Personal domain registration & e-mail hosting info & advice

As this doesn't seem to have already been covered, i thought i would post hopefully this is the right place

OK as it is rumoured that my current isp is going to cease to trading during Jan next year, I'm now looking into setting up my own e-mail so it will work independent of any isp that i may choose in the future,

What i already know is that to do this i will need to register a new domain in my name ,and subscribe to a company that provides e-mail hosting , there seems to be quite a few companies that provide e-mail hosting, but some bundle with web hosting which i don't need,
So if anyone can help,by recommendations on who to choose for e-mail hosting and any advice on domain registration,that would be appreciated
Also if anyone knows of a guide on how to set it all up ie, configuration that would be good too ,
ie, domain e-mail host,be*there will most likely be my next isp

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 10-Nov-10 19:12:59)

First suggestion is - use different companies for registration and email/hosting.

The, if the hosting company start messing you about, you have control of the domain to go elsewhere

I use Heart Internet (for registration) and Nethosted (for email/web hosting). No trouble with either

Finally, I would suggest a .uk domain name.

Thank's ,Yeah i read somewhere that with a .uk registration you can hide your personal details from whois searches ect ,

Tommy

This is quite easy to do

I assume that dont want any hosting, so if you just buy a domain name of your choice, you can then set up email forwarding from the control panel of where your domain is held
You would do this as a forwarding email in the control panel
Eg [email protected] forwarded to say [email protected]
This would enable you to change the forwarding address at any time should you change your isp at any time.
If you want to fork out about £20.00 a year with some basic hosting, you can do alot more with your email

Hope this helps

Edited by deleted (Wed 10-Nov-10 19:36:03)

I have several domains registered with freeparking.co.uk and just have the domains email forwarded to my email account (could be an ISP email address - but in my case is a spamcop.net account)

nethosted do an email specific hosting - link

Once you have a domain - use unique email addresses for each registration - e.g. thinkbroadband@<domain> - then you can track who has sold address on! But domains can attract more spam

Think is be there don't provide a pop3 server, they do provide the option of a smtp server, but there are some restrictions on outgoing mails if used,
The cheapest e-mail host that i have found is this :1& 1 instant mail
so presumably the domain would be set up to use the e-mail hosting companies pop3 &smtp server adresses?

my suggestion would be a .uk domain with a good registrar like heart internet and google's hosted gmail service.

it's free, it takes a couple of hours to set up and it's gmail under your domain so you get all the gmail features, speed, anti-spam, reliability and lots of storage:

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/nonprofit/index.html

you also get the other apps like the calendar and documents which have integration with the iPhone and Android phones.

to set it up you have to add about 10 dns records to your domain and tweak things in the google apps control panel but after that there's nothing else required.

In reply to a post by Brugie:

so if you just buy a domain name of your choice, you can then set up email forwarding from the control panel of where your domain is held
You would do this as a forwarding email in the control panel
Eg tommy45@anyone.co.uk forwarded to say tommy45@be.co.uk
This would enable you to change the forwarding address at any time should you change your isp at any time.

A good way to get started.

It can be expanded upon later, if requied.

Edited to get rid of the typo

Edited by Sandgrounder (Wed 10-Nov-10 21:25:17)

It would, but then i would have to be reliant of the likes of google , i don't really like the idea of that, just visited the free parking site can't find any info about the opting out of showing address on the whois database, or does that option only appear during registration process ?

In reply to a post by tommy45:

It would, but then i would have to be reliant of the likes of google

No, just forward your email to your ISP address.

In reply to a post by tommy45:

does that option only appear during registration process ?

It certainly does with Heart Internet.

In reply to a post by tommy45:

.... but there are some restrictions on outgoing mails if used,

Then choose an ISP which does not have restrictions.

Forward to isp address? do you mean the isp's SMTP server as bethere don't provide e-mail, that, is why i was considering an e-mail host as well to be independent of the isp,as for choosing an isp who provides e-mail, unfortunately for me there is only be that will provide the line profile that is close to what i already have now within my budget of course, as most others in my exchange i would not take service with

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 10-Nov-10 22:53:12)

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Forward to isp address? do you mean the isp's SMTP server

No. I forward my email me@<my-domain>.co.uk to my Zen ISP address, which takes the form zen12345@zen.co.uk

It then arrives here, on my computer.

Simples

You could always use GMAIL, this has the ability to forward and check other pop addresses.

Had a look at a few e-mail hosting providers, 1 & 1 seem cheap enough or for a few quid more there is fasthosts Fasthosts mail plus @ £14.99 per month1&1 Instant mail package
Any one have any info ,good or bad about either of these ?

I have been using APM Internet (now trading as The Very Good Email Company) for hosting my personal mailboxes for more than four years now. The service is extremely reliable and the technical support superb.

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Had a look at a few e-mail hosting providers, 1 & 1 seem cheap enough or for a few quid more there is fasthosts Fasthosts mail plus @ £14.99 per month1&1 Instant mail package
Any one have any info ,good or bad about either of these ?

Fasthosts is £14.99 per year, not per month - that would be expensive, even for them! Personally I would avoid Fasthosts, a quick Google search will tell you why.

Like others, I would recommend registering your own domain name and redirecting to a Gmail account, why pay for mail hosting when you don't have to.

I use VirtualNames from UKServers, http://www.virtualnames.co.uk/.

They have email and website redirection to your ISP or anyone else included in the domain registration fee.

Email hosting starts from £10 Ex VAT a year for 10 mailboxes with unlimited aliases. Without wishing to get too technical, the mailboxes have POP, IMAP or webmail access, all of which can be set to use SSL if you want. SMTP server also provided.
Their control panel also allows you to opt out of displaying whois contact details, if you register as UK individual, in just a few clicks.

No links, just used them for quite a few years and happy with what I get.

Edited by rasczak (Fri 12-Nov-10 15:42:31)

I've been using 1& 1 instant mail for almost 2 years now and i've not had a single issue. They would not be a bad choice.

Blackmesa8

Post deleted by billford

In reply to a post by rasczak:

I use VirtualNames from UKServers, http://www.virtualnames.co.uk/.

They have email and website redirection to your ISP or anyone else included in the domain registration fee.

Email hosting starts from £10 Ex VAT a year for 10 mailboxes with unlimited aliases. Without wishing to get too technical, the mailboxes have POP, IMAP or webmail access, all of which can be set to use SSL if you want. SMTP server also provided.
Their control panel also allows you to opt out of displaying whois contact details, if you register as UK individual, in just a few clicks.

No links, just used them for quite a few years and happy with what I get.

what ports are used for ssl pop3/ stmp?

In reply to a post by tommy45:

In reply to a post by rasczak:

I use VirtualNames from UKServers, http://www.virtualnames.co.uk/.

They have email and website redirection to your ISP or anyone else included in the domain registration fee.

Email hosting starts from £10 Ex VAT a year for 10 mailboxes with unlimited aliases. Without wishing to get too technical, the mailboxes have POP, IMAP or webmail access, all of which can be set to use SSL if you want. SMTP server also provided.
Their control panel also allows you to opt out of displaying whois contact details, if you register as UK individual, in just a few clicks.

No links, just used them for quite a few years and happy with what I get.

what ports are used for ssl pop3/ smtp?

Got it sorted,working,

Sorry I hadn't replied, forgot to check back on the thread. Glad you got it working anyway.

As I remember I just used the default SSL ports set by my mail client when I switched SSL on. Thinking about it I don't think that I found anything at the time on the UK Servers help site about using IMAP or SSL, I just tried it to see if it worked and it did.

Just looked again and have found http://www.virtualnames.co.uk/faq.php?id=MAILSERVERS, I searched the help site for IMAP and found it, it is under the Email > General Questions section of the helppages. It shows the server names and ports, though it does say that while SSL will work, they do not directly support it. I have never had any problems using it.

I have been using hostway.co.uk now over 3 years not the cheapest I found but reliable and good support.

Thumbs up for NetHosted who I use for Web Hosting,

I have used other companies in the past but so far cannot fault them at all!

I even went back to them after using a free service, with one.com ( who are useless)...

I have used 1&1 and personally would never use them again. I appreciate NetHosed only have web based support and no phone lines, but Andrew and Darryl seem to alway's be on hand to help.

1&1's service appears to be around £9.73 at the current VAT rate and NetHosted are closer to £20.

Post deleted by Sadoldman