Broadband switch from BT to Plusnet - effect on emails (historical and future)

[#1]

Cheers @Browni that's nice and easy then, thanks !

[#2]

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@pmd60 wrote: but I am intrigued about your comment @jab1 that the personalised emails don't attract commercial emails. I didn't think anyone was immune to phishing and spam mails. 

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I wouldn't like to say whether that is true or not but I have had my own domain email address for years (2007 or so). The amount of spam etc I've had from that time, you could probably count on one hand.

Whereas my Hotmail account (which has been pawned) gets a fair number each week (usually less than 20). Does it matter? Not really. Simply because with Hotmail (and other MS accounts) you can set the inbox to be exclusive i.e. if I haven't got an incoming email address in my contact list or sent an email to that address, it goes direct into the junk folder, to be automatically deleted after X number of days.

If you want /need a .pst file viewer, I use Outlook Viewer. Works quite well and is free for non commercial use.

[#3]

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@pmd60 wrote:

Thanks again @jab1 @Browni and @davel8r for your comments it is POP3 I believe. What's the best way of saving/backing up those old emails ?

As regards the choice between a gmail account name and a personalised email name if in business it's a no-brainer but no longer in business I suppose the personalised email address just has snob value. I am worried though about years 2,3 4 etc when LCN might rocket the price and charge a lot extra for greater size capacity (the price quoted only includes up to 25 MB) but I am intrigued about your comment @jab1 that the personalised emails don't attract commercial emails. I didn't think anyone was immune to phishing and spam mails. 

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I suspect you may have misinterpreted my comment, @pmd60 . The likes of Gmail/Yahoo are 'free' because they are examined on the way through those providers servers for any potential commercial benefit - i.e. can they pass your details to the firms that pay them for such data, therefore making the service 'free' to you.Which is why, although I have addresses with both, they are merely 'fallbacks' in the event PN crashed/ceased offering an email service.

No-one is immune to spam/phishing, but the likelihood of getting any volume of that type of email is vastly reduced if you are careful with the use of the addresses - I have five PN mailboxes and in all the time I've been here (8 years), I've probably had a dozen unwanted mails - all caused by one of my 'shopping' contacts database being breached.

[#4]

"What's the best way of saving/backing up those old emails ?"
That answer is predicated on the email client you are using.  Many permit the concept of "Local Storage Folders" which is a feature aside from the concept of mail being held locally on a POP3 email account.  Local Folders allow you to put anything you want there, quite independently of any email account you might configure.

"As regards the choice between a gmail account name and a personalised email name if in business it's a no-brainer but no longer in business I suppose the personalised email address just has snob value."
Far from it - a personalised email address (in other words your own domain name) has far more value than "snob value" as you put it. Without your own domain name, your email address will always be predicated by the name of your email provider (gmail.com / yahoo.co.uk / outlook.com / youraccount.plus.com) so if you decided to change your email provider (which might or might not be an ISP) you will need to tell the world your email address has changed.
If you have your own domain name, you can have that domain service (email and / or a website) hosted wherever you wish and indeed move it to wherever you wish. In such circumstances you do not need to tell your correspondents that your email address has changed, for it remains the same ... you just host it elsewhere.
You could for example start off with you@yourdomain.me.uk (personally I do not see sense in personal domain names being .co.uk - mine is not) being hosted on LCN.com (**). Sometime in the future, you might want to exploit the richer features of an Exchange based email host and move the domain name to outlook.com (which has integrated calendar, contacts and notes etc) which if configured correctly will 'hub' all of that information and keep it in sync between multiple PCs, tablets and smart phones.
**I use LCN.com for a charity I administer - their service and support is excellent, however their email functionality is limited; there is a limit to the number of email addresses you can configure and there is no 'catchall' capability.

Moderator's note(s):

Edited at request of poster

[#5]

Thank yoiu very much @dvorak , @idonno , @jab1  and @Townman  your input is much appreciated and I will take it all on board.