Best Email Hosting Company


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I have a domain that I use for email purposes. I was with GoDaddy and was really happy with their service but after the SOPA fiasco - didnt want to support them anymore.

So I switched to Namecheap. Normally I avoid anything that says "cheap" or "budget" - but many people said it was good alternative. I am noticing many of my emails are coming in hours after they are sent. This is unacceptable IMO

What are my other options ? I did a neowin search but nothing came up & hopping online - well you dont know if the people giving the reviews are complete morons or not. (usually they are)

I trust my fellow neowinians to steer me right. ;)

It is 1 .com domain with 1 email address - quality of service is the only thing I care about

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I didnt know Office 365 did that kind of thing -- I'll check it out --

Exchange ? :s I have 1 email address and get about 5-7 emails a day

I thought Office365 & google apps were simply free lightweight web-based apps - not a hosting service per se =

looks like i have some reading to do - thanks gents

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I second Office 365

that or standard Microsoft Exchange

Exchange - Not hosted

365 - More expensive as Google Apps Business

Google Apps - Free version for up to 10 users to start with. Business version gives Microsoft Outlook sync tool (better than IMAP) and Postini spam filtering rather than just the standard Junk filtering.

I prefer Google Apps because it is full of features, it is will sync with any device you can think of, and they are always innovating it further.

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I didnt know Office 365 did that kind of thing -- I'll check it out --

Exchange ? :s I have 1 email address and get about 5-7 emails a day

I thought Office365 & google apps were simply free lightweight web-based apps - not a hosting service per se =

looks like i have some reading to do - thanks gents

Google Apps - Offers POP and IMAP access to Desktop Client, and Exchange access in addition to POP/IMAP access to Mobile Clients. There is also native support built into Android and iOS app. In addition to webmail that uses Gmail of course - All for free. Need Business for Outlook sync tool.

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Exchange is a type of email setup - it doesnt host crap

Office 365 is not what Im looking for - I need a company to move my domain to and where I can set up a small email account using my domain (and my already existing email address) - not some "----@onoffice365.com". Isnt google apps simply a free cloud based "wrapper" ? Where it isnt necessarily the company that hold/hosts the domain, but it simply lets you get your email on their site ?

I dont care about web-based access - I always have my phone or my computer(s) nearby -

or am I wrong about all of these ?

Thanks for your help Simon -- ;)

Google Apps offers POP & SMTP access - I need a company to host the POP & SMTP :D - I guess Im not making myself clear - sorry

_____________________

Companies like hostgator, name.com, Dreamhost, etc. is what Im looking for

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Exchange is a type of email setup - it doesnt host crap

Office 365 is not what Im looking for - I need a company to move my domain to and where I can set up a small email account using my domain (and my already existing email address) - not some "----@onoffice365.com". Isnt google apps simply a free cloud based "wrapper" ? Where it isnt necessarily the company that hold/hosts the domain, but it simply lets you get your email on their site ?

I dont care about web-based access - I always have my phone or my computer(s) nearby -

or am I wrong about all of these ?

Thanks for your help Simon -- ;)

Google Apps offers POP & SMTP access - I need a company to host the POP & SMTP :D - I guess Im not making myself clear - sorry

_____________________

Companies like hostgator, name.com, Dreamhost, etc. is what Im looking for

Both Office 365 and Google Apps both HOST the email. You need to change the MX records of your domain to direct it to the Hosted Mail servers. Your email address with either option is you@yourdomain.com and there is no indication to a recipient that you are using Office 365 or Google Apps. Google Apps is not a "wrapper", Google Apps holds all of your email. You can host the domain name anywhere you like where you have access to change DNS records.

For example:

  1. johnsmith@hotmail.com sends an email to you@yourdomain.com
  2. hotmail.com looks up where to find your DNS SERVER for yourdomain.com with ICANN (Namecheap provide these records to ICANN)
  3. hotmail.com connects to your DNS SERVER eg: ns1.yourdomain.com or ns1.nameservers.com (Namecheap HOSTS the DNS Server, but it is also possible to use another provider)
  4. hotmail.com looks up where to find your MAIL SERVER with the DNS SERVER eg: mail.yourdomain.com or aspmx.l.google.com (The MX record)
  5. hotmail.com connects to your MAIL SERVER and sends the email to the mail server hosting yourdomain.com (Google Apps/Office 365 or another provider HOSTS the Mail Server)

This is the same for ALL mail systems, this is how e-mail works. Google Apps and 365 work on the same level as any other hosting provider. Google Apps offers all the functionality of the simple hosting providers you mentioned at the bottom of your post plus more for FREE at your size. It is just as easy if not easier to use, and if you don't use the more advanced features, they are still an option even if you don't use it.

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personally i use exchange on sbs 2011, cant go wrong

We dont use Exchange @ wk. so I dont know a ton about it. But using Exchange is simply a corporate-level email client - it has nothing to do with what Im asking, right ?

As far as the Google Apps - so if I move the mx records from namecheap to Google - I will have no strings attached to namecheap - thus what issues I have with them will be fixed ? Like getting email late ? I use Thunderbird on my laptop, Outlook @ home, and my iPhone - sometimes there are emails that take hours before it shows on any of them - Im assuming thats a namecheap issue.

Simon - I reread your above post - thank you - that really cleared things up for me.

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We dont use Exchange @ wk. so I dont know a ton about it. But using Exchange is simply a corporate-level email client - it has nothing to do with what Im asking, right ?

Exchange is an Email Server, if you effectively want to host your email on premise, however as you said above you only have the one account and receive few emails so i think installing exchange will be overkill.

As others have said Office 365 / Google Mail might be the solution, unless others know of some other good hosting companies. Im afraid i can't think of any off the top of my head as i brought a .mac account for personal emails and either install Exchange for clients or recommend they use Office365/Google.

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Thank You to everyone - I didnt know Google Apps & Docs could do so much. I talked to a budsdy of mine who I always call "the gadget ######" because he uses every new app there is and he confirmed what ya;ll said - come to find out namecheap had a "use google apps" tool that did it for me.

Now I shouldnt have the speed issues anymore - very much appreciated guys.

REM2000 - The company I used to work for had an Exchange Server so I know the bare minimum, and I agree that is ridiculous overkill -

personally i use exchange on sbs 2011, cant go wrong

For just you ? :|

Pardon me for sounding stupid, but what advantages does Exchange really give you when its 1 user ? Other than storing everything offsite from the client

IMO thats like using a cannon for a mosquito

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I'm using an Office 365 personal plan (P1), it works wonders.

What you'd be doing is transferring DNS over from Namecheap to Office 365. Your domain will still be registered with Namecheap though. Here's what my Namecheap DNS config looks like.

My email address is me@mydomain.com (have fun with that one, spam bots), there's no Microsoft stuff in your domain :)

Google Apps is good too though. I would give both a try and see which one your prefer. An Office 365 P1 plan is $6/mo, but you can try it for free for 30 days.

http://www.microsoft...e365-trial.aspx

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I'm using an Office 365 personal plan (P1), it works wonders.

What you'd be doing is transferring DNS over from Namecheap to Office 365. Your domain will still be registered with Namecheap though. Here's what my Namecheap DNS config looks like.

My email address is me@mydomain.com (have fun with that one, spam bots), there's no Microsoft stuff in your domain :)

Google Apps is good too though. I would give both a try and see which one your prefer. An Office 365 P1 plan is $6/mo, but you can try it for free for 30 days.

http://www.microsoft...e365-trial.aspx

Thanks Canuck

I am using Google Apps now, honestly I was hoping the Apps marketplace would have more to choose from - a little disappointing. I was thinking Apple App Store or Chrome's web store - but the other features are nice.

I might still use Office365 once I read some more on it.

I use Outlook on my desktop & Thunderbird on my ThinkPad - do I need to make changes to those to reflect the switch to Google Apps, or is the POP & SMTP still the same ?

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Thank You to everyone - I didnt know Google Apps & Docs could do so much. I talked to a budsdy of mine who I always call "the gadget ######" because he uses every new app there is and he confirmed what ya;ll said - come to find out namecheap had a "use google apps" tool that did it for me.

Now I shouldnt have the speed issues anymore - very much appreciated guys.

REM2000 - The company I used to work for had an Exchange Server so I know the bare minimum, and I agree that is ridiculous overkill -

For just you ? :|

Pardon me for sounding stupid, but what advantages does Exchange really give you when its 1 user ? Other than storing everything offsite from the client

IMO thats like using a cannon for a mosquito

i use it because i work in IT, im constantly trying new technologies and playing with servers.

yes maybe it is overkill but i have it so why not use it. SBS itself provides me with a lot of other features that i use not just exchange, but using exchange at home for me is also a great way of learning it.

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Thanks Canuck

I am using Google Apps now, honestly I was hoping the Apps marketplace would have more to choose from - a little disappointing. I was thinking Apple App Store or Chrome's web store - but the other features are nice.

I might still use Office365 once I read some more on it.

I use Outlook on my desktop & Thunderbird on my ThinkPad - do I need to make changes to those to reflect the switch to Google Apps, or is the POP & SMTP still the same ?

If you log in through the web interface (www.gmail.com with the your domain email address and password) then go into the settings, then Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab, you can enable POP or IMAP for your account and has links for the configuration settings (everything is done with SSL).

Google Apps App store is mostly for companies using Google Apps that wish to have business software integrated with it, it is not really targeted to consumers.

IMAP is better because it keeps everything synced with Google. For example you read an email on your phone then it will show as read in Outlook as well without having to read it again. IMAP support in Outlook can be a bit flakey though, so I would suggest that you see how you go, if it is an issue for you you can upgrade to Google Apps for Business ($50/year or $5/month) which gives you can Outlook Sync tool which works well.

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