Professional e-mail hosting

Sometimes, yes, and I’ll tell you so. For someone working alone who gets few e-mails and doesn’t need a shared calendar, the mailbox included with the website hosting can be enough, as long as it is properly configured (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and protected by a strong password. As soon as there are several of you, or you want a shared address, a shared calendar, more space or two-factor authentication, a dedicated e-mail service becomes more comfortable. Watch out, too, for the day your website moves to another host: your e-mails depend on the same domain settings, and I check that they don’t break along the way.

Both do the job very well. Microsoft 365 suits you if you live in Outlook, Word and Excel, and its shared mailboxes (info@, invoices@) need no extra subscription up to 50 GB; Google Workspace suits teams already used to Gmail and to working in the browser. If what matters most to you is a European host or privacy, Infomaniak, OVHcloud or Proton are real options. I look at your tools and habits before advising, with no brand imposed.

With Microsoft 365, a Belgian business’s e-mails are stored in the European Union, not specifically in Belgium, with a few limited transfers that Microsoft documents. Google Workspace only lets you choose Europe on certain plans; OVHcloud states that it stores data in France, and Infomaniak in Switzerland, a country the European Union recognises as offering adequate protection. In every case, the provider processes your data on your behalf: you need a GDPR data processing agreement, which serious providers offer and which I help you find.

The aim is that you won’t, and the method is designed for that: the new mailboxes are filled before incoming mail is switched over, and the old one stays open and in sync for a few days while the change spreads (usually a few hours, up to three days in rare cases). You receive your e-mails the whole time, on one side or the other. Even so, I don’t promise a magic ‘zero loss’: depending on the method, very large messages, contacts or calendars need separate handling, and I compare before and after.

Often because the domain is missing its identity papers, or has them set up badly: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Gmail requires at least SPF or DKIM from all senders, and all three from those sending more than about 5,000 e-mails a day to its addresses. Content, links and the sender’s reputation also play a part, and in the end it is the recipient’s provider that decides: no one can honestly guarantee that an e-mail will never land in spam. I give you the best chance by following the DMARC reports; and when it is your customers’ e-mails that end up in your junk folder, I adjust the filters.

I advise against it. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace limit the number of recipients per day and are not made for bulk sending; above about 5,000 e-mails a day to their addresses, Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com also impose strict rules: SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and at Gmail and Yahoo a one-click unsubscribe link. For a newsletter, I recommend a specialist service, connected to a subdomain (for example news.your-company.be), to protect the reputation of your main address.

Not all your e-mails, but some documents, yes. In principle, invoices and documents relating to VAT and tax are kept for 10 years; an e-mail matters mainly when it contains an invoice, an order or an agreement of which it is the only record. Check with your accountant what must be kept; I don’t give legal advice. For my part, I explain what your provider really keeps, and I add a separate backup or archive when it is useful.

Forward a suspicious e-mail to suspect@safeonweb.be, then delete it; in a business, follow your own procedure first. If your mailbox has been hacked: change the password, turn on two-factor authentication, look for automatic forwarding rules and unknown filters, and warn your contacts, because fraudsters use it to send fake invoices. Depending on the risk to the people concerned, a notification to the Data Protection Authority may be needed within 72 hours of discovery; in every case, record the incident in your register. I can carry out these checks with you.

It can become one: for a .be, the registered holder has the exclusive right to use the name, not necessarily whoever paid, and the transfer code is sent only to the holder’s e-mail address known to DNS Belgium. If a former agency registered itself as the holder, you will need its cooperation; if only the e-mail address is theirs, you can ask the registrar to replace it. And if the intermediary stops renewing it, the domain can be cancelled, and your e-mails with it, even if you had paid for it. I check with you who the holder is and get the details corrected while relations are good; in a dispute, I can’t promise to recover the domain.

Not with another provider: a @skynet.be, @proximus.be or @telenet.be address depends on your internet provider, and a Gmail address stays with Google. I bring your old e-mails and contacts across into the new mailbox; keep the old address for a while, with an auto-reply or forwarding if the provider allows it, while you let your customers know. That is the whole point of an address on your own domain: the next time you change provider, it goes with you.