Vatsim help

September 9, 2006 7:26 AM

Where can I find a free email address that vatsim will accept?

My friend just moved in with me, and he doesn't have a "permanent" email address, which vatsim requires. Where can I find an email service that vatsim will accept? He's very much into vatsim when I let him use the radio on my account, and I think he would do great with his own account.

Thanks much hive mind!

posted by drleary to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Try getting an aol.com e-mail address. AOL gives those out for free now.
posted by profwhat at 7:57 AM on September 9, 2006

@msn.com email addresses are paid accounts, but you can also get one if you use Microsoft's free "MSN Explorer" browser.

Install the browser, open it up, create an @msn.com email account, then you're set. You can login to @msn.com accounts through hotmail.com using your normal favorite browser from then on (you can even uninstall "MSN Explorer" if you like).
posted by blahtsk at 7:57 AM on September 9, 2006

Note what VATSIM's policy says, in particular the section I've italicized:

VATSIM.net does not accept registrations from free email providers which do not require user authentication. ... You must use an e-mail address which has been issued by an Internet Service Provider. ... While your application may be accepted now by the automated registration wizard, it will be hand-checked at a later date and your account may be cancelled for using an incorrect e-mail address.

They claim that someone will eventually personally verify that e-mail addresses are not from a free e-mail provider. If true, even if you do find a free email address that VATSIM's automated software does not recognize as a free e-mail address, eventually his VATSIM account could be cancelled when they hand check his address.

Who provides the internet service to your home? Many ISPs will happily assign several e-mail addresses to single internet access account. Instead of trying to fool VATSIM, why not simply get another e-mail address from your ISP for him to use?
posted by RichardP at 8:07 AM on September 9, 2006

profwhat: Perfect, thank you very much.

RichardP: I'm not trying to "fool" VATSIM. I have great respect for that orginazation. I live in "hickville" Oklahoma, USA and my ISP charges 5 dollars for each additional email address. I would have paid it for my friend, but I don't think that that should be necessary for a VATSIM membership.

Regardless, thank you all for your answers.
posted by drleary at 8:58 AM on September 9, 2006

If nothing else I'd be happy to give you a free email address on one of my domains, and just forward the mail to wherever.

Rusty
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:21 AM on September 9, 2006

Heh, I momentarily forgot that I wasn't typing an email there.

Yours,
Rusty
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:21 AM on September 9, 2006

By the way; catch my friend, Robert McDaniel on vatsim, he likes to fly out of KTUL.
posted by drleary at 1:33 PM on September 9, 2006