Just to clarify, you are going to continue paying for Spectrum, but switch to another provider. I am assuming that the charter email account is provided by Spectrum.

I am paying for both spectrum and tds (free intro) and would cancel spectrum if I can make thunderbird work through tds with my lwatson0442@charter.net address spectrum provided. I have cat5 for both services so can switch back and forth. I have yet to figure out the settings in thunderbird for this to work through tds. Spectrum settings are user name: lwatson0442@charter.net with mobile.charter.net 993 and mobile.charter.net 587 outgoing. Tds uses mail.tds.net with the same ports. when I switch to tds, my email gives me errors but sometimes it goes through. I get the errors all the time now on tds. I'm thinking I need a new user name but I do set up a tds account (not and email) with that same user name.

Your @charter.net address is spectrum provided. Once you stop paying them, they will cancel the address (they own the charter domain and no one else can use it) That will be the end of that address for all time as it is a legacy from before Spectrum bought Charter, so I would guess once it is closed there is no option to reopen it.

I suggest you ask spectrum what they can do to ensure you retain access to the email address. I have paid a small monthly charge with one of my service providers to keep an old address. But that does not sound like something I have heard about in the USA.

I would suggest you best option is 1. To ensure you have a backup of all mail from that account you want to keep. Preferably in EML format (try this addon for that https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/?src=ss) as it can also import that same email format.

2. Notify all your contacts of your new email address. This is much the same as moving house. You can set up a forward and it will work for a time (until the money runs out) but in the end you have to stop using the old address and start using the new one.

The loosing of the email address is one of the reasons most folk these days use another provider (GMX, Outlook,Yahoo Gmail) for email and simply don't do much at all with the ISP provided one, as your ongoing access the the email address is dependent on being a customer of that ISP.

Thank you so much for your clear answer. One last question: If I do set up a GMX, Outlook, ect. email, I can still run it through thunderbird, right?

One more question. If I keep spectrum for the time being, why can't I access @charter.net when connected to tds' internet service?

Yes, GMX and Outlook and others work fine with Thunderbird. If you keep Spectrum, the tds account would coexist. I don't understand accessing the spectrum account via the tds account.

Connecting to the internet through tds seems to prevent me from using my spectrum email. Currently I can switch back and forth between providers with a cable for each.

Connecting to the internet through tds seems to prevent me from using my spectrum email. Currently I can switch back and forth between providers with a cable for each.

Spectrum and historically charter require you to connect to the internet via their service to access their mail servers. I have been fielding questions about this bizarre requirement since at least 2010 from their customers on holiday and trying to check their mail.

Thank you Matt and David for all your help with my questions!