2/25    Hi motd.  A friend of mine wants to keep her AOL e-mail address (or
        set up forwarding) since she got a cable modem.  From what I found
        on http://aol.com, it sounds like she wants to switch from AOL Dial-up
        ($24/month) to AOL Broadband  ($15/month).  Is this the right way
        (I guess via AOL account management or calling them up)?
        Is there a cheaper way?  Anyone have any experience?  Thanks!
        \_ Tell your friend to let go and get a better permanent
           email address. @aol.com is a sign of stupidity.
           \_ What do you recommend?  I was thinking @cal.berkeley.edu, but
              when you send e-mail from your ISP account, people will start
              using the ISP e-mail and forget about the @cal.berkeley.edu
              account.  Yahoo! e-mail (gmail still being in beta) is all that
              comes to mind. -op
              \_ Umm, google doesn't seem to have the same concept of "beta"
                 as the rest of the world.  To steal a joke from some blog:
                 You should just think of "beta" as a hip type of product.
                 like "loose-fit" vs. "boot-cut" jeans.
              \_ Don't be so dense. You set it as the reply to address,
                 or better, the from address (though those loser webmail
                 services may not let you do that).
              \_ Set the From address in outlook.
              \_ To the two posters above:
                 reply-to is something I thought of already -- basically the
                 issue is that some friends will see the ISP e-mail address
                 in the From: and a number end up using that.
                 I thought you would be smart enough to see this problem,
                 at least without insulting me, which is why I didn't
                 write about it in the first place.
                 As for From:, don't most ISPs these days have blocks on
                 modifying this?
                 modifying this? -op
                 \_ No, they don't block modifying the From: header since it's
                    something damn near every mail client on the planet has
                    been able to do for nearly a decade, and if they started
                    to block mail based on From: headers it would cost them
                    literally millions in customer support calls, and, yes,
                    you are dense if you believe this is happening.  Perhaps
                    you're confusing it with the increasingly common and far
                    more lame practice of an ISP blocking port 25 outright
                    forcing customers to use its own smtp servers sxclusively.
                    \_ No, I'm not confusing modifying the From: header with
                       blocking port 25 outright by default (which SBC Yahoo!
                       DSL just enacted as you already know).  I honestly think
                       Comcast does the From: checks to alleviate spoofing,
                       but I guess I can check up on this to see if it's
                       still true. -op
                       \_ Comcast != most ISP's.  Perhaps you're thinking of
                          SPF (or the functionally equivalent thing Microsoft
                          is (was?) pushing)? -pp
                          \_ No I am not thinking of SPF or Microsoft's thing.
                             When I say "most ISPs", I am not referring to
                             absolute number of ISPs, big and small -- I am
                             referring to ISPs that users are most likely to
                             be using, such as Comcast cable Internet or SBC
                             Yahoo! DSL.
                             Perhaps I should have written "Comcast and SBC
                             Yahoo! DSL" instead of "most ISPs".
                             Anyways, I didn't just dream up of From: address
                             blocking.  It did happen, with something that
                             wasn't out in left-field.  ... was it uclink? -op
                             \_ Bugger if I know, I barely ever used uclink
                                even when I was on campus regularly. -pp
                                \_ Anyways, looks like with Comcast cable,
                                   custom From: addresses works fine.  And
                                   she can use that with @cal.berkeley.edu. -op
                     \_ I have comcast and have my own From field. It works fine.
                        \_ Thanks! -op
                 \_ I have just given up and started using SMTP forwarding
                    from my email provider rather than trying to munge from
                    addresses.  If your ISP blocks SMTP, try it w/ TLS or get
                    it unblocked?  Where there is a will, there is a way.
                    \_ meant to add, I use "msmtp" sendmail replacement to
                       use w/ a linux mail client.
        \_ My folks did something like that ... just call up customer
           service and they can switch you to a bring-your-own-access
           type service.