The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Collecting E-mail While Away
from Home
Stan Johnstone
stanj@melbpc.org.au |
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Going travelling and need to keep up with the news? This is one of the most
frequently asked questions by Melb PC members who are embarking on their travels and still want to keep up
with their normal e-mail.
Many don't realise it, but Melb PC Internet subscribers are able to access and download their e-mail from
their Melb PC mailbox to almost any other Internet user's account located anywhere in the world. It's as
simple as changing the POP settings in someone else's mailer program at another ISP to
"username"@popa.melbpc.org.au" (without the quotes) and use your Melb PC password when prompted. Your
e-mail will then download to the other person's account.
This is simple provided that:
- you have friends with Internet accounts wherever you want to access your
mail, and
- they trust you to alter the POP3 configuration on their computer.
Importantly, so as not to stretch the friendship too far, always remember to reset their POP address in their
mailer program after you have been using it. Otherwise they may wonder why suddenly they are no longer
receiving their own e-mail!
S ome of the `free" ISPs will not permit access to a remote mailbox in this
manner and even worse, some of the cheaper ISPs for cost reasons do not support their own e-mail services and
require their subscribers to use a Hotmail or similar browser-type account.
Sending mail from someone else's account is not as simple, and you will not be able to send any mail
addressed as: username@melbpc.org.au from another Internet provider's domain. In this case the usual
thing is to send it from the other person's account and clearly spell out in the body of the message where
you would like any response to be addressed.
Hotmail (and other free e-mail services)
Another, preferred method is to open an account at
http://www.hotmail.com or a similar free e-mail service. There are hundreds of sites offering this type
of e-mail service, with Hotmail being the largest and best known. These services are accessed using a regular
browser - not a specific e-mail program. This means that you can borrow a friend's access through his
Internet browser for a short time, and without any alterations to his settings catch up with all your e-mail
that is waiting to be read. Not only that, you will be responding directly from one of your own
addresses.
Because access is obtained by simply using a browser, this means that all your friends, Internet cafes, those
Internet coin-in-the-slot machines you've seen at airports and even the local library, are all potential
sources for sending and receiving e-mail.
It is a matter of a few minutes to open a Hotmail e-mail account and to all intents and purposes, the
following remarks apply to other similar services.
Open your browser, go to http://www.hotmail.com and follow the
instructions for a new user.
First of all they will ask you a number of questions about yourself and invite you to choose a username and
password. If the username has already been allocated you will get a response inviting you to choose one from
a list of suggestions offered. Thus it becomes a matter of choosing a username that is acceptable to both
Hotmail and yourself. In the accompanying figures you will see that the address I use is stanjohnstone@hotmail.com.
Next comes a list of suggested topics or mailing lists you are invited to add your name - after all, they
have to pay for the service in some way-although there is no obligation to choose any. They require that you
accept their Agreement; they also call for the account to be accessed within the following 10 days and again
within 60 day intervals.
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Figure 1 shows e-mail addressed to my Hotmail account waiting to be
read.
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Figure 2 shows the typical information for accessing the Melb PC site
and possibly others where you have other e-mail accounts.
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Each of the messages can be opened and read by
a simple double click of the "From" list, and then answered, copied or redirected as in normal e-mail use.
Using the Compose button fresh e-mail may be sent to any other address as you would normally.
However, one of the most powerful features is found under the Options button. Amongst the other services
provided is a heading for POP Mail. Clicking on this opens a new window that enables you to nominate and
configure up to four regular e-mail addresses, and then access each of these through your Hotmail
account.
On the main Hotmail screen with the list of your mail headers (Figure 1), on the left hand side under
Services appear the words Pop Mail. A simple click on this link will provide you with direct access to your
Melb PC or other e-mail account, again with the ability to Open and Read, Reply Copy and Forward exactly as
though you had connected direct.
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Figure 3 shows the headers of mail currently held on my POP account at Melb
PC.
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So
there you have it - the ability to have mail addressed to you at an address which can be accessed and read
worldwide and in addition, access and work with your e-mail that is being sent to your "normal" address.
What Are the Costs?
Even though accounts such as Hotmail are provided free, you will get some junk mail. Perhaps a more
significant problem is that it can be slow, and this can vary quite significantly depending on the time of
your access. All the Hotmail e-mail is located on the one site, and with literally thousands of users the
seeking their e-mail at the one time, identifying and listing your e-mail can take some minutes and then
after that, it has to be downloaded to you from the overseas site. All this takes time, and if you are paying
casual rates for access this is will cost much more than normal e-mail access.
To access the mail from your normal home account means that your local mailbox has to be accessed by Hotmail,
copied across the Pacific and returned to you via the Hotmail connection.
This is much slower than you would normally be accustomed to, but, what the hell! You're on holidays and the
ease and the convenience makes it all worth while!
Leaving Mail On the POP Server
Back in Figure 2 there was a check set against "Leave messages on POP server". Generally speaking it is
always advisable to leave your normal mailer program to the default setting which will remove mail from your
provider's server after a successful download. Occasionally users change this setting and most often it
results in their mailbox becoming overfull, it slows down while the server sorts through all your read and
unread messages until finally everything grinds to a halt.
With the Hotmail access there is the ability to read your e-mail but still leave it on the server. This means
that upon your return home you can use your normal mailer program and download all the mail that came in
while you were away and although previously read, you can now have the original copies stored on your own PC
for future reference. This is about the only time that facility should be used.
What About Another Account?
Although not part of this subject heading, Hotmail and other free similar e-mail services can be used to
allow each member of the family to create their own, unique (Hotmail) e-mail address. Having done this, each
can receive their own e-mail through the family's web browser while still keeping the independence and
confidentiality they would like.
About the Author:
Stan Johnstone leas been a member of the Melb PC Internet team for over six years, in addition to providing
the main e-mail assistance directed to help@melbpc.org.au. He
maintains the Melb PC FAQ pages in the hope that users may first find the answer to their question located
there.
| This article is an expansion of one for questions in the list
of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) which may be accessed from
http://www.melbpc.org.au/faq/ These FAQs are constantly receiving additions and modifications and
suggestions for additional subjects and comments are always welcomed at
admin@melbpc.org.au |
Reprinted from the July 2000 issue of PC Update, the magazine
of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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