Dec 09, 2002 03:08 AM
12440 Views
(Updated Dec 27, 2002 04:22 AM)
Correction: Since writing my review, I discovered that you also have the free option of ''email forwarding.'' In this scheme, you pay $10/year to have your own domain, and have email forwarded to a free fastmail account. The fastmail account allows you to change ''Personalities'' to show your domain as your email address when you send mail. This works and is great value, though the reliability of the email forwarding service (mydomain.com will do it for free) is critical. With Yahoo or Hotmail, this method doesn't work because on sent email, your address cannot be changed. So, for $10 and a free fastmail account, you can get started owning your own domain.
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Why use fastmail?
I joined fastmail purely because I own a domain (pretend soniagandhi.com), and would rather be sonia@soniagandhi.com than depend on soniagandhi@hotmail or @yahoo or whatever, because then I'm stuck. You print your hotmail address on business cards, and then you're hooked on hotmail forever.
Normally using email with your own domain is expensive, but with fastmail it's an affordable US$40/year and includes 150MB of storage. Domain registration costs $9/year from godaddy.com.
The alternatives
Fastmail's premium service is not free, but cheaper than anywhere else. Yahoo would charge me $10 for the domain, $10 for POP access, and $50 for 100MB of storage, for a total of $70 for a power email account in my personal domain. I would pay more for less with Yahoo.
Hotmail extra storage costs $20 for a modest 10MB and still won't allow use of a personal domain. That's not good value.
How well does fastmail work?
Fastmail's interface is raw and efficient but takes some getting used to. Pages have no graphics and load quickly. Server outages are rare.
Should I ever decide to leave fastmail, my email address stays with me. See, I continue to use fastmail because I wish to, not because I have to.
Conclusion
I don't think the ''fastmail.fm'' address is particularly desirable, but owning your own domain is. Heavy email users would be satisfied with the features of a fastmail enhanced account. You can spend $10/year for domain registration and wean yourself from dependence on microsoft, yahoo, vsnl, or aol. And for up to $40, you can be free of worries over quotas, policies, or expirations. It's definitely worth jumping into.
