Domain hosting/E-mail forwarding

[misterblue]

I am brand new to domain hosting and have managed to set up a domain name, which forwards my emails ([email protected]) to my btinternet/yahoo account. Happy so far.

I use Outlook express for the emails.

The question I have is this.

If I send an email, it comes from [email protected] and is displayed as such to the recipient. By changing the reply address in the accounts properties in outlook, the reply goes to [email protected] (and of course is then forwarded to btinternet, as above).

However, I think it looks a bit wierd, an email coming from one address with the reply going to another (then silently forwarded). How do other people manage this?

The reason I am trying to sort this is that I would like to keep the email domain constant, for when I switch from BT.

Any solutions appreciated,

MB

PS the email addresses specified above are fictional representations of the actual addresses to avoid a tidal wave of spam, so don't send anything to them!

[Saab Dastard]

Unless you set up your own mail server in your own domain, I can't see that the scenario you outline is avoidable.

SD

[misterblue]

Thanks saab,

Is this setting up a mail server easy compared to what I have done so far?

It looks a whole order of magnitude more difficult to a bit of a novice.

Thanks

MB

[Keef]

If you use Thunderbird as your mail agent, you should be able to set that to show your address as [email protected] even though it routes through a btinternet SMTP server. I send from a wide range of e-mail addresses, through one ISP here in Essex, and from the same addresses, using the laptop, here and in Norfolk - but using a different ISP.

[srobarts]

Some ISPs won't allow emails to be sent with anything other than their own domain name, others have no restriction providing you are logged on from their connection and the rest will allow you to use other domain names if you request it. The server you send your mail to is a relay and it needs to know that the relay facility is not being abused, hence the restriction. Those nasty spammers spend much time trying to find unrestricted relays so the spam cannot be traced back to them!
Ask BTInternet if you can use another domain name. If not use one of the hosting companies to host you domain and then send your mail through them. I have used 34SP for some time now for various domains and have no complaints.

[misterblue]

Thanks very much Keef. I had never heard of Thunderbird and thought it was a web host. Once I'd put myself right and fiddled a bit with the config, it is working exactly as I want it.

Your prompt help is really appreciated,

MB

[Keef]

Some ISPs won't allow emails to be sent with anything other than their own domain name, others have no restriction providing you are logged on from their connection and the rest will allow you to use other domain names if you request it.

I've read that in many places, but I've never actually come across an ISP that won't let you use any domain name you like, as long as you are connected to them as your ISP and using their SMTP server. I have a wide range of domains for various charitable and "work" purposes, and have never had a problem sending e-mails using any of them. That's been the case with Dircon, Houxou, Pipex, O2, Entanet, BTInternet, PlusNet, and Voda.

Where it can get trickier is when you want to send through ISP2's SMTP while connected to ISP1. That rapidly gets into anti-spam procedures.

My primary ISP (UKFSN) has a "secure SMTP server", and I can use that from anywhere, regardless of where and how I'm connected. It's proved very useful, many times. The only place I don't use it is in Internet cafés and the like.