Changing ISP: email implications

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My contract with a UK ISP is coming to an end and I am considering changing to another with a pricing structure better suited to my needs. My email address has the ending with the ISPs name.net – what will happen after I change to a different ISP, will I still be able to see any new mail sent with that old address and then be able to notify the new address using mail2web. I have set up a gmail account and am notifying contacts that my new address is now “*.gmail.com”, but there are bound to be contacts that I miss. About ten years or more ago I had a pay as you go account with Onetel and am still able to see new emails in mail2web, all of which are junk and have been for years.

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My contract with a UK ISP is coming to an end and I am considering changing to another with a pricing structure better suited to my needs. My email address has the ending with the ISPs name.net – what will happen after I change to a different ISP, will I still be able to see any new mail sent with that old address and then be able to notify the new address using mail2web. I have set up a gmail account and am notifying contacts that my new address is now “*.gmail.com”, but there are bound to be contacts that I miss. About ten years or more ago I had a pay as you go account with Onetel and am still able to see new emails in mail2web, all of which are junk and have been for years.

There is a problem in that when one cancels service with an ISP ALL things are deleted from their server pretty much immediately. I have talked several clients into checking with their current ISP about an E-Mail-only account, usually about $5 US and keep it until all senders have been notified of the new address, some have kept it forever due to business or organization needs. Another choice is to maintain the old service long enough to migrate everything to the new service although that is an expense some can’t afford.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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If you do only webmail, then yes, you will lose it all by switching to someone else. But if you use an email program (e.g. Thunderbird), and set it up to do IMAP, your entire mailbox (i.e. every folder) will be automatically replicated (copied) onto your computer.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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Thanks both – my contract has a couple of months to run so I will try to notify all contacts of a change to gmail and have plenty of time to pick up the ones who mail that I have missed. I use Thunderbird as an email client but will check if it is IMAP or POP3.

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I use Thunderbird as an email client but will check if it is IMAP or POP3.

If you have been using POP3 with Thunderbird, all your emails since you started will be preserved on your computer until you erase them. If IMAP and you haven’t been archiving the emails locally, depending on your settings all you may currently have is what is currently on the server. You should immediately archive all of those emails locally.

I have gone through email changes a couple of times (ISP out of business, moved to a location where the ISP had no internet service, etc.). In the end, I opted for my own domain. That way I keep my email address forever.

There are many hosting companies who charge little per month and will get you a free or nominal cost domain registration. You’ll still pay an ISP for your connection, but not use them for email.

Avoid long term contracts. That way, you can always switch to a different host company if you are unsatisfied. Most hosting companies will do the transfer of email databases and any websites you created for free.

Just for an example, I looked up the domain http://www.mike21.com on the giant host company godaddy.com. It isn’t available. But http://www.mike21.net is. The first year of this domain, including website and email, would cost around 15 euros for one year in France (where I am).

With any potential host, read all the fine print, particularly about refunds if unsatisfied and how much charges can go up in the second year.

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Think about creating a signature that has your new email information and an effective date. That’ll let everyone you email know. Then just email everyone of your contacts.

Joe

--Joe

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I use a email service for my personal email that has an address that is in the form FerstName@LastName.net. I do not own the domain but rather rent the mailbox from the owner (Hover.com). I have had this address since 1998 and it has survived my switching through several ISPs. There is a rental cost but it is modest.

I reserve this address for friends and family and the few important commercial accounts that do not produce spam. For all other email contacts, I use a few different ‘free’ accounts like those offered by Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. All of these will survive a change of ISP. Only ISP hosted email accounts will be affected by a change in ISP and I simply avoid using such email addresses.

As someone else pointed out, a client based email program, like Thunderbird, will give you a single and (more or less) seamless path to all email accounts.

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I just went through this process with my parents. They were going to do a big switch. They needed a new computer (Windows 10) and they wanted to switch ISPs because their current one (DSL) couldn’t provide them with a decent speed because of where they lived.

Since I knew their old ISP-based email account would eventually go away I had them set up their Gmail-based address first. I set them up with Thunderbird making sure both their ISP and Gmail email accounts used IMAP. This resulted in them having two inboxes, one for each email account. I then had them send out a “change of address” notice to all their contacts. A while after their primary contacts had started using the new address I had them switch ISPs.

It has been over a month since they turned off their old ISP (they still have a land line from them) and they still receive some emails to the old address, primarily from a couple of mailing lists they were on (no major loss). Now that they are at this point I will delete the account from their Thunderbird configuration. Any message they wanted to keep has been archived to local folders on their new PC.

The big takeaway is to never use an email account that is tied to your ISP. Just make sure to choose a provider that has a good long life expectancy.

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I’ve had the same email address since the mid 90’s (.att.net). I’ve moved several times, so had to change ISP several times, but always kept the att.net mail address – for about US $5 a month. Also, I use Microsoft Outlook, downloading mail to my PC. So even if I changed email address, I would still have all the previous emails.

A few years ago I added a second email address – because the wife more or less took over my ‘main’ address. The second address is still att.net, but I use the web version – so I can see email on both my laptop and my smartphone. That has been very helpful, but the ATT web client is slow and often can’t keep up with my not-real-fast typing. The slow response on the ATT web client is frustrating, but I continue to do that because it’s really helpful to see email on both the laptop and my iPhone. I do short responses on the iPhone, but for long responses, I wait and do those on the computer.

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I’ve never had too much of an issue in the past. I had a talk21 address (still do) which was the original BT address, before they changed it to BTinternet. When I changed from BT to O2, I found I couldn’t send email using my old address; this, I found out, was due to the policy of ISPs (in the UK at any rate) not to allow it on “security” grounds. (POP3 was the norm in those days.) However, a quick call to O2 sorted it; they just gave me the address of their relay server, I entered it into Thunderbird, and everything worked. Even after O2 was bought by Sky.

Fast-forward a few years. I moved house, and found that I couldn’t send again. Sky were no help; they just said I couldn’t do it, and I’d have to start using a Sky address (something I’ve never done). It was about this time I decided to switch to IMAP, so I tried it. Guess what? I could now send. It seems that, as IMAP uses authenticated login (and a different port), it’s considered by the ISPs to be more secure, so they allow it. So I’m still using the same address I’ve had since the 90s.

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Correct me if I’m wrong — POP3 downloads what is in your Inbox only, whereas IMAP downloads the entire contents of your mailbox. Therefore, if you are doing POP3, either switch to IMAP, or manually copy the mail not in your inbox to your local folders.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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Correct me if I’m wrong —

OK then 😀

POP downloads the entire email from your inbox (thereby deleting it from the server, though that can be changed in your client), whereas IMAP simply allows you to work with the server’s folders remotely. An email is normally only downloaded when you open it.

There’s more to it than that, but that’s the bare bones of it. The beauty of IMAP is that it’s more suitable if you use more than one computer; POP was better in the days when people weren’t permanently online. Also, the SMTP settings are different, because your client needs permission to alter the contents of the remote Sent folder, and possibly others. This is why I found I could use my old address to send emails.

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Correct me if I’m wrong — POP3 downloads what is in your Inbox only, whereas IMAP downloads the entire contents of your mailbox. Therefore, if you are doing POP3, either switch to IMAP, or manually copy the mail not in your inbox to your local folders.

OK then 😀

POP downloads the entire email from your inbox (thereby deleting it from the server, though that can be changed in your client), whereas IMAP simply allows you to work with the server’s folders remotely. An email is normally only downloaded when you open it.

There’s more to it than that, but that’s the bare bones of it. The beauty of IMAP is that it’s more suitable if you use more than one computer; POP was better in the days when people weren’t permanently online. Also, the SMTP settings are different, because your client needs permission to alter the contents of the remote Sent folder, and possibly others. This is why I found I could use my old address to send emails.

My point was that if he does POP3, nothing will be downloaded to his computer except for what is in his inbox. However, if he does IMAP, everything, including the inbox and all of the other folders, will be downloaded to his computer.

So if his goal is to get everything copied from his online mailbox to his computer, he needs to choose IMAP.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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My point was that if he does POP3, nothing will be downloaded to his computer except for what is in his inbox. However, if he does IMAP, everything, including the inbox and all of the other folders, will be downloaded to his computer.

So if his goal is to get everything copied from his online mailbox to his computer, he needs to choose IMAP.

Sorry, misunderstood you. I do know that my ISP has a spam folder, into which er, spam goes automatically. When I used POP, I received all the emails, spam or not, in my inbox. Now that I use IMAP, I see the seperate spam folder, which I do subscribe to just in case.

With IMAP, normally only the headers are downloaded, until you open the email. And you can choose what folders you subscribe to.

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With IMAP, normally only the headers are downloaded, until you open the email. And you can choose what folders you subscribe to.

With Thunderbird, if you turn on Synchronization, it will download the entire message, rather than just the header. Here is helpful information about synchronization.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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I endorse what others have recommended. Many years ago I registered my own domain (xxx.co.uk) and have navigated many ISP changes without a hitch. I use 1&1 and for £10 per year for the email plus £8.38 every two years for the domain I get 5 independent mail boxes and as many aliases as I want. this way, I provide email for the whole family of 4 adults. One of the best value purchases I have made.

I strongly recommend using IMAP, particularly once you start to look at email on several devices. I switched from POP quite easily (there are several tutorials on the web, e.g. from Zen, and I am sure there will be one for Thunderbird. I use Outlook). The beauty of that is that the process downloaded all my data into IMAP, and I kept it all through the change.

I have several legacy ISP accounts that I pick up with POP. Amazingly, given that they are many years old, I still get any incoming email. Since everything of import comes in via my domain, I have not paid attention to what the detailed rules are for those old accounts – it really does not matter to me.

Good luck

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

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I opted for my own domain. That way I keep my email address forever.

The big takeaway is to never use an email account that is tied to your ISP. Just make sure to choose a provider that has a good long life expectancy.

I endorse what others have recommended. Many years ago I registered my own domain (xxx.co.uk) and have navigated many ISP changes without a hitch.

Yes, your own domain name is the way to go to forget about ISP changes and host problems–I learned that from my first ISP change a long time ago.

You don’t even need a hosting account to use it these days. Gmail, Outlook.com, and I assume many other webmails allow you to use your own domain name–so your email appears to come from fred@flintstone.com and people can also reply to the same address. If you don’t like Gmail, setup on Outlook.com without missing a beat–and so on, no worries if those two go out of business.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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I opted for my own domain. That way I keep my email address forever.

One own-domain email address I had in the 90s eventually became unusable due to spam. I simply got another own-domain address and started using that to reply from. When my contacts had almost all switched over to using it, I ditched the old address.

So even tho you mightn’t keep the same address forever, own-domain allows for seamless transition to a new address as needed.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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