Maybe I'm being seasonally dumb, but here's the situation and I can't spot the solution.

I'm going to be staying a month in a Chiang Mai apartment that has wireless internet. My ISP account is with Netscalibur (now part of Claranet) in the UK. I use Outlook to receive/send e-mails on the e-mail account that I have with them. I know I can use their Webmail service to operate that UK account in LOS - I just log into the main Netscalibur site, click on Webmail, then enter my ISP name & password - and all the e-mails come tumbling in.............. along with all the spam.

Apart from the fact their Webmail interface is clunky, there is no spam filtering at their end - so I get every single header that's sitting on the server addressed to me..... meaning I have to manually delete every spam header. I've talked to my ISP support and they don't have an answer. There doesn't seem to be any way of putting a spam filter between me and them. I have Norton Internet Security (which includes their Antispam element) on the laptop I'll be using, but it did nothing while I was travelling last year and I'm not expecting it to work in this case. Am I wrong?

Ideally, I'd like to use Outlook in LOS - spam-protected with Cloudnet Spambar as I use on my desktop in the UK. On previous visits to LOS, I've used I-Pass to dial up a cheap local number for access and it routes through to my ISP and I get to use Outlook as normal. This time, a] there is no 'phone line in the apartment and b] I obviously want to benefit from the wireless internet that is part of the apartment rental deal.

My broadband access in the UK is via Blueyonder and I see in the properties for POP3 incoming mail that I have "popmail.dircon.co.uk" and SMTP outgoing mail "smtp.blueyonder.co.uk". That makes me wonder if it's as simple as just changing the Outlook SMTP property to whatever the Thai apartment uses - e.g. "smtp.thaiflat.co.th" - for the month that I'm there. Happy to switch to another mail program e.g. Pegasus, Eudora etc.

Incidentally, I have Mailwasher Pro to handle Hotmail & Yahoo mail accounts - a relic from the days when neither had decent spam filtering.

Any thoughts?

The POP service for reading email is just using the internet connection and should work from the ISP in Thailand.

i.e. Outlook should work on the wireless internet, at least for reading email. (unless they've done something odd with a proxy server)

Sending email from Outlook might be an issue. It's quite common for SMTP requests to be rejected from other networks (i.e. your ISP will generally only accept SMTP mail from computers connected to it directly, not ones connected from the other side of the planet, simply so that they don't act as a relay for SPAM). For that reason, you might have to use the webmail to send...

Yes - you probably could use the local smtp server, if you know the settings for it. BUT, you might need to specify an account with that ISP to send with. (admittedly, you should be able to specify that the reply address is still your regular email).

If their smtp server does need an account login, then you might still get by if you've got hold of a gmail address. They use encryption and allow you to send with smtp from anywhere.

Edited February 4, 200521 yr by bkk_mike

The POP service for reading email is just using the internet connection and should work from the ISP in Thailand.

i.e. Outlook should work on the wireless internet, at least for reading email. (unless they've done something odd with a proxy server)

Sending email from Outlook might be an issue. It's quite common for SMTP requests to be rejected from other networks (i.e. your ISP will generally only accept SMTP mail from computers connected to it directly, not ones connected from the other side of the planet, simply so that they don't act as a relay for SPAM). For that reason, you might have to use the webmail to send...

Yes - you probably could use the local smtp server, if you know the settings for it. BUT, you might need to specify an account with that ISP to send with. (admittedly, you should be able to specify that the reply address is still your regular email).

If their smtp server does need an account login, then you might still get by if you've got hold of a gmail address. They use encryption and allow you to send with smtp from anywhere.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Mike - that sounds very promising. My main aim is to be able to read e-mail via Outlook a] because my spam protection will deal with the crap and b] because I like to keep some e-mails for later reference. If what you say about firing up Outlook on the apartment's network for reading actually works, then that's 90% of it solved; I'll download my e-mails (thus clearing them from the UK ISP's server) and then use Webmail (which by now won't have any clutter to download) for sending if I have to.

I have got a Gmail address (courtesy of Henry Pae on here) but haven't explored it much yet. Sounds like this may be the opportunity.

BTW, I have 3 Gmail invites available if anyone still needs one. Just PM me with your e-mail address.

Thanks again!

If nothing else, you can set up outlook to read your gmail as well.

http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13287

(I use Thunderbird myself, not outlook, but that should cover the settings you would need).

Personally, I've switched to using gmail as my main non-work email address. It means I can switch ISP if I want to in the future, and still get my email.

Edited February 5, 200521 yr by bkk_mike

If nothing else, you can set up outlook to read your gmail as well.

http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13287

(I use Thunderbird myself, not outlook, but that should cover the settings you would need).

Personally, I've switched to using gmail as my main non-work email address. It means I can switch ISP if I want to in the future, and still get my email.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good thinking - particularly for when I make the permanent move to LOS. And I'll be VERY happy to move away from Hotmail and even Yahoo the way things are going.............