# Should I change email providers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375 "2013-03-19T17:52:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/21 "2013-03-21T15:48:53Z")
It is easy for me. I never put anything to paper, phones, or on the net that I don’t want everyone to see or hear… ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/22 "2013-03-21T16:12:37Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Don’t be too surprised if my next thread is asking about the pros and cons of buying a domain, and how much tech knowledge I’d need to run one. Having a domain would be the first step: you would also need hosting. A domain name costs around $10 a year — and should be bought and held separately from your host, no matter what they offer free, from a domain seller. From there you point the DNS records to your new website — which could be a single page, just so long as it exists. Hosting costs can be as cheap as you dare, particularly if you are not using the website at all ( you could instruct search engines to ignore the site in your ‘.htaccess’ file ), but $50 a year or less would be reasonable: just go for linux hosting, probably Apache, and avoid GoDaddy. For routing the domain mail, ask the hosts to set it up, unless you want to get into the arcane mysteries of ‘CName addressing’. Technical skills needed to run a website: minimal; to run one merely for domain mail: none, after you get to look at the control panel — the backend — for the site. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/23 "2013-03-21T16:53:20Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Don’t be too surprised if my next thread is asking about the pros and cons of buying a domain, and how much tech knowledge I’d need to run one. Happy to walk you through it. We end up on the same side in so many things I feel like I owes ya. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/24 "2013-03-21T17:18:00Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > It is easy for me. I never put anything to paper, phones, or on the net that I don’t want everyone to see or hear.. Same here, if Google wants to know that I paid my phone bill or that someone responded to this thread, so be it. It’s all algorithms designed to send me ads, which I block with AdBlock anyway. Anything personal stays off the Internet entirely. Gmail is great. I receive a message and it’s instantly accessible on my PC and both my Android devices, same with outgoing mail. The spam filtering works great, search works great. Everything is a risk. With hosted e-mail, you don’t know who will see your e-mail. Even if you run your own personal server at home or work, what about the other side of the e-mails, the people that send and receive email to you? If they’re not secured then whatever you send to them is potentially public. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/25 "2013-03-21T17:37:33Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > It is easy for me. I never put anything to paper, phones, or on the net that I don’t want everyone to see or hear.. Really. Care to post the receipt for every single purchase you make in the next year - or made last year? Along with your complete phone call records? And browsing history? > [@control-z](#): > > Same here, if Google wants to know that I paid my phone bill or that someone responded to this thread, so be it. So the police can come search your house any time, since you have nothing to worry about, is that it? Really, if you don’t understand the degree that your every inhale and exhale is tracked and accumulated, you can’t smugly say you have nothing to hide or that you aren’t leaving a trail like a snail with postnasal drip. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/26 "2013-03-21T18:56:52Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > So the police can come search your house any time, since you have nothing to worry about, is that it? > > Really, if you don’t understand the degree that your every inhale and exhale is tracked and accumulated, you can’t smugly say you have nothing to hide or that you aren’t leaving a trail like a snail with postnasal drip. I know all about Internet security, it’s my job. But I feel just as secure with Google storing my e-mail as brand X. You know about [Room 641A](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A) right? After that I don’t feel like anything I do on the Internet is private. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/27 "2013-03-21T19:16:08Z")
Just a quick note. You can buy a domain for email and never host it anywhere. Many people ‘park’ domains onto services that claim to pay out for click through (I think sedo is one of these services). It would be better to just never host it anywhere or to put up a blank page if your DNS provider has to have an address other than your mail server. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/28 "2013-03-21T19:20:08Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I know all about Internet security, it’s my job. I’m not talking about internet security, per se. That’s too narrow a view of the problem, which is individual privacy, which may as well not exist… but you can avoid willingly feeding it by not using info-vores like Google. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/29 "2013-03-21T23:04:55Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > A domain name costs around $10 a year — and should be bought and held separately from your host… This is basically true, except that the easiest way is to use a registrar as your email host. Definitely right to avoid buying your domain “through” a non-registrar host as that can get complicated when you want to move somewhere else. Registrars are the sites that will sell you _just_ a domain name like [NameCheap.com](http://NameCheap.com), [Godaddy.com](http://Godaddy.com), many others. Technical knowledge needed to use your domain name for mail and not a website is very minimal if you choose to use email from say, [NameCheap.com](http://NameCheap.com) (\<$15/yr for domain name and an email account). Slightly more complicated if you want to use someone else as you have 3 basic pieces you have to setup - Where you register your domain, Where you host your DNS (tells the world how to map your domain name, IE [LynnBodoni.com](http://LynnBodoni.com) to an IP address), and Where you host your email account. Not that difficult if you can follow instructions. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/30 "2013-03-21T23:15:43Z")
> [@jacobsta811](#): > > This is basically true, except that the easiest way is to use a registrar as your email host. Definitely right to avoid buying your domain “through” a non-registrar host as that can get complicated when you want to move somewhere else. I strongly concur: keep your domain registrations and your hosting separated, so you can manage them efficiently without being tied to any one provider. GoDaddy is probably the best general choice for a few domain registrations, but I don’t know any registrar who is a quality host. The email-only hosting tends to be limited and overpriced. I’d go with a basic web hosting package with generous email features from any quality hosting service, even if the web page is just a static placeholder. Should be available for less than $50 a year. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/31 "2013-03-22T03:20:25Z")
I’m pretty happy with my GMX mail account. I don’t know all the technical/security stuff but I never get spam and it’s free. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375/32 "2013-03-22T05:09:16Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Really. Care to post the receipt for every single purchase you make in the next year - or made last year? Along with your complete phone call records? And browsing history? > :::: snip ::::: You want it, go get it, I won’t do it for you? You want to go get it & put it on the WEB, be my guest. How you gonna get the paper, go through the trash. Hook it up… My browsing history, Bawahahahaha, I really have nothing to hide there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-change-email-providers/653375.md?page=1)