FastMail 20 years! - Page 2

Grhm · 2 Dec 2019, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmannam

May I know what's VK4?

I think it means Queensland
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call...#Amateur_radio

Terry · 2 Dec 2019, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmannam

I joined in 2001. May I know what's VK4?

Its part of a radio amateur call sign VK4 stands for Queensland, just me being silly and not putting Queensland Australia.

If I put the full call sign it would give you my full address....

Bamb0 · 2 Dec 2019, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Folio

How many people here have been with Fastmail since the beginning?

I was with them for many years...... I loved fastmail..... When they dropped the classic interface I left...

I dont like stuff getting worse and FM had the nicest interface ever........ (On the classic side).

Grhm · 3 Dec 2019, 01:07 PM

Who are you with now, Bamb0?

Bamb0 · 3 Dec 2019, 11:58 PM

I have 2 main email accounts... 1 on safe-mail.net and cyber-rights.net (hushmail)

pjwalsh · 6 Dec 2019, 10:27 AM

On your side for 20 years: An interview with Rob Mueller, a Fastmail founder
Fastmail Blog, Dec 5

somdcomputerguy · 6 Dec 2019, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjwalsh

On your side for 20 years: An interview with Rob Mueller, a Fastmail founder
Fastmail Blog, Dec 5

http://images.somdcomputerguy.com/EM...single:Rob.jpg

easemail · 6 Dec 2019, 01:38 PM

I've been with them since the fall of 2002. Glad to see so many old timers on here.

Very happy to see these 20th anniversary articles on their site. When I think of all the other email providers I could have picked back then, I feel so lucky to have picked fastmail. All the other ones I considered are long gone from the email game or have turned their users into the product. While there's been some ups and downs with fastmail over the years, I've weathered the storms and overall feel grateful for all the work they've done. The internet truly would have been a poorer place without them.

Here's hoping for another 20 years!

TenFour · 6 Dec 2019, 11:29 PM

Quote:

On your side for 20 years: An interview with Rob Mueller, a Fastmail founder
Fastmail Blog, Dec 5

In the blog Rob Mueller is quoted as follows. Which "couple of companies" do you think he is thinking of as his competition? I would guess G Suite and Microsoft's Office 365. Any others?

Quote:

Getting email, contacts, and calendaring right in a business setting with all the sharing and different interaction scenarios is a difficult problem. This is why there's really only a couple of companies that truly have large business ready email, contact, and calendar systems.

PON · 7 Dec 2019, 07:24 AM

> Any others?

Tuffmail.

Been using that for almost as long as Fastmail. It was and, AFAIK, it remains, a one-man band, though with a different man as of a couple of years ago or so.

Until recently I piped my main mailbox through Tuffmail as a pre-processor, because it let you manage spam way more conveniently and effectively than Fastmail and you got a reject report every day that allowed you to see what was bounced and why. That was invaluable on a few occasions. I kept a chron file there and forwarded on to Fastmail. That saved my bacon one day when I needed to get something from my Fastmail inbox as a matter of urgency and, for some DNS-related reasons, FM was unreachable from my university at the time.

Tuffmail has NEVER ONCE been unavailable that I know of. Its web UI is not pretty but the functionality is there.

I left it as my 2nd MX server for years when Fastmail was, let's say, so fast it wasn't entirely reliable. As of this year I have one domain left on Tuffmail but I'll probably keep my account for old time's sake. It's good value, but I've been aware all along that it could disappear like many others, and I'm confident Fastmail will survive.

I signed a lot of people up for Fastmail back in the day and many are still using it.

Of course, I'm joking a bit about Tuffmail. It's no threat to Fastmail never mind Google or Microsoft. "large" is the key word.

odedp · 7 Dec 2019, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Folio

How many people here have been with Fastmail since the beginning?

I joined Fastmail in 2000 and Pobox in 2001.
Several months ago I've cancelled my Fastmail Enhanced account and upgraded my Pobox Basic account to Mailstore.
So now I continue to use Fastmail's web interface, pay the same ($50 per year) and have double storage (50GB)

JamesHenderson · 7 Dec 2019, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odedp

I joined Fastmail in 2000 and Pobox in 2001.
Several months ago I've cancelled my Fastmail Enhanced account and upgraded my Pobox Basic account to Mailstore.
So now I continue to use Fastmail's web interface, pay the same ($50 per year) and have double storage (50GB)

Is there a trade-off, or is Pobox simply a better deal all round?

odedp · 7 Dec 2019, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesHenderson

Is there a trade-off, or is Pobox simply a better deal all round?

It depends what you need.
I've always used just Fastmail's web interface.
Paid $40/yr for Enhanced account (15GB) plus $20/yr for a Pobox Basic account.
Currently I pay $50/yr (Pobox Mailstore) and use Fastmail's web interface with 50GB.
Btw, I've paid for 5 years and got one more year for free

PON · 8 Dec 2019, 07:24 AM

A postscript to some earlier reference to carddav issues:

It turns out that Fastmail regards my family, and of course many others that I helped get set up with family domains and email, as "legacy" customers.

(Thankfully I'm not in the business of providing IT support to other families any more, but I was once, when it was necessary to get families off a corporate system that was once the only option in my place of employment 20 years ago, and I had to provide an alternative to soften the blow).

"Legacy" family and "Basic" Business accounts no longer get carddav and caldav sync.

Currently I have an enhanced account and 3 others plus a master account and use my own domain.

Somehow the new pricing passed me by, or rather the removal of functionality (contact and calendar sync) for legacy accounts. The penny finally dropped today. Did I miss an email from Fastmail?

My cost to switch to the new pricing model, retaining the same services, is $200/yr. That's quite an increase on $80.

The context of the discovery was trying to get my wife's new phone synced, a Huawei Smartphone P 2019. Google will allow Google contacts to be downloaded but not synced on the phone.

Let's use Fastmail with the CardDAVsync app and forget using Google altogether I thought. This, that is when it didn't work, is when I finally noticed the small print on the "Server names and ports" page about legacy plans. So my earlier issues were nothing to do with Thunderbird extensions after all, though there have occasionally been issues in the past.

(I also found syncing via TBsync in Thunderbird worked (with Google), but this doesn't coexist nicely with Cardbook and which has not been getting much in the way of updates for a year.)

Fortunately, I run my own CardDAV and CalDAV server software (Baikal) and can provide my own sync services for contacts and calendar. I had assumed it (software project) was dead in the water for some time but it turns out not to be. It was revived in April and has had several releases since. I run it on a Synology NAS box, but, I also just discovered, that you can get it installed and maintained at no cost (like an app) by Cloudrun.com -- you provide the server, at home or in the cloud.

I don't mind Fastmail making business decisions they think are necessary. However, if I didn't miss an email with the announcement that the service I've been using would be downgraded I am disappointed not to have an up-front indication that that was going to happen.

This is just sharing an observation and some potentially useful info (I hope), not a complaint.

TenFour · 8 Dec 2019, 07:42 AM

Why can't Google contacts and calendar sync? Works perfectly for most.

7 Dec 2019, 07:24 AM	#25
PON Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Wicklow, Ireland Posts: 449	> Any others? Tuffmail. Been using that for almost as long as Fastmail. It was and, AFAIK, it remains, a one-man band, though with a different man as of a couple of years ago or so. Until recently I piped my main mailbox through Tuffmail as a pre-processor, because it let you manage spam way more conveniently and effectively than Fastmail and you got a reject report every day that allowed you to see what was bounced and why. That was invaluable on a few occasions. I kept a chron file there and forwarded on to Fastmail. That saved my bacon one day when I needed to get something from my Fastmail inbox as a matter of urgency and, for some DNS-related reasons, FM was unreachable from my university at the time. Tuffmail has NEVER ONCE been unavailable that I know of. Its web UI is not pretty but the functionality is there. I left it as my 2nd MX server for years when Fastmail was, let's say, so fast it wasn't entirely reliable. As of this year I have one domain left on Tuffmail but I'll probably keep my account for old time's sake. It's good value, but I've been aware all along that it could disappear like many others, and I'm confident Fastmail will survive. I signed a lot of people up for Fastmail back in the day and many are still using it. Of course, I'm joking a bit about Tuffmail. It's no threat to Fastmail never mind Google or Microsoft. "large" is the key word. Last edited by PON : 7 Dec 2019 at 07:32 AM.

3 Dec 2019, 01:07 PM	#19
Grhm Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: UK Posts: 270	Who are you with now, Bamb0?

3 Dec 2019, 11:58 PM	#20
Bamb0 Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: USA Posts: 1,864	I have 2 main email accounts... 1 on safe-mail.net and cyber-rights.net (hushmail)

6 Dec 2019, 10:27 AM	#21
pjwalsh Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 312	On your side for 20 years: An interview with Rob Mueller, a Fastmail founder Fastmail Blog, Dec 5

6 Dec 2019, 01:38 PM	#23
easemail Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 75	I've been with them since the fall of 2002. Glad to see so many old timers on here. Very happy to see these 20th anniversary articles on their site. When I think of all the other email providers I could have picked back then, I feel so lucky to have picked fastmail. All the other ones I considered are long gone from the email game or have turned their users into the product. While there's been some ups and downs with fastmail over the years, I've weathered the storms and overall feel grateful for all the work they've done. The internet truly would have been a poorer place without them. Here's hoping for another 20 years!

8 Dec 2019, 07:24 AM	#29
PON Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Wicklow, Ireland Posts: 449	A postscript to some earlier reference to carddav issues: It turns out that Fastmail regards my family, and of course many others that I helped get set up with family domains and email, as "legacy" customers. (Thankfully I'm not in the business of providing IT support to other families any more, but I was once, when it was necessary to get families off a corporate system that was once the only option in my place of employment 20 years ago, and I had to provide an alternative to soften the blow). "Legacy" family and "Basic" Business accounts no longer get carddav and caldav sync. Currently I have an enhanced account and 3 others plus a master account and use my own domain. Somehow the new pricing passed me by, or rather the removal of functionality (contact and calendar sync) for legacy accounts. The penny finally dropped today. Did I miss an email from Fastmail? My cost to switch to the new pricing model, retaining the same services, is $200/yr. That's quite an increase on $80. The context of the discovery was trying to get my wife's new phone synced, a Huawei Smartphone P 2019. Google will allow Google contacts to be downloaded but not synced on the phone. Let's use Fastmail with the CardDAVsync app and forget using Google altogether I thought. This, that is when it didn't work, is when I finally noticed the small print on the "Server names and ports" page about legacy plans. So my earlier issues were nothing to do with Thunderbird extensions after all, though there have occasionally been issues in the past. (I also found syncing via TBsync in Thunderbird worked (with Google), but this doesn't coexist nicely with Cardbook and which has not been getting much in the way of updates for a year.) Fortunately, I run my own CardDAV and CalDAV server software (Baikal) and can provide my own sync services for contacts and calendar. I had assumed it (software project) was dead in the water for some time but it turns out not to be. It was revived in April and has had several releases since. I run it on a Synology NAS box, but, I also just discovered, that you can get it installed and maintained at no cost (like an app) by Cloudrun.com -- you provide the server, at home or in the cloud. I don't mind Fastmail making business decisions they think are necessary. However, if I didn't miss an email with the announcement that the service I've been using would be downgraded I am disappointed not to have an up-front indication that that was going to happen. This is just sharing an observation and some potentially useful info (I hope), not a complaint.

8 Dec 2019, 07:42 AM	#30
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,719	Why can't Google contacts and calendar sync? Works perfectly for most.