Remote Email Access

At this time of the year, we regularly get asked by infrequent computer users how they can access emails whilst abroad or away from home or office.

If you have an individual account (say with BT Internet) and normally download messages directly to your PC, you should check to see if your service provider has Webmail. If so, sign-up for that service and you can access your messages whilst they are still on the online (i.e. before you download them). You can respond to them or send new messages. Hint: send a copy of new messages to yourself so you can download a copy when you get back to your PC.

Alternatively, open a Hotmail account or try Google’s new G-mail service, where the emails are retained on the Internet, and ask your contacts to use that address for the time that you are away.

If the email that you wish to access will have already been downloaded through your PC or company’s server (therefore no longer residing on the Internet), then you should consider signing up for a service called GoToMyPC. This is an excellent facility that allows travellers to dial straight into their own office PC and use it remotely in the same way as you would do in the office.

Click on the GoToMyPC ad on the right side of this screen for more details.