My Experience with MXRoute and MXGuardDog: Affordable Email Hosting Solutions
This post details my experience with MXRoute and MXGuardDog for
email hosting and spam filtering.
I've been using MXRoute for my email hosting since January 2025. When I started looking for a new web host, my previous host included email in its shared hosting plan, which worked well initially. However, I explored several alternatives, including Fastmail, but found it too expensive for my needs. I also considered using my paid ProtonMail account. While I could have used it for myself, it would have introduced complications for my parents, who are in their 70s and not very tech-savvy.
Therefore, I began researching other email hosting providers and looked into Purelymail (purelymail.com), Migadu (migadu.com), and finally, MXRoute (mxroute.com). After reading various reviews, MXRoute stood out as the best option. I was particularly drawn to its affordability: 25GB of storage for just $30 for three years (essentially $10 per year), with renewals at the same price. Best of all, transitioning my parents’ email to MXRoute was effortless. I only had to update a few settings on their computers, and they didn’t even notice the change.
This brings me to MXGuardDog.
My mother, who freely shares her email address, receives a significant amount of spam. I found that MXGuardDog (mxguarddog.com) was highly recommended for effectively filtering spam. At less than $2 per month, I decided to try it, and I’ve been using it for the past month. It provides an easy and convenient way to monitor my mom’s inbox and filter out spam, ensuring she only receives legitimate emails and the promotional messages she actually wants.
I'm still within the first 30 days of using MXGuardDog, but I'm already seeing her inbox clearing up on MXRoute. Overall, I'm really happy with this setup and glad I found both services. They were both easy to configure in my DNS records and started working immediately after I switched over. I plan to write a longer-term review later this year, but so far, I'm really impressed with both MXRoute and MXGuardDog.
One aside: both MXRoute and MXGuardDog offer noticeably better spam protection than Hotmail/Outlook accounts, which highlights a significant difference in spam protection. Even Google’s Gmail outshines Microsoft’s spam and phishing protection.
Tags: #EmailHosting #Spam #MXRoute #MXGuarddog
A Big Heart in More Ways Than One
A visit to Dr. Patrick Chang revealed the need for a cardiomyopathy specialist as my ongoing symptoms and elevated LVOT gradient persist.
Well, I’m glad I only have 9 years until retirement. Hopefully, Social Security sticks around, because who knows if my 401(k) will rebound. The President keeps shooting us in the foot economically 🦶🎯. It took years to get this bad—it’ll take years to fix, but he thinks months will do! #politics
There’s nothing more frustrating than waking up and thinking, I’m going to do a simple task to start the day. 😤
I planned to clone my nearly full 2TB NVMe drive to a new 4TB drive. I grabbed my external drive case, connected the new drive, and launched EaseUS Clone Disk. The first 566GB copied without issue. Then, suddenly, the speed dropped to a crawl. 🐢 Around 70%, I got the dreaded blue screen of death and a reboot.
After three failed attempts with the same result, I tried installing the new drive and cloning in reverse. One more blue screen later, I gave up after nearly 12 hours of troubleshooting. 🤦♂️ Frustrated, I ordered a disk cloner so I can copy directly between the two NVMe drives without interference.
Both drives check out fine, so I have no idea what’s causing the issue. This whole experience was a headache 🤯, and I didn’t get around to the other things I had planned for the day.
Tags: #NVMe #SSDUpgrade #TechFails #PCProblems
Why is a civilian tech CEO with significant business interests in China being briefed on potential US-China conflict scenarios? Seems like a concerning conflict of interest.
I have a new avatar! It’s now live on Micro.blog, Bluesky, and Mastodon. This was my first time using Fiverr, and I think it turned out pretty lifelike. Let me know what you think!
How AI Is Bringing My Ideas to Life
Today, I leveraged my single Mastodon instance, my Raspberry Pi, and my paid Claude AI account to create an automated weather posting system for my home location. Using Claude AI, I generated code to automatically post weather updates and other information—tasks I previously relied on IFTTT for. It was an interesting project, and I plan to extend it further with additional automated posts.
I can see IFTTT and Zapier either having to step up their game or eventually fading away. AI is a game-changer for those of us who aren't coders. While I’m sure the code isn’t the most optimized (Claude AI is supposedly the best at code generation right now), it’s incredible how AI allows regular people like me to experiment and bring my ideas to life.
This is how I envision AI—not as a replacement, but as a helper and a great equalizer. I know this technology will inevitably change lives (not necessarily for the better) and eliminate some jobs, but it’s also making powerful tools and knowledge more accessible to the masses.
Tags: #AI #Selfhosting #Automation
This Weeks TV Watching
📺 This week’s Watchlist:
- Matlock – S1 Ep. 15 – Game Face ⭐⭐⭐
- Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage – S1 Ep. 14 – A Sportsbook and a Breakup, This Is That Moment ⭐⭐
From NetFlix:
- The Night Agent – S2 Ep. 2 – Disconnected ⭐⭐⭐
- The Night Agent – S2 Ep. 3 – Government Property ⭐⭐⭐
Hoping to squeeze in a few more episodes this weekend! 🎬
Tags: #TV #Entertainment #NetFlix
Subscription Fatigue
I canceled my Paramount+ subscription on
Saturday, just before the renewal day yesterday, and I’m thinking of
dumping a few more. I canceled Apple TV+ a few months
ago. There are TV programs I like on both, but I just can't justify it
anymore. These subscriptions are like vampires, siphoning a few dollars
here and there until my budget is bled dry. These little charges are
starting to eat away at my budget.
You know, the Republicans through Trump and Musk have found the key to cutting money to everyone but their rich owners and hiking taxes in the form of tariffs so they can say they don’t raise taxes. But a tariff is a tax. #Taxes #Tariffs #politics
Microsoft's Disconnect with Consumers
Switching to macOS or Linux would be appealing if game compatibility and transfer costs were more feasible, as frustrations with Windows 11’s features are growing.
A Programming Journey with AI: What They Don't Tell You
It all started with a simple question: Can I take an RSS feed from one blog and feed it to another?
I knew that my Write.as blog automatically generated an RSS feed and that I used to import posts directly into Micro.blog. However, I was running into issues with duplicate posts. So, I had an idea—why not see if ChatGPT could help me or if there was already a program that could parse an RSS feed and pull it into Micro.blog?
ChatGPT confirmed that it was possible. It suggested that I use my Raspberry Pi to run a script that would fetch the feed, filter out what I didn't need, and then push the cleaned-up version to Micro.blog.
Whats next
All my life, I’ve been told that Russia and Putin are bad for the U.S.—which I believe. But now, we want to get closer to Russia just because they’re big and powerful?
Republicans were once at the forefront, saying Putin’s Russia is evil. Now, Russian assets are in charge of our country, and suddenly, Republicans say Russia isn’t bad?
This is exactly why I’ve given up on party affiliations—neither party cares about the average moderate citizen, as the Constitution was set up to protect and as our Founding Fathers envisioned.
Heart of Champions, 2021 - ★★★★
I enjoyed Heart of Champions. It could have been a little shorter, but the performances were strong and the story was compelling.
My Quest for the Perfect Chair
I really need a new chair. I bought a Secretlab Titan chair in 2020 at the height of the supply shortages and COVID-19. I had to wait a few months for it and paid almost $500. I figured that since I work remotely a couple of days a week and would be sitting in it when I’m home from work, it would be a worthwhile investment.
You know, I think the media should pull all their coverage and reporters from the White House. Trump thrives on media attention. I know Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN won’t, but the people who watch them 24/7 wouldn’t care anyway. All we’re getting is lies, half-truths, and garbage as it is. #politics
What a total disgrace by the President and Vice President of the United States. This was clearly a planned move by both of them, only serving to benefit Putin. Just like the President's claim that Ukraine started the war, this plays right into Russia’s hands. Russia must be laughing at us, while Europe and our allies are left questioning the reliability of the U.S. Where is Congress?
Glad tomorrow is Friday. This week, I just haven’t had the get up and go in me.