Moving Internet Providers

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JOhnH

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I have had my AT&T business account, along with DSL and EMAIL for about 15 years. All of my email is on their server. All of my customers and friends have my email addresses. Some of them only contact me every few years.

Now, I need to cancel that AT&T account because the fastest upload speed they offer is .5Mbits. I need faster so I am going with T1 from a different provider. But I get conflicting answers from AT&T everytime I call, and every time I call, it takes about an hour to get through voice mail to a human.

How do companies generally deal with keeping old email databases when changing providers since the email database is on their server.
Also, I have been told twice that I will be able to keep my email addresses and accounts permanently, for free. And I have been told twice that I have 30 days of use and then the addresses become "free member IDs" and that someone else can claim them. I dread calling them again.

Can anyone shed light on the "normal" procedure for changing email providers without losing everything?
 
Your existing email can easily be downloaded to an outlook PST or other mail client file. I haven't looked into AT&Ts policy, but usually you can pay a small fee and have it forwarded.
 
Is your email address an ATT one, or on a domain that your own with ATT doing the hosting?

-Rich
 
I found this fairly recent post on DSLReports.com by AT&T

ATT

@sbc.com
reply to pokeydsl
AT&T High Speed Internet Terms of Service Update
AT&T is updating its High Speed Internet Terms of Service effective May 2, 2011.

Does the new language about email mean you'll start charging non-customers for e-mail access?

No, we've actually added free email for non-customers and we are keeping email free for current customers. Therefore, potential customers without AT&T High Speed Internet now can sign up for an email address on att.net.

And what happens to my email when I cancel Service with AT&T? Is that changing?

We have changed our previous practice so that you will now be able to keep your email address even if you choose to disconnect your High Speed Internet Service with AT&T.
to forum · permalink · 2012-03-03 18:21:43 ·
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John221us said:
I found this fairly recent post on DSLReports.com by AT&T
Click to expand...

That sounds like what two AT&T people told me, but two others didn't seem to know about that. I guess I will find out soon because I am disconnecting AT&T soon. Thanks for that info.
 
If they won't forward, you are SOL. You definitely should own and control your own domain, if this is a business.
 
JOhnH said:
That sounds like what two AT&T people told me, but two others didn't seem to know about that. I guess I will find out soon because I am disconnecting AT&T soon. Thanks for that info.
Click to expand...

I tried my best to keep my old email address. When they recently upped the price to $9.95/month for my address, I gave up. I signed up for a free att.net email account, but they would not let me keep the address I've had since 1996 for free.

I finally gave up and bought my own domain name, so I can move it wherever I want.

You can probably keep the address if you're willing to pay the $9.95/month.
 
If your AT&T account and your new server both have IMAP access, moving the archived old mail from one to the other is a simple drag and drop with an appropriate IMAP client.

As far as the address itself, if you don't have bandwidth service from someone, they will typically shut down the "free" mail accounts associated with the account unless you make some kind of prior arrangement to keep it and pay for it.

I'm with those who say migrate to your own domain. Then you have control of where the mail goes and can move it between server vendors at will.
 
The only "downside" to getting your own domain is that you really should build a site on it if you're going to do that. You don't have to, but mail recipients often check out the domain associated with a sender's email address to see what it looks like. If you have your own domain but no site on it, it doesn't look too good.

That being said, I do have business clients who have one-page sites. These companies are only interested in having their own domains for email because they get their actual business elsewhere (usually by being subcontractors for other companies). If that's your situation, then it's an easy thing to do.

-Rich
 
I have been using my own MX records (ronnatalie.com) for several years now. I can point it at my choice of email provders (I'm currently using TUFFMAIL which I'm real happy with).

I
 
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