Accessing E-Mail Remotely
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" is never truer for me than when I'm on the road, away from my wife, four cats, and e-mail. My wife and cats forgive my travels, but I find that it's a challenge to e-mail remotely. Fortunately, technology provides many ways to access e-mail if you're far from your home base and need to check in, but you're on your own to provide an explanation as to why you're taking a break from vacation, sightseeing, or catching up with family to check your in-box for new mail.
Aside from the pressure to stay in touch (some people seem addicted to e-mail), it's worth thinking about your e-mail needs before traveling, especially if you'll be away for an extended period. Many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) limit the amount or size of e-mail they'll store for you. If you exceed this limit, your e-mail may "bounce" or be returned to the sender, which frustrates those writing to you and may also cause problems with discussion lists to which you're subscribed.
You can suspend list subscriptions to reduce e-mail volume, but sometimes that's a nuisance, and besides - your size limit can be taken up by someone sending you an e-mail with their vacation pictures or the latest round of family photos (pictures files are usually are large).
If you have cable or DSL, you could leave your computer on and your e-mail software enabled, and, with the proper settings, the e-mail application will continue to download e-mail to your computer as it arrives. But things can still go wrong, such as a power failure, and your e-mail may end up stranded on the ISP's e-mail server. You may want to inform your regular correspondents of your extended absence and request that they refrain from sending you large e-mails.
The easiest way to read e-mail when not at home is through the e-mail interface provided by your ISP. If that's a Web-based interface, your life is simple indeed. All you'll need to do is find a computer with Internet access, enter the ISP's e-mail Web address (URL), and you'll have access to your e-mail. This also works for Yahoo!, Google's Gmail, and other national e-mail services. AOL members can visit AOL's Web site, click the Mail link, and access their e-mail.
Even if you usually access and read your e-mail using a PC-based application such as Outlook Express, Eudora, or Thunderbird, your ISP probably provides Web access to your e-mail, so it's worth asking. If it's available but you've never used it, it would be a good idea to practice accessing your e-mail this way before leaving so you can learn the process and have ISP tech support only a local call away. Again, take your ISP's e-mail URL and tech support contact information with you so you can log on and get help from out of town.
Some ISPs provide an e-mail interface called Telnet. This text-only interface was developed in the Internet's early days. It's fast, efficient, and accessible from most PCs, but it isn't intuitive and is best suited for those who are technically oriented. If you have to use this type of interface on the road, practice beforehand is essential.
Oh, by the way, it's probably a good idea to know your e-mail ID and password since you'll need it to access the ISP's e-mail server - no matter which interface they provide. If your PC-based e-mail application is set up to automatically log into your e-mail server, you may not remember these necessary pieces of information. It would be a nasty surprise to realize that you can't remember your password after you've left home, and your ISP provider will probably be of no help on that trouble call.
A very simple tool for accessing many ISP's e-mail is Mail2Web. Just enter your e-mail address and password, and this Web site fetches and displays your e-mail. Messages you send via this site will appear to be from your normal e-mail address. Yahoo! provides a similar facility for reading POP3 e-mail, the e-mail protocol used by most ISPs.
Two final issues to keep in mind. First, always be security-minded when using strange computers. Don't allow passwords to be saved, and when finished, clear the browser cache and close all applications you've used. Second, be careful about setting up an "away" message to be returned to anyone who e-mails you. Some of these notification systems can interfere with mailing lists or, if set up incorrectly, could produce an endless e-mail loop that generates hundreds or thousands of "away" notices.
AARP does not recommend or endorse any of these products or web sites. Please be advised that there are other similar products and web sites available which were not reviewed and are not listed here.
