message from my computer also! If hacker got in and deleted it all, or some glitch, or just me screwing up on-line, I lose those messages from my computer (at least since my last backup, which does include my email info). I see the one I tested is still in my local trash, even after I did a permanent delete on-line, but getting all the messages back to the right folders would still be a pain.

How do I set this up so deleting on the web does not delete from Thunderbird?

-ERD50

 

[rbmrtn]

How do I set this up so deleting on the web does not delete from Thunderbird?

-ERD50

I don't think you can without doing some extra steps. The sync is one of the features of IMAP over the older POP3 mail server.

I think you can optionally set it to only sync certain folders.

Or a specific more frequent backup for thunderbird.

 

[ERD50]

I don't think you can without doing some extra steps. The sync is one of the features of IMAP over the older POP3 mail server.

I think you can optionally set it to only sync certain folders.

Or a specific more frequent backup for thunderbird.

I'll experiment a bit later. Maybe just copying from INBOX to a local folder is all I need. I don't think the sync will look into that folder.

-ERD50