Email account separate from ISP

Like so many others I'm sure I have email accounts associated with the ISP and content provider at my house.  So many other things are built upon these email addresses that it would make it difficult to change providers at home.  Even my Apple and iCloud stuff uses the cable company email.  What does anyone do who wants to disassociate themselves from the big ISP's?  Is Gmail a suitable replacement?


Red_Barchetta said:
Like so many others I'm sure I have email accounts associated with the ISP and content provider at my house.  So many other things are built upon these email addresses that it would make it difficult to change providers at home.  Even my Apple and iCloud stuff uses the cable company email.  What does anyone do who wants to disassociate themselves from the big ISP's?  Is Gmail a suitable replacement?

 First thing you do is change your email immediately to a cloud based service like google. Ask you prospective ISP if they will support your email address for any length of time (answer is probably no). Forward all your contacts (by bcc) your new email. Start using it. Map your email from your old one to the new one so that even before you switch, you'll receive them there. Best of luck!


marylago said:
 First thing you do is change your email immediately to a cloud based service like google. Ask you prospective ISP if they will support your email address for any length of time (answer is probably no). Forward all your contacts (by bcc) your new email. Start using it. Map your email from your old one to the new one so that even before you switch, you'll receive them there. Best of luck!

 Thanks Mary.  That's the plan; part of what I'm asking is if gmail is the best option or is there an alternative.   I feel like I'll be putting a lot of eggs in one basket so I'd like to get it right.  Thanks again. 


Red_Barchetta said:
 Thanks Mary.  That's the plan; part of what I'm asking is if gmail is the best option or is there an alternative.   I feel like I'll be putting a lot of eggs in one basket so I'd like to get it right.  Thanks again. 

 I switched to gmail from optimum a number of years ago. Now I have FiOS so it's good. Gmail is pretty simple and (at least when I signed up), I could get my name as my email, unlike so many other ISPs. I am generally happy with the service. I still get people saying, "I emailed you at blah-blah-blah," but I think that gmail is simple. The other advantage it has is that people don't look at it cross-eyed. If you use an unknown ISP, people wonder if it's a real email address.


Gmail is a pretty stable and de-facto standard at this point, also outlook.com, certainly more portable then comcast.net or similar. That said, aol.com used to be the standard at some point, or yahoo.com and they are not anymore.

If you want to make sure it 'yours', then you will have to register a domain and pay for hosting, that is the most long term option, but unlike gmail or outlook it comes with a bill.


yeah, this is about the only reason I still have comcast. I have a gmail account, but switching everything over seems like a huge pain. But I guess I should start. Sigh....




I have gmail and yahoo email addresses but I don't use them for email.  The yahoo I use as a spam bucket address I give to servers that require an email address but I don't know enough about yet.  I've had it for decades and it's what I originally used to sign up for amazon and ebay.  The gmail is only for logging into my android and google play accounts and as the target for google alerts, so it never gets used to send email.  I have been using a verizon.net address for years as the primary address, but am slowly transitioning to a vanity domain "robertsandow.com", registered with godaddy, with an email address that is not tied to any ISP.  It costs about $10/year to have your own domain name, but it's portable and you can take it with you wherever you go.




I transitioned from an ISP account (Optimum) to gmail over 3 years ago when I dumped Optimum for Fios. I never wanted to be tied to single ISP again, and I wanted to stop using Outlook for something more platform agnostic, etc. I don't regret the move.

However, the point I'm here to make is that the Optimum email address never stopped working all the while. So you might be able to change providers and still keep the old address, if that would be your most desired option. However, I would still recommend you move to something more permanent. You just may not need have it completed top to bottom before changing providers.


Sundays said:
I transitioned from an ISP account (Optimum) to gmail over 3 years ago when I dumped Optimum for Fios. I never wanted to be tied to single ISP again, and I wanted to stop using Outlook for something more platform agnostic, etc. I don't regret the move.

However, the point I'm here to make is that the Optimum email address never stopped working all the while. So you might be able to change providers and still keep the old address, if that would be your most desired option. However, I would still recommend you move to something more permanent. You just may not need have it completed top to bottom before changing providers.

 Your situation is unusual. Most of the time, it is canceled immediately.


I've done research, and I found gmail does the best job at email hosting. But that doesn't necessarily mean you will want a user@gmail.com address. Gmail is the best right now, but they won't be forever. I use my own domain and I have google hosting my email. I think it's $6 per month. My address is tom@noglider.com. Once I move off google, my email address won't change. To learn how to do this, visit https://gsuite.google.com/

If you want help setting this up, you can hire me, but many manage to do it themselves. The trick is choosing the domain that isn't already taken. For all I know, redbarchetta.com isn't taken, but I haven't checked. You can't have an underscore character in a domain name. Even if they let you have one, it's a bad idea, because it's a new allowance, and not all old systems can deal with it.



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