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Moving my email to another provider

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Clariman
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Moving my email to another provider

#457293

Postby Clariman » November 11th, 2021, 12:14 pm

I want to move my email box to another provider. Can someone talk me through what I need to do. It is so long since I touched it.

Current Setup
  • email address is forename_surname@mydomain.com where mydomain is registered with 123-reg
  • the actual mailbox is provided by my ISP plusnet
  • somewhere along the line forename_surname@mydomain.com gets routed to accountname@plus.net
  • The mailbox is accessed as IMAP from Windows (Outlook), Android (Samsung) Email 6.1, and Apple iPad mail

Main reasons to move are that plusnet's 1GB total mailbox limit for 3 email addresses is getting unmanageable, performance is poor, and there have been various outages including emails not arriving or not sending over the last 2 days. Final straw.

Ideas and questions
  • I have a gmail address which comes with 15GB storage and could set up one for Mrs C. We could use those. Any reasons not to or anything better?
  • Can you create folders in gmail? If not, what replaces them?
  • I'd need to update the routing from forename_surname@mydomain.com to forenamesurname@gmail.com. Is that at 123-reg? Think it must be.
  • Would I be better to tell people to use my gmail address in future or is it better to use the mydomain one? Pros and cons?
  • If I just rerouted then I presume all my plusnet emails would still be visible and accessible via Outlook, iPad, Android etc?
  • If we then changed ISP and left Plusnet, presumably all those old IMAP emails would disappear. So how do I keep all my old emails? Do I change to POP3 and get them downloaded to Windows Outlook?

Many thanks. I have a feeling that I've asked some of these questions before but could not find them on this board. Maybe it was back on TMF.

Clariman

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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457296

Postby servodude » November 11th, 2021, 12:22 pm

Clariman wrote:Can you create folders in gmail? If not, what replaces them?


I can answer this one...
They use "labels" instead of folders
- the only real difference being that you can apply more than one "label" to a mail
If you kept it to no more than one label at a time it would be exactly like having folders

I prefer it:
I can have a label for TAX-RECEIPTS and a different one for each client I'm working for
- so when I need to find something it will be in the correct place no matter what the context

-sd

pje16
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457300

Postby pje16 » November 11th, 2021, 12:38 pm

I have several email accounts setup with plusnet
and I pull them into my gmail account
see
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/accounts
and in setting up that way I can choose to leave or remove from plusnet servers

That might save a lot of trouble

Plusnet's online mailbox is horrible so have never used it

Clariman
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457302

Postby Clariman » November 11th, 2021, 12:42 pm

pje16 wrote:I have several email accounts setup with plusnet
and I pull them into my gmail account
see
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/accounts
and in setting up that way I can choose to leave or remove from plusnet servers

That might save a lot of trouble

Plusnet's online mailbox is horrible so have never used it

Thanks. I never use Plusnet's online mailbox either. I use Outlook and Android Email app mostly.

But my problem is with Plusnet as a mail service in the first place. Adding it to Gmail in the way I think you are suggesting would still be using Plusnet. It would just allow me to access emails from Gmail. My issue is more fundamental. However your comment below seems to suggest that it can pull the email into the gmail inbox. Is that right?

I can choose to leave or remove from plusnet servers

BigB
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457305

Postby BigB » November 11th, 2021, 12:45 pm

Clariman wrote:I want to move my email box to another provider. Can someone talk me through what I need to do. It is so long since I touched it.

[*]The mailbox is accessed as IMAP from Windows (Outlook), Android (Samsung) Email 6.1, and Apple iPad mail[/list]

Main reasons to move are that plusnet's 1GB total mailbox limit for 3 email addresses is getting unmanageable, performance is poor, and there have been various outages including emails not arriving or not sending over the last 2 days. Final straw.


[*]If we then changed ISP and left Plusnet, presumably all those old IMAP emails would disappear. So how do I keep all my old emails? Do I change to POP3 and get them downloaded to Windows Outlook? [/list]



I have a similar setup using plusnet with IMAP. Originally the mailboxes were POP3, but I migrated them to IMAP at some point.

You can run IMAP with a combination of local folders, perhaps stored on a home network server - it means that effectively just a handful of the key folders (Inbox, Drafts, anything you require fully portable) are accessible for IMAP and on-the-move usage. Then every X days you can move/file what you want to keep using your Windows/Outlook machine, moving to Local Folders.

This should keep the size of anything in the Inboxes well under 1GB, and therefore makes the performance much better too. This approach should be workable with any provider, it's not dependent on staying with Plusnet.

BigB

pje16
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457308

Postby pje16 » November 11th, 2021, 12:51 pm

Clariman wrote:
pje16 wrote:I have several email accounts setup with plusnet
and I pull them into my gmail account
see
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/accounts
and in setting up that way I can choose to leave or remove from plusnet servers

That might save a lot of trouble

Plusnet's online mailbox is horrible so have never used it

Thanks. I never use Plusnet's online mailbox either. I use Outlook and Android Email app mostly.

But my problem is with Plusnet as a mail service in the first place. Adding it to Gmail in the way I think you are suggesting would still be using Plusnet. It would just allow me to access emails from Gmail. My issue is more fundamental. However your comment below seems to suggest that it can pull the email into the gmail inbox. Is that right?

I can choose to leave or remove from plusnet servers


Yes the emails arrive at plus net and get "pulled" into Gmail
here are there options for the browser version of gmail
all the blacked out bits are my email address

Image

Infrasonic
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457351

Postby Infrasonic » November 11th, 2021, 3:38 pm

Clariman wrote:...I have a feeling that I've asked some of these questions before but could not find them on this board. Maybe it was back on TMF.

Clariman


You have here on TLF - and got lengthy detailed instructions on how to do it including links... :D

Very briefly - free you can set up your Gmail to alias your domain so that it can send domain mail. I've had mine set up that way for years. I've also got that facility with Outlook.com but it gives the game away that it is aliasing the domain email - whereas Gmail doesn't.

IMAP will preserve any existing folder structure - Gmail call it gmailify. So you could import from the old account to the new and mirror it to get started.

If you go for the paid options with Google Workspace as your email host for your existing domain you'll have more control over your domain mail and can change the authentication settings like SPF/DKIM and DMARC policies et al. More complicated to set up but more control, especially over spam filtering etc.
Last edited by Infrasonic on November 11th, 2021, 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Clariman
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457354

Postby Clariman » November 11th, 2021, 3:43 pm

Infrasonic wrote:
Clariman wrote:...I have a feeling that I've asked some of these questions before but could not find them on this board. Maybe it was back on TMF.

Clariman


You have here on TLF - and got lengthy detailed instructions on how to do it including links... :D


:oops: I thought I had but this website must have a rubbish search engine :? :lol: More seriously, feel free to point me towards the topic and I'll go through it. Thanks

chas49
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457356

Postby chas49 » November 11th, 2021, 3:50 pm

Clariman wrote:
Infrasonic wrote:
Clariman wrote:...I have a feeling that I've asked some of these questions before but could not find them on this board. Maybe it was back on TMF.

Clariman


You have here on TLF - and got lengthy detailed instructions on how to do it including links... :D


:oops: I thought I had but this website must have a rubbish search engine :? :lol: More seriously, feel free to point me towards the topic and I'll go through it. Thanks


(You can search your own posts, and then search within the results..... I found this :) https://lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f ... il#p420111 )

Infrasonic
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457360

Postby Infrasonic » November 11th, 2021, 4:02 pm

Another option to look at with the paid services is something like Proton Mail who now have an entire ecosystem including no logs VPN using Wire Guard (audited), encrypted Cloud storage, encrypted Calendar et al.

I've got the free PM accounts currently but I'm looking at moving my domain across with all the associated traffic (contacts/calendar/cloud storage) with paid.

pje16
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457361

Postby pje16 » November 11th, 2021, 4:07 pm

Clariman wrote: :oops: I thought I had but this website must have a rubbish search engine :? :lol:

If the search here doesn't work i use google's advanced search

https://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search

and put
lemonfool.co.uk
into the Site/domain box
it works a treat :D

tjh290633
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457406

Postby tjh290633 » November 11th, 2021, 7:16 pm

That problem with mail storage limit is something that I am sure can be avoided. I have seen the option to either delete a post from the server once it has been read, or leave it on the server for a specified time (like 2 weeks). You do, of course, save your emails to your machine and save any that you want to keep in a dedicated folder or folders on your machine (or in the Cloud, I suppose). Hence your inbox on the server is regularly purged.

TJH

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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457412

Postby Infrasonic » November 11th, 2021, 7:41 pm


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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#457444

Postby Lanark » November 11th, 2021, 11:12 pm

Moving your email is a 2 step process

First sign up for the email provider you want to use, it must be one that supports using your own domain

Next to redirect incoming and outgoing email so that it is routed to @mydomain.com then you need to change the (MX) records for that domain.

MX records for gmail:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/140034?hl=en

This page has a few examples for hosts with a control panel:
https://thedigitalnonprofit.com/use-gma ... main-free/

Infrasonic
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#458757

Postby Infrasonic » November 17th, 2021, 12:56 pm

If you needed any more incentive to move this might provide it...https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2 ... eview.html

Internet provider Plusnet has finally restored their embattled UK email service after a week of chaos, but its long-term future may now be in doubt after the ISP placed the service “under review.” A number of customers have allegedly also been told by the provider’s support staff that the email platform would close in 2022...
Cont.

Clariman
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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#459822

Postby Clariman » November 21st, 2021, 1:05 pm

Infrasonic wrote:If you needed any more incentive to move this might provide it...https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2 ... eview.html

Internet provider Plusnet has finally restored their embattled UK email service after a week of chaos, but its long-term future may now be in doubt after the ISP placed the service “under review.” A number of customers have allegedly also been told by the provider’s support staff that the email platform would close in 2022...
Cont.

Interesting. That does not surprise me. Earlier this year I called Plusnet support about email. IIRC it was to ask if they could aggregate the 1GB allowance from each of our 2 broadband lines to give us 2GB on the one we had active email addresses on. The answer was that it was not technically possible and the customer service rep went on to say that their email technology was really old and very difficult make changes to, so I would be better switching to another provider like gmail. I was pretty surprised that a customer service rep felt they could make that comment, but if Plusnet wants to remove the service then it would make complete sense for their staff to recommend customers switch.

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Re: Moving my email to another provider

#459834

Postby Infrasonic » November 21st, 2021, 2:00 pm

Clariman wrote:
Infrasonic wrote:If you needed any more incentive to move this might provide it...https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2 ... eview.html

Internet provider Plusnet has finally restored their embattled UK email service after a week of chaos, but its long-term future may now be in doubt after the ISP placed the service “under review.” A number of customers have allegedly also been told by the provider’s support staff that the email platform would close in 2022...
Cont.

Interesting. That does not surprise me. Earlier this year I called Plusnet support about email. IIRC it was to ask if they could aggregate the 1GB allowance from each of our 2 broadband lines to give us 2GB on the one we had active email addresses on. The answer was that it was not technically possible and the customer service rep went on to say that their email technology was really old and very difficult make changes to, so I would be better switching to another provider like gmail. I was pretty surprised that a customer service rep felt they could make that comment, but if Plusnet wants to remove the service then it would make complete sense for their staff to recommend customers switch.


Because of all the security issues email has become a time and money pit to maintain. I fully expect some of the other ISP's to follow suit and scrap their free email offerings in order to save costs. I've lost a few free accounts over the years.

Quite a few sysadmins that used to advocate running your own on premises email server to clients have since changed their position as it just ties up too much time sorting issues (recent on prem Exchange Server hacks for example) - they have jumped to MS 365/Google WS or other large cloud email providers with dedicated email tech staff who sort it out.


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