SMPT service

[Howell]

So I've been traveling a little bit and using free wireless hotspots. But my ISP will not allow me to use their SMTP server except from the house.

How do I resolve this problem so that I can send email from the road using a regular mail client? Third party SMTP service?

 

[Mercutio]

Might be worthwhile to get a paid Yahoo aacount. Then you can use theirs.

 

[Fushigi]

Gmail now does POP3 & SMTP: https://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13287&query=SMTP&topic=0&type=f

 

[blakerwry]

The rule of thumb is that you need to use the SMTP server of the network you are connected to. Since each network provider (theoretically) has control over who connects to their network they can then control what goes out of their mail servers.

Because this can be a pain for users who travel many ISP's allow SMTP authentication. Try turning this option on in your mail client. This allows you to prove to your ISPs mail server that you are, in fact, allowed to send email by providing a username and password each time you send email.

 

[P5-133XL]

Also check to see if your ISP has a Web-mail based email site: Many do for the traveling folk. That can be accessed from anywhere that has web access

 

[Howell]

Gmail now does POP3 & SMTP: https://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13287&query=SMTP&topic=0&type=f

Great solution!

 

[Adcadet]

my school uses authenticated (SSL) SMTP, so I can send mail from my school account from anywhere.

 

[Fushigi]

my school uses authenticated (SSL) SMTP, so I can send mail from my school account from anywhere.

That's another nice thing with Gmail; both the POP3 & SMTP are SSL-enabled (TLS for SMTP). They apparently don't even do non-secure.

 

[Adcadet]

if you set up POP to just leave messages on the server, how is the significantly different from IMAP? I love leaving important messages on the server, but I'm having problems finding a good email client for my Palm Pilot that does SSL and IMAP.

 

[Fushigi]

I love leaving important messages on the server, but I'm having problems finding a good email client for my Palm Pilot that does SSL and IMAP.

Have you looked at SnapperMail?

 

[blakerwry]

if you set up POP to just leave messages on the server, how is the significantly different from IMAP? I love leaving important messages on the server, but I'm having problems finding a good email client for my Palm Pilot that does SSL and IMAP.

There's a whole write up here, but these are the things I notice.

IMAP supports having folders and a directory structure to your account, rather than a single inbox.

IMAP also allows you to download message headers without downloading the entire message (this is theoretically possible with a pop program as well, just takes extra steps). This saves time and prevents getting stuck on a large message

You are also able to have multiple simultaneous logins to a single IMAP account, this allows multiple people to use the same email account and also prevents "POP Lock"(a problem where pop3 accounts get locked if a user does not exit his/her acocunt correctly.

And the obvious, wherever you go your mail will follow.. all of it, sent, deleted, etc.



While you can leave messages on a POP server, this is somewhat more of a hack. Because there are no server side flags with POP to allow a client to know if a message has been downloaded or not, your client then needs to keep track. Use more than 1 computer or client and things get off track, additionally even in a 1 client environment your client can lose track itself and redownload all mail stored in your pop account.

 

[Adcadet]

Fushigi -
I love Snappermail. I had a 60-day trial of the 2.0 beta, and it works great. Now that it's expired, I'm not sure what to do....the version that does IMAP and SSL is $60. I was complaining in the bar area earlier about this.