Suggestions for email hosting

[#1]

So, I'm looking for a place to host my emails. My requirements are that it gives me the same capabilities as Plusnet:

- IMAP & POP (pretty normal)

- authenticated SMTP that allows the sending of OTHER DOMAIN emails

- 1 gig plus of storage

The need for other domain emails is simple: I own my own domain, let's call it example.org.uk. It is hosted by NamesCo, and any incoming emails are currently forwarded to my plusnet email account. That is also easy to do for most email services. Of course, having received an email paul@example.org.uk, I need to send a reply: I currently do that by relaying it to the plusnet SMTP server. That is something that (a) is not supported by all other email services; (b) is essential. I do NOT wish to use Google / Yahoo etc.

This is personal email, so I'm not wanting to spend huge amounts.

Does anyone have experience of such providers?

[#2]

@paul_blitz  Mythic Beasts https://www.mythic-beasts.com/hosting . The 'email only' package is £20/yr if paid annually, although you could start on say a monthly/quarterly basis and then change to annually to save money.

Storage is 2GB. As for allowing sending of other domain emails, I assume when you say your domain is hosted by Namesco do you really mean 'registered' and you use their basic email forwarding. Assuming that's the case then you just add your domain to the Mythic account as a 'third party domain' , either configure the Namesco DNS or switch to the Mythic nameservers and email is then handled completely by Mythic, both sending and receiving. You can have unlimited mailboxes,aliases and hosted domains (subject to the 2GB limit).

For instance I currently have 3 domains, around 12 mailboxes and some 100 aliases

[#3]

Just taken a look at their web site, they have some good support details that explain how to configure the DNS settings.

Yes, at the moment, I just use the Namesco email forwarding system, but would not be averse to tweaking my MX records. For one of my domains, I have multiple users (me, my wife, plus a few forwarders for sons, to THEIR email services): can you confirm that I'll be able to get Mythical Beasts to copy this behaviour?

[#4]

Yes, at the moment, I just use the Namesco email forwarding system, but would not be averse to tweaking my MX records.

Its not just MX records, you need to tweak MX, SPF and DKIM (since Mythic do support DKIM) records. When you add a domain to a Mythic account, it will create records automatically on their DNS system. If you are still using the original registrars nameservers, you can copy DNS records from the Mythic account to those OR you can just switch to the Mythic nameservers, your choice.

I have multiple users (me, my wife, plus a few forwarders for sons, to THEIR email services): can you confirm that I'll be able to get Mythical Beasts to copy this behaviour?

I believe so. You create an email address e.g son@yourdomain and then specifiy a delivery action . Typically that would be 'save in a mailbox' but you can also specify 'forward to another address' and specify the forwarding address.  You can actually specify multiple delivery actions for each email address

So , taking your example , you would create mailboxes for you and your wife, Then create email addresses for those, which save to the appropriate mailbox. Then create email addresses for sons which forward to their email services. You and your wife would configure your email clients to login to your mailboxes (IMAP or POP) to collect mail and specify the Mythic SMTP server to send mail. If your sons send mail from the domain address , then they should use the Mythic SMTP to send otherwise they will get SPF/DKIM failures 

[#5]

> Its not just MX records, you need to tweak MX, SPF and DKIM (since Mythic do support DKIM) records. 

Yes, saw that, and strangely I understand it (set it up to be able to use mailjet to send emails recently for my brother!!)

I have a "spare" domain name, so maybe I'll test things with that at some point.

[#6]

I have a "spare" domain name, so maybe I'll test things with that at some point.

Good plan! that's what I did, started with a quarterly subscription, tested it with a spare domain, then migrated in an active domain from Plusnet and changed to an annual subscription. Then eventually migrated in another active domain from Ecohosting when they had a price increase earlier this year.

Don't forget to consider any need to copy existing emails from the old server. Not needed if you currently use POP3 but will be if you use IMAP. I use Imapsync https://imapsync.lamiral.info/ . I have it installed on a Ubuntu Linux VM but there's a limited free online option.

[#7]

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This topic has been moved from Email to Tech Help