Time to dump yahoo email completely

[Brett]

For more than 20 years I had an email with optimum... jastein@optonline.net. EVERYTHING went there. Then I moved around a year and half ago and I lost the account because I now have FIOS internet service. It was a lot of aggravation to switch everything over to GMAIL. I will never tie myself to a email that is from an internet or other provider.

I also have a YAHOO mail account. These sort of free accounts are great.

yes, I've never used my Verizon's email service. Gmail and yahoo are great (as long as they remain free)

 

[jwalk03]

I have primarily used a Yahoo email for the last ~25 years. Haven't had any issues. I do have a gmail as well from the one year I was the owner of an Android phone- but very little goes there.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I just learned the other day about iPhone's "Silence Unknown Callers" feature. I had started to get spoofed spam calls every few minutes, one after another. Extremely annoying. I Googled how to stop these calls, and learned about this built-in feature. Turned it on, and Shazam! - blissful silence every since. Known callers get through normally, but the spam calls have stopped.

Dave

Yes - I've had this feature enabled ever since it was released by Apple many moons ago now - excellent feature. The only time I run into trouble is when I have doctor's offices or other parties calling me that I've actually asked to have call me (like when I sign up for loan requests on Lendingtree or something similar) - but it's nice to have those calls actually go to voicemail initially and then I can pick and choose whom to call back LOL.

On the Yahoo mail topic, I've used Yahoo as my primary email account for three decades now - almost zero problems - and I don't really have many spam issues either. I also have email accounts with Apple (icloud.com), Microsoft (outlook.com), Google (gmail.com), and a few others, but Yahoo has long been my primary. I'm not having any issues with logins for my Yahoo accounts. Long ago I switched away from password to Yahoo's Account Key technology (which is essentially another form of MFA) - so any time anyone tries to authenticate to my Yahoo account, I have to manually approve it via the Yahoo app on my phone. Easy peasy - and getting password hacked is impossible using Account Key technology.

 

[DaveNV]

Yes - I've had this feature enabled ever since it was released by Apple many moons ago now - excellent feature. The only time I run into trouble is when I have doctor's offices or other parties calling me that I've actually asked to have call me (like when I sign up for loan requests on Lendingtree or something similar) - but it's nice to have those calls actually go to voicemail initially and then I can pick and choose whom to call back LOL.

I never knew about it till the other day, but wish I had. Just in the last week, it's blocked more than 25 calls. I'm a fan.

Dave

 

[Blues]

I will never tie myself to a email that is from an internet or other provider.

I agree. My DW and I have had our own domain for about 30 years -- long before most normal people ever even discovered email or the world wide web. (We've both been in high tech our entire careers).

I pay about $17/year for the domain name, and another $60/year for an email provider -- I use PolarisMail, but you'd never know. I can switch it to virtually any provider out there without changing my email addy. My email address is bob@<mylastname>.com Perfectly generic, looks impressive to have a vanity domain that's my last name, and I'll never have to change it. By owning my domain, I can actually use any name @<mylastname>.com. An infinite number of email addresses, for almost no money. My wife's email is her first name @<mylastname>.com

I honestly don't know why everybody doesn't do this. Well OK, I do know - it seems (and can be) very techie. But really, my provider PolarisMail handled the entire mail setup for me when I switched it from my previous provider, GoDaddy. Piece of cake, if you're not intimidated by the thought of it.

 

[dioxide45]

Oh my. I too have had Yahoo mail for many years, since the late 1990s. I hate that it's still tied to AT&T in such a way that I have to use my AT&T login to do anything. However, I read my email via the Mail app on my iPhone and Outlook on my desktop (had to go through the trouble of authenticating it to Yahoo's satisfaction some time ago in order to keep using Outlook), and they filter the spam tolerably well. I'm afraid to start using something else because so many accounts are tied to that email address!

I have the same issue. Had AT&T internet for many years and don’t like that they rely so heavily on Yahoo for email. Yahoo has been hacked and their lists of user names and passwords compromised several times. Now I get locked out of our AT&T account almost monthly because someone has tried to use an old username and password combination to login and used up all the possible attempts and locked it out. That means I need to reset my password almost monthly. It doesn’t really impact my ability to receive emails since I use a secure mail key, but very annoying when I want to go in and pay the bill online.

 

[dioxide45]

I honestly don't know why everybody doesn't do this. Well OK, I do know - it seems (and can be) very techie. But really, my provider PolarisMail handled the entire mail setup for me when I switched it from my previous provider, GoDaddy. Piece of cake, if you're not intimidated by the thought of it.

It probably wouldn’t work very well for the “Smith’s” of this world.

 

[PigsDad]

I agree. My DW and I have had our own domain for about 30 years -- long before most normal people ever even discovered email or the world wide web. (We've both been in high tech our entire careers).

I pay about $17/year for the domain name, and another $60/year for an email provider -- I use PolarisMail, but you'd never know. I can switch it to virtually any provider out there without changing my email addy. My email address is bob@<mylastname>.com Perfectly generic, looks impressive to have a vanity domain that's my last name, and I'll never have to change it. By owning my domain, I can actually use any name @<mylastname>.com. An infinite number of email addresses, for almost no money. My wife's email is her first name @<mylastname>.com

I honestly don't know why everybody doesn't do this. Well OK, I do know - it seems (and can be) very techie. But really, my provider PolarisMail handled the entire mail setup for me when I switched it from my previous provider, GoDaddy. Piece of cake, if you're not intimidated by the thought of it.

I've done the same thing; not quite as long, but I think we have had ours for over 25 years.

It probably wouldn’t work very well for the “Smith’s” of this world.

Why not? There is no rule you have to use your last name as your domain name. You can use anything you want.

Kurt

 

[DaveNV]

It probably wouldn’t work very well for the “Smith’s” of this world.

Or for someone who didn't want to put their full name out in public view with every email. It has to be used for the right reasons.

I know people who have used a similar email domain last-name thing - one is a real estate agent in Phoenix. It makes perfect sense to contact him as "<his-first-name>@<his-last-name>.com" and know he'll receive the message. But for most people, it may be a bit too much information for strangers. That's where having multiple emails comes into play.

What I find interesting, given how inexpensive domain names and website development costs are, is when a business has a company-named website domain, but the email address goes to a cheapo or freebie account. I'm currently looking into doing business with a well-regarded local kitchen-remodeling store, to get estimates on updating my kitchen at home. They have a very clean website, nice images, and well designed presence. Presents a good impression. The domain name is their company name, which makes it seem like they're on the ball. And yet, the contact email goes to a completely unrelated Hotmail address. Makes them seem a bit unprofessional.

Dave

 

[1Kflyerguy]

It probably wouldn’t work very well for the “Smith’s” of this world.

well my last name is unusual, and just checked and discovered my uncle has already claimed the domain, even if its just a single static webpage..

 

[Bucky]

I quit using yahoo email probably 20+ years ago. About the same time I dumped AOL. have had several gmail accounts for many years now.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I just learned the other day about iPhone's "Silence Unknown Callers" feature. I had started to get spoofed spam calls every few minutes, one after another. Extremely annoying. I Googled how to stop these calls, and learned about this built-in feature. Turned it on, and Shazam! - blissful silence every since. Known callers get through normally, but the spam calls have stopped.

Dave

Dave, I’ve been using the iPhone Do Not Disturb feature 24/7 for many years now. If people that are not in my contacts list try to reach me they will have to leave a voicemail. I can then add them to my contacts and the next time they call it rings straight through. I figure if it wasn’t important enough to leave a voicemail there’s a great chance it was a spam call. I avg 5-7 calls a day that don’t leave a voicemail! I find the important calls like doctors, etc will always leave a voicemail.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I have the same issue. Had AT&T internet for many years and don’t like that they rely so heavily on Yahoo for email. Yahoo has been hacked and their lists of user names and passwords compromised several times. Now I get locked out of our AT&T account almost monthly because someone has tried to use an old username and password combination to login and used up all the possible attempts and locked it out. That means I need to reset my password almost monthly. It doesn’t really impact my ability to receive emails since I use a secure mail key, but very annoying when I want to go in and pay the bill online.

Oh my! Our AT&T username is different from any of our Yahoo addresses, so we haven’t had that problem — at least not yet….

 

[DaveNV]

I quit using yahoo email probably 20+ years ago. About the same time I dumped AOL. have had several gmail accounts for many years now.

Dave, I’ve been using the iPhone Do Not Disturb feature 24/7 for many years now. If people that are not in my contacts list try to reach me they will have to leave a voicemail. I can then add them to my contacts and the next time they call it rings straight through. I figure if it wasn’t important enough to leave a voicemail there’s a great chance it was a spam call. I avg 5-7 calls a day that don’t leave a voicemail! I find the important calls like doctors, etc will always leave a voicemail.

I completely agree with you. I don't know how I missed knowing about this feature prior to this. But I'm sure glad it's there, and works as well as it does. I have an extensive Contact list in my phone, not only for friends and family, but of businesses I use. So this feature filtering out the bad apples really helps. 11 calls in the last two days that I didn't have to bother with.

I'm so busy doing nothing since I retired, those spam calls were getting in the way.

Dave

 

[dioxide45]

Or for someone who didn't want to put their full name out in public view with every email. It has to be used for the right reasons.

I know people who have used a similar email domain last-name thing - one is a real estate agent in Phoenix. It makes perfect sense to contact him as "<his-first-name>@<his-last-name>.com" and know he'll receive the message. But for most people, it may be a bit too much information for strangers. That's where having multiple emails comes into play.

What I find interesting, given how inexpensive domain names and website development costs are, is when a business has a company-named website domain, but the email address goes to a cheapo or freebie account. I'm currently looking into doing business with a well-regarded local kitchen-remodeling store, to get estimates on updating my kitchen at home. They have a very clean website, nice images, and well designed presence. Presents a good impression. The domain name is their company name, which makes it seem like they're on the ball. And yet, the contact email goes to a completely unrelated Hotmail address. Makes them seem a bit unprofessional.

Dave

I agree. THough there is a very well respected timeshare closing/deed prep company here with the initials of LT that uses a Gmail email address. I have seen a number of small travel agents we know that have web domains but still use Gmail for their email. I don’t really understand why… I got a thattimeshareguy.com domain and email address for less than $60 a year. I was surprised that the domain was still available given that all the good stuff is pretty much taken these days.

 

[dioxide45]

Oh my! Our AT&T username is different from any of our Yahoo addresses, so we haven’t had that problem — at least not yet….

I really need to tall AT&T to straighten in out. I tried changing the login ID to a non Yahoo email, but they still seem to lock out that user ID by trying to login with the other Yahoo/ATT email address. It now seems that both the old Yahoo based AT&T address and the new email I updated it to work to login.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I agree. My DW and I have had our own domain for about 30 years -- long before most normal people ever even discovered email or the world wide web. (We've both been in high tech our entire careers).

I pay about $17/year for the domain name, and another $60/year for an email provider -- I use PolarisMail, but you'd never know. I can switch it to virtually any provider out there without changing my email addy. My email address is bob@<mylastname>.com Perfectly generic, looks impressive to have a vanity domain that's my last name, and I'll never have to change it. By owning my domain, I can actually use any name @<mylastname>.com. An infinite number of email addresses, for almost no money. My wife's email is her first name @<mylastname>.com

I honestly don't know why everybody doesn't do this. Well OK, I do know - it seems (and can be) very techie. But really, my provider PolarisMail handled the entire mail setup for me when I switched it from my previous provider, GoDaddy. Piece of cake, if you're not intimidated by the thought of it.

I was an email admin for the first 15 years of my IT career - for me it comes down to not wanting to pay $77/year for something I can get for free at the end of the day. I know many people who pay for their own vanity domains as you do - I just don't see the value personally especially given the public/free services generally do a very good job with their email service offerings.

 

[Blues]

I was an email admin for the first 15 years of my IT career - for me it comes down to not wanting to pay $77/year for something I can get for free at the end of the day. I know many people who pay for their own vanity domains as you do - I just don't see the value personally especially given the public/free services generally do a very good job with their email service offerings.

I was responding to Joe Stein's quote: "I will never tie myself to an email that is from an internet or other provider. "

I heartily agree with that statement. The purpose of owning a domain, from my point of view, is to be able to retain your email address(es) and other IP across multiple changes of carriers and/or providers. Having a vanity domain is merely a side benefit.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I was responding to Joe Stein's quote: "I will never tie myself to an email that is from an internet or other provider. "

I heartily agree with that statement. The purpose of owning a domain, from my point of view, is to be able to retain your email address(es) and other IP across multiple changes of carriers and/or providers. Having a vanity domain is merely a side benefit.

You are still dependent upon an email provider - in this case you chose Polarismail - which is really no different than using Yahoo mail - as if/when that provider has an issue - your email is also offline. Using a vanity domain doesn't buy you anything unless you're actually running your own SMTP service and pointing your MX records to your own servers and hosting your email independently on your own hardware. I know people who do this as well using various Linux based solutions hosted in either Azure or AWS (or even from their own home using broadband connection), all of which costs money as well. I can use a vanity domain with Yahoo mail if I want - just like you're doing with Polarismail today - they fully support this model - as does Google and most other providers these days. If the IP addresses that are tied to Polarismail where your MX records are pointing - are blacklisted or experience uptime problems - your email is down just like any public domain such as yahoo.com or gmail.com for example. The email domain isn't the important part in other words - it's the SaaS infrastructure that underlies and supports those vanity domains that really matters. I'd rather have something for free and deal with a few advertisements that I don't really "see" any longer - I just tune them all out - than to pay for something out of pocket - but YMMV of course.