To the average PC user taking your laptop on holiday is insane, holidays are a time to get away from it all, relax and enjoy yourself. Well thats true, I do relax to some extent and I do certainly enjoy myself, but the internet has become a part of my life, once again alarm bells are ringing around your head, this guy is crazy!!!, but its true, I want to shop, find, communicate, its all done using the internet. A good way to check how the internet is part of your life pull the plug, give your modem or router to a friend and instruct them not to give it to you under any circumstances, unless violence is about to break out!, then its ok? and then see just how long it takes to use the first internet reference in conversation. Some of you may have had this conversation with me before and will remeber this, my first reference in this situation is for checking time, yes, cinema times, I can’t use the net, its driving me insane so I decide to watch a movie to take the time away, and the first thing I do is head to the PC to check the times! Some of you may say “why not call the cinema for times”, well that costs me a phone call, I pay for the internet so why not use it! Call me cheap, but think about it, all the calls you make for that info you need, all the times you’ve been through automated systems pressing 1, then 2, then 5, and all those times you’ve been left on hold while “I’ll just check that”, add that up over the month and then the year, and you’re paying for internet access at the same time! I rest my case.

So what does all this have to do with your holiday and webmail I hear you asking? Well here I am sat in a hotel room in Tokyo at 6.20am, I’ve been awake for a couple of hours not adjusting to the time difference very well, so what better way to spend the time than write a blog post! and that brings me to the point, Web Mail. 30 minutes earlier I decided to write an email, no problems there until I hit Send, and then, nothing, it sits in my outbox and won’t go! I connect to my own mailserver so no ISP restrictions forcing me to email only from my home connection, I consult the hotels internet guide provided in my room, no problems there, although the extra section at the bottom is unnerving telling me if I do have mail sending problems connect using a modem and “You will be charged for this”, I don’t think so!

Webmail comes to the rescue, to some webmail is the norm, a hotmail email address is all you’ve had and ever known, but to the rest of us who use Outlook, webmail may be your saviour in such circumstances. To many it is unknown that you can access your email via the internet from another location, take a look at your ISP’s homepage, you’ll more than likely see a read email link, type your username and password and like magic all your new email is there! Do note that I say “new email”, thats because if you use Outlook or a similar mail program they will delete the mail from the server once it has downloaded to your PC. 

Luckily for me I have an option within my server control panel to set up a webmail account using my current email address, taking around 10 minutes to set up and even change all the page colours to make it pleasing on the eye. Now I can email all my friends and family with those holiday snaps, time for the dial up members of my family to change to broadband I think???

Which brings me full circle to using your laptop on holiday, if your like me, a bit of an adventurer, you like to see whats out there and not just sit around the pool, not that I’m knocking it if thats your thing, then why not tap in the the net and find out what to do, you never know what hidden treasures you might find within a stones throw from your hotel.

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