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Lifetime mail
Lifetime Email Addresses-Part I
Author: copekavas
All email addresses have the form name@domain-name. The
domain-name is a name that is registered on the Internet, by
yourself or by another company. Today it is common for all
companies to register their own domain name and so all email
addressed to that company would be addressed to
someone@company-domain-name.
For individuals it is common today to use the domain name of your
email provider, usually your ISP ,and the email has the form
you@ISP-domain-name. So if your name is John Doe and you have an
email account with Yahoo, then your email address would
be:johndoe@....
Email Addresses and email accounts
An email address is not an email account! You can have an email
address and not an email account, in which case you would use
email forwarding to forward the email to an address that had an
account. Without an email account you cannot access or store
email. Email accounts are always linked to email addresses but
the addresses are not always linked to email accounts. Addresses
can and often are linked to other addresses (email forwarding).
As an analogy assume you live at No 9 bridge road (your address)
and your house ( account) gets destroyed in a storm. You decide
not to rebuild the old house; as it wasn't very stable anyway,
and you move to a new house at 20 King street. In order to get
mail that was addressed to 9 bridge road to come to 20 king
street you go to post office and arrange for you mail to be
re-directed. You can continue for this arrangement for as long as
you want, normally until you have notified everyone of the change
of address, but if your willing to pay you can do it for a
lifetime.
Theme based or Personalised email addresses
Many companies offer email addresses (many free) with unusual
domain names. Like you@... or you@...
you@.... They can be very amusing and very easy to
remember but maybe not an address for a lifetime.
Lifetime email addresses
Many of us use the email accounts that come, usually free, with
our ISP (Internet Service Provider) account. The problem with
these type of email accounts is that you loose them if you change
ISP or the ISP closes. Changing ISP is very common, for cost
reasons or because you move locations etc.
Lifetime email addresses are a great idea just like lifetime
phone numbers. Unfortunately the definition of a lifetime varies!
Usually if you no longer subscribe to the particular service your
lifetime email address comes to the end of its life! My idea of a
lifetime email address is an address that stays with me until I
cease to exist and not the email provider! So how do you get a
lifetime email address? and what methods are used to provide
them.
Purchase an email account separate from your ISP
There are many companies offering email accounts that you
purchase and can keep and use for a Lifetime form anywhere in the
world. Many offer a variety of domain names to chose from and
various email service like email forwarding web mail etc.
The problem with this type of arrangement all hinge around the
fact that you don't control the email address and therefore must
continue to maintain an account with them, if not your lifetime
email address is over! So why wouldn't you continue to maintain
an account with them? There a many reasons for wanting to change,
such as:
* Price increases
* Service is not of sufficient standard
In effect they are little different from ISP email accounts,
except that they are non-geographic.
Email forwarding
This is a popular technique for providing "lifetime email
addresses". The email provider never re-allocates your email
address and forwards all mail addressed to this address to
another address (your current address) which you provide. This is
commonly provided by universities and colleges for students.
The problem with this type of arrangement all hinge around the
fact that you don't control the email address. There are things
that could happen that would mean you don't receive email from
this address; such as:
* The email provider changes its policy and decides stop the
service or charge for the service.
* The email provider ceases to exists and hence doesn't renew its
domain name.
* You change your email provider and forget to inform the other
email provider to forward to a new address.
Register your own Domain Name
This is the only way to guarantee that you truly have a lifetime
email address. Because you register your own domain name you have
complete control. The advantages are:
* Complete control of domain name- you choose it and it's
registered to you not to an email provider.
* Complete control of the email addresses
* Unlimited email addresses.
* Can be cheaper if you need lots of email addresses.
* You could have a domain name for all the family.
* You can use it for your Website as well.
The disadvantages are
* More complex as you have to a) register the name and b) find an
email provider.- Most domain name providers will also provide
mailbox space and forwarding services.
* Can be more costly.
* Need to renew the domain name each year or you will loose it.
This is my preferred method and so if you are Interested in
registering your own domain name and using it for email I will be
covering it in a future article. So check back.
Stephen Cope is the Webmaster at several websites. For email
articles, advice and information visit www.oeupdates.com. If you want
to learn how to make your own website then visit www.build-your-
website.co.uk.
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