# How hard is it to set up your own email address? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545 "2008-02-28T19:43:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sri\_Theo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sri\_Theo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sri_Theo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/1 "2008-02-28T19:43:53Z")
I don’t mean stuff like Gmail or hotmail, but say that I wanted to get **Sri.Theo** @aglance.eu as my email address, it doesn’t look that hard. Step 1) Find a host such as [www.onedollarhost.net](http://www.onedollarhost.net) (all right probably not them, but I like the name) Step 2) setup something like [Sendmail](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sendmail) or [Zimbra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra) 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. Has anyone here done something similar? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/2 "2008-02-28T19:52:41Z")
Almost any domain name registrar will have email hosting as a service. You just register [xxx.com](http://xxx.com) and you get email in the bargain. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/3 "2008-02-28T19:53:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/4 "2008-02-28T19:53:25Z")
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](mailto: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. ---
**Author:** ![Sri\_Theo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sri\_Theo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sri_Theo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/5 "2008-02-28T20:19:30Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/6 "2008-02-28T20:29:46Z")
[QUOTE=Sri Theo] 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) [/quote] 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. > [@](#): > > 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. My domain, [phase42.net](http://phase42.net), is registered through [PairNIC](https://www.pairnic.com/index.html), and hosted by [Pair Networks](http://www.pair.com/). 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](http://www.pair.com/services/web_hosting/ftp.html) ($5.95/month). Setting up your mailboxes is a fairly simple process. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/7 "2008-02-28T20:39:55Z")
I use [Domain Direct](http://www.domaindirect.com/). I just use it as a mail forwarding account. In other words, incoming mail sent to [me@myaccount.com](mailto:me@myaccount.com) gets forwarded to my [me@yahoo.com](mailto: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. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/8 "2008-02-28T21:29:47Z")
[Domain Registration Reviews.](http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/domain-registration/index.html?refcd=GO037482s_Domain_registration_review&tsacr=GO419111722&gclid=COvDwdHp55ECFQUYlwod-BHifg) Try these searches: “domain registration review” and “free web host review”. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/9 "2008-02-29T03:29:50Z")
You can actually skip the hosting and go right to [Google Apps](http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/gmail.html). Buy your domain name (buy it yourself) from your registrar of choice. Set up the DNS and/or MX entries to what Google tells you. You now have Gmail that is not @gmail.com but @yourdomain.com. At least, this is how I think it all works. I’ve read about it a few times but I have not yet had the need to use it. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/10 "2008-02-29T03:38:59Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] You can actually skip the hosting and go right to [Google Apps](http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/gmail.html). Buy your domain name (buy it yourself) from your registrar of choice. Set up the DNS and/or MX entries to what Google tells you. You now have Gmail that is not @gmail.com but @yourdomain.com. At least, this is how I think it all works. I’ve read about it a few times but I have not yet had the need to use it. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/11 "2008-02-29T04:21:25Z")
[QUOTE=NajaNivea] –there are businesses that track what’s being searched and will buy likely looking domains when they see people have considered registering them. [/QUOTE] Let’s all go on line fairly often and serach various domain names to make this as expensive a business model as we possibly can. Tris ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/12 "2008-02-29T08:18:52Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus] Let’s all go on line fairly often and serach various domain names to make this as expensive a business model as we possibly can. [/QUOTE] 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. It’s a scam. Si ---
**Author:** ![bcullman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bcullman/32/8207_2.png) [@bcullman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bcullman)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/13 "2008-02-29T18:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=NajaNivea] 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. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/14 "2008-02-29T18:29:32Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] You now have Gmail that is not @gmail.com but @yourdomain.com. At least, this is how I think it all works. I’ve read about it a few times but I have not yet had the need to use it. [/QUOTE] That’s how it works. I use GMail now for my [friedo.com](http://friedo.com) domain. Everything besides email I handle myself. That’s because GMail is awesome and email is a huge pain in the ass. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/15 "2008-02-29T20:07:06Z")
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](https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/email.php) (generally excellent faq about email handling and how it can help/hurt the spam situation, but [section 12](https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/email.php#config) is particularly relevant to newbs setting up servers) and [here](http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/postmaster/postmaster-15.html). 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. ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/16 "2008-03-01T02:20:45Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![hotcoldhot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58f4c7/32.png) [@hotcoldhot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotcoldhot)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-set-up-your-own-email-address/439545/17 "2008-03-01T23:34:40Z")
I used [1and1.com](http://1and1.com) If I can do a website anyone can. They also have a deal if you want to register a domain and your email. Use poppeeper from [http://poppeeper.com](http://poppeeper.com) 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