From Fastmail back to Gmail • Hacker News Board

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#21

Post by jakobegger » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:37 AM UTC

I agree that Fastmail's default spam filter settings are a bit to lenient, I also got around 3 spams a day. After increasing the spam settings I get about 1 spam a week, which is acceptable.

There are a few reasons why I'd never switch back to gmail:

1) Reliability: Gmail sometimes had issues with Apple Mail where messages would show up twice, etc. Since switching to Fastmail I had no more problems.

2) Customer support. I once had an issue where all my mail disappeared from my inbox in Gmail. There was noone I could contact, all I found was a user forum with other people complaining about the problem. I never got my email back from the archive to the inbox. When you have a problem with Fastmail, or can't find what you are looking for in the docs, just contact customer support.

3) Backup: Fastmail allows you to restore email from backup (for a limited time). Really nice when you accidentally delete an email.

4) Web interface. I assume that's a matter of taste, but I really prefer Fastmail.

5) Folders instead of labels. I don't like Gmail's labels, and I'm glad Fastmail has proper folders.

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#22

Post by nly » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:37 AM UTC

I think good old POP and mailbox discipline needs to make a come back... at least for Average Joe users.

I have a similar Fastmail setup to the OP. My parents get $10 Lite accounts and I set them up to fetch all their mail via POP, so their mailbox never gets full. I also downgraded my own account from Enhanced ($40) to Full ($20) some time ago after I used Fastmails superior web interface and search to finally prune my inbox (I imported something like 10,000 unread emails from Gmail). All this is less than the cost of one GApps user.

I have all my important mail from the last 8 years or so and I'm only using something like ~500MB.

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#23

Post by evook » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:37 AM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #14

evook wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the problem to rent a small server and host open xchange, zimbra or something similiar yourself? Even postfix isn't that hard to configure and will likely run forever. The same goes for the author. I don't get how gmail is even considered as a mail provider for more than a spam oder mandatory account. The list of better and serious mail providers is tremendous. For my family and me, I am hosting a small e…

Postfix will run forever, but other hosts won't accept your emails forever unless you keep up with the latest spam techniques (DANE nowadays, isn't it?) Personally, I just use a free smarthost, but that loses some of the privacy advantages.

Personally I don't use Postfix, I am going with Zimbra. Postfix was just an example. As well as DANE would require exactly 4 commands to be enabled.

For myself I am going with a major commercial antispam solution, which is hosted in two of our datacenters. Since I am working with the developers and admins on regular basis there's no reason not to trust them.

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#24

Post by toothbrush » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:40 AM UTC

ldite wrote: post #5

pan69 wrote: post #2

I would switch to Fastmail in a heartbeat if they let me pay for storage (say in 5 gig intervals) and let me mount as many domains and create as many inbox as I want. Other than that, I see no point in paying for email. Sorry. I'm a snob.

I pay for email because it's the keystone to my online 'identity' - pretty much the single point of failure for recovering all sorts of accounts, and the thing in the way of theft of many accounts. Technical merits aside, by using a small but well run non-gmail provider for a mere £25 pa I get (i) near instantaneous tech support in my time zone, from people who know more about email & admin than I do. They even have…

Would you mind sharing who you use as a provider?

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#25

Post by antihero » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:43 AM UTC

I'd switch back to Gmail if I could somehow change my Google account to incorporate my real e-mail (and pay), as opposed to having a separate Google Apps for Domains account for e-mail that was separate from my real e-mail and is on my old Gmail address.

Does anyone know if this is remotely possible?

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#26

Post by chkuendig » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:44 AM UTC

nly wrote: post #22

I think good old POP and mailbox discipline needs to make a come back... at least for Average Joe users. I have a similar Fastmail setup to the OP. My parents get $10 Lite accounts and I set them up to fetch all their mail via POP, so their mailbox never gets full. I also downgraded my own account from Enhanced ($40) to Full ($20) some time ago after I used Fastmails superior web interface and search to finally prune…

he might (like me) still have a grandfathered-in account which is free (with ads) for up to 10 users.

[edit: parent edited complete comment]

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#27

Post by stefanve » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:45 AM UTC

To each there own I guess. I have been a happy fastmail user for many years, I get some spam maybe 1 or 2 mails per month and I just use the default spam settings. Seems like a personal choice not a tech or feature driven decision. Not sure why this is on the front page

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#28

Post by rtpg » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:47 AM UTC

jakobegger wrote: post #21

I agree that Fastmail's default spam filter settings are a bit to lenient, I also got around 3 spams a day. After increasing the spam settings I get about 1 spam a week, which is acceptable. There are a few reasons why I'd never switch back to gmail: 1) Reliability: Gmail sometimes had issues with Apple Mail where messages would show up twice, etc. Since switching to Fastmail I had no more problems. 2) Customer suppo…

what's the difference between gmail's labels and fastmail folders?

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#29

Post by reustle » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:49 AM UTC

antihero wrote: post #25

I'd switch back to Gmail if I could somehow change my Google account to incorporate my real e-mail (and pay), as opposed to having a separate Google Apps for Domains account for e-mail that was separate from my real e-mail and is on my old Gmail address. Does anyone know if this is remotely possible?

I simply stopped using my old gmail account. Switching email addresses is a pain, absolutely, but at least leaving gmail is as easy as an MX record change in the future.

Re: From Fastmail back to Gmail

#30

Post by detaro » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 9:53 AM UTC

tdkl wrote: post #19

I've been looking at Fastmail when switching from Gmail this year, but the lack of flexibility in prices vs. storage size turned me off. All I wanted was a fast IMAP host, with 5-10GB of storage, DAV for calendar and contacts and a simple fast web interface. After some testing, I've found ServerMX [1]. They're EU based (.nl, .de infrastructure) [2], have SOGo for DAV and webmail (offers full size contact pictures, wh…

While we are recommending mail hosts, http://www.mailbox.org also is nice. From Germany, privacy-minded (you can have totally anonymous accounts, they encrypt everything with your PGP-key as soon as it arrives, ...), run by people who are quite well-known when it comes to mail servers (author of books on postfix, running conferences, ... so they hopefully know what they are doing)

Webinterface is ok, but not perfect.