CHANGING YOUR ISP & some questions?

njtkc

I am with virgin.net at the moment, they have told me that I will loose all my stored messages and my email address when I leave them.
I have win XP with microsoft office outlook, which I don't curently use. I read store etc all messages on the virgin site.
Can somebody explain ....
1/ Can I have an email address which i don't have to change should i wish to change my ISP.
2/ I also have a free email address with AOL is it possible to get all my and my hubby emails opening in outlook.....if yes How do I do it?
3/if i use outlook does it mean the messages are saved on MY laptop and I won't be able to access the messages via the ISP website anymore? I travel quite a lot and don't always have my laptop.

wakandem

Virgin shouldn't delete the mails but if they do then you need to get them elsewhere. It may be an idea to get 'outlook' to pik them all up so they are on the pc.
The best mail to go for is gmail by google. It is completely free with loads of storage space -4gig and you will be able to get all your mails through them no matter the isp.
AOL do not support 'outlook' - get him a gmail account as well.
You can set outlook to leave a copy of the mail on the server for a set amount of time or indefinately
Other free mail to check is lycos.co.uk, the mail box is smaller - 300mb but they are efficient & quick.
gmail & lycos can be set up as http mail so outlook only sees & manages what is on the servers and no mail is stored on the pc.
Yahoo.co.uk have a good free account but you have to pay for outlook acsess

Alfie_E

njtkc wrote: »

1/ Can I have an email address which i don't have to change should i wish to change my ISP.

Yes. There are many many companies providing paid-for email services. Usually, you buy your own domain name (the bit that comes after the @), and use that to make the email addresses for the service. An example of a company who provide paid-for email is 1&1 Internet Ltd.

njtkc wrote: »

2/ I also have a free email address with AOL is it possible to get all my and my hubby emails opening in outlook.....if yes How do I do it?

I believe so. See Accessing the AOL Mail System using IMAP.

njtkc wrote: »

3/if i use outlook does it mean the messages are saved on MY laptop and I won't be able to access the messages via the ISP website anymore?

No. IMAP is designed such that all messages are stored on a central server computer. They are only removed from there when you delete them. (Or, if the provider states that messages will be stored for only a fixed length of time. This would never be the case with a paid-for service. And pretty much all free services, including AOL set any limits by putting an overall size on the amount of email you can leave left on their servers, rather than specifying time limits.)

There is an alternative system for getting email from the server computer to your own computer. This is called POP3. By default, this removes messages from the server as it downloads them. However, even this can be set to leave them on the server. Doing this would also allow you to get them using Outlook, then, later, access them through any webmail system the email provider provides.