Step 3) Use a mail client like Apple mail or Thunderbird to access my email, I don’t really need a web interface.
Its the second step I’m worried about, how hard is it? Particularly if I go with a cheap host that doesn’t cost much because this is more an experiment then anything.
Most shared hosting products will set up the mail transfer software for you, so you can likely skip Step 2 unless you’re intent on maintaining your own server by yourself.
Your ISP should be able to provide you with an alias as long as it’s not already taken on their domain. I’m with Verizon, so I have firstname.lastname@verizon.net set up as an alias. I can also create 8 more using any terms I select. Is that all you need?
And yes, you’ll need an e-mail client or use the ISP’s web based interface.
Thanks Patty but I’ve got one of those already, in fact I’ve got several email addresses I use regularly- ranging from my Uni one to my MSN account.
By registering my own domain I’m hoping to avoid being tied down to one provider, it becomes more my own property so to speak.
So beowulff and friedo you’re saying that if I just sign up with a domain name registrar it should include email? (I’ll check first obviously)
Could you recommend any good ones/ what I should be able to get for my money, I don’t really need much storage space as I don’t plan to use it to store files or for a website.
Half these sites seem really dodgy, and don’t seem to say whether they allow you to use IMAP.
Also am I looking for a domain name or web hosting? Or do I need both? Thanks very much for anyone that can answer.
The domain name registrar is (usually*) separate from the Web host, and it’s the host that will provide you with mailboxes.
Sometimes the registrar and host are the same company or are affiliated, but you’re entitled to host your domain wherever you want.
My domain, phase42.net, is registered through PairNIC, and hosted by Pair Networks. In this case, they’re the same company - I find it’s simpler that way. I’ve used Pair Networks for years, and I’ve found them to be extremely reliable. If you just want basic hosting, you’ll want to go with their FTP account ($5.95/month). Setting up your mailboxes is a fairly simple process.
I use Domain Direct. I just use it as a mail forwarding account. In other words, incoming mail sent to me@myaccount.com gets forwarded to my me@yahoo.com where I access it via POP. If I where to dump Yahoo, I could just have the mail forward to one of my other POP accessible accounts. I’m reasonably certain that you can also get POP accessible accounts there but haven’t bothered to check into it.
What he said. Gmail hosts my ‘name@business.com’ email and you can set up any address and domain you like, provided you register the domain. You get your custom address and the perks of Gmail hosting. It’s a little bit of a trick to set it up, but Google really and truly baby-steps you through the process.
One thing I was told, if there are domains you want, be ready to search and purchase them in the same step as soon as you confirm they’re available–there are businesses that track what’s being searched and will buy likely looking domains when they see people have considered registering them.
They don’t actually pay anything. They taste the domain - they get it for a few days, and if anyone else tries to buy it, they effectively own it and can jack up the resale price. If no-one tries to buy the domain, they get to see how much traffic it generates, and then it reverts to being available with no cost.
FYI- For those of you who like Yahoo email, Yahoo also provides a similar service - you provide the domain, they provide the email client. Set up is easy.
That’s how it works. I use GMail now for my friedo.com domain. Everything besides email I handle myself. That’s because GMail is awesome and email is a huge pain in the ass.
If you do decide to set up your own mail server (e.g. for the learning experience), make sure you read up on some of the do’s and don’ts before accidentally creating a spammer portal, or configure your server in some other way that gets your mail blacklisted. I’ve recently gone through this and set up the “exim” Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) and there was definitely a lot of interesting stuff to learn. Two references I found handy are here (generally excellent faq about email handling and how it can help/hurt the spam situation, but section 12 is particularly relevant to newbs setting up servers) and here. These are both mostly starting points for learning what concepts are important to pay attention to and you’ll have to google what you don’t know, but they really helped me out a lot.
But as a lot of other people point out: unless you have a particular interest in doing it yourself (or need to run your own server for other reasons), it’s a whole bunch easier to let someone else worry about the problem for you. I was mostly doing it for the experience, but also because I’d ultimately like something a little more sophisticated than just forwarding all of my email to a single account on Random Big Inflexible Mail Service (e.g. gmail, yahoo), and wanted to know just how much of a pain that would be to maintain. I’m still a little on the fence about whether it’s going to be worth it, and I’m a pretty big nerd.
I just have all my email sent to my domain forwarded to my GMail account, but if I were setting it up from scratch, I’d probably use Google Apps from the getgo.
It is a FREE service and you can use POP mail or IMAP and it walks you thru. 1and1 offers simple directions to set up your email thru POP or IMAP (those are protocals)
I love Poppeeper and 1and1 is cheap and I’ve never had an issue in 5 years of service