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Aleyant Email Hosting to end July 1, 2015

What follows is the original notice from Aleyant Systems, our provider with our contact information inserted.

Dear Valued Customer,

I want to begin by apologizing for the problems we have recently experienced with Printing Storefront Solutions (PSS) email hosting services provided by Aleyant Systems. As a business owner, I fully understand how important email is to the daily operation of any company. Having problems with email grinds critical business to a halt and creates a high level of frustration and uncertainty.

As email Spam has proliferated, many IT companies around the world have worked hard to find ways to mitigate the influx of unwanted email. While we are grateful for these efforts, the unfortunate side effect is that the time and complexity associated with hosting email services has significantly increased. We feel that it is in your best interest for us and our customers to focus on our core products of PSS W2P and eDocBuilder, providing you with the highest quality, value, and support for those products. As there are many companies providing excellent, affordable email services, Aleyant Systems and by extension PSS will cease providing email hosting on July 1, 2015.

The remainder of this letter will address common questions, give a brief overview of the migration process you will need to go through with a new email vendor, and provide some recommendations for other services. Please rest assured we are here to help you in this transition. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me at stan@printingstorefrontsolutions.comor just pick up the phone and call me directly at 504-858-8521.

Sincerely,

Stan Dupuy

Printing Storefront Solutions
Direct (504)858-8521
Email stan@printingstorefrontsolutions.com

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I be able to keep my existing email addresses? Yes. You can keep the exact same email addresses, including your own domain name. Your customers and other contacts will never know this email server migration happened.

Can I continue to use my domain name as part of my email address or will I need to use something like gmail.com or outlook.com? Yes. You can keep your existing domain name. There are many email hosting companies that allow this.

If PSS is hosting my website using my domain name, can I still use a different company to host email? Yes. There is no requirement that the same company host both your website and your email. It is very common to have separate companies handle this. PSS can continue to host your website on your domain, while another company hosts your email, also using your domain.

How long does it take to switch email providers? The process usually can happen very quicly. We recommend you start the configuration process early in the week and make the change at the end of the day on Friday. See the Migration Process section below for more information.

Can I move my existing email messages over to a new provider? Yes. Most email providers include a migration tool that will move over existing email messages and contacts in your account.

Migration Process

The process of moving your email hosting to a different company will be different, depending on the vendor that you select. However, the steps will generally be the same:

  1. Select a new email vendor. We have provided some recommendations at the end of this email.

  2. Create your domain name in the new system. The email vendor will either do this for you, or give you an administrative area to do this.

  3. Create the individual email accounts. The email vendor will most likely give you an administrative area to do this. We recommend you use the same passwords as your current email addresses. Configure the migration tool. Most email providers offer some sort of migration tool that you can configure. It will handle moving existing email and contacts over to your new account.

  4. Find out where your DNS (Domain Name Server) is hosted and how to make changes. DNS is the service that converts domain names into IP addresses. There’s a good chance your DNS is being hosted on our. You may also be using your domain name registrar’s DNS service. It’s important to know how to make changes. When the time comes for you to switch over to the new email provider you will need to update the existing DNS entries for email. Your new email vendor will provide you with the new DNS entries. We suggest you use this site to confirm who is hosting your DNS: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp. If you see ns1.aleyant.net and ns2.aleyant.net listed as the Name Servers, then PSS through Aleyant Systems is hosting your DNS. We are happy to continue hosting this for you. You will need to let me know at stan@printingstorefrontsolutions.com  what the new DNS entries will need to be.

  5. Update your DNS entries when you are ready to switch over to the new service. We recommend you do this at the end of the day on Friday. The switch generally occurs in an hour or two, but may take up to 48 hours. Update your email clients (Outlook, Mac Mail, etc.) as needed. Your new email vendor will provide you with this information.

  6. Notify PSS when your email hosting has been successfully moved over. We will remove your domain from our servers so you do not experience any deliverability problems.

Recommendations

There are many excellent email hosting companies available for you to use. A quick google search of “email hosting” will provide many results. Here are some options you should consider:

 

Zoho - https://www.zoho.com/mail/

Zoho has a good reputation and offers email hosting for up to 10 accounts for free.

They are, of course, hoping you will grow beyond 10 accounts and will want to upgrade to additional services they offer. But as long as you stay within their basic free plan you should incur no charges.

 

Google - https://www.google.com/work/apps/business/

Google bundles in email, storage, Docs, and more into a single offering. There is a per user fee. While this service comes with a cost, access Google's entire toolset may be the right choice for you and could result in a positive ROI.

 

GoDaddyUnlimited Business Mail - https://www.godaddy.com/email

This is what I (Stan) chose to do for my own email hosting...

GoDaddy Unlimited Business Package - Plug in to your email from anywhere - smartphone, tablet, Web browser, desktop client - and have what you do on one device automatically show up on all.

Includes 5 email addresses and unlimited storage. Any number of additional email addresses can be added for a small monthly fee. *$7.99 monthly. *Pricing shown is for the plan shown above at the time I entered into an agreement. Current pricing could be more or less.

Some of the reasons I (Stan) made this choice were...

  • 24/7 Technical Support - I have been a GoDaddy client for many years and their technichal support has been great. In just minutes when/if I have any issue with any of their services, their 800 support line is answered in just a couple of minutes, and I have always gotten the help I needed, from someone who is based in the US who is knowlegable and helpful.

  • Reasonable Pricing - Having only 5 email addresses, $7.99 is a reasonable price to pay for the services I need backed by 24/7 technical support when needed.

  • Unlimited Email Storage - Having the ability to maintain all of my email without fear of hitting a storage limit is a definate plus. Even though all email that passes through my various email accounts is backed up and archived in multiple ways, having all of it live and available on all of my devices if/when needed is conforting to me.

  • One Click Mobile Device Email Setup - Their solution provides a link which you can simply email to your mobile device, once clicked will totally set up the new accounts on your mobile device. It doesn't get simpler than that.

  • Full Imap Capabilities - Using this service along with IMAP, I can open, read and manage my email from any device and upon doing so the email is updated across all of my devices which include multiple computers, my iPad and iPhone.

  • Email Account Total Control - Provides me with the ability to be in total control of my account(s). So you will be able to add / create / edit email accounts at will. And if you need some assistance, their tech support is available 24/7/365.

 

Rackspace - http://www.rackspace.com/email-hosting/webmail/pricing/

Rackspace is a highly trusted provider of IT services. Their email service has a relatively low per user fee, while providing a great deal of storage (25 GB) per account.

 

Siteground - https://www.siteground.com/shared-hosting-features.htm

Siteground is a very low cost but reasonably respected web hosting company. Their basic hosting plan does offer unlimited email accounts.