Wi-fi and SMTP

Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.

I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
send emails although I can receive them fine.

I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details of
the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given situation, how
can I find these details? I'm about to visit a friend who, like me,
has a wireless network at home so I'd like to be able to send emails in
the usual way rather than messing around with webmail etc.

Thanks.

Alan wrote:
> Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
> for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.
>
> I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
> home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
> send emails although I can receive them fine.
>
> I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details of
> the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given situation, how
> can I find these details? I'm about to visit a friend who, like me,
> has a wireless network at home so I'd like to be able to send emails
> in the usual way rather than messing around with webmail etc.
>
> Thanks.

It might be because your ISP will only allow email sending when you are
connected to its servers. The work-around is to use web based email. (which
you said you didn't like)
Many ISPs have gone this route to prevent spamming from its servers. Mine
has... SBC.

Alan,
I have the same problem when I use my laptop on the road. My home internet
provider is Cablevision, and I use Outlook Express to send and receive
e-mail. When I am away from home I can receive e-mail but not send it. The
way I got around this is to setup a free Google e-mail account which allows
you to send and receive e-mail using a POP3 e-mail client. I than configured
Outlook Express with two e-mail accounts, "optonline", and "gmail". When I
am home I set the "optonline" account as the default, when on the road I
sent the "gmail" account as the default.

The gmail web site has instructions to setup the gmail account in Outlook
Express and other e-mail clients.

Tony


"Alan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
> for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.
>
> I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
> home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
> send emails although I can receive them fine.
>
> I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details of
> the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given situation, how
> can I find these details? I'm about to visit a friend who, like me,
> has a wireless network at home so I'd like to be able to send emails in
> the usual way rather than messing around with webmail etc.
>
> Thanks.
>

"DanR" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:HeA4g.18401$(E-Mail Removed). com...
> Alan wrote:
.... snip ...
>> I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
>> home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
>> send emails although I can receive them fine.
.. snip..

> It might be because your ISP will only allow email sending when you are
> connected to its servers. The work-around is to use web based email.
> (which you said you didn't like)
> Many ISPs have gone this route to prevent spamming from its servers. Mine
> has... SBC.
>

My ISP limits sending emails to when I'm connected via the broadband line in
the house ,too.

I have overcome that problem when I'm out and about by installing a mail
client that sits on a spare PC at home (I used MailEnable but there will be
others available). The PC is always on while I'm away and, because my ISP
supplies a static IP addresss, I can send emails to the SMTP service running
on the spare PC; in turn, it simply forwards them to my ISP for delivery in
the usual way.

Note: this SMTP service is giving me "mail relay" - what the spammers want
to use - so as well as a tight firewall, I have a very long username/pssword
combination. Interestingly, I was checking the logs in the early days and as
well as the usual hackers trying to get onto the mail server, I noticed my
ISP trying a whole series of tests to ensure they don't have a mail relay on
one of their lines.

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:07:33 +0100, "Ben Clay" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> My ISP limits sending emails to when I'm connected via the broadband line in
> the house ,too.

Ask your ISP whether they offer access, perhaps using authentication or on
a non-standard TCP/IP service port number for their customers to use when
making connection from off their network.

> I have overcome that problem when I'm out and about by installing a mail
> client that sits on a spare PC at home (I used MailEnable but there will be
> others available). The PC is always on while I'm away and, because my ISP
> supplies a static IP addresss, I can send emails to the SMTP service running
> on the spare PC; in turn, it simply forwards them to my ISP for delivery in
> the usual way.

Folks with dynamically allocated WAN IP addresses have just the same
ability by using an address service such as DynDNS. One of the hosts on
the LAN will run a client program such as DynDNS Updater and that allows
the home network to be addressed by domain name from anywhere.

Tony

>"Alan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
>for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.
>
>I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
>home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
>send emails although I can receive them fine.
>
>I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details of
>the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given situation, how
>can I find these details? I'm about to visit a friend who, like me,
>has a wireless network at home so I'd like to be able to send emails in
>the usual way rather than messing around with webmail etc.
>
>Thanks.

The simplest solution is to get a Gmail account, which will give you
access to their authenticated SMTP server. Simply change your existing
email software to use the Gmail SMTP server rather than your ISP's
server. After you make that one-time change, you will be able to send
email whether connected at home or on the road.

That said, there are circumstances when you will still be stymied. Some
public networks block the usual ports used for sending mail, and at
least one ISP that I use (at a friend's house) will not allow use of any
SMTP server except theirs. In 99% of the cases, though, switching to the
Gmail server will solve your problem.

--
Dave

Alan wrote:
> Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
> for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.
>
> I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
> home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
> send emails although I can receive them fine.
>
> I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details of
> the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given situation, how
> can I find these details? I'm about to visit a friend who, like me,
> has a wireless network at home so I'd like to be able to send emails in
> the usual way rather than messing around with webmail etc.
>
> Thanks.

I have solved this problem for myself by getting a POBOX.COM address.
This allows me access to their SMTP authenticated server and I can send
email from any location worldwide (and have done so). See -

<www.pobox.com> for information.

Dave Rudisill wrote:
>> "Alan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
>> for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.
>>
>> I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine
>> at home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not
>> able to send emails although I can receive them fine.
>>
>> I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details
>> of the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given
>> situation, how can I find these details? I'm about to visit a
>> friend who, like me, has a wireless network at home so I'd like to
>> be able to send emails in the usual way rather than messing around
>> with webmail etc.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> The simplest solution is to get a Gmail account, which will give you
> access to their authenticated SMTP server. Simply change your existing
> email software to use the Gmail SMTP server rather than your ISP's
> server. After you make that one-time change, you will be able to send
> email whether connected at home or on the road.
>
> That said, there are circumstances when you will still be stymied.
> Some public networks block the usual ports used for sending mail, and
> at least one ISP that I use (at a friend's house) will not allow use
> of any SMTP server except theirs. In 99% of the cases, though,
> switching to the Gmail server will solve your problem.

This sounds like a good idea and you can always change to "reply" address to
your original email address. So when you receive email on the road via your
original provider you can reply via Gmail but by changing the "reply"
address in the Gmail account... people that then reply to that message will
be sending to your original email address. For the most part this is
transparent to who your corresponding with. (or is it whom)

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Dave Rudisill <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>"Alan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
>>for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.
>>
>>I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
>>home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
>>send emails although I can receive them fine.
>>
>>I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details of
>>the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given situation, how
>>can I find these details? I'm about to visit a friend who, like me,
>>has a wireless network at home so I'd like to be able to send emails in
>>the usual way rather than messing around with webmail etc.
>>
>>Thanks.
>
>The simplest solution is to get a Gmail account, which will give you
>access to their authenticated SMTP server. Simply change your existing
>email software to use the Gmail SMTP server rather than your ISP's
>server. After you make that one-time change, you will be able to send
>email whether connected at home or on the road.
>
>That said, there are circumstances when you will still be stymied. Some
>public networks block the usual ports used for sending mail, and at
>least one ISP that I use (at a friend's house) will not allow use of any
>SMTP server except theirs. In 99% of the cases, though, switching to the
>Gmail server will solve your problem.
>

What is happening is you ar enot 'logged in' to your ISP's mailserver or
the hotpsot is blocking port 25 (this is an anti-spam measure some ISPs
take, sort of helps deal wuth customer computers being taken over by bots).
Aside from Gamil and the other free web mails, see if your mail server
(ISP) can be configured to also listn on a different port. Then if 25 is
blocked 'who cares I don't use it' applies.

My host supports this as my ISP blocks 25, so my host (I don't use my ISP
for anything but connectivity and usenet) allows me to submit outgoing mail
on a different port along with the usual ID confirmation etc. Works great
when I travel, at home etc. ISPs don't look at the type of traffic, they
just block certain ports, get off them and you are good to go.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, RWEmerson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Alan wrote:
>> Apologies if I'm repeating old questions, or if I should have looked
>> for an FAQ etc. Am rather pushed for time unfortunately.
>>
>> I have an Apple Mac Powerbook with a wireless card. All works fine at
>> home. When I travel, I often use wi-fi hotspots, but I'm not able to
>> send emails although I can receive them fine.
>>
>> I'm assuming that it's because my computer doesn't know the details of
>> the relevant SMTP server - is that correct? In a given situation, how
>> can I find these details? I'm about to visit a friend who, like me,
>> has a wireless network at home so I'd like to be able to send emails in
>> the usual way rather than messing around with webmail etc.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
>I have solved this problem for myself by getting a POBOX.COM address.
>This allows me access to their SMTP authenticated server and I can send
>email from any location worldwide (and have done so). See -
>
><www.pobox.com> for information.

To save a bit of money look at a 'low proced' webhost. Most include email
accounts in the package and more then a few will allow you to use something
other then port 25 for outgoing mail (making you immune to the hotspot's
ISP filtering). You can find webhosts these days for less then $20.00
annually.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.