Spray was a Swedish consumer internet portal and free-email provider launched in the mid-1990s, one of the most recognizable Swedish web brands during the dot-com era. Spray was acquired by Lycos Europe around 2000 as part of the pan-European Lycos rollup, and consumer email under @spray.se and @spray.com was integrated into the Lycos Europe mail infrastructure. In January 2009 Lycos Europe announced it would discontinue all unprofitable activities including Lycos Mail, Tripod, and the associated portal-mail brands. The @spray.se consumer email service was shut down on February 15, 2009 with the rest of Lycos Europe’s mail operations. This guide covers what happened and how to move to Gmail, Outlook, or a Swedish alternative.
Spray SMTP, IMAP, and POP3 settings
There are no working settings for @spray.se or @spray.com. The Spray mail service was shut down on February 15, 2009 when Lycos Europe discontinued all unprofitable activities including consumer mail and Tripod website hosting. There is no server to connect to, no webmail to sign into, and no way to receive new mail at a Spray address. The migration options below cover how to move any mail flow that used to reach a Spray address to a new mailbox.
Spray email is discontinued. Lycos Europe shut down its email business on February 15, 2009 as part of a broader retirement of unprofitable activities. All @spray.se and @spray.com consumer mailboxes were closed on that date; mail data was not preserved. Mail clients still configured against spray.se hostnames will fail to connect.
What happened to Spray
Spray was one of Sweden’s earliest and most prominent consumer internet brands, launched in the mid-1990s and expanding rapidly through the dot-com boom. The portal offered search, news, community content, and a bundled free email service under @spray.se (and later @spray.com for international users). At its peak Spray was widely recognized as Sweden’s answer to Yahoo.
Around 2000 Spray was acquired by Lycos Europe as part of a pan-European rollup of consumer web properties. Lycos Europe was itself majority-owned by Telefónica (the same Spanish telecom that owned Lycos US at the time). Consumer email under @spray.se was integrated into the Lycos Europe mail infrastructure, which also handled @lycos.co.uk, @lycos.de, @lycos.fr, and other national properties.
After the dot-com bust, Lycos Europe struggled to find a profitable business model for standalone consumer webmail and portal services. In January 2009 the company sent notifications to users announcing that its parent had decided to discontinue all unprofitable activities. Users received an email beginning “We regret to inform you that our parent company has decided to discontinue all unprofitable activities” and stating that both the email service and Tripod website hosting would be discontinued on February 15, 2009. On that date Lycos Europe’s mail infrastructure was taken offline; @spray.se, @lycos.se, @lycos.co.uk and all other Lycos Europe branded mailboxes were closed permanently, and mail data was not preserved.
A note on Home.se, part of the Spray family
Spray also owned the popular @home.se free email service, one of Sweden’s better-known consumer mail domains in the early 2000s. Unlike @spray.se, which was shut down cleanly in February 2009 alongside the rest of Lycos Europe’s mail infrastructure, @home.se was retained after Spray was sold to Allers in 2006 and later to Result in 2009. It survived for years as a residual paid service. User reports through 2022 and beyond describe intermittent 404 errors on the standard webmail URL, unresponsive support, and a workaround access URL at spray.pangia.biz/app/. Treat @home.se addresses as effectively unmaintained: outbound mail may not deliver reliably, there is no active user support, and there is no formal forward-migration path from Spray or Result. If you still have mail flowing to a @home.se address, move it to Gmail, Outlook.com, or an independent Swedish provider using the same steps as Option 1 below.
Option 1: Migrate to Gmail (recommended)
Because @spray.se addresses were shut down entirely on February 15, 2009 with no successor path, former users have had to migrate to independent providers. Gmail is the standard destination. Create a Gmail account and notify contacts of your new address. If you never migrated after the 2009 shutdown, your @spray.se address has been gone for years; contacts who still have it in address books need to be updated.
Option 2: Migrate to Outlook.com
Outlook.com works the same as Gmail for the migration workflow. Best fit if you already use OneDrive, Office online, or a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Option 3: Migrate to a Swedish alternative
If you prefer a Swedish-hosted consumer email provider, options include Bahnhof (privacy-focused Swedish ISP), Telia Sverige, and Bredbandsbolaget (Tele2 Sverige brand). Note that ISP-tied mail addresses depend on maintaining the underlying subscription; a provider-independent option like Gmail is more resilient long-term.
Alternatives at a glance
Common issues after Spray shutdown
Mail client returns connection refused for spray.se servers
All Spray and Lycos Europe mail hostnames were retired on February 15, 2009. There is no active @spray.se mail service to reconfigure against, and there has not been one since 2009.
Cannot sign in to Spray webmail
Spray webmail was shut down on February 15, 2009. The sign-in interface is gone permanently.
@spray.se address stopped receiving mail years ago
Expected. The address was closed permanently on February 15, 2009. Any contacts still holding @spray.se in their address books have been sending to a dead mailbox for many years; notify them of your current address.
Cannot recover Spray or Lycos Europe email data
Mail data was not preserved through the shutdown. Lycos Europe stated at the time that user data would not be transferred to another provider. Recovery has not been possible since 2009.
Frequently asked questions
When did Spray email shut down?
February 15, 2009. Lycos Europe (which had acquired Spray around 2000) shut down all its consumer email services on that date, including @spray.se, @lycos.se, @lycos.co.uk, and other national Lycos Europe branded mailboxes. Mail data was not preserved.
Why did Lycos Europe shut down email?
Lycos Europe was owned by Telefónica and, after the dot-com bust, could not find a profitable business model for standalone consumer webmail. The January 2009 announcement said the parent had decided to discontinue all unprofitable activities. Email and the Tripod website hosting service were both retired on the same date.
Can I recover mail data or account credentials?
No. Mail data was not preserved through the February 15, 2009 shutdown. Recovery has not been possible for many years.
What was Lycos Europe?
A pan-European consumer web portal group founded to operate the Lycos brand across European markets. Majority-owned by Telefónica during its final years. Consolidated Lycos national properties (Lycos.co.uk, Lycos.de, Lycos.fr, Lycos.se) alongside acquisitions like Spray in Sweden and Tripod website hosting. Wound down its consumer email and hosting business on February 15, 2009.
Is there any way to keep a @spray.se address?
No. The domain is not offering new consumer webmail signups, and pre-existing accounts were permanently closed on February 15, 2009. Former users must migrate to a different provider entirely.
Where to go next
- Bahnhof.se email settings for POP3, IMAP, and SMTP
- Telia.se email settings for POP3, IMAP, and SMTP
- Gmail POP3, IMAP, and SMTP settings
- Outlook.com POP3, IMAP, and SMTP settings
Historical timeline of Spray
- 2026: Spray email has been discontinued for 17 years. No active service, no signups, no recovery.
- February 15, 2009: Lycos Europe permanently shuts down all consumer email and Tripod website hosting services. @spray.se, @lycos.se, @lycos.co.uk, and other Lycos Europe branded mailboxes closed; mail data not preserved.
- January 2009: Lycos Europe announces via email to users that its parent has decided to discontinue all unprofitable activities including the email business division.
- ~2000: Spray acquired by Lycos Europe (Telefónica-owned) as part of pan-European consumer web rollup. Consumer email integrated into Lycos Europe mail infrastructure.
- Mid 1990s: Spray launched as Swedish consumer internet portal with @spray.se free email service. One of the most recognizable Swedish web brands of the dot-com era.
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About the Author
Alaa · LinkedIn
Email infrastructure specialist with 8+ years of hands-on experience in SMTP, deliverability, and email verification. I’ve configured and troubleshot mail systems across Postfix, Exchange, and cloud relays, managed IP reputation and warmup campaigns, and built verification pipelines processing millions of addresses. My work spans DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI), bounce handling, blocklist monitoring, and compliance frameworks including CAN-SPAM and GDPR. I write every article on SMTPedia to give email professionals, developers, and marketers the accurate, RFC-grounded reference they need.
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