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I managed to get myself temporarily locked out of a 10+ year old gmail account 2 months ago. I managed to get it back easily (finding my old phone sim and reset

I managed to get myself temporarily locked out of a 10+ year old gmail account 2 months ago. I managed to get it back easily (finding my old phone sim and resetting). But it was a traumatic experience. I signed up for Fastmail that day and did a complete download of all data. I'm still in the migration phase (which is a pain), but I'm aiming to go completely gmail free for the rest of my life. I implore anyone reading this: DO NOT USE A FREE EMAIL SERVICE FOR ANYTHING REMOTELY IMPORTANT!

jethro_tell 6y ago
Another option is to control the domain. That is what I recommend for any account that is used to make money in any way. In the event you have a dispute with your email host, you can simply change the domain MX records. You may lose a few hours or a couple days of email, but your name doesn't disappear out of thin air.
- ryukafalz 6y ago
  Just make sure you don’t forget to renew the domain.
  - smt88 6y ago
    And that your registrar is secure. GoDaddy had a lot of issues with social engineering a few years ago.
- cortesoft 6y ago
  What happens if you have a dispute with your registrar?
  - jethro_tell 6y ago
    That can happen for sure. You should do as little business with your registrar as possible. No hosting, just a domain and a couple DNS records. Your registrar is unlikely to do any automated patrolling and algorithmically stop doing business with you. Registrars don't have the profit margins to police every domain they own and the tech parse every type of content to decide you should be delisted. If they do decide that you are too distasteful to do business with, it will likely be a person, responding to a complaint of some kind. That is a significantly lower risk than an automated google sweep or say getting your email turned off because your YouTube channel was tagged by a bot.
- el_dev_hell 6y ago
  Agreed. Own your domain and store your email content locally (or at least have backups locally if you love the provider's web interface).
MattGaiser 6y ago
Eh, Microsoft at least has a good track record of not killing services. Product quality is sometomes poor. Support is not.
koolba 6y ago
Free email is fine. Just make sure to own your own domain and MX records. Worst case you switch to somewhere else and keep on mailing.
- im3w1l 6y ago
  I use my own domain, but now I'm scared I'll miss a payment instead.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    I prepay for three years, but it's not like they'll just suspend your account with no warning, they know how important email is.
    - gruez 6y ago
      prepaying doesn't really solve the problem, it merely delays it. you need to set a reminder or something.
      - StavrosK 6y ago
        It automatically renews, it's not like I need to be reminded, but they email you anyway.
- AlchemistCamp 6y ago
  Is it actually possible to own as opposed to renting?
  - kalium-xyz 6y ago
    Not if using the regular popular DNS and want a domain name because you are just paying some entity for the right to include you on a list of addresses and nothing more. However you can own IPs and you can run your own DNS. Though you might have a hard time getting your IP routed to if you dont let it be managed by some ISP.

jethro_tell 6y ago

Another option is to control the domain. That is what I recommend for any account that is used to make money in any way. In the event you have a dispute with your email host, you can simply change the domain MX records. You may lose a few hours or a couple days of email, but your name doesn't disappear out of thin air.

ryukafalz 6y ago
Just make sure you don’t forget to renew the domain.
- smt88 6y ago
  And that your registrar is secure. GoDaddy had a lot of issues with social engineering a few years ago.
cortesoft 6y ago
What happens if you have a dispute with your registrar?
- jethro_tell 6y ago
  That can happen for sure. You should do as little business with your registrar as possible. No hosting, just a domain and a couple DNS records. Your registrar is unlikely to do any automated patrolling and algorithmically stop doing business with you. Registrars don't have the profit margins to police every domain they own and the tech parse every type of content to decide you should be delisted. If they do decide that you are too distasteful to do business with, it will likely be a person, responding to a complaint of some kind. That is a significantly lower risk than an automated google sweep or say getting your email turned off because your YouTube channel was tagged by a bot.
el_dev_hell 6y ago
Agreed. Own your domain and store your email content locally (or at least have backups locally if you love the provider's web interface).

MattGaiser 6y ago

Eh, Microsoft at least has a good track record of not killing services. Product quality is sometomes poor. Support is not.

koolba 6y ago

Free email is fine. Just make sure to own your own domain and MX records. Worst case you switch to somewhere else and keep on mailing.

im3w1l 6y ago
I use my own domain, but now I'm scared I'll miss a payment instead.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  I prepay for three years, but it's not like they'll just suspend your account with no warning, they know how important email is.
  - gruez 6y ago
    prepaying doesn't really solve the problem, it merely delays it. you need to set a reminder or something.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      It automatically renews, it's not like I need to be reminded, but they email you anyway.
AlchemistCamp 6y ago
Is it actually possible to own as opposed to renting?
- kalium-xyz 6y ago
  Not if using the regular popular DNS and want a domain name because you are just paying some entity for the right to include you on a list of addresses and nothing more. However you can own IPs and you can run your own DNS. Though you might have a hard time getting your IP routed to if you dont let it be managed by some ISP.