As the title suggests, I'm looking for an ISP that offers multiple pop3
mailboxes with the standard 512k ADSL service.
Good performance is an issue, no filtering of p2p and as good a price as
possible.
24 hour free tech support isn't an issue as I think I'm competent enough to
fix any problems that may arise myself (apart from dodgy phone lines and
stuff)

I know some ISPs offer unlimited email addresses but I have one issue with
the way that is sometimes done.

Lets assume the ISP's usual email addresses usually end in "@isp.com"

Some ISP's give multiple email addresses in the following format :-

xxx@username.isp.com - Where xxx changes and "username" doesn't. Freeserve
use this method and this makes a real easy target for spam as once the
spambots get you @username.isp.com, you can't avoid the crap they send you,
even if you change the xxx bit - It all ends up in your mailbox and then you
have to filter it out.

I want the good old fashioned xxx@isp.com (or co.uk) where if you get a load
of spam, you change your xxx bit and hey presto! No more spam.

It's also easier to handle multiple accounts for the wife and kids as they
don't have to have the same last name in the email address as me.

I was considering plusnet as an ISP as they seem well regarded but they use
the xxx@username.isp.com method so that rules them out.

I also looked at Zen as they are pretty good but you only get one mailbox
with multiple aliases - The problem with Zens mailboxes too is that by
default they have an address of something like zen1234@zen.co.uk where only
the 1234 changes per user - Surely this is too easy to spam? They do offer
more pop3 mailboxes but at an extra cost.

I used to have NTL cable and apart from the odd DNS problem it was great -
You could have multiple addresses as long as they ended in @ntlworld.com so
it made it easy. I can't get NTL where I live now so that's out of the
question.

Thanks for any advice

Cubik.

I'm with www.freedom2surf.net
One of the reasons I went with them was the same reason you are wanting, I
also highly recommend them.




"Cubik" <cubik808a@remove_all_this_bit_here_yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1072823314.59224.0@dyke.uk.clara.net...

In article <1072823314.59224.0@dyke.uk.clara.net>,
cubik808a@remove_all_this_bit_here_yahoo.com (Cubik) wrote:

consigning anything you don't want to the byte bucket. That's what I do
here and it works a treat.

- Steve

"Cubik" wrote in message

You could just set up a specific pop box like cubik@username.ispXX.com to
use and then forward any mail not sent explicitly to this address to a
"black hole". I'm sure others will allow you to do that to, but I don't know
which, but certainly Plusnet have a specific email address you can forward
the catchall to that just dumps the stuff.(blackhole@abuse.plusXX.com)

If you were to get a .co.uk domain of you choosing for around £7 for two
years from somewhere like www.123-reg.co.uk you could transfer "dns hosting
only" to plusnet (leaving the registration at 123-reg where it's cheaper).
This would map 1-for-1 onto you account. so for example if you were
cubik@cubiksdomain.plusXX.com you could also be cubik@cubiksrusXX.co.uk and
never have to refer to the cubik@cubiksdomain.plusXX.com version again.
Plusnet charge no extra for you to do this for up to 3 domains with their
512K ADSL services (but do check in case the latest offerings have changed).

Also doing this you get www.cubiksrus.co.uk to point to your free webspace
too.

So then the wife (say Janet) could be janet@cubikrusXX.co.uk or even
janet@janetrusXX.co.uk , if you felt like spending another £7 or so to
register her her own domain. Of course she wouldn't be too impressed unless
she was called Janet!

Note the XX's are just to munge the addresses.

Jc.

First of all thanks for the replies - I'd thought about the domain stuff and
filtering out junk but I really do like to keep it simple. Ideally I want to
replicate exactly what I had on NTL (with the exception of crappy customer
service and an email server that went down every other day)

I've been checking out various ISPs via the speedy 56k modem I'm attached to
(painful.... I've been spoil in the past)

Anyway, I've sort of decided to possibly maybe go (how decisive) for either
Freedom2surf or Pipex as they do seem to offer exactly what I want, which is
512K ADSL with multiple pop3 mailboxes.

The only edge that pipex has is that they ofer a better news feed (or appear
to anyway), I'm not too bothered about binaries but read a lot of text
groups.

Any comments as to whether they're any good or not? Or recommendations for
alternative ISPs?

I'll be getting my own router and filters so it'll be a wires only install.
As mentioned in my previous post, reliability for web browsing, newsgroups
and email are important.
P2P file transfers are also important (what else is there to do on the net?)
No limits to use (i.e no stupid bandwidth or download caps - Not that I
expect to hammer it 24/7 but I'd like the option once in a while)

Regards

Cubik.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:28:52 -0000, "Cubik"
<cubik808a@remove_all_this_bit_here_yahoo.com> wrote:

straight mailboxes each with its own name and individual password chop
and change them whenever you wish changes take place over night .
Tech support on a straight 01 number not expensive 0870 numbers if
needed and over all they provide a top class service .
Grant .

In article <1072823314.59224.0@dyke.uk.clara.net>, Cubik wrote:
Any ISP will do for connection. For email, just create as many
pay-as-you-go accounts with as many ISPs as you like and only use the POP3
boxes. Most ISPs provide this for free, and some of them don't even
require you to use their dial-up access to keep the account active.

Rod.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003, "Cubik" wrote:

In the past I've found hosting on Ebay for low fees ($9.99
for 3 domains, or $9.99 for registering a domain and hosting!)
where you have a Plesk or cPanel or Ensim control panel and can
create and delete POP mailboxes, set up auto reply, or just use
forwarding for the e-mail, and you get webspace to use too...

Independent of whichever ISP you choose so a dispute with the
ISP doesn't cause any problems for your mail service (or if
you used an ISP with a one or three month notice period, you
could switch whenever you wanted and no need to tell anyone
your mail address was changing. Just an idea. Peter M.

"Steve" <j80k-vpfc@dea.spamcon.org> wrote in message
news:memo.20031230233857.60403M@rook.ath.cx...
In article <1072823314.59224.0@dyke.uk.clara.net>,
cubik808a@remove_all_this_bit_here_yahoo.com (Cubik) wrote:

consigning anything you don't want to the byte bucket. That's what I do
here and it works a treat.

- Steve

I would get an account with http://oneandone.co.uk/ for email which is £2 a
month for 20 email accounts 100 email aliases and virus scanning and you can
get a domain name cheap enough this way you will have full control over your
email as well as having ISP independant email accounts

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003, Cubik wrote:

We offer 512K ADSL for £23.75 / month.

You get 20MB of web space with this which includes perl, php and python
support plus MySQL. You also get unlimited POP3 mailboxes in the form
anything@username.ukfsn.org.

We do offer a catchall address which directs all such mail to the main
account mailbox however this is in addition to the extra POP3 mailboxes
and we're happy to switch it off for you.

You can set the username bit to anything you like by selecting a simple
(I'd also recommend short) username.

Are you sure they use the catchall method rather than separate POP3
mailboxes?

Most ISPs wont allow unlimited @isp.com addresses as it pollutes their
namespace and prevents others from being able to register a new account if
you have taken the name the new user wants.

Jason Clifford
--
UKFSN.ORG Finance Free Software while you surf the 'net
http://www.ukfsn.org/ 1Mb ADSL Broadband - just £27.50 / month
for new orders before end of 31st December

"NAZGUL" <nazgul@war.org> wrote in message
news:d7f3d5f576e3cb8d3271deb037b0b7b5@news.teranew s.com...
mail servers.
£13 got me a domain name (www.hammedia.co.uk) for two years and the 'domain
mail plus' package which is 3 POP boxes, one with virus scanning and 100
'forwarder' email accounts.

hamman

In Pine.LNX.4.44.0312311016330.14983-10...hua.ukpost.com
Jason Clifford mused:
<snip>
Separate POP mailboxes can be configured, but in their current setup you
cannot get shot of the default catchall.

Cubik <cubik808a@remove_all_this_bit_here_yahoo.com> wrote:

[...]

While they do use this scheme, they genuinely do provide multiple POP
mailboxes, rather than just using 'catch-all' forwarding to dump
everything in one. I'm 99% certain you can set it up so that everything
not sent to a specific mailbox goes to /dev/null.

Peter (just a satisfied customer)

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 00:00:30 -0000, "Cubik"
<cubik808a@remove_all_this_bit_here_yahoo.com> mangled uncounted
electrons thus:

<snip>

Freedom2Surf are excellent and currently my ADSL ISP (although I
have my own domain for mail purposes)...

There are plenty of free news servers out there - particularly if
you only want text groups. news.cis.de comes to mind (I think
they call themselves something else now, though).

<snip>

F2S have no download cap and have no *stated* plans to impose
one.

They're one of the cheaper ISPs as well...

Martin D. Pay
Happy F2S customer...

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 18:23:37 +0000, Martin D. Pay
<martin@starship-excalibur.co.uk> wrote:
the crap brigade though just the opposite in fact .
Grant .

Thanks to all who replied

Will be signing up for Pipex soon - They seem to offer everything I need and
I also know someone who uses them who is more than happy with the service.

Cubik


"Peter Robinson" <pmrobinson@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1g6u20y.eplb9w1d1k1a4N%pmrobinson@mail.com...

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 20:43:11 -0000, "Cubik"
<cubik808a@remove_all_this_bit_here_yahoo.com> wrote:

Grant .

I realise that, but most people who post on Usenet usually have a gripe with
a service or supplier.

No-one ever posts just because everything is going well! All the ISPs I
checked out had their bad comments in this group, including Pipex, Zen,
Plusnet, F2s etc..etc...

They all also had their followers who thought that the service was good, and
to be honest, I ended up picking one that offered what I needed at a
reasonable price.

If I'd spent any more time asking for more opinions I'd have ended up with
morepeople saying "It's great" and more saying "It's crap" and I'd have
ended up confused and not bothering at all.

I used to be with NTL cable and never really had any major problems with
them and they have a really bad reputation - A lot of it is down to
"customer service" where you need to contact them for help to configure
things. I like to think that I won't be calling them for help (never did
with NTL) so it might just work OK for me.

Also, Pipex have won awards for their service (as have other ISPs I know) so
they can't be all bad.

Thanks for the comment however, but I think I've weighed up all the options
(or at least most of them)

Fingers crossed for it all going well

Cubik.

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 11:42:20 +0000, HillWalker wrote:

I believe you can divert it to something that will cause it to be deleted
if you want. Alternatively you can set up all the useful POP3 mailboxes
you want and download and delete the default box. With a ADSL account
it is not going to be a massive chore...

JAB.

--
Jonathan A. Buzzard Email: jonathan (at) buzzard.me.uk
Northumberland, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 1661-832195

JAB:
Better still you can use ScanMailBox to display the headers and delete any
unwanted spam from the server without ever downloading it.
Regards,
Martin