using your own domain with BT webmail...

Apr 03, 2015 27 Replies

Setting up a domain for an old friend, who isn't very computer literate.



He likes to use the BT webmail service and has a couple of addresses @btinternet.com



Its trivial - and I have done it already - to redirect mail to @hisdomain.com to these addresses, but is it in anyway possible to SEND with the return/Rely/From address as @hisdomain.com using BT webmail?



The idea is to achieve independence from BT over the course of a year in case he can be persuaded to dump them...


When you say webmail, do you mean something different from email?

I found the latter easy enough to set up using my own domain via BT.

It's easy to tell a mail client to use a different from: address. Webmail? May well be much less so...

An awful lot simpler to cut the cord now and ditch his ISP specific email address so he's free to move around.

I have similar daft friends who won't/"can't" switch ISP because they've stuck to their ISPs mail service.

Tim

Well that's what we want to do.

BUT hundreds of business contacts have his old @btinternet one, so the idea is a year to get used the new one.

It seems that its possible to an an external email address to the BT mail service and even get them to pick it up from an external POP server.

formatting link

Anyone used this feature?

Email read/collected using a browser, not a pop or IMAP client...

Gmail lets you do it... got a feeling that BT outsource their email - was to Yahoo, but they may have gone to google now?

+1

I have had my domain since 2001 and have had 3 different ISPs in that time.

The easy answer is to get his new email up and running and let him get happy with it - then

formatting link

set a forward on the btinternet email.

Now he can start telling everyone his new email address (even just put a note in his email sig as well).

Wouldn't it be better to migrate him immediately to some other service, with its own webmail system, and just arrange for any mails arriving at his old addresses to be sent on to the new ones? (Or have the new place automatically fetch the old stuff.)

Webmail systems seem to me to vary a lot in what they offer; personally I prefer those that look simple and offer a lot, to those that are plastered with ads etc... Have you looked at the fastmail offering?

As the OP said, he needs a transition period. But why not just use the btinternet.com only for incoming mail, and send all new mail otu with teh new address? That'll speed the transition.

(had one of my domains since 1991 and only moved once. But the bastards (Zetnet) stiffed me £75 (might have even been £100) to release the tag.

The Natural Philosopher scribbled

He can sign up for BT email premium and dump BT

formatting link

FFS NO! Home of spammers and the operators don't keep on top of the spammers so their sending machines are more often than not on various blacklists.

The From: address is not part of the login credentials, though it may be the same which causes confusion. When setting up the account in an email clainet the login details have to match the server but the From: as displayed by clients only has to look valid ie @..

BT have gone to a firm in the US (helo NSA like to see a lot of the UK's email here you are...), Virgin were on google but now they have bumped their ADSL customers over to TalkTalk(?) and forced an email address change on those using @virgin.net @blueyonder.co.uk and one other that I forget I'm not sure which provider is used.

I don't know if it still applies but there was a time when BT's mail servers would reject emails from their customers if the From: address didn't match their BT email address unless they jumped through various well hidden hoops to get the alternative address "approved".

+1

This is the way to do it, it also tests the "new" mail system is working as expected. If the new fails you can switch off the forwarding and revert to BT or ...

You'd be better setting up the new service to pull email from BT via POP/IMAP into it. This again makes sure that the new service is working but this pull method isn't quite as elegant as the push (forwarding) mentioned above. With pull I think you'd end up with two sets of folders for each "account", there would only be one set with forwarding.

Exactly., It now seems that there are some less hiodden and clearly documented hoops to jump through now

No, I have to blend this with the way the man works, and webmail is his method. So I will set up a couple of new addresses on BT/Yahoo that correspond to his 'new' email addresses and tell him to use those by default.

You astonish me... Is this uptodate info? Can you point me at any place where I'd find it substantiated?

Who would you recommend as a 'power' email provider?

Is FastMail run by FastHosts?

I've heard a security consultant say they wouldn't recommend the latter.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required