[NTLUG:Discuss] E-Mail Address Advice

[Hank Ivy]

I got a lot of good advice when I asked about the possibility of losing my current email 
address if I changed Internet Service Providers, ISP.

I also asked the SYNCE group at Source Forge about using my Android cell phone as a PDA with 
synchronized contacts, calendar, and notes.  Google, waith a Gmail address, provides this 
easily.  But they also get to see all my data.  Today the Cloud is the only answer.

You all know that the email address is on my business cards, and in my GnuPG key.  It is the 
only email address I have used for 6 years.

The following is a summary of your advice, all of which I need to think about.

Get an email address that is not attached to your ISP.
You can have multiple email addresses for multiple purposes.
  Professional appearance,
  Minimal use when your email address is revealed to a high spam environment.
  ID in a GnuPG Public Key,
  etc.

An email address provider has several services:
  Auto-Forwarding
  Spam and Virus filtering.  (Almost no one person does this for themselves anymore.)
  Auto-Reply (Vacation, or new address)
  Storage space
  API access
  hosting of your domain name
  co-location of a server with your domain name

There were several general recommendations for email address/provider.
  Get your own domain name, and run it at home, or a co-location, colo, service.
  Let e-mail providers handle anti-SPAM.
  
Recommended Vendors and services.
  rackspace.com - colo, your domain name, anti-spam, POP3, and IMAP
  pobox.com - anti-spam, POP3, and IMAP
  dreamhost.com - colo, your domain name, anti-spam, POP3, and IMAP
  gmail.com - anti-spam, forwarding, synchronizing calendars, contacts, and notes with my cell 
phone.
  google - colo, your domain name, anti-spam

Process:
x.  Get a domain name.
x.  Get multiple email accounts.
x.  Generate another PGP digital key with the new email accounts, and expiration date.
x.  Sign the new key with both the old and new key's.
x.  Publish the new key to the public servers.
x.  Change the email address in profiles of your net logins, online banking, Amazon, etc.
      Use the email address at your domain name for this.  (Stay paid up on it.)
x.  Send email to everyone in your contact list about your new email address.
      Review the from addresses in your email.  Some are contacts, real people.
      Others are servers from profiles for net logins.
x.  Use auto-responder to announce the new email address.
      I want to keep the new address from going back to spammers.
x.  Wait.
x.  Start with new ISP.
x.  Turn off old ISP.

-- 
Hank Ivy

GPG Fingerprint:
1A0F E1CB 0160 0069 7C19 4B00 911C 92E8 F8B0 4C7C