Our biggest bugbear with most email addresses is that they tie you to an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and most people aren't even aware of this until their email stops working.

The ISP is the company that provides your internet connection. When they do so, they tend to assume you will also have an email address with them too. So you end up with myname@mysupermarket.com or fredbloggs@wannabee.com or me@mytelecomscompany.co.uk.

Why does it stop working? Because you decided to change to another ISP, perhaps because you have upgraded to broadband or you have found your service provider unreliable. That's all it takes. Just as you are getting excited about lightning speed of web page downloads with your new ISP, you are brought back down to earth with a thump when you find you can no longer send email via your old email address, fredbloggs@wannabee.com.

So what do you do? The wrong thing to do would be to drop the old email address and take the new one from the new ISP. Out of the frying pan and into the fire! The next time you have reason to move ISP, you have the same problem again. Another wrong thing to do would be to stay with the ISP you have because you just can't afford to lose your old email address. That way the ISP tie-in worked, they've got you.

Our suggestion is to register your own domain. There are a multitude of domain registration sites on the internet (metronet are a good company to talk to). Pick one that has no exit fees, should you decide to transfer your domain to another domain host in the future. A good rule of thumb is to use a company other than your ISP to arrange domain registration and an email service, then there will not be a tie-in. Be prepared to pay for the services, you are buying your freedom and independence from your ISP.