Martin Kadansky's masterpiece response to an email that I sent out telling people how to get their own domain name for their email:

My original newsletter can be found at http://conta.cc/2zby9WY


Hi Patrick--

While I agree with your basic advice, I have to point out that:

1. Some ISPs like Comcast *do* let you continue using your user@comcast.net email account long after you have closed your Comcast account (in the regular way as you've always used it, plus other features like forwarding), so be careful with statements like "If he leaves Comcast, he can't use that email address anymore" and "Comcast will only forward his email for a limited time," which can be misleading. These things *are* true for *some* ISPs, while others are "in the middle," i.e., you can pay them a small fee to continue using your ISP email even after you've closed your regular residential/commercial account.

In Comcast's case, they do not automatically keep every former customer's email account active forever. There are two particular things that you must do to enable your email account(s) to continue:
a) In the 90 days *prior* to disconnecting your service, you must log into your Comcast email account at least one, and
b) After disconnecting your service, you must access your Comcast email at least once every 9 months for it to remain active.
If you don't take *both* of these steps, your Comcast email account will disappear. If you have multiple Comcast email addresses within a single customer account, I imagine that they apply these criteria to each one separately.

There are other restrictions as well. See
- https://www.xfinity.com/support/internet/using-email-only
- https://www.xfinity.com/support/internet/email-only-faqs
for details.

Also, when I called Comcast telephone support, I found that the person I talked to was only vaguely familiar with the above policy, so I was glad that I later googled: comcast email continue after close account
and found the web pages above.

(Note the carriage return after my google keywords, which helps me avoid putting them in quotes.)

2. "He could then have the emails sent to greg@gregsarno.com forwarded to his Comcast address at gps87@comcast.net" which, as I read it, completely contradicts what you said above about Comcast limiting the time, since I think you're trying to suggest that they use this forwarding scheme going forward indefinitely.

Patrick's Response: The point I was trying to make (and may not have been clear) is that greg@gregsarno.com could move his email address to a variety of hosts over time, and just point the greg@gregsarno.com to his current email host.

3. Some domain registrars (like Godaddy) include a certain amount of "first-class" email (i.e., an account that can *store* messages, not just forward them) in the basic cost of registering a domain name, eliminating the need for any forwarding.

4. Domain registration requires supplying a physical street address (or PO box), so that "privacy" option you seem to think is worthless *will* be valuable to those people who don't want to publish their (home?) address on the internet for everyone to see who knows how to look up a domain registration, including "domain renewal" scammers who I guarantee you *will* send Greg fake renewal notices via USPS for gregsarno.net, gregsarno.biz, etc., demanding payment for $200 or more.

Patrick Response: Agree, and this is a cost issue. An extra $5 a year for this purpose won't hurt anyone, but if you have 20-30 domains like I do, the cost becomes significant.

5. Domain registration also requires that you confirm/update your contact info each year.

Martin

Patrick's endorsement:

I know Martin Kadansky, and he provides great personal computer services to executives and others who need help with their computers at all levels. See his web site at
Kadansky Personalized Computer Consulting Services, Boston Area