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Retrieving
your emails when away from your home or office PC
Using a laptop with a mobile
phone connection
Once set up, you can dial up in the usual way whether in the UK
or overseas where there is an available roaming service. The key
concern is the slow connection speeds currently possible on mobile
connections - typically 9,600 rather than 28,800 or 31,200 or 56,000
on fixed lines - so downloads can be considerably slower.
First you will need to check you have a mobile phone incorporating
a suitable modem for data connections and then obtain the software
to set up your laptop to enable a dial up connection via the mobile
phone. Nokia provide this and setting up, whilst not simple, is
relatively straightforward. You will also need a special cable to
connect your mobile phone to the laptop.
Second.
Ensuring you have a working dial up access number is the
next item to check. In the UK most ISPs give you an 0800 dial up
number but that will not work overseas. So contact your ISP in advance
and get an international dial up number they know will work! Some
of the larger ISPs like CompuServe have regional dial up numbers
- for example in Hong Kong - which may
be closer for call charges. The fail-safe is to get a UK number
- often a London 0207 number - which you can dial up as an international
call.
Third. Before making the call from your laptop, you will
need to get the international call access number and the country
code you need to use before the international dial up number
you have been given by your ISP. You also need to check whether
you have to dial a number to get a line - often the case in hotels
and offices. Armed with the full combination of numbers for the
call, you then need to change your dial up settings in Outlook Express
to include the complete number you need dial.
Fourth.
Now the acid test - the dial up! Clearly you will do some thorough
testing of the set-up in the UK before you set off overseas to make
sure it works without a hitch!
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Can you get a
connection in the country?
If you have a mobile phone which operates well in the UK you will
need to check whether it will operate overseas. There are different
cellular systems in various countries - for example the system in
the USA and Brazil is different from that in the UK. If you have a
tri-band handset that will probably overcome that difficulty but check
with your local cellphone supplier beforehand.
Roaming service will need to be activated
Remember to have the roaming service in operation before you go -
again check with your local cellphone supplier beforehand to doublecheck.
Slow connection speed of 9,600 with mobile phones (GPRS service)
will mean that if anyone sends you a large, or even a moderately large,
attached file you will have a long call which can be very expensive.
At the 9,600 baud rate, a 1.00MB attachment will take around 21 minutes
to download!
Dealing with
large attachments on the move
If someone does send you a large attachment whilst you are away,
you will need the remote web2mail.com service to remove that email
from your ISP's server otherwise you will be blocked from collecting
other emails. Using the web2mail service, you will need to delete
that large email and send an advice to the sender that the
email will have to be sent later (when you are back home or in the
office) or to another email account which will not block your remote
email collection via a laptop and mobile phone. One way of overcoming
this is to set up a separate email address for emails on the
move and then your office or home can forward emails without
large attachments to that special email address.
Cost -
collecting emails via a laptop and mobile phone combination is often
less expensive than connecting to a hotel telephone room with the
high telephone charges you pay on your hotel bill.
See our note on the faster 3G datacard option
Mobile Connect 3G datacard
option
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