I sat there one day and thought about the problems I had in keeping in contact with people. Telephone numbers, mobiles, email addresses, house addresses etc. I quickly realised that it was a complete nightmare and was probably the main reason that I never bothered.

I also had some problems with ISP's (Internet Service Providers) who decided in their "customer orientated" way to make a complete mess of my email addresses. They actually locked one, according to them "forever".

*Sigh*

So I figured I needed to take control of this and not leave it in the hands of fools - three changes of email address was enough to convince me that I'd dealt with incompetence long enough. So I had a quick look around and found that the domain name "Astles.NET" was still available. Since .NET doesn't designate a particular geographic area, like say .CO.UK would and we are spread out, it fitted perfectly.

This means that I have complete control over two things. Firstly, the domain for this website www.astles.net and its related email address @astles.net. So I can create as many email addresses as I like before the '@' part and I get to keep all of these forever.

So, no more remembering stupidnameplussilly175number@equallystupiddomainname.com (don't click the link - the email doesn't really exist!) and then having to update it when the person moves ISP, job or whatever. Anything really that causes email addresses to change.

Nope, no more. Your surname is 'astles', the suffix is '.net', your first name or whatever you like can be placed before the '@'. You can have more than one (actually as many as you like) and I can redirect them to any email account you choose to use (maybe a personal one, a work one, both etc).

You change that email, I simply alter the destination that your email is sent to. So your '@Astles.NET' email address can be happily handed out, it's easy to remember and you get to keep it for life.

The website is simply a place to come and find information about the family, chat in forums and just generally have a bit of fun and keep in touch. Btw: If you email all@astles.net then everyone who is part of this system gets a mail! Cool, but be careful with it ;-)

I hope that helps.

Finally, a big thanks must go to a friend of mine, Herbert Hohenburger, for providing us with this space on the net and also for the tools to make it all work, such as the forums and guest book etc. Of course, also for his help in web design and so on. Click here to go to his main site now.

With thanks to our Sponsor - www.amita.uk.net