Avoid an Email Hostage Situation

What if Google announced that personal email accounts cost $500/month starting tomorrow? For many, the answer is: reluctantly pay Google $500/month because every account I have is associated with Gmail.

Like many, I've used Gmail since its debut in 2004, when invites were sold on eBay and the promise of an enormous 1 gigabyte mailbox made a Google mail account a hot commodity Back then, an @gmail.com address carried cachet similar to that of area code 212.

Though Gmail is the most famous, free email providers abound. Yahoo, Hotmail, Zoho, and even AOL all offer free email addresses. Even most Internet service providers still offer an email address to subscribers, such as example@rochester.rr.com here in Rochester.

The common problem with these is that the provider supplies the mail service and also owns the email address. Despite the fact that you've used example@gmail.com for the last 15 years, that address really belongs to Google and can be revoked at any time as evidenced in Google's terms of service:

Google may also stop providing Services to you, or add or create new limits to our Services at any time.

Losing your Google or Yahoo account is an annoyance at best and downright crippling if it's the only way to login to key accounts. While many services provide a way to regain access to an account, plenty don't and there's simply no way to get back in the account without the original email.

Choose Your Identity

The best way to avoid this is to separate the email address from the email service. Retain personal ownership of your email address and move it to a different service provider when/if needed. As a bonus, this leads to a personalized, professional address such as matt@example.com

This starts with owning the domain - the 'example.com' part of the address. While most often purchased for websites, there's no requirement do so. None of my personal domains have websites behind them - they're used for email and testing only. Register the domain with a registrar such as Network Solutions, 1&1, GoDaddy, etc.

Next, pick what goes on the left side of the @ symbol (useless fact: this is called the local-part, technically). The domain owner may select almost anything for this, subject to a few restrictions. Stay with letters, numbers and '.' characters (but only between two other characters) to be safe and keep it under 64 characters. The local-part isn't registered with any organization; it only needs to be unique within the domain.

Bring Your Own Mailbox

Email address ready, the next step is to acquire a mailbox for it. The simplest method is to purchase service from a provider like Microsoft (Office 365 doesn't necessarily require a business). Many services call this custom domain hosting, but the name varies by provider. Depending on the service, accessing the mailbox may involve a web browser, mobile device, or program. Most mail services have multiple options. Regardless of provider, the result is a mailbox ready to accept mail addressed to john@example.com and a way to access it.

Finally, - and I promise this is the only technical content here - connect the domain to the mailbox. To do that, update the domain's MX or "mail exchanger" record. This answers the question I have an email message for matt@example.com. Where does email for example.com go?. Name resolution is a big topic, but most service providers have documentation available for configuring DNS appropriately.

It's also possible to run a mail server yourself without involving a service provider at all. While I enjoy doing that, it's usually not the right solution for personal email.

Later, if the service provider raises prices, cancels the account, or simply goes out of business, maintaining email continuity only requires establishing service with a new provider and changing the MX record to say now send email for example.com there instead.

With over 1 billion active users, Gmail is just one example of services many rely on for email. Yahoo! has more than 200 million active users and there are dozens of other free email hosts. Consider taking ownership of email identity, even if using a mailbox from a major provider, especially if using that free address for important accounts/services.