Generally speaking, one of the main purposes of a vacation is to get away from our wired world. However, sometimes it's important to keep in touch by email.
Difficulty Level: Medium Time Required: 1 hour
Here's How:
- If you're traveling in the US and have a laptop, find out if your ISP (Information Service Provider-- the place you dial to get on the internet) provides a local-dialup at your destination.
- If so, write down the local phone numbers you'll need, and you'll be able to access your email account as usual.
- Again, if you'll be in the US and have a laptop: consider signing up with a free ISP that offers a local-dial-up at your destination. ( See Link below.)
- Otherwise: decide if (A) you need to access your own, existing email account, or (B) a free new web-based account will serve your purposes.
- For Option B, head to a website such as Hotmail (Link below), where you can easily set up a free email account that you can use from any location, as long as you have Internet access to the Hotmail website.
- To access the Internet while you're on the road, look for "cyber-cafes" at your destination: places where you can rent Internet access by the hour (and get coffee too.)
- For Option A, if you need to access your own email account, a number of new websites offer free services. (See Link below.)
- If you're setting up access to your own account, be sure you know your email settings! i.e., what to enter for the POP3 and SMTP information.
- The easiest way to use email when traveling is to set up an account at a website like Hotmail: as long as you can access the website (through a cyber-cafe, a friend's computer, or public library), you'll be able to send and receive email-- with no POP3 settings, no local dial-up numbers, no fuss.
- Privacy and security may vary with
different email systems.
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