Bryan Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 I've had a freeserve email address for as long as I can remember, but I've recently learned that they are pulling the plug on the mail server, I think at the end of May. I've switched allegiance to gmail, but what a performance! Not only do you have to tell all of your friends etc, but also numerous companies, e.g banks, insurance, Paypal, Flickr, Pensions, Facebook, other organisations etc etc. Of course you need to access all of those long forgotten passwords to do this, it's a nightmare. Then, when you think that you have covered all bases, you receive an email to your original address from someone or somewhere that you forgot. I live in fear that some critical contact will be left unable to mail me..... I first saw this online, but today I received a letter officially warning me of the unplugging, so, if you are involved, and they have your current postal address, presumably you will also be warned. Folk with long memories might recall how Freeserve originally provided web space, but that was pulled with little notice and subscribers had to find alternatives. I don't trust these IT companies at all. Store stuff in the cloud etc, not a chance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 You're not alone. Welcome to the New World Order. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/01/31/internet-privacy-canada-trump-executive-order_n_14500862.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 I use the cloud but am not reliant on it. I have that data on my PC and my laptop as well. The cloud is too slow and too capacity limited (or expensive) for my bulk data: images particularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Limb Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 The advice I received many years ago was to have your own domain name and maintain it, then you are not reliant on any third party, so your email address will never need to change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 I've had a freeserve email address for as long as I can remember, but I've recently learned that they are pulling the plug on the mail server, I think at the end of May. I've switched allegiance to gmail, but what a performance! Not only do you have to tell all of your friends etc, but also numerous companies, e.g banks, insurance, Paypal, Flickr, Pensions, Facebook, other organisations etc etc. Of course you need to access all of those long forgotten passwords to do this, it's a nightmare. Then, when you think that you have covered all bases, you receive an email to your original address from someone or somewhere that you forgot. I live in fear that some critical contact will be left unable to mail me..... I first saw this online, but today I received a letter officially warning me of the unplugging, so, if you are involved, and they have your current postal address, presumably you will also be warned. Folk with long memories might recall how Freeserve originally provided web space, but that was pulled with little notice and subscribers had to find alternatives. I don't trust these IT companies at all. Store stuff in the cloud etc, not a chance! I had a similar experience, but for different reasons. One of my main email addresses ended up getting so much spam (100s per day) it became impossible to use, and it was clear from the nature of some of the emails that it was being targeted by all sorts of scammers. I tried filtering but it wasn't reliable enough, with occasional important emails being trapped, so I had to keep reviewing my junk folder to be sure (which sort of defeats the point). This email address also served as my user ID on numerous important accounts. The scams were also becoming more and more sophisticated that I was concerned I might click on a link I shouldn't. In the end I figured that it was not a good idea to keep using an email address that was clearly known to scammers and hackers etc. So I decided to change it. It took me over 6 months to work my way through all my contacts and online accounts! Many companies systems just aren't set up to allow you to easily change the email address, and even when you do, their advertising servers use an "inherited list" that doesn't automatically get updated. I had to keep the old address running for 6 months (in parallel with the new one) so I could see which companies/contacts were still using the old address. I found the whole experience was more frustrating and time consuming than changing our postal address. But, at least for now, I'm spam free. Best advice - use a separate email address for the key financial accounts, and never give out your email address if you don't really need too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 The advice I received many years ago was to have your own domain name and maintain it, then you are not reliant on any third party, so your email address will never need to change. +1 (and have a spare one just in case.) wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Limb Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 The advice I received many years ago was to have your own domain name and maintain it, then you are not reliant on any third party, so your email address will never need to change. +1 (and have a spare one just in case.) wim Or as I have just checked many ................... they all looked like a good idea at the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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