I want everything!

Google offers email for domains. Maybe you can get a first initial plus last name dot-com?

Here is a clue to your answer: >I tried to get a gmail address, but they had nothing available that I liked. All the ones based on my name have been taken already. You already own firstlast.com. You can set up a GMail address based on any variation of your name that you *don't* like, such as "me77777palooza" and then use GMail's tools to set up your incoming and outgoing. These will be more or less seamless once you set them up. For that matter, [email protected] is still available. Use your imagination.

Echoing the above, I would search for another domain of your own. It's inexpensive, and there are plenty of inexpensive hosting plans available from countless sources. And that can be your lifetime email. You can always bounce it to gmail or whatever is convenient, then bounce it somewhere else later if you want. Just go to a registrar and start looking for a domain that might work. Think johnweb.com or smithmail.com or emailgeorge.com. There's got to be a simple but memorable option that will work. It worth it to take some time to find a domain that you can use the rest of your life.

The only way to have something both permanent and portable is to use your own domain, then move it wherever you like for the rest of your life. Don't forget to renew the domain. You don't like your existing name domain, so find another one. Even if it seems all the good ones are gone, there are still millions of short, easy to remember domain names out there. Once you have that half of the problem settled, you can use the free services from Google or Yahoo or others by pointing your domain there. If Google or Yahoo or whoever shuts down or stops being free, you can move it wherever you like. You will never get a portable/permanent address ANY other way, because nobody, not FastMail nor Yahoo nor Microsoft, is guaranteed to keep offering you an account there forever. So settle the domain issue first. Find one you like and register it forever. Then deal with the rest.

...what they say...good advice. FWIW, a lot of colleges/universities in the US offer alumni "lifetime" email forwarding. No email services other than the forwarding, which can go to GMail, your current provider, your business, etc

yclipse. shouldn't that be 8675309? ooh Jenny Jenny ??

I've been using http://www.pobox.com/ for over a decade. For $20-ish per year you get a [email protected] address (other domains available) and that acts as a FORWARDER to your actual email address. Then you configure your email program so that you look like your pobox.com address. THEY DO NOT PROVIDE EMAIL STORAGE and reading services like GMail or Hotmail or your ISP; they are just a forwarder. But using it gets you out of the business of being married to an ISP, or even GMail for that matter, and if you configure your email right nobody will know that you are actually using your ISP du jour for email. You are simply [email protected]. FYI, pobox.com is not some little fly-by-night operation. For one, they are the ones who drove the RFC for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework. A little bit more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pobox.com.

yclipse: No need for the other address -- just set up Google Apps w/domain mail, and usernames utilized will be non-goofy name variants.

http://www.pobox.com + http://www.fastmail.fm . I front-end my email address with the forwarding services of pobox.com . The domain name is fairly neutral and intuitive and this level of indirection allows me to change my email provider in a heartbeat. My email provider is fastmail.fm . They have a very good webmail and can do pop and imap. I have used both of them since 2000 with no issues.