E-Mail A Go-Go - When your key source of I.D. and Communication Go Astray

by Micah Buchdahl

In the movie "Kissing Jessica Stein", the lead character laments the use and onslaught of e-mail, telling people she does not use it, and finds it dehumanizing and impersonal. In the film?s closing scenes, she hands someone her e-mail address. Did she really have a choice?

Has the e-mail address replaced the phone number, social security number or mailing address as the focal points of identification? Over the last six months, I have been reminded time and time again that the e-mail address is not only a key component of everyday contact, but can also lead to enormous communication problems.

Most Internet users consider e-mail as the core communication tool in our everyday lives. We have a "work" address provided by our employer; a "home" address usually comes from an AOL or MSN paid service, or often a "free" service from a Yahoo or Hotmail. Often, we add another address for junk mail and for those that we do not want to reveal our "unlisted" address to. Personally, I monitor as many as five addresses each day; each with a different purpose.

But, e-mail can be dastardly. For five years, most colleagues communicated to me via my work e-mail address. It made the most sense. I was always connected. In my business, I was constantly on the road, and there was no clean separation between work and home. In many situations, it is unrealistic to expect people to draw a dividing line. If you give a colleague that is also a friend a personal e-mail address, you risk being accused by the company of doing business outside. If you communicate through work, when employee and employer go their separate ways, your lines of communication often become cut. Most reputable companies allow ex-employees to retain "work" e-mail access or have e-mail forwarding for a decent period of time to allow for transition. The employer can still monitor, and it is much more professional for the company. However, some employers will simply cut you off. Individuals sending you e-mail do not realize that it is never received by you, and assume you (and the company) are simply being non-communicative or irresponsible. It is quite a problem. Recently, a company kept insisting they had sent all the necessary requested materials to me. It was only after about a month that everyone realized they were still sending it to an old work e-mail address. Finding a middle ground between work and play e-mail is more difficult than it might appear.

As I started transitioning people from the "work" e-mail to the "personal" e-mail, I decided that a good approach would be to temporarily have communicators use one of my free or paid accounts. Luckily, for the time being, using my free Yahoo was smarter than using my paid service Internet Service Provider - Excite@Home. As you might guess, as Excite went through its bankruptcy, there were problems with e-mail access, and constant threats of an immediate shutdown. Not the kind of thing you want to hear. When everything had shaken out, @Home joined the journey to dot-com hell, and my ISP switched to a new address @Comcast.net. During the transition, there were miscommunications and outages. Those communicating to me @Home now were getting the same result as those many people sending e-mail to the former employer. No response and no message for me.

So, in a matter of a few months, the bulk of people communicating with me now had expired addresses. There was no way for me to know who, what or when you were trying to reach me. Having been bitten - again - I decided that there was no way I was going to get trapped a third time. There was no way I would start handing out the new Comcast address, since it would mean I would again be trapped into keeping them as my ISP, and who knows what the costs may be in the near or far future? Always keep in mind that there is a reason people want you to use their @ -- address. If you leave them, you can not take your e-mail address with you.

For years, I lectured people about the importance of using your own domain name for e-mail. It was more of a branding and professional image kind of thing than an ISP or hosting kind of thing. While I knew that my stopgap solutions of Yahoo and the like was not the most professional approach, it was an inexpensive temporary cure. So, having lost my work address, and my home address, I decided to just stick with the Yahoo free e-mail. The problem is that people usually wince when seeing a business card with an @aol or @yahoo. It does not suggest a proper business approach. The same as if you called someone's work phone number, and realized that it was the home phone. "Mom, some lady is on the phone for you!"

Whether for business or personal use, today's best bet is still having your own domain name. It is substantially less expensive now than it was just a year or two ago. You can buy a domain name today for less than ten bucks a year. E-mail services can run as little as $25 a year. Once you start using your own address, it can be moved from host to host, without getting trapped by any individual company's pricing, services or failure to stay afloat. It is better to make sure your domain name and e-mail services are not inexplicably linked.

A few features that you want to make sure exist when signing up for e-mail services include the ability to have e-mail forwarding and "out of office" reply options, the ability to download into Outlook Express (or whatever you use on your desktop), and very important - the ability to check e-mail from any web browser while away from home. This can eliminate many laptop trips. Better to spend a few bucks checking e-mail at a Kinkos or hotel business center than lugging the laptop with you (in this age of limited carry-ons and luggage problems).

So, my problems were solved. I set up e-mail at my new address, micah@HTMLawyers.com. It is my domain, and I can move it from host to host if I so choose. I can check it through Outlook on my desktop, or via any web browser. I still keep my Yahoo address active as a secondary address. Of course, Yahoo just sent me an e-mail telling me that the bulk of the "free" was being replaced by a $30 annual charge. This is yet another lesson in trying to retain control of your online identity.

E-MAIL TIPS

Be sure to keep a separate directory of e-mail addresses from your work e-mail. It can be as easy as downloading your address book on to a disk from time to time. Basically, it is the same as having ownership of your own Rolodex on your office desk.

Check to see if your employer allows for e-mail access or forwarding upon leaving the company.

Remember that using anyone's domain - being it work, AOL, Yahoo, your ISP - means having an e-mail address that can not travel.

Free e-mail services do not ensure "free" forever, leaves you with few customer service options, and can disappear with little warning or notice.

Be sure that your domain host and e-mail hosts are not inextricably tied together. Can you take one or both with you tomorrow?

If the total costs of domain name registration and e-mail capabilities are running you more than $50 annually, you are probably getting gypped. (However, that is not including ISP access and licensing costs for programs such as Outlook.)

Strongly consider having at least two e-mail accounts for yourself. Your primary address, and a secondary address for junk mail and those people that just send your tiresome jokes and files that eat up your time and patience.