Email address for a domain

So, I have a domain registered through namecheap that I have been sitting on, and I finally decided I was fed up with my current email (a gmail address) and wanted to make an email for my domain.

I have been looking at the various options, and everyone seems to be recommending Google Apps, which unfortunately, is not free anymore.

Are there any cheap/free email alternatives I could set up for my domain?

There's the Microsoft version, http://domains.live.com - basically setting up Outlook.com (aka Hotmail) inboxes for your domain. It is free.

I've been considering using domains.live.com for new clients whose usage doesn't justify the $50 annual expense of Google apps, especially because I'm bitter that Google made this change without offering an alternative for people who don't need more than 7 gigs of mail storage and the other premium features.

I still think Gmail is a superior mail service to Outlook.com, though, so I'm torn.

That looks like a good alternative, though for some reason whenever I try to type my domain name in, it says it is rejected because "This domain name can't be used because it contains a protected word or inappropriate language. Please contact support if you feel this is not the case."

I am intrigued what the protected word must be. (The domain I am trying to use is toppergames.com). I am beginning to think it must be the word "games", because I tried a couple other random letter combinations with the word games at the end, and it rejected those as well.

The best part is that the "support" link takes you to a generic FAQ about every Microsoft product, which doesnt have an email or way to actually contact Microsoft. It appears the only way to contact them is to post in the forum.

The Aristocrats!

I use outlook.com for work, and while it's reasonably nice, it's no GMail. Honestly, I'd fork out the $50 do the Google Apps thing, but I understand the appeal of free, and outlook.com isn't unusable or anything.

It's $50/yr! Practically free!

For my domain, I make email addresses that just forward/deliver to my gmail account. Then I set up my gmail account to be able to send as the address from my domain. Then if I care to, I make a filter on gmail to label emails as they come in so I know the source at a glance.

Yes, all tech support is done via a forum for almost all the Windows services. Its better than doing it via email, trust me.

Thats fine, but it means I am now in a huge list of unanswered questions with similar sites as "cumintheclub.ps". With the owner of that site wondering why that might be offensive...

"We are just a group devoted to appreciating cumin! What the hell, guys, how is that offensive."

let me know if you don't get an answer and I can try and poke someone over there for you.

I would say I should give it a couple days, but from the number of these requests that seem to go either unanswered or are still in processing, I am not hopeful. (For example, it appears anything with associates in the name gets flagged, obviously because of ass...)

Look, I know BF is a venue for free-form discussion, but some of us read these forums at work or in the presence of our children. If you're going to use words (much less domain names) like the above, please place them in spoiler tags.

Ok, 48 hours, and the question has exactly 1 view, which I think was me anyway. I dont know what the standard waiting time for someone to look over this is, but poke away.

Or if you know of anyone I could contact, just PM me your suggestions.

Wader is not Redacted, he's developmentally disabled. Your use of that word offends me. If you're going to call someone Reda...

What? oh. nevermind.

I'm out today as the wife caught the flu and someone has to take care of the baby, so you'll have to wait some more. And I don't give out other employees info without their permission, as I hated when people did that to me when I was in support :)

Wader Hey, so sorry for the delay on this. I actually got the answer about a week ago, but I've been waiting for them to confirm something (which they didn't, so fuck'em).

Anyway short version: Domains.live.com isn't going to work for you

Long Version: Games is a restricted word, most likely because of various lottery scams that people run (this is a guess by me). So, to get a restricted word domain added you in particular have to do two things:

- Turn off your WhoIsGuard protection
- Setup a webpage for your domain so that "they can see what you're doing with the domain"

Which I'm sure you're not interested in doing. Sorry!

I "liked" it, but I dont like it.

Thanks for the clarification. I suspected it was something like that.

I'm not unhappy with my free Google Apps for Business account, but it doesn't do contact sync. I am strongly considering switching to Outlook's mail service just to get decent calendar and contact syncing so that everything is the same on both my PCs and my phone. I'm going to test-drive it with one of the domains I have that I don't regularly use for e-mail.

Check to see if your domain registrar offers any kind of free email service with your domain, including webmail. Mine does, and I have seen others that do. I don't know if namecheap does but it shouldn't be hard for you to poke around your control panel to find out.

I can have e-mail with all my domains, which are hosted on a single web hosting account. But those services don't usually include calendaring and contacts.

What do you mean by "contact sync"? My Google Contacts sync to my (Android) phone and tablets just as you'd expect.

Well, no, those aren't really features of plain old email. That's what an actual email client is for.

Google doesn't currently offer a way for non-mobile users to synch their contacts/calendar down to their desktop client, since they only support IMAP and POP. Outlook.com supports DeltaSynch which does that (but is only supported under the Outlook Connector and Windows Live Mail).

Google is developing a Calendar Synch API to help answer this but it's not ready yet as far as I know.

What are you talking about? Are you trying to get your Google contacts to show up in Outlook?

By "desktop client" you mean Outlook? Because if "great integration with the legacy Outlook client" is one of your desiderata, yeah, I can see where Outlook.com would be better. But -- speaking as someone who uses Outlook 2012 for work and GMail for personal stuff -- I wish there was a way for me to get at my Outlook mail/calendar/etc. in the GMail interface.

Yes.

And yes, I'm aware that I can manually import/export, which I've done several times, but I prefer a more seamless syncing solution. Right now I'm using iCloud for my contacts and calendar and have pretty much abandoned Google for those purposes, but iCloud has its quirks with respect to Outlook. It might be nice to just use one provider, even if it is Microsoft.

Oh, wait - I wonder if I can just move my calendaring and contacts to live.com without moving my e-mail over there. Hmm...

Deprecating ActiveSync was sensible, because it's a proprietary Microsoft-owned technology that they had to pay licensing fees for, and it doesn't make sense to do that after it stops being necessary. But deprecating CalDAV... what the fuck?

Yes you can

If your outlook is exhange-backed the exchange server can publish calendars as ical over HTTP.

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync

I know I jumped in late but since no one mentioned it, how about DIY?
I use an old tossed computer to host dozens of domains and hundreds of email addresses (and two online worlds)
http://www.dom3minions.com/ServerInfo.htm