dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
9927

Jon J
join:2000-06-12
Nashville, TN

Jon J

Member

Keeping bellsouth.net e-mail

If I switch ISPs how do I keep bellsouth.net as my e-mail address?

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

said by Jon J:

If I switch ISPs how do I keep bellsouth.net as my e-mail address?

I believe they will keep it running for at least a year, if not more. I have heard of people being to access their old email for years.

But there is no guarantee, since you are no longer paying them any money, they may shut it off at any time after you left that ISP.

What I would recommend is to go through the complete pain and utter agony of swapping email addresses just ONE more time, and switch it to an email address that isn't bound to an ISP, such as gmail, yahoo, or your own hosted services. I figured that out a long long time ago, and have had my own domain since 2000, so I don't lose my email every time I switch ISP, move around town, etc.

rtfm
join:2005-07-09
Washington, DC

rtfm

Member

said by maartena:

What I would recommend is to go through the complete pain and utter agony of swapping email addresses just ONE more time, and switch it to an email address that isn't bound to an ISP, such as gmail, yahoo, or your own hosted services. I figured that out a long long time ago, and have had my own domain since 2000, so I don't lose my email every time I switch ISP, move around town, etc.

What Maartena Said....

Fastmail is one I know of....

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

1 edit

1 recommendation

NetFixer to Jon J

Premium Member

to Jon J
said by Jon J:

If I switch ISPs how do I keep bellsouth.net as my e-mail address?

If you terminate your DSL account (as opposed to AT&T or Yahoo! terminating the account for TOS violations), your AT&T email accounts remain active.

From »www.att.com/shop/interne ··· ice.html
said by AT&T TOS :

5. Termination or Cancellation of Service

a. Cancellation of Service by Customer. When you purchased the Service, you agreed to a specific price and plan, which may have included a term. You agree that if you cancel your plan before the end of the term, you will pay the early termination fee associated with that Term Plan. At the conclusion of your term or if you did not sign up for a Term Plan, the term for your Service will be month-to-month. When you cancel your Service, your account ID e-mail address will remain active, as will all e-mail subaccounts you have created. The e-mail accounts may be accessed from the att.net website.

I terminated both of my AT&T DSL accounts in March, 2011 and all of my old att.net and bellsouth.net email accounts are still active and can be accessed via the »mail.yahoo.com/ webmail site, or by using POP3 and SMTP. I also still have admin access to create/delete/suspend secondary email accounts by using »www.att.com/olam/dashboa ··· mexecute and logging in with my primary att.net/bellsouth.net email credentials. The current TOS seems to imply by omission that POP3 and SMTP access may now be terminated after service cancellation; but since Yahoo! actually controls the AT&T customer email, it would probably be up to Yahoo! whether or not they stopped supporting POP3 or SMTP for ex AT&T customers.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to maartena

MVM

to maartena
said by maartena:

I believe they will keep it running for at least a year, if not more. I have heard of people being to access their old email for years.

But there is no guarantee, since you are no longer paying them any money, they may shut it off at any time after you left that ISP.

I concur with NetFixer See Profile.

A bellsouth.net email address is an AT&T property; service is actually handled by Yahoo!.

When I left AT&T in April, 2011, I received a postcard advising that my pacbell.net accounts would convert to free, Yahoo! Mail accounts. I believe that all I had to do was sign in at mail.yahoo.com and agree to the Yahoo! ToS.

I am still using them now.

Jon J
join:2000-06-12
Nashville, TN

Jon J to NetFixer

Member

to NetFixer
Almost a year ago AT&T forced me from DSL to U-verse. Do you think it would work the same?

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

said by Jon J:

Almost a year ago AT&T forced me from DSL to U-verse. Do you think it would work the same?

I'm thinking it will. Since AT&T has partnered with Yahoo for their web mail, you should be able to read your bellsouth email using their web access services.

I don't know what kind of guarantee you have, like Netfixer and NormanS have said, it will be converted to webmail, and you can pretty much use it forever from that point forward, just like a regular yahoo webmail client.

If you expect to use an email client such as Outlook though, you may no longer be able to.

vitaminG
@sbcglobal.net

vitaminG to Jon J

Anon

to Jon J
all my pacbell email address still work from eon's ago. You got nothing to worry.

Jon J
join:2000-06-12
Nashville, TN

Jon J

Member

Do those PacBell addresses work only as webmail or are you using something like Thunderbird?

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

said by Jon J:

Do those PacBell addresses work only as webmail or are you using something like Thunderbird?

When you switch ISP your email will be converted to webmail, so it will be webmail only. No POP clients like Thunderbird.

I will repeat again that it is probably best to go through the utter pain and agony to change your email ONE more time, and choose an ISP independent address. Gmail can do POP and IMAP so you can use it with Thunderbird.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to Jon J

MVM

to Jon J
said by Jon J:

Do those PacBell addresses work only as webmail or are you using something like Thunderbird?

I am thinking they could change; but I am guessing they would have to reliably distinguish between currently active customers, and former customers.

I have my '@pacbell.net' accounts configured thus:

@pacbell.net in Mozilla Thunderbird.


Works thus, for me, for now.