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Reasons to not use your own domain for email

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Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#181

Post by edwinjm »

Aardwolf wrote: post #127
sschueller wrote: post #2

I strongly disagree. - Google has on multiple occasions terminated accounts for no reason with no recourse. You loose access you can't do anything. If you have your own domain you can at least set it up somewhere else. How many website would you need to update with your new email and how would you get thay extra factor mail? - If I die I don't care if someone else reads my mail, I'm dead. Also you can add a dead man'…

With an email service, your account can be terminated there. With a registrar, your account or domain could be terminated as well. So both have similar risk, so best strategy is to spread the risk and have multiple accounts of different types.

A registrar terminating an account is very rare. If you stay away from dubious domain names (like disneyfanshop.com) and stay away from tld's from dubious countries, you're pretty safe.

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#182

Post by oliwarner »

LightHugger wrote: post #179
oliwarner wrote: post #136

> One of my concerns is that, if I were unable to renew my domain … someone else could register it and start receiving my emails And what happens if your email provider does the same? What happens if they close your account because you were unable to login and they give your handle to somebody else? What happens when they suspend your account because you logged into something they don't approve of? TFA is a weak, sel…

It kind of sucks but domain registrars steal paid for domains from people all the time for nonsense reasons too.

I think all the time is stretching. Reputable registrars selling domains from reputable registries do not generally do this.

In in doubt, stick to dot-com

Again, anything that could happen to you and your domain could happen to an email provider and their domains, on top of them choosing to lock you out, give away your address, downtime, etc etc etc.

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#183

Post by jkestner »

l72 wrote: post #162
tjpnz wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As evidenced here the impact of account terminations can have a profound impact on a persons life. Email providers like Google should be treated as utilities and regulated as such, they should be legally obligated to communicate with their users, ideally working towards a resolution. Until then you really should be treating said accounts in the same way you would a hotel rental phone.

In my opinion, for the US, the postal service should offer free email addresses to every US resident. The Postal Service is highly regulated, and you won't lose your email over a comment on Youtube.

A great idea in theory, but a large number of Americans wouldn’t trust the government with this (never mind they can do this with paper mail—this is a different scale). I don’t know why we trust corporations any more than that. Convenient UX, I guess.

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#184

Post by hnben »

8fingerlouie wrote: post #91

DO use a your own domain. Advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Instead of being at the mercy of whatever email provider you choose, you're free to move your domain where ever you want, without updating "a million" senders. DO NOT host your own email server though. A couple of decades ago it made perfect sense to do so, but these days it's simply not worth the trouble. Instead use Google/Outlook/Apple/Whatever t…

> DO NOT host your own email server though

I have a minimal postfix that simply forwards everything to my actual mail-address on posteo.de

pro: setup is really simple and requires no maintenance at all

con: I can not send emails from that domain

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#185

Post by l72 »

c-linkage wrote: post #177
l72 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100MB for storage or per email? For storage, that is way too small. You can easily hit that limit in a few months of light usage. All my utilities send me PDFs each month, and that adds up quickly. Last year, while doing renovations, the contractor and I were sending PDF drawings back and forth. I would have gone over the limit on a single day. We need something that lasts a lifetime with full archival and backup.

With respect, I think it's cost prohibitive for the government to provide a free and unlimited service. Your physical mailbox -- from which you get your paper spam -- has a fixed size, and every day (maybe once a week) you have to empty the box. If we extend that into the digital realm, it makes sense for the post office to provide a similarly limited post box in the free tier , from which you can use POP to download…

Sure, but 100M is prohibitively low. No one will actually use this if it is capped at that.

I do volunteer technical work with some of our homeless shelters. Having access to email is critical. Without it, they have no access to a whole host of government services they need. They don't have their own computer, so they are relying on email as their document storage.

Gmail and other 3rd party email providers constantly cause issues for them. Their login is often tied to a cell phone which gets broken, stolen, and replaced often. Or they cycle through numbers since their service is constantly interrupted due to payment issues. They rarely have any way to gain access back to their email, and their access to many important services is lost.

At least with the post office, there is a physical place you can go to, and have multiple ways to prove your identity and continue to get access to your email, which like I said, is a requirement and lifeline for this population.

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#186

Post by l72 »

jkestner wrote: post #183
l72 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, for the US, the postal service should offer free email addresses to every US resident. The Postal Service is highly regulated, and you won't lose your email over a comment on Youtube.

A great idea in theory, but a large number of Americans wouldn’t trust the government with this (never mind they can do this with paper mail—this is a different scale). I don’t know why we trust corporations any more than that. Convenient UX, I guess.

That is why I suggested the post office. It is highly regulated but separate enough from "the government" (at least in the US).

I expect that many people would still use 3rd party providers for personal email and less important things. But it is certainly nice to be able to have bank statements, tax documents, or any business with government services conducted through a verified email.

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#187

Post by hk1337 »

> e.g., in case of death

You don't really need email in that case but this is why you organize your life to let those that come after you know what you have.

> someone else could register it and start receiving my emails.

They could still do that if you die and the executor of your estate decides to not renew the domain or email service. You're dead though, what do you care?

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#188

Post by remram »

Aardwolf wrote: post #127
sschueller wrote: post #2

I strongly disagree. - Google has on multiple occasions terminated accounts for no reason with no recourse. You loose access you can't do anything. If you have your own domain you can at least set it up somewhere else. How many website would you need to update with your new email and how would you get thay extra factor mail? - If I die I don't care if someone else reads my mail, I'm dead. Also you can add a dead man'…

With an email service, your account can be terminated there. With a registrar, your account or domain could be terminated as well. So both have similar risk, so best strategy is to spread the risk and have multiple accounts of different types.

Your account being terminated with a registrar usually doesn't mean that you lose the domain. You have to find a new provider, and there might be some interruption of service while you do, but then your addresses will resume working.

If your Google account is closed, your Gmail address is lost to you forever.

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#189

Post by ozyschmozy »

ghusto wrote: post #68
luguenth wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About not being worried, that someone could read your mail in the case you're dead: Always bear in mind you're not writing mails to yourself. The other party writing mails with you, might not be that happy with third parties reading their mails. Privacy is not only about you

> Always bear in mind you're not writing mails to yourself. The other party writing mails with you, might not be that happy with third parties reading their mails. Privacy is not only about you People mailing me after I'm dead because they don't know I'm dead, probably aren't very close to me. If a marketer decides to send me deep felt confessions he needs to get off his chest, meh.

Worth considering that they can use access to your email to get into other accounts. Someone getting into my Google photos account would definitely affect the privacy of others for instance.

Though I think the way to defend against this is dead man switches for services with sensitive data, not using gmail

Re: Reasons to not use your own domain for email

#190

Post by remram »

rekoil wrote: post #72

The argument is mainly that "when you're dead you won't be able to renew the domain and someone can then take over your accounts". That argument can be turned around and argue the opposite, I feel very good knowing that while I'm alive I'm in control of ensuring my domain remains under my control. If I feel like I'm about to expire, I guess I'll probably renew for 10 years or something. Actually, that's a good idea,…

It might be a good idea to keep it at least one year under the limit that registrars set. If you ever want to move to a different registrar, you usually have to add (and pay for) an additional year, and you can't do that if you're at the max (often 10). I recommend 9 years.
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