I’ve been using 1and1.com for a couple years now to register “lesser” domains where I didn’t need the extra DNS features or WHOIS protection. Since my previous e-mail provider recently died on me, I was looking around for a new one. It’s been incredibly difficult to find a provider that supports at least two e-mail boxes on a single domain of my choice and charges less than $40/year (most charge $25-$40 per address).

Although I had tried 1and1.com e-mail hosting in the past, I wasn’t impressed. Desparate for a bargain, I decided to give them another look. They only charge $0.99/month for a 2GB IMAP account with webmail. Pretty cheap. I tried it again and found the experience more pleasant than the last time. Although their control panel still sucks, it’s been improved since the last version and is at least bareable now. Although I prefer Horde, their webmail interface is adequate.

They do create a strange random username for your e-mail boxes, although you get to choose the password. Also, it took me a long time to figure out which MX records to use. I found it nowhere in their documentation, and their support never replied. Fortunately, Google came to my rescue.

In the end, it’s a sweet price with the features I need, and the server speed isn’t bad. Their support is non-impressive and their control panel sucks, but for the price, I think it will be swell.

In the process, I also noticed that 1and1.com now offers WHOIS protection for free with domain registration, which is only $5.99! It doesn’t have complete DNS control, but offers a single A record (for a web site) as well as up to four MX and backup MX records. So if that’s all you need, it’s not a bad deal with the free WHOIS protection. For my domains where I want more DNS features, I usually go with namecheap.com.