Email hosting

[Ted]

Sod this, i'm going to get a domain and have my email hosted elsewhere. I've been looking around and 1&1 appear good and very reasonably priced. I believe some people here use them, are they ok?

Any other recommendations?

[Simon]

I believe Rik uses them, Ted.

[Dangerjunkie]

Hi,

I use Supanames ( http://www.supanames.com ) and they've been pretty good for me. Prices are good too. I recommend a Linux hosting package (it doesn't matter if you run Windows or Mac on your PC, they'll all talk to your server the same.) I find the price and reliability better than Win Server. I think I pay something like £90 a year for my domain and their top Linux mail and web hosting package. The one below is something like £50.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Sebby]

I'm with 1&1, Ted, and have been for about a year and a half now. I think they've had problems once that I can remember, and they were rectified in a matter of hours.

For my needs, I think they are pretty decent; they're cheap, I like the control panel, and it just works. I've called support a few times (actually relating to another 1&1 account) and they're pretty hopeless, but what's the likelihood of needing support anyway?

[Ted]

I believe Rik uses them, Ted.

Now there's a recommendation

Supanames look good but probably more than i really need.

[D-Dan]

I signed with 1&1 tonight. Domain registration will take a while, but the smtp server is up & running, so at least I can send mail again.

Fortunately, most of my incoming comes via my idnetfreemail and yahoo addresses, so I'm receiving almost everything, too.

Steve

[Ted]

I signed with 1&1 tonight.

Great minds think alike Steve

[Sebby]

I don't think they can be beaten for value, and the service is good.

[Dopamine]

Does anyone know whether email upload speeds are restricted with any of the providers recommended here?

I ask because I have several cheap domains through GoDaddy.com (100% uptime for hosting and email since I bought them 4 years ago, and US customer service that puts the UK to shame), but the email on the accounts will only upload at 250kbps, which is a bit slow, so I use IDNet for personal email. IDNet's unreliability is becoming a nuisance though, so I'm looking to buy another domain purely for email, but want one that will upload and download at the max my connection will allow.

I've looked at 1&1's site, but can see no mention of email speeds.

[rumi]

34sp.com or an account (free or not) at Fastmail, POP or IMAP.

[Dangerjunkie]

Supanames don't give you SMTP (or at least didn't last time I looked.) You use their server for POP3 to download and IDNet's SMTP server to send.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Steve]

I use easily.co.uk been with them for only six months but no problems so far.

[Gary]

1&1 don't have a good reputation on the web it seems http://www.besthostratings.com/web-hosting/1and1.html but I guess if its just mail hosting then they may be fine, I'm going to do some more research. I used the IDNet mail as only personal but on one account it was used for business as googlemail seemed to get blocked Its not great any of us have to be hunting out hosting services when we all pay for reliability. IDNet do domain hosting for £48 year I wonder how reliable that is? You do get your email though the more reliable toaster server at least

[psp83]

I used to use 1and1.. Until everything got slow (including email)

At work we use several hosts including 1and1 and our 1and1 accounts are the slowest.

http://www.123-reg.co.uk/email/ has been good to us.

I'm personally hosting my main email and sites with a business in Canada. They host in America and UK aswell. If you want the address, PM me and i'll give you it.

[Rik]

I have no problems with 1&1, but Purple Cloud also get good reviews.

[Tacitus]

A couple more if people are interested:

Have-host     http://www.have-host.com/       Have-host are run by James Wilkinson a frequent contributor to the Freeway site design forums and are (or were) based in Montreal Canada.  At minimum $6US/ month this is a good deal given current exchange rates.

Clook   http://www.clook.co.uk/  Clook, a UK company have UK (Preston) and US based (Philadelphia) operations and have a very good reputation, although they are dearer than Have-host at£5/month or more.  Their forum is also very helpful.  http://www.clook.info/forum/   In many respects as a smallish customer focused business, they are similar to iDNet.

Both offer full web space, c-panel control, PHP4/5 etc.

I've used Clook for a couple of years now with no trouble at all, although I'm still on the old rates - £3/month for a smaller package than they currently offer. 

[Edit]   I should add that neither of these offer email only AFAIK.  They only offer full packages.

[scook94]

Been with 1&1 for my mail and hosting for a few years, no problems with either.

[Gary]

I'm not saying they are bad just the reviews were not good, then again no one gives positive reviews that often so its always biased

[scook94]

I'm not saying they are bad just the reviews were not good, then again no one gives positive reviews that often so its always biased

I've even seen some bad reviews of IDNet! Go figure!

[Gary]

I've even seen some bad reviews of IDNet! Go figure!

yes, but this is pages of bad reviews on google about 1&1, are the bad reviews of IDNet mail related by any chance 

[Ted]

Thanks guys, i think i'm going to try 1&1, its cheap for just the email so if its pants its no real loss
Speeds not really an issue, its reliability that i want. I prefer slow mail to no mail.

I agree with Gary, we shouldn't need to do this at all!!

[Simon]

Hopefully the situation will start to improve today - see the news update on the main index page.

[kinmel]

Before I started using my own servers I used free virtual servers for a number of years.

They have never been down and their paid for hosting is very cheap.

[Sebby]

Some people have had trouble with 1&1, myself, Rik, and others haven't, Gary. It's like everything...

[flusk]

Another thumbs up for PurpleCloud over here.

[Gary]

Some people have had trouble with 1&1, myself, Rik, and others haven't, Gary. It's like everything...

Indeed Sebby I just have bad luck a lot

[Simon]

The point is, none of us should have to be considering this, when an email provision is part of the service we pay IDNet for.  They do know how people feel about this incident, and I feel sure that they won't want anything like this to happen again.

[Gary]

The point is, none of us should have to be considering this, when an email provision is part of the service we pay IDNet for.  They do know how people feel about this incident, and I feel sure that they won't want anything like this to happen again.

Can't say fairer than that, Simon

[Ted]

Signed up this morning for 1&1 email hosting, just waiting for the Domain to be registered and it'll be fully usable. The SMTP server works fine, so i can send mail again. I went for a .eu domain as they wouldn't let me have .wales 

[Gary]

I asked IDnet to set me one up ths morning, heard nothing yet but but its not surprising as they are pretty busy, I just want to be up and running with my new domain and a more robust email 

[Rik]

I do have a scotlandmail address.

[Steve]

What .mac

[Rik]

No, scotlandmail.com. Couldn't resist it.

[Ted]

What .mac

[Ted]

My Domain just came online, all working perfectly. Just need to notify people of my new address\s and i'm all set 

[Rik]

So that's ted@wales.eu then?

[Ted]

Close but no cigar. I doubt many people could guess it, you won't find the domain in an english dictionary

[Rik]

So I need a Welsh dictionary then?

[D-Dan]

Well I know I'm a little late coming back to this, but my domain went live earlier on today (I tested from work and got the holding - full of ads page). Got home tonight and quickly threw together my own holding page for the site. I have to admit to being impressed at how quickly 1&1 got it together, and FTP and HTTP speeds seem excellent at the moment.

Steve

[Sebby]

Glad to hear it, Steve. Their automated systems seem to work well.

[doc_holiday]

Sod this, i'm going to get a domain and have my email hosted elsewhere. I've been looking around and 1&1 appear good and very reasonably priced. I believe some people here use them, are they ok?

Any other recommendations?

A lot of people like 1 & 1... unfortunately, I am one of the ones that has had trouble with them. They do some funky stuff with their DNS if you want to park a domain there. Since you are not going to use them for this, you should be fine. I use a small US based hosting company http://www.eversible.com/ They remind me a lot of IDNet.  Their service is top notch and they really care about their customers.

[Ted]

A lot of people like 1 & 1... unfortunately, I am one of the ones that has had trouble with them. They do some funky stuff with their DNS if you want to park a domain there. Since you are not going to use them for this, you should be fine. I use a small US based hosting company http://www.eversible.com/ They remind me a lot of IDNet.  Their service is top notch and they really care about their customers.

Yes it was just the email i was after, i'll still be using IDnet.com addresses its just an eggs in baskets thing
Email (5 mailboxes) is £0.69 a month + vat = £9.73 inc vat for a year
A .co.uk Domain can be had for £3.52 inc vat a year with a minimum of 2 years
1&1 use their own SMTP server so its entirely independent.
I would expect the chances of both services to be down at the same time to be minimal

[Rik]

It's worth mentioning, Ted that both 1&1 and IDNet have authenticated SMTP servers, so it's possible to switch between them at will.

[Ted]

Indeed they are
1&1 server is "auth.smtp.1and1.co.uk"