Recommend an email host?

[pzkpfw]

Won't bore you with the full details, but my personal emails stopped working this morning, and having chatted on-line with support it seems in the recent switch-over (these companies keep getting bought by each other) my account got borked.

I'm fed up with them, and am looking for a new provider.

I'm looking for:
A: unrelated to Crazy Domains
B: somebody who provides clear instructions for what my MX records etc would need to be changed to (some people seem to really hide this stuff)

(My plan B is to just sign up for the lowest possible google workspace account. That seems two to three times the price of a basic mail host plan from a "NZ" company. (Scare quotes deliberate, as many seem to just resell services from other companies.))

[Gremlin]

Honestly if you need vanity domain etc, just use Microsoft 365. All those cheap ones lack ActiveSync, a base plan in MS is going to give you 50GB, and you can use Exchange Online Plan 1 for a basic mailbox, Business Basic if you want cloud services like a 1TB OneDrive etc. I think it's about $6 +GST a month per mailbox for EXO P1, but prices are going up in March.

In terms of services like OneDrive, if you're not a business, then use the 365 Family Plan, up to 6 accounts get Office suite (no exchange/mailbox services), OneDrive etc.

[pzkpfw]

Thanks for that, good suggestion.

I did look in to upgrading my Microsoft 365 Personal to one of the business plans, to get their mail hosting services; but it all got a bit confusing as all those years ago when I first got Windows 8.0 I ended up using my main personal-domain email address as my Microsoft Account name. The pages on setting up the business plan are very specific about the Microsoft account needing to be different.

[Gremlin]

Yes, two different accounts (personal and work or school) and licencing follows the account (so personal gets personal licences and v.v). I don't recommend you have two MS accounts with the same email address, but you technically can. Two separate portals with different interfaces, personal is account.microsoft.com and admin side for business is admin.microsoft.com (and there are a heap of others for other services).

Whether you have one or a hundred accounts, the business side setup is the same. Establish your tenant with MS (so something.onmicrosoft.com) and has to be globally unique, then add domain, setup accounts etc. Will be used for cloud services like SharePoint (something.sharepoint.com) and OneDrive (something-my.sharepoint.com) so don't use thisisstupid :yes:

[TheDemonLord]

I've PM'd you with some details.

[SaferRides]

I signed up to Gmail for my business eons ago, and still get what is effectively Business Starter for free. Gmail has been good; I can only recall once when it went down, and the search is great as you'd expect. The only negatives for me are a spam filter which is slightly too aggressive, and the grouping of emails into conversations. Most of the time it works well, but it can get a bit out of control sometimes when you end up with 20+ emails in a single conversation.

Not sure how I would feel about paying $18 per month for 2 users though... The only apps I use are Gmail and Calendar.

Sent from my SM-G980F using Tapatalk

[pzkpfw]

I did start the process of using gmail, but went another way.

Google seemed pretty good with the documentation (they explained DNS and MX records really well) but when I came to actually do it I got stuck on a step where it wanted me to specify my email address. An info pop-up said I could use any address on my domain, but it rejected - with no good explanation of why - my own normal address. Googling (is that circular?) I found an item in their help forum that suggested using a new generic name, like admin@(mydomain), but then my "real" address would have had to be another person, or, it would have had to be an address that forwards to the accepted address.

That all just annoyed me (my capacity for irritation is low lately), and $9 a month to only use the email hosting then started looking sad, so I backed out.

(NB: when I recently got moved from Host 2 to Host 3 my received spam went way up, so I was actually looking forward to Gmail being strict ...)

[BMWST?]

i use mozilla thunderbird .I dont want to use windows really but i am not totally ready to ditch it.I dont have a microsoft account and i dont intend to get one

[pzkpfw]

i use mozilla thunderbird .I dont want to use windows really but i am not totally ready to ditch it.I dont have a microsoft account and i dont intend to get one

To my understanding, mozilla thunderbird is an email client only, not a hosting service (which is what I was looking for, and is now sorted).

[SaferRides]

To my understanding, mozilla thunderbird is an email client only, not a hosting service (which is what I was looking for, and is now sorted).So what did you decide on?

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[pzkpfw]

So what did you decide on?

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I went with Net24 / Voyager.

For a cheap service, with no contract, paid monthly by credit card - it was odd they needed to do a credit check before activating my account, which at this time of the year meant a delay, but otherwise it was fairly painless to switch.

Sent from my PC using my keyboard.

[Gremlin]

To my understanding, mozilla thunderbird is an email client only, not a hosting service
Yep, correct

[SaferRides]

I went with Net24 / Voyager.

For a cheap service, with no contract, paid monthly by credit card - it was odd they needed to do a credit check before activating my account, which at this time of the year meant a delay, but otherwise it was fairly painless to switch.

Sent from my PC using my keyboard.Thanks, good to know in case Google decide to start charging me one day.

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[pzkpfw]

Thanks, good to know in case Google decide to start charging me one day.

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To be fair, Crazy Domains would be fine now too (and cheaper over a year I think).