looking for free web email provider alternative to gmail

[Skaperen]

gmail allows its users to append "+" plus any string of valid characters in email addresses they give out to those that will send email to them, for whatever reason, such as making it easy to identify a folder to deposit incoming email into. i already do this in my gmail account.

i am looking for another email provider that does the same thing but uses the "-" character instead. the reason for this is a number of web sites that disallow the "+" character in signup email addresses. in one case i asked about this and even got a reply from their system administrator who acknowledged that although it was valid in email addresses, it was considered a "security risk" in an old stack exchange thread.

[uninvolved]

My solution:

Get a domain name - they're cheap and there are some free choices out there. Get some free hosting. Put up some silly home page so that it's 'active' and then just use it for mail.

Set up a 'catch-all' email address and then you can just make up email addresses as you go. So, you could have foo1@domain.tld foo2@domain.tld foo3@domain.tld - and they all actually go to catch-all@domain.tld. You can filter it by inbound email address, you can also set up specific email addresses and those do not go to the catch-all address.

There's ample adequate free hosting for something this trivial. So long as you're not sending out bulk emails, you'll fly under their radar.

It's trivial to set up, even if you've never done it before. You have control of the emails. You can encrypt your emails if you want, whatever.

[Skaperen]

i want to access the email via a web interface, specifically with firefox.

[SeijiSensei]

The "+" character has a well-defined meaning in mail protocols. The "-" does not. Since the hyphen is a valid character in domain names, it's unlikely to be offered as an option for IMAP addresses.

[uninvolved]

Your webhosting will come with Squirrel or RoundCube webmail, usually. Those are passable interfaces for webmail. They're straightforward, with sensible layouts and no real learning curve. You'll have it figured out in like five minutes.

[Skaperen]

i still want to not depend on any hosting for email. that's why i'm using gmail now.

sorry, i wasn't clear about appending the "+" character. it is to be appended to the username part of the email address, the LHS, before the @. it has no effect on the domain name at all, whether "+" is used or "-" is used. in theory, a mail server could be implemented (or hacked) to work with either. so an email address could look like "skaperen+ubuntu@example.net" or "skaperen-ubuntu@example.net". it is the latter form i want to use.

[Skaperen]

an alternative would be a free email provider that lets me use my own domain name and anything i want in the LHS (before the @).

[mastablasta]

well you could always set up your own email server. then you can set it up as you like.

[Skaperen]

well you could always set up your own email server. then you can set it up as you like.

yes i can. but i don't want to deal with that. i did it as a career. i am retired, now. i want to minimize what i am doing.

[gairciand]

You can try Zoho, bluehost.com, or hostgator
I haven't used any of them, to be honest, but they seem to be legitimate options