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An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

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Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#81

Post by dietr1ch »

georgemcbay wrote: post #77
Vinnl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Changing email providers sounds daunting, but it ... Probably took a few hours at most. That does indeed sound as daunting as I feared, unfortunately.

> That does indeed sound as daunting as I feared, unfortunately. You don't have to do it all in one go. It isn't like you have to move everything all at once like you're moving to a new apartment. I started moving away from gmail years ago. It took probably like 5-10 minutes to set up email under my own DNS control and to set a forwarding address on gmail that pointed to that email. I didn't even bother to do an init…

In my mind it has to be done this way because there's absolutely no way you'll recall everything that needs migrating in a short time. Even if you have a password manager as your email is likely older than it, but it's probably a great start if you have that.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#82

Post by InMice »

kevinob11 wrote: post #80
beart wrote: post #5

Changing email providers sounds daunting, but it was relatively painless when I actually committed to it. I did a search over my password manager for my old email and just went through the list logging in and switching to the new email. Probably took a few hours at most. For anything I missed, I set gmail to forward everything to my new host. Cleaned up the few things I missed, and am only left with spam. I still lea…

I want to try another provider, but my family (partner, kids, grandparents) stores pictures in Google Photos, shares docs from google drive, etc. It is all the extra stuff I get with Google that feels daunting to me, I'd love to switch for email and calendar.

I dont think you need a gmail account for that. just a google account without gmail would work.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#83

Post by bigstrat2003 »

bix6 wrote: post #17

Anyone have thoughts on proton vs fastmail?

I haven't used fastmail, but proton works well for me. It's mildly annoying to have to run a local IMAP proxy to use a proper email client for my mail, but it's not a dealbreaker. And with the US having had over a decade track record of violating everyone's digital privacy, I enjoy the fact that proton isn't a US company and is therefore less susceptible to that pressure.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#84

Post by NoboruWataya »

I have been very happy with mailbox.org. I recently signed up for early access to Thundermail, which is the new email service being rolled out by the Thunderbird team. I have no particular need to change except that I like the idea of supporting Thunderbird. So I will be keeping an eye on it.

If you use a custom domain and email clients rather than webmail, moving around becomes a lot easier. Another tip is to use a service like addy.io where you can create a new alias for every service, to help protect against spam.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#85

Post by skydhash »

jkestner wrote: post #63
disposedtrolley wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is thankfully mostly solved now by AI. How did you solve this with AI?

They said “mostly”. AI solves 90% and then you solve the other 90%.

Lol. On almost every post someone comes in to say that $problem was easily solved by AI. Usually out of the whole context of the thread.

Snake oil level comments.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#87

Post by lardissone »

CJefferson wrote: post #6

My big problem with leaving Google is I’ve clicked on far too many ‘login with google’ boxes. In retrospect this was a mistake as it now ties my own domain to google basically forever, but lots of sites don’t even have the option to undo it.

I was paying for Google Business for my family, and then decided to switch to iCloud, but left only my own account on Google, because of that reason. Also, some services requires you to log in with a Business Google account, regular gmail accounts don't work (ie: Granola).

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#88

Post by armadyl »

spencerflem wrote: post #33
bix6 wrote: post #17

Anyone have thoughts on proton vs fastmail?

I tried both and found Fastmail vastly easier to use. The encryption part wasn’t that valuable for me and ofc Proton doesn’t encrypt the metadata and unless they’re proton too it’s not E2E so I’m happy sticking with Signal for that sorta stuff and leaving email for talking to businesses.

> Proton doesn’t encrypt the metadata and unless they’re proton too it’s not E2E

To be fair though your emails are E2EE at rest in your inbox, so in the event of seizure or a subpoena they can’t hand over anything usable aside from metadata unlike fastmail who will hand everything over.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#89

Post by armadyl »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #74
jorvi wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As Fastmail themselves have pointed out many times, e-mail is inherently a multi-party activity with both parties holding a copy of the e-mails. Aside from the microscopic amount of people GPGing their e-mail and sending it over good servers, your e-mail is as private as the other party treats it. Which isn't very much. And you can't do anything about that. You want private and / or anonymous communications? Don't us…

The bigger issue isn't a privacy one, it's a security one. For many people, if you can get access to their email box, you can account-reset your way into any other account they own. So if an authoritarian state compromises your account (because they control the servers), there goes your everything

A lot of people seem to ignore this point when it comes to Proton’s E2EE of emails at rest. It wasn’t even a year ago when the US government subpoenaed a Pennsylvania man’s entire Gmail inbox because he wrote a letter to a DHS attorney. This wouldn’t happen with Proton. It would definitely happen with Fastmail.
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