Remote Access to email

[#1]

Hi, hope somebody is able to help.
I use my (Force9) email account on a home desktop PC, and a laptop. I would like to be able to access my email remotely from the laptop, when working away from home, in a hotel for example. Outlook will allow me to collect mail, but when I try to send mail, I get an error message (relay not permitted, or something of that kind). I can use webmail, but that's far less convenient.
Is this a fundamental problem, or is there any work around?
Ian Sheldon

[#2]

Hi, thanks for the quick response.
I don't think it's practical to find the relay mailserver for the hotel internet connection. These are usually third party offerings (BT Openzone, Sonera, Swisscomm etc) and the hotels are little enough help even when there is a simple connection problem!
I don't really follow the second suggestion. Do you mean use GMail in place of my F9 mail account? Or in place of Outlook? I'm reluctant to move away from Outlook, I use it for all my mail and would prefer to keep messages and replies together in one place. As I said earlier, I can send mails using F9 webmail, but doing that doesn't allow me to keep received and sent messages in one place.
Perhaps you could explain that a little more?
Ian

[#3]

Hi,
One of our sister companies www.port995.com allows you to send email regardless of the ISP you are connected to. Might be worth a look.
Another way around it would be to use IMAP instead of POP3. That way you could send email via Webmail and the sent items would appear in the sent items folder in Outlook as well.

[#4]

Quote from: dave

One of our sister companies www.port995.com allows you to send email regardless of the ISP you are connected to. Might be worth a look.

That's very true ... but it does also cost money !  Maybe you could have a quiet word with said 'sister' and come to an arrangement for PN customers to have access to the service as/when required 
I also wish there was a sensible way to use relay from other networks as it's been a bit of a PITA for me on a few occasions in the past when traveling on business etc.  Dialling in via a mobile (esp from abroad) gets pretty d@mn expensive for anything more than the occasional very short session !  I tend to resort to sending stuff via hotmail and mailing myself a copy of the sent message source to import when I get home but it's more than a bit of pain really and I seriously dislike any form of webmail.
Is it perhaps something that could be added to the todo list ?  Either a 'receive POP3 gets you limited SMTP access' style solution or better still a secure login for SMTP ?

[#5]

The GMail route is to use the gmail servers to send your messages.
See http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13278 and in particular note where you see smtp.gmail.com for an example of how you would configure your own e-mail client like Outlook.
SW.

[#6]

You could use Free SMTP Server - its a program.
http://www.softstack.com/freesmtp.html

It's very simple but very useful for laptop users traveling around the world and connecting their PCs to different Internet Service Providers in different countries. Free SMTP Server supports all email programs like Outlook Express and Eudora, but best optimized to work with Outlook Express. The email program you already use for sending and receiving messages can be connected to the server in a very easy way - by using the word "localhost" instead of your current SMTP host.

[#7]

Quote from: mikeb

Is it perhaps something that could be added to the todo list ?  Either a 'receive POP3 gets you limited SMTP access' style solution or better still a secure login for SMTP ?

Authenticated SMTP is something that is being looked at, but saying that it has been for a while so I can't give you a when unfortunately, but it is certainly on the "todo list".

[#8]

Authenticated SMTP would be something that I would find useful - especially when you have to take the laptop away on business.
Something along the lines of the Blueyonder (Virgin) implemtation perhaps? i.e. no need to set authentication whilst "on net" but credentials required while "roaming".

[#9]

Hi Ian,
The Gmail suggestion can probably be achieved as follows:
Sign up for a GMail account (GB's of storage so no real issues there).
Using the instructions here, add your Force9 email as a valid from address.
Enable POP forwarding in Gmail's settings and set up your mail client to send and receive email using this account. Make sure your from address is your Force9 email.
Setup a redirect here to redirect all your Force9 email to the new GMail address.
If my thinking is correct this would allow you to send and receive from any location with the impression that this is being done using your Force9 account.

[#10]

No need to go to all that length - once you've signed up for a gmail account and enabled POP3 all you need to do is change your outgoing server on your PlusNet account detail in your mail client to the authenticated SMTP server that gmail uses (and the correct credentials).  Mail will then be sent via that server until you change it back to PlusNet's. If you use Thunderbird as your mail client you can set up multiple SMTPs and choose which one to use!
IIRC the only thing to remember is that mail you send via gmail's SMTP server is automatically copied into your gmail account sent items regardless of the "from" address.

[#11]

Quote from: paulby

No need to go to all that length

Fair point. I actually copied and pasted my response from a forum post I made some time ago when a customer was asking for secure authenticated email collection from wireless hot spots - That's why there's instructions to sort out the incoming mail side of things too.

[#12]

When I'm abroad I can view my email on Outlook Express and used to be able to send emails from PlusNet's webmail.
Now I believe you are unable to use Squirrel mail whilst abroad so will I be able to use www.mail2web.com to send my emails?

[#13]

The restriction on IP addresses from other countries has now been removed so you should be fine using squirrelmail, though I can confirm that mail2web will also work fine.
Hope this helps,

[#14]

Thanks so much for that.  I don't recollect reading that the ban had been lifted so I'm very pleased to hear that it has been.

[#15]

Why is Plusnet pointing their customers to other competitors email systems instead of implementing a simple authenticated SMTP relay ?
Using other organisation smtp servers may mean your mail get blocked as SPAM as this open smtp relays  will often be used for SPAM  and we as a PlusNet customer have no influence on that type of "free" service.  Webmail is not a good solution either if you want to use for example your mobile for email.

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