Changing your Email Address

[Tosh McCaber]

I’m about to leave my present ISP, Pipex, due to really slow download speeds. I have recently got myself a new independent email address, which I will now be able to carry through, no matter which ISP I’m with.

When I change ISPs, to go to whoever, I will notify all my contacts on my Outlook Contact list of my new independent address. However, there will be innumerable other places where my existing @pipex.com address is held, (Amazon, etc, etc), who may wish to contact me without prior notification. Is there any way that I would be able to pick up emails addressed to me @pipex.com, or will these just go into limbo?

[frostbite]

Can't comment on the specifics but some ISPs will keep your account open for several weeks/months while others seem to be a bit hard nosed about it.

Best ask Pipex.

[Jofm5]

I am not sure with pipex....

Alot of ISP's allow you to keep your mail box for an annual fee but dont advertise it as a product to sell because of setup costs.

When I moved from Globalnet to another ISP I contacted globalnet and they offered me their just-mail product (it's not advertised) which meant I could keep my full pop3 mail service and also my webspace with them for an annual fee of £14 - money well spent considering I have had the email address for over ten years and lord only knows who may have it that I have not spoken to in a while.

All in all for under or around £20 a year it would be worth keeping it on if you have had your email addresse(s) a while.

There is an issue if you do keep the mailbox then you should still be able to receive the mail, smtp sending will be blocked because your not on Pipex's network (this is to stop spammers and may be permitted if you authenticate with your current username/password to the smtp server whilst on an alternative ISP). Using your own SMTP server is more than likely not an option as most spam filters will look up the IP Address of the isp your sending from and see it is not Pipex and junk the mail - so you may have to resort to sending via pipex's webmail client if you want your emails to appear as from your old account or from a different email provider altogether.

Cheers

[Keef]

It's a one-time thing you have to go through. It's why I'm extremely glad I have my own domain which doesn't care who my ISP is.

I'd be inclined to ask Pipex if you can keep it "live" for three months or so - but from my experience with them, I wouldn't be over-hopeful.

When I moved from the last "ISP" address I used, I went through all the e-mails in my "keep" folders (isn't Thunderbird wonderful) and wrote to all the relevant ones. Some ignored the change of address anyway, and some of those ended up writing to me (snail-mail) asking for my new address.

The other thing I did, with my own domain and unlimited forwarders: each "seller" got his own address. So, amazon@keef, bt@keef, maplin@keef, and so on. One firm (that shall remain nameless) sold my e-mail address, and the spam started. I changed the forwarding address of that e-mail address to the offending firm's.

[call100]

Best to use an email independent of your ISP. Something like Gmail or Inbox.com are excellent and can be collected by your email client.
This would save you changing whenever you change ISP and they are free.

[I Am Not The One]

Hi Tosh

Log onto website:


mail2web.com - Pick Up Your Email (http://www.mail2web.com)



Then input your previous e-mail address and password, and it will enable you to read any mail that has been sent to that address. You also have the option to either reply directly to the message, to forward the message to another e-mail address, or to delete the message.

Hope that helps.

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks to all for your suggestions