Thursday 4 June 2009

The Google Mail glow

My accountancy-practice-in-the-making needed a new e-mail address and a new website.

So I registered a domain www.homebusinessaccountant.co.uk* with 123-reg.

Then I decided to try their webmail to read my e-mail on info@homebusinessaccountant.co.uk.

I'm afraid I wasn't very impressed.

When I opened a new message, it hung for ages. Several times I had to forward messages to my Google Mail account before I could actually read them.

The final straw was with the joining messages from WiRe, Women in Rural Enterprise which it wouldn't even open. It said something about "a measure of data" I think. Bleurgh.

So I set it up to forward to my Google Mail account and set the Google Mail account up to receive it.

And Google Mail went and picked up all the old messages, as well as receiving any new ones coming in. Brilliant.

Now all my business messages come into Google Mail and I can reply with either of my addresses.

Cool.

* My website isn't live yet - hence there's no link here yet. To be updated.

3 comments:

  1. Hi M,

    Just beware of using Gmail for business emails - it is not secure because they use scanning software to serve up relevant ads based upon the content of the emails.

    Chances are it would be fine but the potential is there for someone to hack in and see confidential client info.

    How annoying that the 123 interface didn't work though. Could you use a pop3 Outlook/similar instead?

    Caroline

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Caroline,

    Thanks for your comment.

    I've changed the settings of my Google Mail account to always access it with a secure connection - for that very reason, to protect confidential info.

    M

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Caroline

    All external eMail communication is insecure, unless you strongly encrypt the contents (or use an encrypted attachment). Mail passes from public mail server to mail server (many times, often many countries) all in clear text. Using HTTPS (encrypted tunnel between your PC and your ISP's server),as Emily has done, reduces significantly the risk of snooping but doesn't remove all risk. Staff at your ISP can easily look at email contents, as can those in intervening relay servers or those "sniffing the wire" between servers (government agencies most like). If the Google bots serving ads cause a worry sign up for a premium ad-free Google App account ($50 per year).

    Tom

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