TidBITS : Question: How can I get multiple email addresses?

22 Jan 1998 | Print

Question: How can I get multiple email addresses?

Question: How can I get multiple email addresses? Paul Travis <travispkeh@aol.com> writes: "I was about to change online services when my daughter discovered that she could have her own screen name and email box within our account at AOL. She didn't like to use the family name. Most of the ISPs I have looked at seem to offer only a single email address. Is there any way to work two names into one account, or do you know of a service (in the San Francisco area) that offers two addresses within their usual fee structure?"

Answer: You've found one of AOL's best features, Paul. Since its inception, America Online has allowed every account to have up to five screen names, each with its own separate mailbox. Although some people have reasons for not giving children their own mailboxes, AOL's goal was to let everyone in a family to have separate email accounts.

There's no good way for people to share an email address if there's any desire for privacy, as it sounds like there might be for your daughter. You could ask everyone to put a specific phrase in the Subject line or use a different real name with the same email address and then filter those messages to a different mailbox, but that's clumsy and prone to error.

For the most part, ISPs provide only a single email address with a dialup account. I was unable to find a list of ISPs that specified whether or not they offered multiple email accounts, so short of searching manually through all the ISPs in the San Francisco area in something like The List, I can't suggest any specific ISPs.

<http://thelist.internet.com/>

However, there are several options. First, you could set up an account for your daughter with a service like Pobox, which provides a username@pobox.com account that you can then forward anywhere. In this case, you'd forward it to your email account, then set up a filter to transfer all email to that address to a different mailbox for your daughter. And, if she's nearing college-age, you can just forward Pobox mail to her once she has a college account. Although I see pobox.com addresses most frequently, there are many other forwarding services; check out Yahoo for a list of them.

<http://www.pobox.com/>
<http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/ Companies/ Internet_Services/Email_ Providers/Forwarding_Services/>

Second, consider signing up with one of the free Web-based email services, such as Yahoo Mail, MailCity, or Eudora Web-Mail. They all provide access to email via a Web interface, and although the interface is nowhere near as good as a dedicated email program, it should work fine for limited use. Again, there are many of these services, so check out Yahoo for a more complete list. [ACE]

<http://mail.yahoo.com/>
<http://www.mailcity.com/>
<http://www.eudoramail.com/>
<http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/ Companies/ Internet_Services/Email_ Providers/Free_Email/>

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Question: How can I get multiple email addresses?

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