I do realize that I might be preaching to the choir in this post, but I think it is something important enough to bring up. Every week we receive numerous support tickets from users asking us why we do not support their ISP. Many of these users are asking us if YippieMove can be used to move from one ISP to another.

In most cases we are unable to help these users, simply because the email service provided by their ISP do not support IMAP, only POP3. For many users out there, what I just wrote could as well be written in Latin. They don’t know (and often time don’t care) what IMAP and POP3 are. Unfortunately this will come back and bite them.

Our FAQ outlines why YippieMove do not support POP3 in greater details, but let’s put the technical questions aside.

The real reason why ISPs are really trying to push their email service upon users is not because it is a good email service. Today most free email providers offer you both a better service and more features. No, it’s simply to lock you in. If you’ve been with, let’s say Comcast, for five years and handed out your Comcast email address to friends and family, you will think twice before switching. Even if a new offer pops up, you are likely to be hesitant to switch and lose that email address. This is the real reason why ISPs are doing everything they can to get you to use their email service with automated installation tools etc.

Instead, do the smart thing and do not use the email address from your ISP. There are plenty of better free alternatives out there, including Gmail and Yahoo Mail. Both of these offer you plenty of storage and won’t hold you back from jumping ship when you find a better deal from another ISP.

Side note: The same concept also applies to email service offered by wireless providers. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are trying to lock you in by giving you an email address with your data plan.