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Australia Communications The Internet

Australia's ISPs Will Stop Offering Free Email Addresses, to the Disgust of Older Customers (theguardian.com) 69

Posted by EditorDavid from the older-than-Gmail dept.
Remember when your email address came from your ISP?

Now the cost for small companies to offer email service "has gone up in server and administration costs," reports the Guardian, "without the economies of scale." But in Australia, this has created a problem for people like the Canberra-based customer of iiNet who's had the same email address since the 1990s... TPG — which owns brands that have historically offered email including iiNet all the way back to OzEmail — informed customers in July that it would migrate their email to a separate private service, the Messaging Company, by the end of November. Users will keep their exisiting email addresses on this service, and would get it free for the first year. After that, there will be options of paying for a service, or an ad-based free service after that. The amount to be charged from next year has not yet been decided.

The announcement was met with outrage among users of the long-running web forum Whirlpool. "It's a shitty move. My wife has never set up a Gmail or Yahoo and only ever used her iiNet email address for her business as well as personal. This screws us royally," one user said.

"Us oldies couldn't start out using Gmail etc because they weren't in existence 25 years ago," another said.

"It's a nightmare trying to change logins at many places...."

The other factor is the increasing security risk. Legacy systems, particularly those managed under a variety of absorbed companies, as with TPG, can over time become more at risk of a cybersecurity attack or breach. External providers who offer this service either in place of, or on behalf of the internet service provider are becoming seen as the more secure option....

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief executive, Andrew Williams, says that ultimately internet providers getting out of the email game is a good thing because it means customers don't feel locked into one internet company...

With the rise in data breaches, and the avalanche of spam and scams, the shift offers people the opportunity of a clean email slate, according to Andrew Williams, of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.
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Australia's ISPs Will Stop Offering Free Email Addresses, to the Disgust of Older Customers More

Australia's ISPs Will Stop Offering Free Email Addresses, to the Disgust of Older Customers

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  • Divorce makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Saturday August 19, 2023 @04:43PM (#63780952)

    With the major free services being Microsoft and Google and everyone and their uncle knowing how to sign up for them, your average ISP doesn't want the overhead of supplying tech support to people having trouble with their email.

    It's more likely a cost centre than a profit centre - definitely so if you're not charging and the only people who are using it are the ones who can't figure out how to get to outlook.com or gmail.com.

    I'm honestly surprised that the smaller ISPs and resellers anywhere still supply an inbox with your connection.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Both services begin nagging for a recovery email. Even Proton nags for one - this would be your ISP's email address as it is assigned when you create your account with the ISP.

      • >Both services begin nagging for a recovery email.

        I do maintain a Hotmail address for sign-ups and stuff that I just don't care enough about to spin up a throw-away for.

        Indeed, at one point it was continually pestering me for that stuff and then one day it just stopped - yet I can still authenticate. I assume one day Microsoft will lock me out of that account if I don't give them a blood sample and my SIN, at which point I'll abandon it rather than submit.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      the only people who are using it are the ones who can't figure out how to get to outlook.com or gmail.com

      But they could already figure out how to get to iinet.net.au

      What they can't figure out is how to update dozens of accounts that use an e-mail address as an ID. If they even let you update. Fortunately, PPH is nothing. Because if I lost PPH@Old_ISP.com, I'd be screwed here on Slashdot. And many other places.

      I had a friend who "bought" her own business domain name. And then got screwed when her registrar (who maintained ownership and admin control of all domains) sold them to Microsoft. Who then issued her

      • Try Gandi. Until they sell themselves (and I pray that they don't) their "no bullshit" guarantee is pretty nice.

        • I think you are a bit behind in your information. Gandi was sold so they are no longer anything like they used to be. A few months ago they informed me they would start charging me a minimum of $3/month if I wanted to keep my "free" mailbox. I moved out...

          • Thanks for heads up. I'm prepaid a few years with them, so I'll be careful to move before it runs out. Where did you land?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Ecuador ( 740021 )

              I moved my Gandi domains to an Ionos account I have for historical reasons, so I had mailboxes etc already and it was the easiest/cheapest for me. I don't really recommend them either though, they were great until 10+ years ago (called 1and1 back then), but definitely not great now. So I don't have a good recommendation, sorry!

      • the only people who are using it are the ones who can't figure out how to get to outlook.com or gmail.com

        But they could already figure out how to get to iinet.net.au

        I sure agree with the rest of your post.

        There was no figuring out necessary back in the nineties, though, if AU was anything like Europe in that regard. It would have practically come with the internet connection. Quite a few older colleagues of mine still have their ISP's domain name in their home e-mail addresses, too, from back then, if it was one of the biggies which still exist. It was easy and it was free and it was from a (back then) renowned company, so what could go wrong? I always advised against

    • I had 5 different email addresses before iiNet even existed, so when I found an email redirector I shifted to that as a permanent address, and I point that at whatever ISP-or-gmail-provided inbox is my current workhorse, and set it's Reply-To to the forever address

      Pobox.com is the earliest I know of, predating /. so I've only ever had one email address here, and on oodles of sites, though I've hopped ISPs and mailserver a few times in the 25 years since

      There's other similar forever-name services, if you're

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I know multiple people who used their ISP email accounts, switched ISP, and then six months later were horrified to discover that their email account had been deleted and all their old mail was gone.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      With the major free services being Microsoft and Google and everyone and their uncle knowing how to sign up for them, your average ISP doesn't want the overhead of supplying tech support to people having trouble with their email.

      It's more likely a cost centre than a profit centre - definitely so if you're not charging and the only people who are using it are the ones who can't figure out how to get to outlook.com or gmail.com.

      I'm honestly surprised that the smaller ISPs and resellers anywhere still supply an inbox with your connection.

      This is mainly a historical thing as these older ISPs like OzEmail, iinet, Internode, et al, that offered free email addresses since the 1990's have been acquired and merged so many times. A new TPG account won't likely come with a free mailbox, but people who have been on Internode for 20 years have.

      Most people would never have used them as most people tend to swap ISP's every few years (when contracts run out or when they move). There will be some people who have "their entire life" on their @iinet.net

    • Of course it makes sense not to offer e-mail and other Internet-related technologies. They are only called "service providers", after all.

  • Not your domain, not your email address (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Saturday August 19, 2023 @04:47PM (#63780960)
    If you have no control over your MX record, your email is just a guest, somewhere, and if it is not encrypted, it is probably exploited for data mining or worse. If you cannot keep your address, just because some hoster becomes unavailable or excessively expensive, you did not save money buy not registering a domain to begin with. Never expect for-profit organizations to be nice to you.

    • Re:Not your domain, not your email address (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Saturday August 19, 2023 @05:00PM (#63780976)

      I've had my domain for over 20 years, and it is indeed really, really nice to be able to move and switch ISPs, or jobs, or whatever and know that people who want to reach out don't have to find me again.

      I think I'm paying something like $10/year for that.

      I've also been running my own mail server for all that time, so I have my own data and my own backups of it. Honestly it's a shame you can't just go out and buy a 'Mail in a Box' appliance with a quick web setup and a USB port for backups. Everyone should be able to do this regardless of their technical ability. GMail and Hotmail suck as options.

      • You're way more hardcore! The problem with your solution is OS and hardware upgrades without making mistakes and causing downtime. Imo paid services like protomail and fastmail are easier to use solutions.

        • OS and hardware upgrades without making mistakes and causing downtime

          So set auto-updates and be done with it if you so choose. There's no need to be completely reliant on someone else's willingness to data mine you for essential services.

        • If you are able to spare some modest hardware (or can run a VM), and you know how to do port forwarding, I suggest playing with Mail in a Box - it's a free mail server you can download and run and it's what I'm currently using.

          Well... honestly I suspect it's a huge slog to make it work reliably with dynamic DNS, so you probably also need a static IP and a domain you can point to it (MiaB will be your DNS server too, so no worries there). And you might have to ask your ISP to set up a PTR record for you. ..

          • >And you might have to ask your ISP to set up a PTR record for you
            Tip : monitor that PTR record...
            Twice I know my ISP migrated systems, and twice the PTR record got lost.
            And one time they managed to expose their ubiquiti antenna through the public IP address, instead of forwarding ports 22, 80, and 443 to me. That was a very interesting support call:
            - But we need those ports to administer the thing
            - Exposed to the internet?
            - What?
            - Yep.
            - Oh god...

        • > The problem with your solution is OS and hardware upgrades without making mistakes and causing downtime.

          This isn't really a problem. Email was designed way back when MTAs came and went, and emails had to wait in queues until the correct MTA came online. This means that any downtime of up 48 hours is irrelevant for 99% of emails, as they'll get delivered eventually. My longest downtime was a week (electricity cut while on vacation...) , and I'm pretty sure everything came in eventually.

          Now I'm in the pr

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mssymrvn ( 15684 )

        If you wish to spend the money, a very basic 1-2 disk Synology can do most of that for you. But it does require some knowledge of how to set up mail. And if you want to make sure all of your friends who annoyingly use Gmail can actually get your email, you're going to have to enable at least SPF, and probably DKIM.

        But I also type this as a person who always uses business class internet with a static IP and has hosted his own email for almost 25 years. No data caps and a static IP are kinda nice like that

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        I've had my domain for over 20 years, and it is indeed really, really nice to be able to move and switch ISPs, or jobs, or whatever and know that people who want to reach out don't have to find me again.

        Same here. I picked up my domain around 2003 and have had it ever since. I'm hosting it off site right now but its nice to be able to just grab it and move it if needed.

      • I've been doing the same. The trouble is that many of the "big" e-mail services will automatically blacklist small servers they don't recognize. Over the last couple decades, I've noticed that an increasing amount of mail I try to send to other people never gets delivered, and many people can't send mail to me, either. Gmail always goes through. If you're not Google, you don't exist.

        Yeah, they all say it's for security and anti-spam purposes, but we all know the real reason they won't deliver your mail.

  • The other factor is the increasing security risk. Legacy systems, particularly those managed under a variety of absorbed companies, as with TPG, can over time become more at risk of a cybersecurity attack or breach.

    This is FUD. The ISP may have good tech staff able to securely maintain it. And the systems may have been upgraded over time.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by kenh ( 9056 )

      The ISP is tired of rooting the bill, and wants to get paid for providing secure email service. They could raise their rates, add ads to the free accounts, or tack on a small annual fee for email. (Arguably the first and last option are the same)

      The ISP is unbundling something that used to be bundled with service, and giving customers 12 months notice to accommodate the change - find another email provider, accept ads with your emails, or pay a fee for email w/o ads.

      I don't understand the need to over-compl

    • If they are still using rotting Windows 2000 Professional bixes to handle their e-mail service, they are already cheap sacks of shit and the rest of their systems are already filled with vulns. They could just migrate their e-mail system to "the cloud", and for a small monthly fee they won't piss off their established customers. The net isn't just filled with Tik-Tok-Schlockers.

  • literally a non issue (Score:4, Informative)

    by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Saturday August 19, 2023 @05:03PM (#63780984)

    The article says they get to keep their email address. They may just have to put up with ads, or pay for it.

    These people are complaining about losing their email, and they're not going to lose it. Just stupid people being stupid.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kenh ( 9056 )

      Exactly.

    • Just stupid people being stupid.

      I mean obviously. We're talking about people literally forcing their own vendor lock-in to an ISP over a service that is literally able to be decoupled from them for free. My parents are pushing 80. Neither of them have used ISP's email for well over a decade.

    • I have an email address from Verizon that's probably 25 years old now. They keep offloading it to different providers, for a while it was Yahoo and now it's been migrated to AOL of all companies. It gets very little spam except for large bursts from a single IP belonging to outlook.com

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kriston ( 7886 )

        And, in an interesting move, the AOL mail system was migrated entirely to the Yahoo mail system a few years ago.

    • I was afraid I was the only one who didn't get it. People complaining about how hard it will be to change their email addresses, but "Users will keep their exisiting [sic] email addresses on this service". Bit disappointing that the Guardian didn't see the contradiction. Unless "email address" means something different.

  • It is a form of lock-in and prevents you from changing to new services, or as shown, if the company decides they don't want to offer it anymore. If you move, you may be forced to use a new ISP for example.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kenh ( 9056 )

      They have two options, pay for ad-free email, or "enjoy" free email with ads.

      Users will keep their exisiting email addresses on this service, and would get it free for the first year. After that, there will be options of paying for a service, or an ad-based free service after that. The amount to be charged from next year has not yet been decided.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      You'd think that'd make it a desirable feature from the ISP's POV.

      One thing that no one should be doing is using any free email services. Especially Gmail linked to an Android phone. Those will be seriously raped.

    • So what's the issue? I use my ISPs email, and I've changed ISPs without moving, changed ISPs because I've moved, and changed phone numbers because they are not nearly as portable as claimed.

      It's not like it's difficult. And it reliably ditches spam and robocalls. Two factor authentication has complicated things a bit because I needed both phones at once to confirm the new number and email address. But it still wasn't difficult.

  • > WHARGARGBLBLLL JUST HOST EMAIL BUY DOMAIN RUG PULL LOL PLEBS SUFFER IN JOCKS

    Now go explain that to your parents you insufferable elitists. It's not your problem, it's theirs. And you'll be the ones fielding the phone calls when they lose half their screen space to an ad which for years you have been telling them should not be in their emails, and if they are, it's likely spam.

  • Users will keep their exisiting email addresses on this service, and would get it free for the first year. After that, there will be options of paying for a service, or an ad-based free service after that. The amount to be charged from next year has not yet been decided.

    The announcement was met with outrage among users of the long-running web forum Whirlpool. "It's a shitty move. My wife has never set up a Gmail or Yahoo and only ever used her iiNet email address for her business as well as personal. This screws us royally," one user said.

    How? Either pay the annual fee in a year or sign-up for the free service w/ ads.

    They aren't taking away his wife's work/personal email, they are offering two option to keep her "vintage" email address.

    • Just another bullshit ISP fee with either option.

    • How? Either pay the annual fee in a year or sign-up for the free service w/ ads.

      They aren't taking away his wife's work/personal email, they are offering two option to keep her "vintage" email address.

      And the government surveillance of your every email is ALWAYS FREE !

  • Old users today were once young users. They've had decades since Windows 95 to understand freedom of choice means you have some work to do.

    The adult choice to be helpless has consequences. Too bad, so sad and tough shit.

  • "The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief executive, Andrew Williams, says that ultimately internet providers getting out of the email game is a good thing because it means customers don't feel locked into one internet company..." - Well now they have a reason to shop around and perhaps get cheaper (and/or better) Internet service. ISP shoots foot.

    • Not really. The number of people actually locked into an ISP over this issue is completely insignificant. It's not 1999 anymore.

  • I hear the pain. I had been using a long term email address but had to migrate when the system it was on had to be shut down due to Y2K.

    Similarly I stopped using my 4 letter usa.net email because they wanted to charge $19 a year in the mid 90s. Free rides don't always last. I would have been okay with some ads to keep my beautifully short adress. Instead I now own my personal 6 letter Domain that I use.

  • What do most aussies use as an ISP? Do they still use dial-up modems? Do they only have internet on their cellphones? Is there fiber to houses in the suburbs of cities like sydney melbourne and Perth?

    (or do they spell it fibre there - I know Aussies can't spell Labour correctly - I grew up across the ditch so I spell English the English way)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      If you live in a built-up area you will probably have access to the NBN (government owned and built network that is open to any ISP to run services over). Depending on where you are, you will get HFC (over legacy cable TV cables), fiber-to-the-premises, fiber-to-the-curb (which is what I have, I can literally see the pit holding the fiber box from my window), fiber-to-the-building (generally in retrofitted apartment complexes where its too difficult/expensive to run fiber through the walls) or fiber-to-the-

  • Using your ISP's e-mail service is becoming as common as people writing personal letters via snail mail i.e.a rapidly dying art that's now mostly in the realm of elderly people. Every friend and family member (including my oldest relatives) are now using a big cloud e-mail provider (almost always Gmail) - the last of them switched over years ago.

    Here in the UK, the dreadful Virgin Media ISP (who do maintenance work after midnight at least once a month without telling most of their customers, bringing down l

  • "Us oldies couldn't start out using Gmail etc because they weren't in existence 25 years ago," another said.

    While GMail didn't exist until 19 years ago, both Yahoo and Microsoft (HotMail) have been offering free email accounts for more than 25 years.

  • Agree, but domains are a problem (Score:3)

    by Arnonyrnous Covvard ( 7286638 ) on Sunday August 20, 2023 @03:49AM (#63781788)
    The ISP can take your email address away or turn it from free to paid or hike the price. But so can your domain registrar and the registry. Verisign is raising .com prices again next month, for example, for no other reason that they can. The internet needs a way of creating permanent addresses that aren't rented but owned.

  • Verizon did this and nobody noticed because they merely outsourced their email to their new subsidiary AOL using the same verizon.net email domain.

  • Email as authentication is dumb. It means we care more than we should about the @. people use to send messages to us. I'd rather have a QR code like thing. Or a hash of text.

    No, I'm not going to memorize it. No, I don't think we can have easily memorized, globally unique, custom identifiers. And it's not worth waiting any longer to pretend we can. Humans use names and a government ID number. Something like that would work still...

    I'd also suggest we switch from hiding a value, like social security nu

  • > Remember when your email address came from your ISP?

    Yes, and I've just decided to switch to it as part of my de-googlifying. Solves a load of problems.

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