Need advice on changing email address

[Dogmama]

I'm considering going to another ISP which means my email address will change. I have a TON of things that go to my email address. I'm assuming there isn't a forwarding mechanism like the post office has...

Has anybody done this? What is the most painless way? My fear is that I'll miss something important & a message will get bounced into never-never-land.

[Biciclista]

the best way to do it is to maintain 2 emails for at least a month.
And tell everyone about your new email address in your contact list. and then write to them from the new address exclusively.
A few will get lost in the cracks.
If they really care, they'll figure out how to get in touch.

[OakLeaf]

+1

And check with your old ISP - some do have a forwarding service, others will let you subscribe to an email address only for a smaller fee.

For the future, probably best to establish an advertiser-supported email address like yahoo, hotmail or gmail. Or maybe your school has free email for alumnae. Or something similar. Then you don't have to worry about this problem again.

[SadieKate]

Usually an old paid email address has a grace period for accessing it for don't depend on exact cut off dates as well as forwarding functions as said above. I'm still receiving forwarded email from my old sbcyahoo address 10 mos later.

If you use the web app (as opposed to Outlook, or if you use both) look for contact download/export functions where you can create a CSV file. You can then edit it and load it to a service such as gmail giving yourself a nice clean and data scrubbed address book.

pkq turned me onto gmail so I wouldn't have these problems again. Been well worth it.

[Dogmama]

Never thought about just getting a non-ISP email account - great idea!

Anybody have a preference between gmail & yahoo? Or are they all the same?

I could use my university email, but it seems like taxpayer abuse. And, as a child of the sixties, I'm always watching for Big Brother who is probably watching me. As we used to say, "It isn't paranoia if they really ARE following you!"

But I digress. If anybody has a preference, could you let me know? Thanks!!

[OakLeaf]

I prefer gmail (and I have both). If you want to access free Yahoo! mail via a POP server, it has to get forwarded to a "real" email address. Gmail forwards directly, and it uses a different network port, so that when the rest of your mail isn't working, you can often send and receive via gmail. If you prefer webmail, gmail has a nice threaded browsing format and a lot of sorting features, but I really never use that. Basically, my gmail address is the one my BFF's have - my Yahoo! address is the one I give out to potential spammers

As far as Big Brother watching you, for the most part they don't need ISP cooperation (actually they don't need it at all, it just makes it easier and more likely to be admissible in Court) - and to the extent that they ask for cooperation, it's really all about the ISP and not about the email address. Unless you have a very small local ISP (pretty rare these days), don't imagine you have any privacy at all online, and even then, don't imagine you have very much. They don't have the resources to read every single email, so unless they're targeting you personally, they just scan for certain keywords.

That said - if it bothers you to have corporate marketers scanning your email in addition to the government - then you're best to stick with non-advertiser supported email addresses, because the advertiser supported accounts are pretty explicit that it's your information that pays the bills. Just like the websites you visit in your browser, when you use an advertiser-supported email account, all your mail is scanned so that they can send you targeted advertising. It's all automated, and they claim that no personal information is provided to third parties, but still ya know.

Bottom line, if you really care about privacy, use snailmail via a private courier and use a tamper evident seal on your envelopes - not paranoid, just realistic. The other way of looking at it is the one most people adopt - just get used to it

[Flur]

I recommend that you get an email address that is not tied to your ISP. You can pick any service you like (gmail, hotmail, inbox, etc) or try out a couple of them and then forward all the addresses to the one you like most or drop the ones you don't like. Once you've set up a non-ISP email, you can tell everyone you know and switch while you're still with your current ISP.

Next, go through all your email to make sure there isn't anyone you've missed. Make a list of what you're expecting (bills, newsletters, etc.). Then, once you've switched your ISP, send out a reminder email to everyone of your new address and let them know the old address is gone. And watch your inbox for the stuff you're expecting - if it doesn't appear, contact the sender.