AT&T West → Keep sbcglobal.net or att.net email address after DSL cancel

Doesn't anyone find it strange that what they charge for on one domain (e.g. yahoo.com), it's available for free on another domain (e.g. att.net)?

AFAIK, the 'att.net' email address belongs to AT&T. There is a web site to sign up free accounts:

»www.att.net/s/s.dll?spag ··· ce=login

So the sign up is on an AT&T site; actually on the 'attreg' web site. The UserID is attached to the 'att.net' domain. You don't need to be an AT&T customer to get it. However, the two accounts that I signed up were while I was on ATTIS transit, and that may have influenced thing. I guess the acid test would be to sign up a third account, now that I would be arriving on Sonic.net transit.

I expect that all AT&T domain email is managed by Yahoo!, with 'att.net' being offered to anybody, regardless of who their ISP is.

When I first learned about keeping AT&T email, I thought it would revert to the same features as Yahoo! Web Mail, free accounts. I was surprised to find that wasn't the case on my 'pacbell.net' domains after switching ISP. I have to wonder if Yahoo! is finding it hard to separate the active AT&T accounts from non-AT&T subscribers, and it is just easier for them to allow the premium extras with the 'att.net' domain.

Of course, that means things could change without notice once Yahoo! figures out how to separate the accounts.

I think it only means that they haven't gotten around to setting up their software to charge for it, and the number of people involved is small enough that their incentives are low.

Thanks NormanS for the screen shots, appreciate it. This confirms that they have definitely changed things with the free att.net accts or at least when I setup my free acct they decided to not offer Disposable Email Addresses any longer (I was using my ATT acct when I set it up so they would have seen that in the IP address if that made a difference).

I also checked one of my Yahoo Mail accts that I setup 10 years ago and interestingly enough I do see the "POP and Forwarding" option but like you said when I select it there is a link to upgrade to Mail Plus. I don't see the Disposable Email Address option at all though.

This makes me a bit uneasy to cancel my ATT acct and risk losing my Disposable email addresses (I have almost 300 setup!) it would be nice if this was specifically addressed in the TOS. I read it several times and it's very confusing since it talks about merging accts with Yahoo but I never explicitly did that.

You caused me to check my accounts. I had migrated all 'pacbell.net' accounts in December, 2002. During the migration, I did not merge a free Yahoo! Mail account to my Primary account for test reasons; so I could report in these (then SBC) forums about merging. I created a number of free Yahoo! Mail accounts specifically to merge with 'pacbell.net' sub accounts. I unmerged two of the merged Yahoo! Mail accounts, and killed a couple of other 'pacbell.net' sub accounts; only to find that I could not merge Yahoo! IDs to the replacements. At some point the system was changed so a new SBC/AT&T sub account can't have have a merged Yahoo! Mail account.

At this time, I only have one sub account which had been created when merging was allowed; it has two 'yahoo.com' aliases. So, a 'pacbell.net' address, an "extra" email address ('yahoo.com'), and a merged Yahoo! Mail account.

I just checked the other unmerged 'yahoo.com' account. Like the first, it has none of the "Plus" options which attend to the former SBC/AT&T accounts.

Oddly, all the formerly merged Yahoo! Mail accounts still list the existing 'yahoo.com' account as an 'att.net' email account.

No longer merged.

That's interesting, I remember getting the notification about changing the POP server from pacbell.net to yahoo.com a long while back, but I never explicitly merged my primary pacbell acct or sub accounts with a Yahoo email acct. If I understand this correctly, this was a way to get email addressed to the Yahoo acct and Pacbell acct at the same Pacbell address?

The picture you have of the new free att.net acct is exactly what I see on my free att.net acct that I setup a few months ago (with my ATT connection), so that confirms that they eliminated the Disposable and POP options from these free accts. They must have realized that these are Mail Plus options that shouldn't be offered for free, I wonder if they also eliminated these for new att.net paid accts?

Since your old pacbell.net acct with Disposable email addresses still work, that gives me some confidence mine will be the same if I cancel, although knowing my luck Murphy's law will kick in!!

The point to keep in mind is that these legacy accounts, such as my 'pacbell.net' accounts, were supposed to be 'converted' to free Yahoo! Mail accounts. The features given to the co-branded ISP users ('at&t Yahoo! HSI) are supposed to be perks for the benefit of the ISP customer; the equivalent of a Yahoo! Mail Plus account. So Yahoo! could figure out what is going on, and make changes at any time.

The other thing to note: Yahoo! seems to have activated IMAP access on their free accounts. So even those accounts I have, which do not have "POP&Forwarding" available, still work just fine with clients capable of accessing IMAP servers. I am using:

• Incoming: 'imap.mail.yahoo.com:993' w/SSL.
• Outgoing: 'smtp.mail.yahoo.com:465' w/SSL.


My oldest, and free, Yahoo! Mail account.

good news indeed

So I've read through most of this thread and just want to confirm what I believe I've read.

If you have a legacy address with @bellsouth.net, you keep @bellsouth.net when you disconnect your DSL service. It doesn't convert to @yahoo or anything else right?

Most people are still able to use pop access after disconnecting, forgive me for not know (because I don't use outlook) but does outlook support imap should pop access be shut off?

Thanks ahead of time.

As long as access to 'mail.yahoo.com' works, you should be able to keep it. AFAIK, MS Outlook does support IMAP.

From this thread it appears my @sbcglobal.net email will still work after canceling DSL.

However I did merge my @sbcglobal.net with a Yahoo ID.
»www.att.com/esupport/art ··· KB400295
This states that Yahoo IDs will be unmerged after 100 days. Won't this affect my continued use of my @sbcglobal.net email?
Thanks, Dave

Hi,

I just cancelled phone service with ATT (had cancelled DSL a few months earlier), and they say I have to wait until Jan 6th when ATT gives up control of my @sbcglobal.net email, and then I have to contact Yahoo mail and change it to a free account. Is there anything I can do before then to ensure retention of the email address? Will it change to @yahoo.com?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,

Allen Short

The sbcglobal.net account will automatically becomse a free email account on the 61st day after you disconnected the DSL. There is nothing you have to do.

Hello,

This is a great thread. I am about to cancel my ATT DSL Service and move to Time Warner Cable. It's great to hear that my @pacbell.net email accounts will be still available as a free Yahoo accounts (yes, I can access my accounts via att.yahoo.com). I have one question though, that I hope someone can answer in this thread. Currently, I access my email on a Mac using the Mac email Client. I download may email via "pop.att.yahoo.com". Will I still be able to do this when my email is converted to a free yahoo acount??

Thanks in advance for your help!

Can I use this website (mail.yahoo.com) for charter email address after DSL cancel.

I expect that depends on the agreements signed between Charter and Yahoo. I suggest you ask in the Charter forum.

I've been trying to understand this; I must be a dummy. I canceled my UVERSE and my email is @swbell.net. What does it mean that it will convert to free? Will it be transparent? Will I still receive email to it? Will the emails in my folders there remain or will I lose them?

Thanks,
Kevin

check this out from att website
»www.att.com/esupport/art ··· rMEKpazW

I no longer was able to keep my sbcglobal.net account. it screwed up my merged account

so now I am no longer able to change the password at all.

well Im getting confused now. I have had a sbc.global email since around 2002 and accessed it through Yahoo. I originally received the sbc yahoo software with the rocket on it. I have several disposable address that I also use. My family on my account all have sbcglobal addresses. Can I keep all these or not??? I installed charter a month ago and never even set a email up with them yet. Everything is through sbcglobal at the att. yahoo homepage. If I can do i need to set anything up BEFORE i cancel? All my business contacts use these current addresses. Will all my saved emails be accessible?
Sorry for all the questions, the more i read through the threads on this the opinions keeps changing.

AT&T High Speed Internet Terms of Service Update
AT&T is updating its High Speed Internet Terms of Service effective May 2, 2011.

Does the new language about email mean you'll start charging non-customers for e-mail access?

No, we've actually added free email for non-customers and we are keeping email free for current customers. Therefore, potential customers without AT&T High Speed Internet now can sign up for an email address on att.net.

And what happens to my email when I cancel Service with AT&T? Is that changing?

We have changed our previous practice so that you will now be able to keep your email address even if you choose to disconnect your High Speed Internet Service with AT&T.

Does ATT.NET email offer free POP3?

I have had an sbcglobal.net account since 2002. I have always used Outlook as my e-mail client. Twelve months ago, due to deplorable DSL speeds, I cancelled AT&T DSL and switched to Comcast. I kept my sbcglobal.net account and 1 sub-account, which was now free. I was still able to POP to Outlook without any problems. Nothing changed. Then, without warning, 4 days ago, POP service was terminated. I can only access my email through Yahoo Mail (web mail). It has taken me 4 days to figure out what is going on. AT&T tech support has been zero help. No one at AT&T can tell me what happened. They blamed it on Outlook and say they don't support 3rd party e-mail clients. I e-mailed Yahoo customer service this morning, but no response. I tried live chat -- waited 2 hrs for someone to answer, and then gave up. Of course you can't find a phone number to actually talk to someone, as if you would be able to understand them if you were to actually speak with them. From what I can tell from hours of internet research, I am probably going to have to upgrade to Yahoo Mail Plus or maybe try the free software, YPOPS, which acts as a proxy server to convert webmail to a POP account (I think). I will have to investigate this further. If I upgrade to Y Mail Plus, I don't know if I will be able to keep the same e-mail address or not, since I haven't received a response back from Yahoo yet. I have years of saved business e-mails in Outlook that I must be able access, so I'm going to have to find a solution. I already opened my own domain account (did not use a Comcast account - would just be same song, second verse) and will be slowly migrating to it, but I have hundreds of customers that will have to start using the new address and making that transition is not going to be easy. If I get any answers from Yahoo, I will post. Grrrrrrrrrrr!

Do you have a non-anonymous dslr account?

I did find this at our support site:
If you signed up for a free att.net email account after 6/12/11, you will not be able to use an email program (e.g., Outlook) with your AT&T email account.

Sounds like your 12 months was before this date so your outlook should still work. But the reason AT&T support is zero help when you call us, is because our tech support is for payiing customers only. We do not offer any assistance on emails that become free accounts. If that sounds blunt, I apologize, it is what it is.

I will offer this: Delete your account profile in Outlook and recreate it. Sometimes those profiles get corrupted and stop working correctly. Creating a brand new one sometimes clears it up.

I have a seldom used att.net email account and am interested in keeping it after I cancel my over 3yr old Basic AT&T DSL service by the end of this month.

With that said, I will retain my wired AT&T phone line service since it will be utilized by my new DSL provider (faster speed, lower price, no contract). Also, I was informed that my prospective DSL provider "uses AT&T servers".

So curiously, does anyone here think/have any idea if, with my retention of my AT&T phone line connection plus the above server use by this DSL provider...that I have a chance to keep my att.net email account?

I fired AT&T over ten months ago. My 'pacbell.net' e-mail accounts still work. I have not tried the Yahoo! POP3 servers, but their IMAP servers work for my accounts.

I am just about to make this same transition from AT&T with my sbcglobal.net address to comcast, I have been using the email with outlook for at least 12 years. I am VERY interested in how everything works out for you. I realize I am not any help to you but want to learn from your experience.

Thank you,