If ones number 1 priority is never having to change their email address there can be no disagreement that owning a domain and paying a small sum to keep it active the best option.... Umm AOL still exists but that is an expensive option to maintain anyway:)

Interesting suggestion. I actually have a domain name (have had it for years) but I confess its primary use is for reaching home from away with various tools. I used to host a family web site, but unfortunately I've outlived some of the folks who were interested. DynDNS keeps track of the IP address associated with the name. I could, of course get my current ISP to host the name but haven't done it. In the event that I did choose a new ISP, I would probably do that. At this point, I don't even know how it's done.

Unless you have your own server and time it is easier to pay around $50 bucks a year to host your site on someone else's tuned Linux based web servers. I like mac highway, but there are a million choices.

You need not actually maintain a website to use the email. A hosted domain comes with email, ftp, and of course site hosting. It is completely goof proof.

I still for now prefer personally gmail since I do not know that my wife and I will choose to maintain our domain forever, even though the sums of money involved are minor.

Some people also use a mail-only account at an ISP, or even a mail-only ISP like Fastmail. That last option is probably not necessary unless you are very picky about how your mail is handled.

Hmm. Yes but Email only ISP tend to be a waste. Fastmail looked neat. They seem to have higher per hour mail send restrictions (better) then my current provider. There Web site hosting is inferior.

I would be willing to pay them just to process outbound mail.

Do they have a contact number or email address? I searched there site I could not find anything but forum support, similar to rapid weaver. One really nice thing about Mac highway is they have knowledgeable people that pick up the phone fast.