Finally I got my email sorted out.
I get my internet through Shaw. I don’t despise Shaw. They have been fairly good as an internet service provider. I get my email and porn… er… uh… web browsing, without too many problems. 🙂 I dislike that if I am not on their network I can’t download email to my computer and have to go through their web interface which I’ve found is flaky at times. I think I’ve gotten past that though; Firefox seems to work better than IE in a work environment.
I’ve been suspicious of Shaw when they decided to take down my internet access. They changed their network without realizing it wouldn’t work with the old cable modem they gave me. They replaced it, but I had trouble with my home network after that. I fixed it by getting a new router, (the last one was rather old) and I blamed them for that. But I realized that if I ever got frustrated and decided to leave them, I would lose all my email. If I instead get my friends used to a new email address that I own completely, then I can switch providers at any time. FREEDOM!
Initially I just had all email forwarded to my shaw account, and I started pretending I was using the new one. But that still didn’t let me get past their webmail interface. A little research and I found that I can have two domains on my hosting site. So I transferred my personal domain to it and, after jumping through some hoops, I was able to get it set up. It was hairy for awhile. I was trying to get an IMAP interface, but I was getting errors with that. Maybe I was aiming too high because I think I prefer the simplicity of a POP interface anyway. I like to own my email and have it on my computer.
The big benefit is that my iPhone now can check and send email. I’m more connected than ever.