Domains for Email only

Takedap

I'm a bit dim so please be gentle with me. I've read in a recent thread that I could buy a Domain name & use it just for email, not getting a website. IE, myname@mydomain.com. then get the email "bounced" to a newly set up GMX account.

Who do I use for this & do I also need a hosting service? If not, where are the emails stored before I pick them up?

I've seen adverts for domain names from 99p. Is this to get them first registered & then goes sky high if you want to keep them after the first year.

Also, how many addresses can you assign to the domain name. I've got about 7 that I use for different purposes. Some that I want to keep for serious use & others that are "throwaway" ones that I can delete if they get full of spam.

Sorry if this comes across as a bit thick but I've only ever used my BT email & their servers.

Lorian

Loads of companies will do what you want for example


https://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/answers/Video/Email-Archive/Email-Basics/how-do-i-set-up-email-forwarding-328/

paddyrg

I use easily.CO.UK for just this, have done for decades. If you buy the domain, you can then set up mail forwarding through a simple interface. You can forward 20 specific addresses, plus a catch-all address, and decide if you want spam filtering from them or not. This mail forwarding service literally just sends the mail on its way to your gmx or Gmail or whatever accounts, so it's not stored anywhere except the mail server you choose to use.

The slightly more involved part is sending mail 'from' your domain, it's an option you configure on Gmail, I'm sure gmx offer similar but you'll need to ask them how to configure it.

These web interfaces make it seem very simple, it's actually quite complex under the covers, so best to go with one of the mail forwarding routes rather than getting exotic ;-)

verybigchris

I use gandi.net for this.

Their email package comes as standard when you register a domain through them. They give you five mailboxes, which can be accessed via their webmail service, or through any email software using POP or IMAP. I think the size limit is 1GB across all mailboxes. You can also setup as many as 1000 forwarding addresses.

Currently costs £5/yr for a .co.uk.

flashg67

I registered my domain with Fasthosts.co.uk for the same reason. Pay a few quied every year or so the retain the domain name and have the emails forwarded to my gmail account

Oblivion

I set up my domain name with 123-reg and set up mail forwarding to my Virgin.net account. 123-reg do offer their own web mail facility but this comes at extra cost.

googler

I used names.co.uk in the past - good, reliable UK-based firm.

esuhl

Takedap wrote: »

I'm a bit dim so please be gentle with me. I've read in a recent thread that I could buy a Domain name & use it just for email, not getting a website. IE, myname@mydomain.com. then get the email "bounced" to a newly set up GMX account.

Who do I use for this...

A domain registrar.

Takedap wrote: »

...& do I also need a hosting service? If not, where are the emails stored before I pick them up?

You don't need a paid hosting service that domain registrars typically offer. Instead you can use your free GMX account to host your emails.

Essentially, all you're doing is using a bog-standard free email address like user123@gmx.com, and getting the domain to forward emails sent to me@mydomain.com on to the free GMX account.

You send the messages, as normal, through your ISP's SMTP servers. But in the account settings (of your email client), you change the "senders" name from user123@gmx.com to me@mydomain.com.

When you buy your domain name, the first thing you need to do is to log in to the domain account and tell it to forward any emails it receives to your GMX account. You access your emails normally (as if you didn't have your own domain) using GMX. Personally I use the Thunderbird email client.

Takedap wrote: »

I've seen adverts for domain names from 99p. Is this to get them first registered & then goes sky high if you want to keep them after the first year.

The non-introductory price has just doubled overnight. It's about £7 a year now for a .co.uk address. Prices vary according to the suffix you want (and the company you use).

Takedap wrote: »

Also, how many addresses can you assign to the domain name. I've got about 7 that I use for different purposes. Some that I want to keep for serious use & others that are "throwaway" ones that I can delete if they get full of spam.

If you use paid-for email hosting, I think you have more options here, but with my simple domain registration, I have two options. I can either set up a single email address, or a "catch all" so that anything sent to an email address ending in @mydomain.com will be forwarded on. You could then use filters in your email client to sort messages into different folders depending on who they are for. However, all the messages will be in subfolders of a single inbox.

Hope that helps...