Going in on hosted email

Okay, here’s the deal. I’m currently hosting my email with my previous web hosting company, even though I’m not hosting any web-based things with them anymore. Why? Without going into technical details, my current host is more of a DIY thing where I won’t get email unless I set up all the servers and crap myself. And setting up spam filtering for incoming mail, and making sure outgoing mail isn’t being filtered on the other end… Naah, I really don’t want to administer an email server.

I have other options. I could use my ISP’s email servers, but I don’t plan on being with this ISP forever. I could use a web-based host like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, but though I appreciate the convenience of web-based email, I prefer to use a desktop email client when I have a choice, and I’d rather not have these hosts peeking through my email and deciding what ads to show me based on it.

Another solution is a paid, dedicated email hosting service, and I think I found one that looks pretty good… Rackspace’s hosted email service. Spam filtering, support for both desktop and in-browser access, and a reasonable price of $2 a month. However, the trick is that there’s a $10 per month minimum… that is, I can’t just buy one account; I have to buy at least five.

Now it turns out that even if I have to buy all five, the yearly fee ($120) is pretty much the same as what I’m paying my current web host to just host my email, so it would be a lateral move even if I were to be the only one using it. But still, I’d like to see if I can defray the cost a bit by seeing if there’s anyone else who would like to go in with me on this. With a little bit of trickery, you should still be able to use your current email address if you own the domain; failing that, I’ll gladly let you use an account at a domain I own (because I know you’ve all been just itching for an @anre.org email account, haven’t you?).

Please post here or contact me otherwise if you’d like in on this. Your cost will be $24 a year, and I’ll pick up whatever’s left over if I can’t get four other people to join me on this.