Email hosting - help required

[Boxfords]

Hi, the company that hosted my website and domain appears to have closed shop with no notice. Despite having paid for hosting until the end of this year my website now features the message "This Account has been suspended. Contact your hosting provider for more information", my emails don't work and when I try and get in touch with the web company emails bounce and their website doesn't exist. Pretty dead I think!

I'd stopped using the website as an e-commerce platform a while ago and it was just kind of sitting there in internet limbo until I decided what to do with it, though I'd rather it linked to my facebook page (or anything!) rather than the account suspended message. I did however still use the emails associated with the domain every day and I would like to keep these operational.

I have started looking into a new email host and was trying to give Zoho a trail but, understandably, it wants me to verify my domain. In these circumstances can I do that? At the moment my domain name is renewed with Just Host and it just links through to the name servers that were given to me by the web company, so I don't think I can add the required text or html files needed to verify. I'm now assuming that to get the email working again I'll have to sort out website hosting too but if anybody can advise (in simple, not too techy steps) I'd be hugely grateful!

Thanks!!

Alison

 

[jacobc]

Are you wanting website hosting and email hosting or just email hosting?

 

[fisicx]

Contact Just Host and they will be able to do all this for you. Essentially you would pay them to host an email account on their servers.

 

[gpietersz]

So the domain is registered with Just Host and the site and email were hosted somewhere else, and the latter has disappeared?

Change the name servers (if you have a login to Just Host you can do it there), probably to Just Hosts' name servers, then verify with DNS: https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/adminconsole/domain-verification.html#alink5

 

[Boxfords]

Thanks for the responses! In answer...

I really just want the email hosting and retain 'possession' of the domain. If I can make it automatically point to somewhere else, like a facebook or instagram page, without actually taking on a hosting service, great, though I don't know how to do this.

I haven't looked into getting Just Host to host my emails as I remember them being pretty expensive and difficult to use / contact but I am talking ten years ago so if you have any more recent knowledge please feel free to share.

I know that I can log into Just Host and change to their default nameservers. But I'm still not sure if / how I can verify without a hosting account? I thought the verification methods Zoho use all require the placing of a file. Is it the CNAME method you are suggesting? Would Just Host normally help if I contact them?

Thanks again.

 

[arnydnxluk]

I always recommend FastMail for email hosting - fantastic service and webmail, good pricing. They also offer DNS hosting and URL redirecting. This means you can simply switch your domain's nameservers to FastMail's, then your email will begin functioning and you can set up your URL redirect e.g. to your Facebook page.

If you want to use another email hosting provider, you will need DNS hosting in order to set up and verify your domain, which many hosts don't offer unless you have web hosting with them. In this case I would recommend transferring your domain to a "proper" domain registrar (rather than a hosting provider which also offers domain registration services). I would recommend Hover, who include free DNS hosting and URL redirecting. Then you can set up the relevant email DNS records for your new email provider and set up your URL redirection.

Both FastMail and Hover offer great support, so either company would be happy to help you with the above.

Probably a good idea to move your domain to a more serious domain registrar than JustHost anyway in my honest opinion - so Hover & FastMail would be a great combination in any case.

 

[gpietersz]

I know that I can log into Just Host and change to their default nameservers. But I'm still not sure if / how I can verify without a hosting account? I thought the verification methods Zoho use all require the placing of a file. Is it the CNAME method you are suggesting?

If you use the CNAME method or the TXT method described further down the page (I think the latter is a bit harder) you do not need to place a file. Provided you can log in and edit DNS settings you do not need help from Just Host.

For some reason I seem to have linked too far down that page - start here: https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/adminconsole/domain-verification.html#alink1

 

[Alan]

when I try and get in touch with the web company emails bounce and their website doesn't exist. Pretty dead I think!

If you share then others here may be able to tell you what has happened. It is rare a host disappears totally, normally they sell on to another host or in the case of one person businesses ( which can disappear suddenly, e.g. death ) they are normally resellers, and often the top level host can take on the account.