Just to clear up a common misconception on the topic of web-mail/gmail; most people assume you have to use the web interface to access gmail. This is not the case, you can use Outlook via IMAP if you want. And once you move your domain to gmail all messages are sent from your domain (not user@gmail.com).

Gmail also lets you suck in all your old email messages if you want. There are a few approaches to this depending on where you have your old mail stored. I used IMAP to pull in all my old email from my personal email server before I shut it down. I have archives on gmail going back to 1999.

John


On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 2:30 AM, JD <jd@wcgwave.ca> wrote:
Non-permanent, but worth considering, especially if you'd like to
'coddle' your respondents over to your new email address:

Ask your current ISP how much they charge to keep your current email
address 'alive', while you 'sleep' your other network services
subscription 'for a while'. The ones I am familiar with range from a
coupla bux or so .. commonly $5/month.

You should then, at least, be able to access the Old stuff via WebMail.
They can direct you to their help pages on how use your favourite
browser to work that kind of email.

I don't happen to like WebMail much. So I would also ask ISP if they
allow you to make POP connections from outside their network. If that
goes well, then you want them to tell you how 'secure' your login
authentication will be. Some POP logins still send parts of your login
info 'in the clear' - leaving you as easy pickins for man-in-the-middle
sniffers.

If you like their security, then you can run an email client like
Thunderbird. It can be set to fetch from more than one host, to common
inbox, or to separate folder hierarchies. If you elect to run an email
client on more than one station, no matter the client, I would suggest
you find the checkbox called "Leave mail on server", and do that on ALL
clients. This allows a wide window of time for you to fetch on each
machine; with none of them doing their fetching, then telling the
upstream email server "I'm the boss of all this email, and I've got my
copy of it all, so Delete everything up 'til Now." Should even one
client be set to NOT leave mail on server, your other stations will not
be able to be synch'd - they would be missing certain emails, deleted by
the bossy station on its last fetch.

These methods can buy you time to study your various options in
committing to a long-term 'permanent' email address.

Once you've established the New email address, make sure to set your
ReplyTo when using the Old email - set it to refer to the New addy.

Separately (again, once a new addy is established), you can also ask
your Old ISP if they can work the old, tried&true .forward ("dot
forward"), where Old-addressed email continues to 'arrive' at your Old
email host, but is re-directed to whatever you've set up as your New
email.

These approaches can be helpful during the transition to a new email,
and will allow you numerous opportunities to nudge your respondents to
update their address books. Most people need more than a few proddings
to actually go into their own addressbook, and edit/update their entry
on You. After 'enough' attempts, some will still just go into their
existing emails From you, and do a Reply, because .. well .. just
because people are like that. Your clever setting of the New ReplyTo
will eventually be 'in' the old emails they will reach for, and that's
the best we can do, for folks like that.

Eventually, you retire the old account, and if anybody gets upset at
their 'bounce' msgs .. you can blame it on their own .. naahh .. blame
it on me.

smiles,
John D
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

On Wed, 2014-07-09 at 12:00 -0500, roundtable-request@muug.mb.ca wrote:
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John Lange
www.johnlange.ca