[ryanexley]

I am less than a week away from the installation of Shaw High Speed Internet, and with that, the cancellation of my Telus High Speed Internet. I have been with Telus for over 10 years and I am wondering what happens when someone sends email to my current address after I have cancelled. Does Telus offer forwarding? Does it stay active?

For those that inevitably will ask, I am switching because I am finally fed up with Telus only being able to offer High Speed Lite in my area (256 kbps). I put up with it for way to long, expecting it to improve, but now with a new computer, it feels like I am on dial up.

Thanks in advance for your response.

 

[ScaryBob]

I cannot say what Telus offers but things like email addresses are usually lost when ISPs are changed. I've had it happen a couple of times. You should start now to switch all your registered Telus email addresses, online accounts and contacts over to another email address. If the new Shaw address is not available, a free web based service such as gmail or yahoo mail could be used. Otherwise, access to some services could be lost.

 

[dennism3]

That's why everyone that can should spend $10-15/year for a custom .ca domain and register it through a registrar that mail forwards for free. Change providers you just change for ex. [email protected] to forward to [email protected] instead of the previous [email protected]

No need to develop the domain, just forward the email to your current email address.

 

[timlocke]

Or save the $15 a year and just use Gmail. Gmail can be integrated with all the standard email software, Outlook, Windows mail etc etc.

 

[hugh]

what happens when someone sends email to my current address after I have cancelled.

It's accepted by Telus and deleted. A reply saying it's no longer an active email account may be sent back to the sending ISP but that depends on how the organization decides to deal with such issues.

 

[JugglingReferee]

Or save the $15 a year and just use Gmail. Gmail can be integrated with all the standard email software, Outlook, Windows mail etc etc.

And if you don't want to use Gmail anymore?

I did what Dennis suggests, oh, about 10 years ago, and it is among the best $10 per year that I spend.

 

[ScaryBob]

It's accepted by Telus and deleted.

Ouch That is not correct. If Telus does not want to forward the email, the email account should be deleted and email bounced back. Even better, they could forward the email for a fee or a set time. Canadian ISPs just have no netiquette.

 

[Jason4653]

pretty sure you can keep address for 5 bucks a month. Why would anyone want to leave gmail ? The domain is the best solution if you dont mind spending a few bucks

 

[Macman]

I had someone tell me that Shaw email addresses stay active for a year after the account is terminated. Not sure how accurate that is.

 

[hugh]

That is not correct. If Telus does not want to forward the email, the email account should be deleted and email bounced back. Even better, they could forward the email for a fee or a set time. Canadian ISPs just have no netiquette.

Yes it is correct. Even if the email account is deleted or non-existent, they must accept the email in order to determine if the account is active or not. Once its determined the account is and then to bounce back a reply.

Here is a sample of what gets bounced back from an invalid account from Gmail. In this case it was for an invalid email address ([email protected])

The original message was received at Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:43:44 -0400 from [xx.xx.xx.xx]

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <[email protected]>
(reason: 550-5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try)

----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 550-5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try <<< 550-5.1.1 double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or
<<< 550-5.1.1 unnecessary spaces. Learn more at
<<< 550 5.1.1 http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6596 2si222217iwn.3 550 5.1.1 <[email protected]>... User unknown <<< 503 5.5.1 RCPT first. 2si222217iwn.3

In this case, gmail has received the email and determined the recipients email address is invalid and bounced back a reply. Presumably the original email is then deleted.

 

[ScaryBob]

I did not mean that in was incorrect, as in that is not what they do. I meant that simply deleting the email is not correct procedure. Returning the email with a notice, as described in the gmail example, is the correct procedure. Some, if not most, mail servers will return the original email as an attachment.

 

[hugh]

I did not mean that in was incorrect

Not sure how "That is not correct" can mean anything different.

I meant that simply deleting the email is not correct procedure.

And that is not what I said. I said they typically reply back but the nature of response depends on how the organization decides to deal with such issues. Most will bounceback but NOT all will.

Some, if not most, mail servers will return the original email as an attachment.

Again this is dependent on the organization. My experience is that few do that anymore. Many return the headers but not the entire message.

 

[North_of_Calgary]

1) If you want to leave gmail (who knows why anyone would want to but anyway...) then just forward your gmail to your new address. You can still own the account forever and just have it forward.

2) You can get your own .com from someone like 1&1 for about $10/year (I think it's US$7.95 or something). Not only can you permanently have [email protected] but your can setup up to 400 email forwards. That helps control spam as if you want to sign up for some web site, you don't give them your real email address, you just create an alias. I usually use [email protected]. Then if you're done with that web site or if they're spaming you, you just kill the forward. Basically, everytime you register for something online, you give them a distinct email address.

Stay away from ISP based email addresses.

 

[JugglingReferee]

1) If you want to leave gmail (who knows why anyone would want to but anyway...) then just forward your gmail to your new address. You can still own the account forever and just have it forward.

2) You can get your own .com from someone like 1&1 for about $10/year (I think it's US$7.95 or something). Not only can you permanently have [email protected] but your can setup up to 400 email forwards. That helps control spam as if you want to sign up for some web site, you don't give them your real email address, you just create an alias. I usually use [email protected]. Then if you're done with that web site or if they're spaming you, you just kill the forward. Basically, everytime you register for something online, you give them a distinct email address.

Stay away from ISP based email addresses.

I do this as well. It's the only way to go. Life is so easy this way. Just go pay the $10 per year.

 

[Macman]

Just for fun, I checked one or two canadian sites (I'm not against the US ones, I guess there's no difference if it's just being used for email) and it seems like their prices PER MONTH were around $5-10

 

[ScaryBob]

My experience with one of the Canadian sites is that they don't block spam very well either. I stopped using them when they started charging for mail forwarding.

 

[dennism3]

Quote:I did not mean that in was incorrect
Not sure how "That is not correct" can mean anything different.

Hugh...the meaning was that is not correct behaviour for an ISP regarding email. May be what they do but not correct customer service. Gotta read between the lines occasionally.

Anyway for those discussing .com etc. options. I like .ca as I am Canadian. Just a preference!

 

[JamesK]

With some mail providers, including IIRC Google, you can pull your mail from your old account, without having to forward it. However, the old account has to be active.

 

[Cockroach]

Shaw nukes the account within days of ISP service being cancelled. That's my partner's experience as of 2 1/2 years ago when we switched to telus.

I've only had one small ISP (in the U.S.) offer forwarding service for a few weeks after cancellation. The rest simply nuke your account upon cancellation.

FWIW, Bigfoot.com used to offer free forwarding service. Not sure if they still do anymore.

 

[Nanuuk]

You can keep your Telus e-mail account for $5.20/month.