(About 696 words)

Absence Makes the E-Mail Grow Fonder
By Gabe Goldberg, APCUG Advisor; Columnist, AARP Computer & Technology Website, www.aarp.org

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" is never truer for me than when I'm on the road, away from my wife, four cats, and e-mail. My wife and cats forgive my travels but it's a challenge e-mailing remotely. Fortunately, technology provides many ways to access e-mail. You're on your own, however, explaining to people you're visiting why you need a
break from vacation, sightseeing, or family, to check for in-box nuggets.

Aside from pressure to stay in touch (some people are addicted to e-mail), it's worth thinking about e-mail before traveling, especially for an extended period. Many ISPs (Internet service providers) limit the e-mail they'll store for you. If you exceed this amount your e-mail may "bounce"--that is, be returned to senders. That frustrates people writing to you and causes problems with lists to which you're subscribed.

You can suspend list subscriptions to reduce e-mail volume, but that's a nuisance and won't help if someone sends you huge notes with vacation pictures.

If you have dial access you can't do much other than ask correspondents not to send large notes. Always-on cable or DSL users can leave e-mail software enabled, downloading mail as it arrives. But things can still go wrong--power may fail--leaving e-mail stranded at the ISP.

This article describes using remote computers for e-mail; it doesn't cover traveling with a laptop (which may require reconfiguration for sending e-mail) or using your cell phone or wireless PDA (which should be straightforward).

Facilities for reading e-mail will require your normal e-mail password; if your PC logs in automatically, you may not remember it! It's a nasty surprise--realizing when you're far away--that you've forgotten your password.

The easiest way to read e-mail when away from home is through your ISP's facility. If you normally read e-mail via a Web interface, your life is simple indeed: find an online computer, enter the ISP's e-mail Web address (URL), and you'll have your familiar interface. This also works for Yahoo!, Google's Gmail, and other national e-mail services.

Even if you usually read e-mail using a PC program such as Outlook Express, Eudora, or Thunderbird (which all use an Internet protocol; called "POP3"), your ISP may provide Web access to e-mail, so ask. If it's available, practice using it before leaving so you can learn the process and have ISP tech support handy instead of a long-distance call away. Again, take your ISP information with you so you can log on, get help, etc.

Some ISPs provide an e-mail interface called Telnet. This text-only (not graphical) interface was developed in the Internet's early days. It's fast, efficient, and accessible from most PCs, but isn't intuitive and best suits technically oriented folks. If you'll use this on the road, practice beforehand is essential.

A very simple tool for accessing many ISP's e-mail is Mail2Web [www.mail2web.com]. Enter your e-mail address and password; the Web site fetches and displays your e-mail. Notes you send will appear to be from your normal e-mail address. Yahoo! provides a similar facility for reading POP3 e-mail.

AOL members can visit AOL's Web site [www.aol.com], click the Mail link, and access e-mail. 

If you use an always-on Windows XP PC, you can--with technical setup beforehand and assuming no ISP-imposed blockage--use its built-in Remote Desktop feature to operate your home PC remotely as if you were sitting in front of it.

Two final issues: First, keep security in mind when using strange computers. Don't allow passwords to be saved; when finished, clear the browser cache and close applications you've used. Second, be careful setting an "away" message for everyone who e-mails you. Some less-than-clever notification systems annoy people and interfere with mailing lists.

This article originated on AARP's Computers and Technology Web site, 
www.aarp.org/computers, and is copyrighted by AARP. All rights are reserved; it may be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, or transferred, for single use, or by nonprofit organizations for educational purposes, with attribution to AARP. It should be unchanged and this paragraph included. Please e-mail Gabe Goldberg at
gabe@gabegold.com when you use it, or for permission to excerpt or condense.

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.