Recommendations for an email provider

[Yonnie3]

I use an email client on a PC and have multiple email accounts. I am considering closing them all over the coming year.

I would like to get two new email accounts with reliable providers not tied to my internet service provider. I already have a Gmail account and for a variety of reasons I don't want to switch there.

A reasonable fee is fine, I don't leave much up on the servers so a moderate amount of storage is OK.

Edit to clarify that I'm not wanting to run a SMTP server, but a POP email application.

[ret5hd]

1. I don't know what you consider a modest fee...

but for very little you can buy a domain and set up your own email. Custom domain name, ability to add/delete/suspend email accounts, etc.

[Yonnie3]

3. Yes, that is an option I'm considering

Who are the good providers? I have had no dealings with this sort of thing for more than 20 years. Searches bring up so many options I am floored.

We had Network Solutions, MEH. Not sure where my brother moved the domain, but since the domain contains our business name, I'm not going to use that one for social media.

Cheap is $10 per month. Modest is $30. I don't intend to have a website.

[cayugafalls]

2. I use Vivaldi as my browser and they have email as well.

Vivaldi browser is really quite nice and with DuckDuckGo as the search I feel a lot better than using chrome and google. Nothing is perfect, but at least it Vivaldi says they do not gather your data...take it fwiw.

https://vivaldi.com

[Yonnie3]

4. That's interesting

thanks

[cayugafalls]

5. I have been happy with Vivaldi as a free service.

Read through their website and get a feel for it. The browser has built in ad blocking and is really quite powerful at preventing trackers.

The default security model is way better than any browser I have ever used. I've been in IT for nearly 40 years, so I have tried them all.

Good luck.

[cayugafalls]

6. Combine Vivaldi with a VPN service and you have fairly reasonable security.

Of course, nothing can prevent the DOJ from getting your data, but for the most part, as a regular person, a VPN and decent browser provides a great deal of peace of mind from your data being stolen by bad actors. Of course good antivirus is required as well.

Malwarebytes is good...there are other AV solutions, but that is a decent one.

[CloudWatcher]

7. Outlook? Yahoo? iCloud? Security?

I've managed my own email server (and domain) for the last twenty years or so. I don't really recommend it. It's hard enough to arraign for pet-sitters when we go on vacation, but I've also had to think through how to remotely keep our email server running too (power and internet outages in the mountains are routine).

Without knowing a little about why gmail doesn't work for you, it's tough to guess what you might find acceptable.

E.g. for the last year or more I've been a happy customer of linode.com. If you're a linux hacker, you can bring up an email server (smtp and imap) pretty quickly and for $5/month it's a good deal.

If security is your primary concern, google 'secure mail servers' and you'll find several reviews of the top few sites. This one seems reasonable: https://itsfoss.com/secure-private-email-services/

One thing to be aware of is that some ISP's find it within their rights to block connections to email services (tcp ports for smtp). I.e. they think it's ok to try and force you to use their email. These problems can usually be gotten around, but it's something to be aware of when shopping for a mail provider.

[Yonnie3]

8. Thank you

I don't want to run a server.

I read the Gmail TOS and I'm uncomfortable with them and it seems I can only use IMAP with them. This old fuddy duddy wants SMTP.

I have accumulated multiple legacy emails that have all ended up on Earthlink servers, and it time to move on.

I'm just looking for a reliable email provider that is independent of an ISP, accessible via smtp and a web interface for my android. I don't want additional services or advertising.

I'm going to review the link you provided and your search suggestion.

[msongs]

9. pair.com is good, have used them for years for domain/website host and email. currently using

wix to host my 3 websites and pair for domain and email

[Yonnie3]

12. Thanks, I'll take a look at them n/t

[CloudWatcher]

10. IMAP vs. SMTP

Ah, I think you're a little confused over the terminology! SMTP is the protocol used to SEND mail. IMAP (and POP) are the protocols used to READ your mail once it's been received by your email server.

Gmail has a web interface to both read and send mail with a normal browser. But you can also hook up an email client application (running on your phone or computer) to both send and read mail from your gmail account. The protocols used by your mail app are SMTP to talk to a server to send mail, and IMAP to talk to a server to read your mail.

For example I use the "Mail" app on my Macintosh (and iPhone) to connect to several email servers. From my own server, to iCloud and Gmail. The app uses the SMTP service on those servers to queue mail to send, and IMAP to talk to the mail services on those servers to suck up my incoming email and copy them to my local machine.

IMAP is the modern replacement for POP (post office protocol). While POP worked ok for many years, it has been rightfully deprecated by all modern email servers. It's just much easier to manage your email with IMAP.

Both SMTP and IMAP were designed to run on the early Internet (before encryption) but have modern flavors where the traffic between you and the email server are encrypted from casual eavesdropping (e.g. by your ISP watching the packets flow across their routers).

But one problem with most email is that the messages themselves are stored on the server in clear-text (not encrypted). So if you're doing really secret work, you need to accept that the owners of the email servers (and/or hackers that break into them) have full access to whatever email is stored on their computer.

And that's where secure email comes in. Using PGP (aka GPG) keeps the email encrypted until you decrypt it on your own device (iPhone or computer), so you don't have to trust the owners of your email service.

Hope this helps!

[Yonnie3]

11. I stand corrected, I was indeed confused.

I find as I age I recall things incorrectly. I did indeed mean POP not SMTP, it's been ages since I was immersed in that world. I recall when Pretty Good Privacy was a new thing, must have been 30 years ago.

I guess I'll need to look at IMAP again. I'm using ancient mail software with all sorts of tweaks/filters and some auto forwarding that has been a long time tool and doesn't do IMAP. I still get on USENET

I'm not very concerned with secrecy, only that the provider is not parsing my email and sharing info.

Thanks, you have been helpful.

[CloudWatcher]

13. POP vs. IMAP

The switch from POP to IMAP "shouldn't" be a big deal. The email service is basically the same. The POP vs. IMAP protocol is usually just a matter of how your mail-application reads the mail off the server.

Where IMAP really is much better than POP is if you have more than one device that is interacting with the mail server. POP was fine if you just had one pc that you always used to read your mail. But IMAP makes it easy to read your mail on multiple devices (a phone, tablet, pc) and yet still download it off the server into your computer at some point.

Any mail reading application released and maintained in the last many years should be able to support both POP and IMAP.

USENET! Omg

[Yonnie3]

14. No! No!

But I wanna use my 1990 software! That's more than many years isn't it?

I understand the IMAP replication of the email on multiple devices. It would have been great 20 years ago when I was working for a multinational corporation and traveling internationally. We used Lotus IFIRC, ugh!

I don't want to do email from many devices. I receive it and look through it at home and delete much of it. I then remove it all from the server. I back it up to floppy xxx external hard drive xxx usb thumb drive. In 30+ years of doing this I only accessed my backups thrice and mainly to restore my address book.

Thanks, you have been helpful

I guess you know USENET - As an admin for multiple (some moderated) accounts I still recall eternal September like it was yesterday. MIRT was easy in comparison.

[CloudWatcher]

15. Usenet :)

I was lucky .. I'd already walked away from USENET by that September. But for a few years I managed a Vax that was a major UUCP hub. Trying to keep the USENET traffic queues from backing up and filling our disks was a daily battle. Many megabytes a day ... over dialup modems. Congrats for surviving being a moderator! Crazy times!

[Yonnie3]

16. Vax!

Or as we used to say VAXEN for the plural.

We had a Vax cluster beta site back in the 80s. It was a group of Vax with shared disk drives. The file conflict resolution was left up to the individual programmer. Error handling was 20% of my code.

It was a real step up from loading the octal boot strap with toggle switches on a PDP-11 and repairing Teletype ASR-33s. I had to repair Altair 8800s as well.

I recall that our "connectivity" for the cluster was primarily shipped tapes supplemented with a 300 Baud modem for the managers' emails.

UUCP, bang paths, NNTP, oh my! It has been quite a while.

The good ole days (maybe). I happily moved on into factory automation and management. There was no mention of software development in my resume other than ladder logic.

Again, thanks for your help.