DIY Email

We can expect cable and telecom companies to accelerate their exit from providing email services. Verizon/FIOS long ago transitioned their email management to AOL, which is really Yahoo Mail. Comcast is about to follow the same route, handing their email off to Yahoo. Getting live support from an actual person will become even more difficult. If you think Gmail is an answer, when did you EVER talk to a person from Google? It’s time to take matters into your own hands by getting your own domain and better managing how you handle your email accounts.

The problem with email from your cable or telecom company or from Yahoo/AOL is that it’s not a profit center – unless they can convince you to buy a support subscription. And buying a support subscription is the only way you’ll get a chance to talk to an actual human being if you have a problem.

Support can be critical when your email gets hacked. In cases with Comcast, for example, it can take human intervention to clear out any contact info a hacker may have planted in your account. Then, you’ll need to reset your password and set up a phone number and secondary email address that can be used for two-factor authentication (2FA) and notifications of problems if you get hacked again. Support people are generally good when you get to one of them after navigating their cumbersome phone trees. When you move to the Yahoo platform, it will be harder to get human support – unless you get a subscription. The cost of Yahoo Plus is $49.99 per year, which includes features such as ad-free email, priority customer support, and premium features for Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Fantasy.

Instead of sliding over to the Yahoo platform when your cable company ends its email, we recommend you go to Outlook or Gmail. Microsoft (Microsoft 365 subscriptions) and Google (lots and lots of ad revenue) have many other ways to monetize their relationship with you, so they put more stock in maintaining email support. Additionally, IT consulting services know the ins and outs of their systems and your needs. We can help you transfer all your folders and messages to your new system. We make it a point to provide the personal support you need when you have problems.

But a much better solution is to get your own email domain for both business and personal use. For security and management, the key benefits are:

  • Enhanced Security and Control: You can create better security processes to prevent unauthorized access, and you can create multiple addresses for specific purposes.
  • Improved Deliverability: Custom email domains allow for proper authentication and are less likely to be flagged as spam.
  • Long-term Consistency: Whether you’re a business, non-profit organization, family or business, you can keep your system going forever and ever if you wish, and people will always know where to contact you. It keeps life simple.
  • Flexibility and Scalability: You can create as many email addresses as needed for various functions. For businesses and organizations, you can manage functions or projects better. For individuals, you can keep various parts of life separate, such as a shopping address where you can get coupons or messages you only want to check occasionally.

 Getting your own email domain is no different from getting any other domain. We can help you with everything involved from securing a domain name to setting up all the email addresses you need. Then, we can work with you to transfer all your messages, folders, etc. from your old email account to your new domain. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to answer all your questions about email accounts and get you set up with a system that can work for you long into the future.

Watching TV in the Electronic Jungle

Watching TV was so simple for anyone who remembers life before cable. Today, we have more options than ever before – and more confusion. If you’re ready to go back to Square 1 and start all over again, here’s what to look at to reset your TV – or streaming content.

If you are still into watching live broadcast TV, which many do for news and sports, you could start with good old rabbit ears. That’s the term for an antenna – just in case you hadn’t known. Channel availability and picture quality depend on whether you can get a strong broadcast signal. Cable solved that issue nearly 50 years ago and gave us more choices. (Digital channels for broadcast offer more choices, though quantity should not always be confused with quality.)

Cable was simple. A cable company got the franchise for your community, and you paid – more and more without any recourse until satellite and the internet eventually gave you more options. The old cable companies and telephone carriers still have lines that carry the internet to most of America, but our “TV viewing” is changing at the pace of a revolution.

We have countless ways to get our programming because there are so many content providers and so many companies that package or bundle the programming we want to see. Even the carriers are becoming content bundlers and creators.

For this discussion, let’s focus on the systems that deliver content for viewing on a TV. Comcast’s Xfinity and Verizon’s Fios, the two major cable carriers in my area, still offer the most programming from traditional broadcasters and other producers. With more people spending more time at home, you probably want the most variety you can get to keep everyone happy. The cable companies still deliver by coaxial cable, and we know how to use their systems. You can watch content from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, etc. through your cable system, although you will need to pay for them either through the cable company or the content provider. However, convenience comes at a price. You can pay $5 or more for every cable box you have.

If you get your internet service from a cable/phone company, you may be able to stream your cable channel and – maybe – save the cost of the boxes. Why maybe? Xfinity, for example, has an agreement with Roku to stream content over TVs that use it as the streaming service. If you have a Roku-equipped TV, you can add the Xfinity channel from your Roku Home page by clicking on Add Channels. If you don’t have a Roku-equipped TV but have a TV with a USB port, you can buy a Roku connection device for as little as $30 and use your home Wi-Fi network. Your payback period is six months, and quality depends on your network.

You can get Roku boxes from Xfinity, which you pay for as with the old coaxial cable box, but we found a price break of sorts. We have nine TVs in our house, including one we carry out onto the back deck. By paying $40 per month for DVR service, we’re only paying for five Roku boxes; the rest are “free.” The advantage to the Roku boxes is that they’re not tied to a coaxial cable, giving us more flexibility.

We just installed this system, so we’ll need to get some operating experience before we can report on its success – or lack of it.

If you watch all your content on a computer or mobile device, the question of a cable box or Roku box is moot. If you don’t want to use your cable company to get cable-like viewing for broadcast TV stations and programming such as news and sports, there are numerous streaming providers.

What will work best for you? The variables include:

  • Broadcast signal strength for some live TV
  • The provider of the content you watch
  • Your preference of cable or internet-based content delivery
  • The devices you watch on and the number of devices you use at any given time
  • Your internet connection
  • Your Wi-Fi network
  • Your TV/internet budget

We can help you sort through the possibilities to put together a package that will meet your priorities, and we can install and configure any equipment you need. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to discuss your wants and needs.