MacMost Now 655: Five Reasons Not To Use Your ISP’s Email Service

When you sign up with an ISP like a cable modem, DSL or mobile provider you are often given a free email address using the domain name of the ISP. Many people use these as their primary email address. Here are five reasons why that is a bad idea and you should instead use a portable free email service like iCloud or Gmail, or get your own domain name.

Comments: 18 Responses to “MacMost Now 655: Five Reasons Not To Use Your ISP’s Email Service”

    greg
    12 years ago

    how would you suggest to change to a web base email, i have a gmail account, but everyone uses my cable address….?

      12 years ago

      Well, email everyone in your address book and anyone else you can think of, of course. Then think of all of the online accounts where you have your ID set to that old email address. Go to each account and start the process of changing it to the new email address.
      Then see if the old email address has an option on the server to forward email to another address. Set it to do so.
      But keep the old address around and check it every once in a while, at least for a time.

        faizan
        12 years ago

        thats why i do not like hotmail because they use pop

    Caraline
    12 years ago

    Thanks for this podcast that rolled on nicely from a question I'd asked last week. As always, most enjoyable :)

    Robb
    12 years ago

    Is there somewhere I could find a hard copy or at least the text of the Five Reasons Not To Use Your ISP’s Email Service?

    Thanks!

      12 years ago

      Not at the moment. Eventually there will be a transcript here. Check back in a week or so.

        Robb
        12 years ago

        Thanks, Gary, GREAT JOB!

    Tom
    12 years ago

    I do have a Gmail account but my main account has always been through Road Runner, Gmail is to restrictive for somethings I need. In my work I had to sometimes receive and also send out files that may be of the executable type for testing or setting up equipment. Our company email was through Gmail and I could not send these even when sent as ZIP format. Gmail would not allow them to go through their system. I would use my RR account with no problem. I know that is not necessarily a good thing but it works for me and I am always aware when, from who and what file is coming if I am receiving one so I am very careful on that respect.

      12 years ago

      What I would do is to use a service like Dropbox or an FTP server to send those files. Even if you can send them from your end, the receiver may not be able to get it on their end. Better to send them a link to the file instead.

    Don Yaworski
    12 years ago

    I have found that when I send an email from my domain name email to someone at certain companies, it is screened out, I guess as spam and they do not get my email. I do not know why since I do not send out mass emails. But when I send email from my isp email account, these very same people receive the email. What could be going on here?

      12 years ago

      Could be many things. Your domain could be blacklisted for some reason. Or more likely the server block where you have that domain hosted has been blacklisted. I'd consult with an email deliverability specialist to sort it out.

    Mr Anthony Cotton
    12 years ago

    This is a minefield.I had a hotmail account for years,until one day i was receiving emails from the adobe forum. These kept on coming in,as fast as i was deleting them,the faster they came in. I asked for help and Hotmail said we do not support Safari or Apple. I was sick of deleting them,and it went over a thousand. Someone else was having the same problem,and they told him to find the answer on the Hotmail forum. I just left,and i am using my ISP`s email. I have been thinking to have a Gmail as you said Gary.

    GregM
    12 years ago

    Here's a good one for you Gary. A year ago I moved house, thus losing my cable provider, and thus their email addy as per your video. I advised friends to use my hotmail account (which btw, I believe don't support IMAP) while I get my old email account back (via a mobile service with same telco which I'm don't use)...the short of it is, one person is *still* using my hotmail, even close to a year after telling her to go back to my old ISP account (which her husband quite quickly switched back to !)...so the plan now is to delete my hotmail account and hopefully this will force her to use my preferred account. I do have several gmail accounts, though prefer my old ISP one as I've been using it for 14 years. Oh, and while I think of it, these same friends who cant send me email on my preferred account couldn't figure out how to empty trash and junk folders on gmail, which was taking a few hundred meg, so they bought some more storage space when they didn't have to - so a word of advice - if you're using a web based mail account (eg: gmail), know where all your space is going, and how to empty it if the usage seems too high.

    Squafdonoboles
    12 years ago

    Thanks for posting this, Gary! I've been telling people this for years. I myself use Inbox, a free web-based e-mail that comes with lots of storage space but you can add more at a nominal price. PLUS, you can add-on any features you like for free. They are not thrown in your face the way G-Mail does. Hope this helps!

    Michael A.
    12 years ago

    Another reason not to use ISP email is that some ISPs don't allow you to send email when you're not at home; more precisely, their SMTP servers reject connections from IP addresses that don't belong to their customers.

    Simon
    12 years ago

    if you switch to a new account (say gMail or iCloud) then set up a 'Vacation Message' at your old address to automaticly reply to incoming mail (at your old address) with a message saying you have stopped using this account and can be reached at your new address (XYZ123).
    In this way people who are not personally invested in dealing with you personally won't pick up the message and won't send stuff to your new address ie you won't be bothered by idiots. The exception to this is of course email newsletters sent by robots, so obviously you should check your old address inbox from time to time to see if there is anything important you're not getting. It may mean unsubscribing your old address and resubscribing with your new one.

    Ron Chatham
    12 years ago

    good info. I have had e-mail sending probs with my macbook air since day on. It is off and on and not reliable. This happened with @att.net (yahoo) and @sc.rr.com.

    Not sure how to fix but evidently I need to not go through sc.rr.com. What should I switch to?

      12 years ago

      You should call your ISP's tech support and walk though the settings with them.

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