How can I change email server?

icebergx

Hi all

My friend and I set up an email and domain name for a project we were working on. I would now like to retain this email address for other use and my friend is OK with this.
We don't have a website, and I won't be setting one up. I only want to take over the email address.

The hosting company we use is charging too much (£100) for the year, so I was planning on using Microsoft's free domains.live.com solution.

Do I have to continue paying for hosting?
I understand I need the new MX Server address, but where do I put it? The only place I can find to do this is in my hosting company's interface, but I don't want to use them any more. Do I still need the hosting company? What's the cheapest solution to get this setup?
All I want to do is retain my email address, nothing else.

Thanks.

Jivesinger

icebergx wrote: »

I understand I need the new MX Server address, but where do I put it? The only place I can find to do this is in my hosting company's interface, but I don't want to use them any more.

I'm afraid I don't know much about the hosting side but in case you hadn't seen it, there's a decent guide on page 2 of this link on how to setup email with Microsoft's live.com.
http://www.zdnet.com/why-i-use-outlook-com-for-my-custom-email-accounts-and-how-you-can-too-7000015546/

chunter

With your current hosts there should be a way of forwarding your email to another account (eg googlemail, hotmail).
The downside is that you'll not be able to send mail from your domain name. It'll have to be sent from the other email.

agrinnall

£100 a year is a ridiculous amount, I pay around £25 for my email address with Fasthosts. I'm sure there will be others that charge even less. Perhaps it would be worth finding a hosting service that offers an acceptable price and ask them how you could transfer.

esuhl

chunter wrote: »

With your current hosts there should be a way of forwarding your email to another account (eg googlemail, hotmail).
The downside is that you'll not be able to send mail from your domain name. It'll have to be sent from the other email.

People send me mail at [EMAIL="me@mydomain.co.uk"]me@mydomain.co.uk[/EMAIL] and it's automatically forwarded to my free account [EMAIL="user12345@gmx.co.uk"]user12345@gmx.co.uk[/EMAIL]. I reply using my email client, and the email appears to come from [EMAIL="me@mydomain.co.uk"]me@mydomain.co.uk[/EMAIL] too because that's the address I specify in the "from" field.

No one contacting me knows anything about the free GMX account; all they see is my "professional looking" domain name.

No need to pay for email hosting. All I pay for is domain registration -- about £3 a year.

Jivesinger

chunter wrote: »

With your current hosts there should be a way of forwarding your email to another account (eg googlemail, hotmail).
The downside is that you'll not be able to send mail from your domain name. It'll have to be sent from the other email.

The Microsoft service mentioned in the OP's original post is free (for up to 50 addresses at least), so no need to use forwarding.

The OP will probably need to pay for a domain name to be registered and manager somewhere, but if they don't need a website and just need email, they probably don't need to pay for anything else, unless there's some expensive tie-in with the current company.

icebergx

esuhl wrote: »

People send me mail at [EMAIL="me@mydomain.co.uk"]me@mydomain.co.uk[/EMAIL] and it's automatically forwarded to my free account [EMAIL="user12345@gmx.co.uk"]user12345@gmx.co.uk[/EMAIL]. I reply using my email client, and the email appears to come from [EMAIL="me@mydomain.co.uk"]me@mydomain.co.uk[/EMAIL] too because that's the address I specify in the "from" field.

No one contacting me knows anything about the free GMX account; all they see is my "professional looking" domain name.

No need to pay for email hosting. All I pay for is domain registration -- about £3 a year.

I think this is that I want, but I don't need mail forwarding, just a "regular" setup. I have the domain name registered, but I don't know what to do from there? It's a Danish domain, so i registered it directly with the national registry body, DK-Hostmaster (https://www.dk-hostmaster.dk)
My understanding is that I need the MX Server info/address, which I've retrieved from the Microsoft account I've setup, but I don't know where to put it. I can't find a suitable location for it anywhere on the DK-Hostmaster site. Should it be there, or is there a step I'm missing?

Jivesinger wrote: »

The OP will probably need to pay for a domain name to be registered and manager somewhere

What do you mean by "Manager?" What does this do? If you could suggest a suitable service, that would be great.

Thanks for all your help thus far

Jivesinger

icebergx wrote: »

What do you mean by "Manager?" What does this do? If you could suggest a suitable service, that would be great.

Sorry it's my poor typing! I meant to say "managed".

To pick a UK company almost at random, 123-Reg, their website shows how to change the MX records here. That's not a recommendation for them, but to give you an idea of what you're looking for.

http://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/answers/Domains-Archive/Domain-Configuration/how-do-i-addchange-mx-records-for-my-domain-name-1208/

It's possible that DK Hostmasters don't offer this service? I'm afraid I'm no expert in these things.

esuhl

icebergx wrote: »

I think this is that I want, but I don't need mail forwarding, just a "regular" setup. I have the domain name registered, but I don't know what to do from there? It's a Danish domain, so i registered it directly with the national registry body, DK-Hostmaster (https://www.dk-hostmaster.dk)
My understanding is that I need the MX Server info/address, which I've retrieved from the Microsoft account I've setup, but I don't know where to put it. I can't find a suitable location for it anywhere on the DK-Hostmaster site. Should it be there, or is there a step I'm missing?

It's been ages since I set everything up, but I think the MX records are used to point the domain name to your web/email host.

If you don't want to pay for dedicated hosting and are happy to use a free email service (like GMX or anyone else who offers IMAP access), then you can just get your domain registrar to forward any email sent to [EMAIL="me@mydomain.dk"]me@mydomain.dk[/EMAIL] to [EMAIL="free-email1234@gmx.co.uk"]free-email1234@gmx.co.uk[/EMAIL].

Then, set up a profile in an email client (like Thunderbird). Set it to collect email from the GMX address, but set the "from" field as [EMAIL="me@mydomain.dk"]me@mydomain.dk[/EMAIL].

If you want to pay to have your own servers then that's when you'd have to update your MX records (I think). But I can't really see what advantage paid-for email hosting would bring, unless you want to have more than one email account on the domain.

EDIT: Oh, hang on -- if you've already changed your MX records, I think you might have to change them back to point to your domain registrar so that they can forward your email to you.

Jivesinger

esuhl wrote: »

If you want to pay to have your own servers then that's when you'd have to update your MX records (I think). But I can't really see what advantage paid-for email hosting would bring, unless you want to have more than one email account on the domain.

The Microsoft service mentioned does this for free - they host 50 email addresses for your own Anyone@mydomain.com or any other domain you own. You can send and receive directly as that email address, with no need to set up any forwarding, and can use POP or IMAP, or use Microsoft's webmail.

All you need is the ability to point the MX records at Microsoft.

icebergx

Jivesinger wrote: »

All you need is the ability to point the MX records at Microsoft.

This is the part where I'm stuck. I don't know where to input the Microsoft MX record, so that all mail is delivered to Microsoft. I can't see any sign of it on DK-Hostmaster, but this is the central body that deals with domain name registration. Should it be on there, or do I need to setup another host/provider to enter the MX record into?

I'm having a bit of difficulty with this, so I appreciate all your replies and support.

Thanks.