Question: Changing ISPs and Email Addresses When I Move

My ISP is [isp company] and I may be moving in the near future to where cable is not available.
My e-mail address is with [isp company].

Do I have to change my e-mail address and can you give any advice about changing ISPs ?

Answer

Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that your ISP would let you keep your email address with them once you've switched to a different ISP. This can make things difficult, since all your friends/family/business contacts have your old email address, and it's tough to make sure that everyone is notified of your new address.

This is one reason why many people choose to get free email addresses from sites like Yahoo, HotMail, etc, because these email addresses are completely independent of the ISP, and if you move to the other side of the world, you can still get your email from these companies.

Of course, another way to avoid this, if you have your own website (including your own domain) is to set up email addresses at your domain. As long as you own your domain, you can keep that email address. For example, my "personal" homepage is: www.patio-de-recreo.com, and if I want to, my hosting plan lets me set up email addresses like: douglas@patio-de-recreo.com or webmaster@patio-de-recreo.com.

And, of course, you do have the option of getting an email address at your new ISP, whatever it might be. The question you need to ask is, "Am I going to be moving alot, or do I plan to stay here for awhile?" If you expect to do a lot of moving, you should probably not rely on having just an email address with your new ISP, because then you'll have to go through the process of notifying your friends of a change of address the next time you move also!