Webmail makes digital life on the road easier, but for most of us it’s not a particularly elegant solution. The browser interface can be oh so slow; you end up with multiple email addresses and messages stored in different places; and you lose the benefits of using powerful software such as Microsoft Outlook to handle not only your email, but also your calendar and contacts.

Far betterwould be the ability to take our home or office email with us: the same email program we use every day; the same email address; the same configuration; and the same mail store.

Unfortunately, most Internet Service Providers - and office mail systems - throw a fit if you try to use your email using another ISP’s network or a wireless hotspot. If you’ve ever encountered a “relaying denied” error message, you’ll understand the frustration this can cause.

Enter portable SMTP servers. These alternative mail deliverers provide a simple solution to your email-on-the-road woes.

SMTP? 

SMTP is not the sort of thing most of us spend a lot of time thinking about. If you know what the initials stand for – Simple Mail Transport Protocol – you’re ahead of the game. But when it comes to taking your email with you, it’s worth gaining at least a nodding acquaintance with the possibilities behind those initials.

I’ve written a guide to using an alternative SMTP server to gain seamless access to your email from anywhere. The article describes a number of ways to loosen your SMTP shackles, but if you’d like the I’m-too-busy-for-an-executive-summary summary, it’s this: give SMTP2Go Worldwide SMTP Server a try. This SMTP relay service is inexpensive (with a 7-day free trial so you can check it out), ridiculously easy to set up, and works smoothly and reliably.

I’ve tried other portable SMTP solutions in the past, including the downloadable Postcast Server and Gmail’s SMTP server, and encountered bumps and hiccoughs on the road. Using a relay service like SMTP2Go seems to eliminate those problems.

There are other SMTP relay services and downloadable servers available and I mention several of them in the article. Have you had experience - good, bad - with any such services? Let me know.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to find a place for snippets that don’t fit well in my site, Geekgirl’s Plain English Computing. So far, I’ve been writing reviews and commentary in the blog; today, it’s time I started sharing some tips. This one is for those of you who use Microsoft Outlook.

Outlook comes with a collection of command-line switches which let you determine how the program starts. By default, Outlook opens to either your Inbox or the Outlook Today page, using a command-line that looks something like this:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE”  /recycle

The /recycle at the end of that line is a switch which tells Outlook to start up in an existing Outlook window if one is available. Essentially, it tells Outlook to open once only and to switch to the existing Outlook window if you try to run a second copy.

Often it’s handy to have both the Outlook email folders and the Outlook Calendar displayed side by side. A simple way to do this is to create a separate Outlook shortcut using the /select outlook:calendar switch. The following shortcut opens a new Outlook window and displays the Calendar:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE” /select outlook:calendar

Editing Outlook’s start up command line

This assumes you’re using Office 2003, installed in the default folders.

Here’s a simple way to create a customised shortcut regardless of which version of Outlook you use:

1. Make a copy of the Outlook shortcut in the Quick Launch bar by holding down the Ctrl key while you drag the shortcut icon onto an empty spot on your desktop. (Note: If you can’t see the Quick Launch bar, right-click the taskbar, select Toolbars from the pop-up menu and click Quick Launch.)
2. Right-click the Outlook shortcut you’ve just created on the desktop and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
3. On the Shortcut tab of the Properties dialog box, in the Target box delete /recycle at the end of the command line and replace it with /select outlook:calendar. Make sure you leave a space between the first part of the command and /select.
4. Click the Change Icon button. You’ll see a bunch of icons included in the Outlook program file. Click the Calendar icon and click OK.
5. Click the General tab and change the text in the first box to read Launch the Outlook Calendar, then click OK.
6. Drag the shortcut icon onto the Quick Launch bar, if you like.

Now, if you want to have the Calendar open alongside your email folders, simply click the normal Outlook icon in the Quick Launch bar the click the Calendar icon.