easy setup email hosting

October 1, 2007 1:36 PM

I need to move a domain name, and set up email hosting for 200 addresses, with minimal downtime.

I could do this through Dreamhost, but they're asking to have every single name entered in separately. Is there an email host that can set these up in bulk? I don't need web mail, just a new POP3 address.

posted by andrewzipp to computers & internet (6 comments total)

How about setting up Google apps for your domain?
posted by timeistight at 3:00 PM on October 1, 2007

In the control panel for dreamhost, there's a link to "bulk edit email addresses".
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:20 PM on October 1, 2007

It's really not that difficult to do this Dreamhost's way -- "firstname, lastname, e-mailaddress, password, passwordagain, save" X 200 is only going to take two or three hours.

In the high-stakes game of choosing an Internet host, I think you want to be more concerned about uptime, backups, bandwith, storage, and so on -- that is, about variables with significant potential to ruin more than one afternoon for you.
posted by gum at 4:20 PM on October 1, 2007

We've just recently signed up with MX Logic spam filtering, which includes a feature they call Message Continuity. They'll filter your mail and send it along to your own mail server, but if that final destination isn't responding, they'll spool your mail for 60 days, and make it accessible in a webmail interface with complete reply/forward/compose capabilities.

Their service defaults to auto-creating user records by examining successful delivery to your server, and also allows bulk upload via CSV.
posted by odinsdream at 4:32 PM on October 1, 2007

In the control panel for dreamhost, there's a link to "bulk edit email addresses" ... actually I'm fairly sure that is to bulk edit forwarding-only email addresses. sad to say.

you could ask dreamhost tech support if it's possible to send them a list of the addresses and have them do it for you. unlikely to be free, but could be inexpensive and worth asking.
posted by dorian at 4:52 PM on October 1, 2007

Seconding asking Dreamhost tech support to do this for you. Ask nicely and be very very specific in what you want done, and pre-format your input file for them in some extremely consistent manner.

When I joined Dreamhost 3 years ago, a tech stayed on the phone with me for almost two hours helping me move stuff. He even wrote some custom code for me to migrate my existing squirrelmail settings.
posted by dmd at 6:49 PM on October 1, 2007