Phil Harrison

Having joined Freeserve yonks ago I've been happy (ish) for years with it, then Wanadoo, then Orange. However, as Secretary (in waiting) of an International Sporting Governing Body, I'm going in future to have to send out occasional E-Mails to a distribution of more than 20 addresses (though less than, say 50). "No way", says Orange. "'Bye" says I.

So I've got to go through the nausea of moving ISP - guaranteed to destabilise everything for weeks on end! Any recommendations out there? Need BB, unlimited downloads, wide-circulated e-mails. NBB Quality of service FAR more important than price or 'free' telephony.

TIA

Phil Harrison

mike1210

Unlimted downloads will be unlikely

what can you get at your exchange

Samknows Broadband - Exchange Search

messiah

Just been looking on that site - what's LLU?

I'm on orange and my exchange has LLU as available for them... seeing as I only get a poxy 1.5mb down I would like somethign quicker...

mike1210

LLU Factsheet

basically ISP's install thier own kit in the exchange and don't need to play by BT's rules as much

ChrisB

Phil,

Why not just register a domain name and have that provider host your e-mail? Then there should be no need to change your ISP. Cost will be quite cheap, could be £20 a year or so. I'd suggest speaking to somebody like Titan.

Phil Harrison

Thanks Chaps. Following up Mike's URL, it appears that Be are just about to provide a LLU service from my local (semi-rural) exchange, which'll up my speed AND save me money. If they're OK on e-mail distribution lists, looks like a no-brainer!!

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

I'm with Be. Very happy, very fast.

But ..... they don't provide email addresses unless you pay extra and it's more cost effective to buy from elsewhere. I use 1&1 for my email. Which is superb.

https://order.1and1.co.uk/xml/order/MailInstantMail

You can register you own domain and get huge amounts of email space fopr very little. The advantage of your own domain is that you can move ISP in the future without changing you email address.

chrisowe

Why not just use free e-mail like Yahoo or Gmail?

Phil Harrison

Thanks James. I think you just may have read too fast, or I'm not understanding my replies (Chris B's as well). I don't want masses of e-mail addresses - one will do (tho' 2 would be better, as it happens!): I merely want to be able to send the same-mail to 21 (+) people at the same time with the same single press of the 'send' button!! Trivial, you'd have thought?? So would I, but Orange won't let me, presumably for fear that I'm a spammer!!!

Education please chaps!! So I can have "2 Gb of email space" [1-to-1]. Don't understand the attractiveness of this - small deal. My PC has .5Tb for my e-mails via OE, so why should I be impressed!!! Am I stuck in some sort of time-warp? Entirely possible, having started out in Wordstar 1 under cpm before the IBM PC was on the market even!!

Cheers

Phil Harrison

Dedrater

As someone has said, just use Gmail, nearly 7Gb of storage, 20Mb attachments and then just forward/POP/IMAP to Outlook/Thunderbird and outsend to as many people as you like (124 at a time i think)

Unless you need a specific name and domain? i may have misread?

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

My point was that with Be, you don't get any email addresses. Diddly squat, so whether you want one email address or thousands you can't send email via Be unless you pay extra.

With 1&1 you get 2GB of space. With IMAP you can keep you mail remoately so you don't every lose it. 1&1 lets you send 99 emails at once. Which I think solves your problem

1&1 Webhosting FAQ | How many e-mails can be sent at once?

Cost is 99p per month. But as the chap above says, Gmail may be a good free option.

JackClark

Register a domain with Google, $5.00 a year for IMAP email, web space and load of other good stuff. It's unbeatable, go ahead and try.

Phil Harrison

Be gentle with me chaps!! I'm old and puzzled!! (and not intending to sound grumpy)

Look, I have this thing on my PC called Outlook Express. Using it I can send, receive, store and manage (including search) e-mails (and, importantly, their attachments) up to (in principle) the data capacity of my whole HD. Total flexibility, under my own control, on my own machine, with a minimum of effort and, once (automatically) dowloaded, negligible processing delays.

Now, I accept (I think) that I can get to g-mail/1-to-1/yahoo/whatever via my ISP without changing my ISP; and I understand you variously to be saying that they'll allow me to send the same e-mail to more than 20 people at one go, so bypassing Orange's limitation. But, correct me if I'm wrong, my e-mails then sit on their servers, rather than Orange's or on my own PC, and can only be manipulated up to the capability of their tools, and with superimposed communication delays, whether in transmission or server capacity. In short, they're just like Orange's webmail (though maybe (probably!) more capable), accessible only through my browser? I'm keen to know, where where I've made an error of knowledge in the above chains.

Whereas I don't want the nausea of changing ISPs, I want a reduced capability to handle my e-mails and their attachments even less. Given that, do the recommendations above stand (all or any?)

TIA - sorry to be a pain!!

Phil

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

You have a choice really, depending on how you want to use their (ie, Google, 1&1 or whoever) facilities. It all comes down to how you connect to their service. The options are

POP3 access. This is where you connect to a POP3 server, download your email, disconnect and your email is available locally on your machine. This is exactly as you describe your use of the Orange service.

IMAP access. This is where you connect to an IMAP server and synchronise, so your local copy of email matches the remote copy at the service provider. The benefit of this is that you can use a client like Outlook Express on multiple PCs and see the same view of your emails on any PC (eg, a home PC and a work laptop). This is what I use. Added benefit is that if your PC fails you don't lose your email. There is nothing stopping you moving email to your local PC if you want. Basically, you can do the same with IMAP as you can do with POP3 but you get more features.

Webmail access. This is where you access email through web pages. Typically, when provided by an ISP this service sits alongside POP3 access. Other non-ISP companies also offer webmail (like Google, Hotmail, Yahoo) but this also means advertisements and some restrictions compared to "vanilla" POP3 or IMAP.

So what can you get ....

Most ISPs offer POP3 access and Webmail. They don't usually offer IMAP because it's a bit more complex to provide (ie, it's more costly for them).

Google, Yahoo, Hotmail all offer Webmail with some restrictions like storage, number of people you can send to, etc. Google's gmail is pretty good though, lots of storage and it'll let you access email via IMAP or POP3.

Specific email service suppliers like 1&1 generally offer the best options, with the least restrictions - but then you have to pay for it.


Sending email ....

With all the above said, what usually restricts the number of email addresses you can send to in one go is none of the above. You probably send email using what's called an SMTP server. Your PC connects to it and forwards on any email waiting to be sent. Most email services will tell you what SMTP servier to use and it's this which is the limiting factor in terms of the problem you describe with the Orange SMTP server. The limitations will be specific to your email service provider whether it be Orange, 1&1, Google. So you'd best check with them before you subscribe or pay money.

Hope that helps.

Regards
James

Phil Harrison

Ahhhh!! Dropping of pennies. Hadn't read Dedrater's properly - TY Dedrater! Is it the case that, by registering for (say) a 1-and-1 (or Gmail) [i] [b] POP [\i] [\b] service I can, whether via ISP Orange OR ISP Be (if I choose to make the migration for added speed) use OE6 (by amending the necessary parameters) to send/receive/manipulate e-mails. Indeed, on any one of three addresses e.g. phil@philharrison.co.uk; themissus@philharrison.co.uk and shooting@philharrison.co.uk (don't take those literally) since 1-and-1 allows 5 addresses?

In short, that the keyword is "POP"? And that the 2Gb (or 7Gb as the case may be) "space" refers to the space available BEFORE clearing some of it (e.g. by downloading using OE)

Cheers

Phil Harrison

Phil Harrison

Thanks James! So quick that I hadn't had time to explain the 'ping' as the light came on while cooking the supper! In other words - in respect of my (immediately) above - your answer is 'yes', POP3/IMAP are the key words - and probably 1&1 is best. One question, please - by synchronising with an IMAP server, is my domestic choice of folder structure either preserved, or preservable through intervention?

Thanks

Phil Harrison

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

You can have whatever folder structure you like on your own PC. You're free to move email from the IMAP folders (which because they're IMAP are synchronised and therefore the same on your PC as they are on the IMAP server) to your own outlook folders.

Looks like this when set up