Bloggers helped me a great deal in selecting my new washer and dryer a few months back, I thought I'd try one a bit closer to home: sending and receiving international email.
Last week, when I was in Canada, I was completely cut off most of the time. When I returned, my shel@itseemstome.net went right back on again. This happens most of the time when I leave the US.
I've had my ISP for years. He's a one-person operation and a really good guy. He says that the problem is with international handshakes between my computer and foreign service relay providers and switching ISPs won't help me, but I'm not so sure since most people don't seem to have the headaches I have.
Let me begin with what I want. I want one email and one phone number, wherever I go. I want it to be easy for people to reach me and for me to find their messages. I don't like have to call three numbers to find someone and sending three copies of email to various accounts to track them down and I suspect people trying to reach me feel the same way.
I also prefer to do email in my Outlook client. It's the devil I know and I understand where the trouble spots are and how to fix them, if the problem is on my desktop.
Here are some of the things I tried in Canada that did not work: Mail2Web.com is a free service that supposedly lets you pull down your email from the web. It failed for me. My ISP has a web-based service that is a bit clunky, but often works. It also failed for me. MY ingoing and outgoing SMTP addresses are identical. Resetting my Outlook email account password did not help.
So can YOU help?
Would changing ISPs make a difference? Are there ISPs better suited to serving international travelers? Is this a time to abandon my preference for a small service organization for something bigger? Can you name an ISP who is good at letting customers connect all over the world.
Or do most people live with this and just switch to hotmail and Yahoo email accounts when traveling?
I leave in 10 days for three weeks in about 10 European countries, so I need to address this problem now.
BTW the Kenmore washer/dryers work just great. Thanks for the tips on that one.
