Email Hosting

[quelquod]

Moderator Message:
RS: Moved from DAK, shadow left there

Been talked about before but can’t find it now.

I currently host my domain and email with my broadband provider (plusNet at present). It’s a legacy service and now not well supported but it works ok. I’d like to move it to get better support and to be independent of my broadband provider for more flexibility. I have quite a minimal website - a few hundred MB and single database is fine provided there’s not a too low limit on bandwidth.

PlusNet’s email system is a bit unusual now that I’ve compared other low-cost providers. You can redirect or block any email address without limit (anything@mydomain) but if you do nothing then anythingelse@mydomain is all collected into a single catchall folder. I’ve got used to these handy features but everywhere I’ve looked seems to allocate only individual discrete accounts and reject everything else. UK2 offered similar features when I last used them (years ago) but don’t now.

Ideas?
Thanks.

[genou]

Been talked about before but can’t find it now.

You can redirect or block any email address without limit (anything@mydomain) but if you do nothing then anythingelse@mydomain is all collected into a single catchall folder. I’ve got used to these handy features but everywhere I’ve looked seems to allocate only individual discrete accounts and reject everything else. UK2 offered similar features when I last used them (years ago) but don’t now.

Ideas?
Thanks.

I've still got that as a separately chargeable service with UK2, but they may not offer it to new customers. I also use IONOS, which do catchall for me as well , and it looks to be available on new accounts - https://www.ionos.co.uk/help/email/gene ... l-address/

[Nocton]

If your web service/hosting is OK, I'd stick with Plusnet (as I do) as it is free and you won't get anything cheaper.

Re the email service, why don't you use Thunderbird to collect and organise your emails? Plusnet will allow you to create several different email addresses and you can then get TB to collect them into several different email accounts. TB has the most comprehensive set of email tools that you could wish for and it is very user friendly.

I think that the only reason for going for something else is to have your own domain name. I do that with Fasthosts quite cheaply if you don't take the web hosting option. I think that Plusnet also offers this option, but Fasthosts would be cheaper and with more features, I should think.

Note You might get more replies on the "Computers, TVs & Phones" thread.

[quelquod]

If your web service/hosting is OK, I'd stick with Plusnet (as I do) as it is free and you won't get anything cheaper.

Re the email service, why don't you use Thunderbird to collect and organise your emails? Plusnet will allow you to create several different email addresses and you can then get TB to collect them into several different email accounts. TB has the most comprehensive set of email tools that you could wish for and it is very user friendly.

I think that the only reason for going for something else is to have your own domain name. I do that with Fasthosts quite cheaply if you don't take the web hosting option. I think that Plusnet also offers this option, but Fasthosts would be cheaper and with more features, I should think.

Note You might get more replies on the "Computers, TVs & Phones" thread.

As I said, I do use PN’s web hosting service and in fact my own personal domain is hosted there however it is legacy and there is no support. I do find their email service fine also, aside from its slowness, which is why I’d prefer any alternative to have a similar catchall account. However as we use imap to a variety of phones, pads and PCs it’s not so easy to separate email addresses without having separate accounts. I’ll look at Fasthosts.


I’ll copy my OP as you suggest, thanks.
<edit> someone seems to have done that for me already - thank you! </edit>

[Nocton]

However as we use imap to a variety of phones, pads and PCs it’s not so easy to separate email addresses without having separate accounts.

Thunderbird can show separate email addresses/accounts in one window. My wife and I have four active accounts plus two more which are diverted to one of the active ones via a TB Message Filter. All are IMAP. Also each account can have multiple identities which you can select when you send an email from that account. E.g. my office@ email address is used for my activities as treasurer and chair of to separate organisations - when I send an email it appears to have come from office@mydomain, chair@organisation1 or treasurer@organsiation2. On my PC I show all the accounts; on my wife's PC her TB client sees just her and the 'family' account.

I have not found PlusNet's email service slow, but their internet connection does occasionally drop out for a few minutes.

[quelquod]

But AFAIK Thunderbird is not available on iPad/iPhone/iOS so I guess I'm missing your point here. I guess I didn't specify that we generally use the iPad/iPhone for email and the PC more rarely.
(Getting old and slow I'm afraid ).
But actually not having separate email accounts per se for my wife and I isn't really a problem, but missing the catchall would be a big issue.

[Infrasonic]

But AFAIK Thunderbird is not available on iPad/iPhone/iOS so I guess I'm missing your point here. I guess I didn't specify that we generally use the iPad/iPhone for email and the PC more rarely.
(Getting old and slow I'm afraid ).
But actually not having separate email accounts per se for my wife and I isn't really a problem, but missing the catchall would be a big issue.

The free Outlook app. is available for iOS. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/microsoft ... d951937596

I use it on Android, I have my own domain mail account (via Fasthosts), multiple webmail accounts (Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo et al), aliases and it handles all that without issue.
It won't have the full fat flexibility of Thunderbird or desktop Outlook but I've yet to encounter a mobile mail client that does, and for 99% of non business users that's all a bit moot (IMO).