

Fastmail: Increased storage quotas and other service level changes - sp8
http://blog.fastmail.fm/2013/11/13/increased-storage-quotas-and-other-service-level-changes/

======
contextual
Before anyone does anything too rash, have a look at NeoMailbox.net[1]. It's
secure offshore email hosting in Switzerland, and it is _excellent_. A true
Gmail alternative for powerusers who value their privacy.

[1] [http://www.neomailbox.net](http://www.neomailbox.net)

Q: Why does Fastmail get free advertising on HN? Their servers are on US soil.
I think it's a fair question to ask, esp. when there are better alternatives
like NeoMailbox and Runbox.

~~~
tobiasu
BULLSHIT. Yes it has to be said this strongly.

These guys are reading your mail:
[https://www.li.admin.ch/en/index.html](https://www.li.admin.ch/en/index.html)

Random sample from heise news:
[http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/9/9462/1.html](http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/9/9462/1.html)
[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Big-Brother-Awards-
Sc...](http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Big-Brother-Awards-Schweiz-Onyx-
zum-zweiten-49387.html) [http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Online-
Durchsuchung-u...](http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Online-Durchsuchung-
und-praeventive-TK-ueberwachung-in-der-Schweiz-geplant-165224.html)
[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bericht-
Datensammlung...](http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bericht-
Datensammlung-des-Schweizer-Geheimdiensts-ist-nicht-
gesetzeskonform-1032240.html)
[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Neuausrichtung-der-
Ko...](http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Neuausrichtung-der-
Kommunikationsueberwachung-in-der-Schweiz-1964768.html)

If you can't read German laws and news (or whatever language the jurisdiction
in question uses), you can not make an informed decision on these matters.

~~~
contextual
Who said I can't read German? My mother is German. Besides, I trust the
Germans a lot more than I trust the US government.

~~~
tobiasu
What has your mother to do with this? Have you read Swiss laws on the subject?
Have you followed the news about Swiss email surveillance?

You can't go around promoting a service based on a countries privacy laws,
when those laws are ineffective against the intelligence agencies the users
seek protection from.

To give just one example: The German Bundesnachrichtendienstgesetz simply
exempt the BND from entire sections of the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz. The BND
says they are respecting the law. What they don't say is that there is nothing
left to respect.

------
joelrunyon
Has anyone used Fastmail on an ongoing basis?

I've been contemplating the switch - but don't know anyone who's actually used
it.

~~~
jeffbarr
I have been using Fastmail since January of 2005. It has been rock-solid for
virtually all of that time, save for a single prolonged outage many years ago
(they have since rearchitected).

The web user interface is clean, effective, and comes with a complete set of
keyboard bindings. Searching is fast and flexible, as is folder manipulation.

I'd like to see some improvements in the spam filtering, but am otherwise very
happy with my paid account.

~~~
egeozcan
Just wanted to add that the importance of a clean mail interface can't be
overstated. It helps you to focus on the emails. Fastmail accomplishes this
perfectly.

------
cschmidt
That's excellent news. I was bumping up against the 8GB limit on a Superior
family account, and they sheepishly couldn't give me any more storage. Now
I've got 15GB, and an option to get 60GB within my family account. (I run
email accounts for my less technically inclined family members.)

It does seem like buying themselves back from Opera has been a good move for
customers.

------
josteink
Nice steady improvements across the line.

I also think the move to unify how personal accounts and family accounts works
is a good move. It was a source of quite a bit of confusion and extra
cognitive workload when I looked into fastmail the first time around.

~~~
abrowne
I agree. I recently signed up, and wanted to use my own domain. I could either
go for the highest level or personal account, with way more storage and
transfer than I need, or get a "family" account with only one user, which felt
like cheating. Pondering these options caused me to hesitate for a month or
two before signing up.

------
leejoramo
Can anyone compare Fastmail to Rackspace Mail?

I have used Rackspace Mail for 7 years and have been happy with it for both my
clients and my family. It looks like RS is much cheaper for similar mail box
sizes and offers pretty significant upgrades such as mobile sync, archival and
exchange support. As a Rackspace customer for over 10 years, I have always
been happy with their service. I do think the webmail interface is a bit
dated.

However, I do see plenty of praise for Fastmail, and perhaps I haven't
investigated their services fully.

------
jqueryin
I really wish you guys had an API. My startup would love to be able to
automatically provision mailboxes, perform Single Sign-on, and resell your
service.

------
Touche
My biggest problem with Fastmail is that they make it extremely difficult for
a single person to have an email address with your own domain. IIRC you either
have to purchase a family plan or go throw aliases, the latter of which is
user unfriendly.

~~~
hga
Their Enhanced level of service doesn't work for you?

It does for me, catches everything sent to ancell dash ent dot com, which
allows me to do the usual "who's selling my email address" trick with
customized addresses, like redcross.org.ph@anc... when I sent some money to
the Philippine Red Cross.

~~~
Touche
Enhanced isn't domain hosting, it's domain aliasing, which is a big
difference.

~~~
hga
There may be some distinction here I'm missing. In addition to this domain
aliasing feature I haven't tried out, Fastmail.com is hosting my domain. Right
now it's got their standard settings:

    
    
           ancell-ent.com  Type=MX   TTL=3600  STANDARD_MX          (standard email - e.g. user@ancell-ent.com)
         *.ancell-ent.com  Type=MX   TTL=3600  STANDARD_MX          (subdomain addressed email - e.g. user@mail.ancell-ent.com)
           ancell-ent.com  Type=A    TTL=3600  STANDARD_WEB         (main website - http://ancell-ent.com/)
         *.ancell-ent.com  Type=A    TTL=3600  STANDARD_WEB         (subdomain websites - including http://www.ancell-ent.com/)
      mail.ancell-ent.com  Type=A    TTL=3600  STANDARD_MAIL        (webmail login - http://mail.ancell-ent.com/)
           ancell-ent.com  Type=CSV  TTL=3600  CSV_DENY_ALL         (no email sending machines identify as ancell-ent.com)
           ancell-ent.com  Type=JABBER TTL=3600  STANDARD_JABBER      (standard chat server - chat.messagingengine.com)
       wap.ancell-ent.com  Type=A    TTL=3600  STANDARD_WAP         (cellphone WAP service - http://wap.ancell-ent.com/)
           ancell-ent.com  Type=DKIM TTL=3600  STANDARD_DKIM        (dkim key mesmtp._domainkey.ancell-ent.com)
           ancell-ent.com  Type=AUTOCONFIG TTL=3600  STANDARD_AUTOCONFIG  (mail autoconfig)
    

But there's also a "Custom DNS - control all records published for the domain"
feature I haven't tried out yet, since I don't at this time have anything else
for my domain publicly accessible.

Ah, maybe you're referring to how this translates to Fastmail mailboxes.
Specifically a "virtual domain" concept where aliases are established, and I
have both the wildcard * and hga at my domain aliased to hga at fastmail dot
fm?

If the above is what you're trying to do, how is it user unfriendly? If not,
out of curiosity and maybe a need to do this myself in the future, what are
you desiring to do?

~~~
Touche
It's user unfriendly because the @fastmail.com is your actual email address.
It's user unfriendly because you have to know that. It's user unfriendly
because if you enter settings incorrectly into your mail app, you'll be
sending email as @fastmail.com.

