Was in Singapore on business. After a couple of hours my ability to send email stopped and never recovered. My email client was correctly configured including send authentication. In Abu Dhabi, after a very small number of emails my outgoing service halted for a while. Shame it was a time critical email I was trying to send.
PlusNet support seem to have a stock answer for this kind of problem. I have had it thrown at me several times now while abroad. Someone other than us (read your hotel) is blocking Port 25. I have some technical skills in IT and in all cases this has proved to be untrue. More importantly, there is evidence that PlusNet know the real answer, but telling you its someone else's fault appears to be preferred. Personally I find the idea that a company would use technical terms to bamboozle people rather than use their technical understanding to help them quite unethical.
So in summary, if you need to use email abroad and you want to take advantage of the many hotels that offer internet these days, my advice is go with a different provider.
I hope this helps someone make the right choice before getting locked in by PlusNet's policies
