[EPBob]

I'm thinking of switching my email account from Eastlink to .gmail is that easy to do, for an old fella, I'm in my 70's and not all that savvy when it comes to doing something like that.
The main thing is I don't want to lose all the email address's that I have in my Eastlink account.

 

[JamesK]

I'm thinking of switching my email account from Eastlink to .gmail is that easy to do, for an old fella, I'm in my 70's and not all that savvy when it comes to doing something like that.
The main thing is I don't want to lose all the email address's that I have in my Eastlink account.

I switched from Yahoo on Rogers to my own domain on GMail a couple of years ago. As long as you have that Eastlink account, your addresses will be there. You might be able to import them into GMail. Also, when you use GMail, you can sync your address book with all your Android devices.

 

[17671]

if your in your 70's chances are you can ask one of your kids or even grand kids to help you with that, your not really "switching" from eastlink to g-mail, your just opening a new google/gmail account and your son/grandson can copy your address book to the new account. you still keep the eastlink account, unless you specifically call them and ask them to close it down.
you might already have a gmail account if you own an android tablet or other device which uses android operating system so if thats the case u can use your exisitng gmail address if u have one instead of trying to open a new one

people in their 70s are often not the greatest in computers and does not know how to do a lot of these things including my father so its best to go the extra mile for seniors and older people and give them a little bit extra help and sometimes even do things for them. sometimes its even okay to pay someone to do these things for you at that particular age group. my father is lucky he has me but if he didnt he would happily pay someone to do it

 

[ExDilbert]

If by "email address's" you mean contacts then it's usually possible export and import contacts between email accounts. Important emails can usually be saved to disk.

It's not usually possible to keep email addresses when switching email providers. The eastlink.com and gmail.com domains belong to the email providers. It might be possible to keep the prefix, as in [email protected] to [email protected]. Be aware that a huge number of names and other monikers are already taken in gmail and are not available. I'd strongly suggest getting a second account now so that an orderly switch can be done. Most companies like Eastlink abruptly terminate email addresses when switching internet providers which can be very disruptive. It's surprising how many things are tied to email addresses. Plan on keeping the Eastlink mail address in order to get as many dependencies as possible switched to the new email address.

 

[RedGreen]

"It's surprising how many things are tied to email addresses. Plan on keeping the Eastlink mail address in order to get as many dependencies as possible switched to the new email address." by ExDilbert.

Indeed you never get it all when doing a switch most times. I am certain I lost some addresses when yahoo.ca basically eliminated my address there. But I had over a year of past received mail on my machine to see those ones anyways. Suppose I should have been logging in to the damn account instead of using an email client. Might have had a chance to see changes to their methods of connection and the new BS to go through. Oh well you live and you learn never rely on some corporation to be doing anything for you. Though I do have one account from a German provider a good fifth-teen years old that works perfectly fine, only they gave up supporting English in the interface if I log in years ago. A couple times a year I get the in German email warning I need to login to the web account or loose it.​

 

[EPBob]

The problem is, my son and his family live in Grande Prairie, Alberta, I'm in Eastern Passage / Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, just me and my wife, she's more "knit one pearl one" so between us anything other than simply doing emails or Google searches, the straightforward stuff is a bit beyond us. I'm looking to ditch Eastlink and go with Purple Cow in Halifax, their prices are half of what we pay to Eastlink and when you're living off a pension that is a good bit less than half of what I used to earn every penny starts to count.

ExDilbert: that's exactly what I need to do, keep the same prefix but on .gmail rather than Eastlink. I hear you about registering a gmail address, I'll do that today, thanks for the heads up on that. As you say regarding Eastlink terminating email addresses, yep, I've heard of that, I guess I could just print a copy my contacts to be sure I don't lose them all, and then {closer to the time I migrate} do a SEND ALL advising everyone of my new address, I guess that would work ?

Other than that, THANKS to all of you for your comments and suggestions, it's been valued and appreciated.

EP Bob.

 

[EPBob]

ipeople in their 70s are often not the greatest in computers and does not know how to do a lot of these things including my father so its best to go the extra mile for seniors and older people and give them a little bit extra help and sometimes even do things for them. sometimes its even okay to pay someone to do these things for you at that particular age group. my father is lucky he has me but if he didnt he would happily pay someone to do it

That's how it is, we aren't as swift as we used to be once we've turned 70, I'm 75, at my age I count it as a blessing when the alarm clock wakes me up in a morning, it won't always manage to do that.
As for Android, well my phone works on Android, but for the most part I don't use many of the features on it. My desktop runs Linux Mint, my son set that up for me, and I find it easy to work with.
Thanks for understanding that us old guys aren't as swift as we used to be, then again, I never thought I'd see the day when I was singing better than Elvis and dancing better than Michael Jackson, where are they now hey ;-)

Thanks again.

EP Bob.

 

[17671]

Check the Gmail app on your phone, if it loads correctly and you see a list of emails, then it means you already have a Gmail address set up when you set up your phone for the first time. if it asks you to sign in to google or to create a new email, you unfortunately do not have a gmail app yet and are using the phone without an actual google/gmail account, which is not a bad thing but also means you dont benefit from all the neat bells and whistles the android and google offer to you

 

[EPBob]

Thanks for the suggestion, I've just had 4 cords delivered, so I'll have to make a start on stacking that, I'm sure I don't already have a gmail account, but I'll register one tonight.

EP Bob.

 

[ExDilbert]

I use separate gmail addresses for Android devices and general email. The Android account is only used for Google and Android related email. There's too much to lose and reconfigure if the Android email gets hacked.

I've used POP3 and IMAP to fetch mail with an email client for years. Haven't lost an account due to lack of logging into the web interface yet. Some accounts went dormant due to lack of use but they could be resurrected, minus the messages. I've had email accounts cut off due to switching internet providers and companies that discontinued their service, and cancelled some due to unreasonable price hikes. Notably, they were all Canadian companies.

 

[17671]

Here is my opinion on how many email accounts someone should have on average

Everyone who owns a chromebook or android tablet android phone, or android tv box, needs a G-mail account, you need it for the services but not many people give out this email.
Everyone who owns a Windows PC, has a hotmail address, a xbox account or who has office 365 subscription or purchases windows apps from the microsoft store, or has a work email or school/college/university email usually has a microsoft account. people who've been using the internet for many years might have a hotmail account because when email accounts were being made available, back in the day, hotmail was one of the first so a lot of old timers have one.
People may also want another email account which is not tied to their main email for the purposes of job hunting, job recruiting, or having a small business, or for coupons and mailing list or just for disposable email purposes often went with a Yahoo account. Yahoo is also more than just an email account they have stocks, finances, chat, etc so you can use the same account across their different products.

I am the second option, I have had a hotmail since the 90's i use it as my main e-mail, I have a gmail address but dont give it out nor do i use it but it came with the account so be it.
I also have a yahoo account so when i was job hunting when younger it was a professional looking address with my first name and last name so it appeared professional, unlike my hotmail which is an alias which relates to hobbies and interests of mine.

I used to have a ISP email account back in the day too, from rogers and bell but I learnt a valuable lesson because i used to use that for job applications but when i changed internet companies i lost out on a job opportunity cus my email cancelled when i changed internet companies and i didn't get the job.

so my bet is go with hotmail or gmail as your first priority, even if ur computer illiterate, there is simple ways or tutorials teaching you how to import your address book, but trust me, some people dont even know what an address book is to begin with.

 

[gzink]

Ignore the below the line.
Yes you should be able to export or print your contacts. Notify people of the change and maybe hang on to eastlink for a month or two and remind people.

------------------------------------
You can get a gmail account and if you poke around on gmail you may find(or someone on the phone can guide you) where you can pick up the email from the eastlink account(s) and put them in the gmail account. So you could notify everyone, and keep eastlink acct for a month or 2 picking up the emails in gmail, then notify again 'just a reminder' and then close the eastlink.

As an aside I backup all emails I receive by using a couple of gmail accounts which just pickup my regular emails and they are stored as backup. For instance [email protected] can access [email protected] and save the emails. If I ever delete the frg.ca emails they still exist at the gmail account.
Long distance does not have to be a barrier for help. You can allow a trusted person to access your PC if you have one and also to set up a gmail account for you and even the pickup of email by gmail.

 

[17671]

The hardest part is to tell everyone who emails you or any site you registered your old email with that you have a new email address. Sometimes you may get locked out of an online account and when you go to reset your password they send the password recovery email to your old address so if you cancelled that one your out of luck and locked out of the site forever. I know some people this happened to.

 

[gzink]

That is why it is best to use gmail if you think it will be free or cheap forever or to get a domain like yourname.ca for cheap and an inexpensive host company and keep the email address for life. $40CDN/year gets you a domain and multiple email addresses like person1 @... person [email protected] etc.

 

[EPBob]

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction, I have registered and account with .gmail and I'll be doing a SEND TO ALL notification to all my email buddies later today..
I guess it's a bit easier than I thought it might be, I'll be signing up with Purple Cow at the end of September.

 

[JamesK]

You may be able to pull all your existing mail into GMail.

 

[ExDilbert]

Everyone who owns a Windows PC, has a hotmail address,

I doubt many do. Hotmail registrations were discontinued about 15-20 years ago. Some people might have a Live.com account but that was changed to Outlook about 10 years ago. Since then Outlook has been the Microsoft email brand. Outlook.com or Outlook.live.com is the webmail address. Unlike Google, Microsoft does not require an Outlook email address but it's handy for registering Windows 10 digitally and Microsoft services. Like the Android account, its use is limited to help prevent hacking the Windows registration.

The hardest part is to tell everyone who emails you or any site you registered your old email with that you have a new email address.

The email for things like site, service or product registrations will need to be changed manually. Some mail services have auto-reply and email forwarding. Auto-reply can simply send a message that the email is being changed to a new address. An automatically added signature can also inform people of the new email address. Mail forwarding can help cut down on having to monitor the former account after its use dwindles. I would keep the legacy email address active for at least a year to catch overlooked uses.

 

[EPBob]

You may be able to pull all your existing mail into GMail.

That would be good, but, is it difficult {for an old timer} to do ?

 

[17671]

I doubt many do. Hotmail registrations were discontinued about 15-20 years ago. Some people might have a Live.com account but that was changed to Outlook about 10 years ago. Since then Outlook has been the Microsoft email brand. Outlook.com or Outlook.live.com is the webmail address. Unlike Google, Microsoft does not require an Outlook email address but it's handy for registering Windows 10 digitally and Microsoft services. Like the Android account, its use is limited to help prevent hacking the Windows registration.

What I'm saying is even though a Microsoft account was not required with older versions of windows, windows came with MSN messenger and Windows Live messenger, to sign in to use it you needed a microsoft passport which is now just a microsoft account. Many people created them to use the chat, and to this day theres tons of people who have no idea they have microsoft accounts, my father in law being one of them. but you might very well still have one.

All the old domains have been folded into a microsoft account. some have an email address some do not, you would have to check by logging in but chances are some of you have microsoft accounts and dont even know it.

The email for things like site, service or product registrations will need to be changed manually. Some mail services have auto-reply and email forwarding. Auto-reply can simply send a message that the email is being changed to a new address. An automatically added signature can also inform people of the new email address. Mail forwarding can help cut down on having to monitor the former account after its use dwindles. I would keep the legacy email address active for at least a year to catch overlooked uses.

Yes auto reply works wonderful and I used it too for a customer/company owner who once setup his entire company up but used the wrong email domain for his employees.
It is great as long as you dont cancel your old email provider. There will always be that odd person who refuse to update their address book and constantly email you at the old address. This means you still might have to check your old email every so often. Also you may have given your old email out to a eye doctor or dentist or someone and they sent you an email, they may ignore the auto reply, it might not be their job to update it unless you notify them.

 

[JamesK]

That would be good, but, is it difficult {for an old timer} to do ?

A couple of seconds of hard Googling turned up this.