Addresses

[Jonathan B. Bayer]

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On Tue, 04 Jul 2000 14:21:38 +0100, David Gaskill wrote:

>This posting isn't really, (or even slightly), about PMMail but I am 
>posting here because I know that there are plenty of people on this 
>mailing list who will know the answer to my question. 
>
>I have been with the ISP through whom this posting is sent for 
>many years. They provide an excellent service but there is a 
>substantial annual fee and the connection is metered and charged. 
>
>Here in the UK over recent months several ISPs have started to 
>offer 24/7 un-metered connection for a zero or very low monthly 
>charge. I have been investigating the performance and reliability of 
>several of these services  and now satisfied that the service 
>provided by one of them, Lineone/Quip, is as good as that provided 
>by my current ISP and I am now routing all my traffic through 
>them. No problems arise as long as I continue to pay my current 
>ISP the substantial annual fee but if I close my account I shall lose 
>the e-mail address which is known to  all my clients and friends. 
>
>Is there any way round this problem? 
>

Not directly, but there are several possibilities.  

First, you can ask your current ISP if they can set up a forwarding
rule for a small fee.

Second, you can notify all your current correspondents of your new
e-mail, and after two months kill the old account.

Third, you can set up a permanent e-mail address at a mail forwarder,
such as Bigfoot.com (I use this), or spamcop.net.  Bigfoot is free,
spamcop has a cost which includes spam filtering.  These mail
forwarders give you a single e-mail, and you simply notify the service
of any address changes and they will forward your e-mail to the new
address as soon as they are notified.

This is going to become a bigger problem as more and more people get on
the net.  There is no ideal solution (for example, Bigfoot could go out
of business).  What is really needed is an e-mail system similar to the
DNS system, which would give you a permanent address for life.  But I
don't think that's going to happen in the near future.  First off, it
would need to be supported by standards, and then who would pay for it?

Anyway, I hope this helps.


JBB
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