WiFi Savvy

In last week’s post, I told you the good news. Wi-Fi is available lots of places, it’s inexpensive, it’s an easy way to connect to the Internet, and it’s fast. Now for the bad news: It doesn’t always work.

Wi-Fi is 2-way radio, creating a computer network. There are so many things that can go wrong - on both sides. Most RV parks don’t have a budget for a computer technician on-site, so they may not even know how to test their side of the Wi-Fi hotspot, let alone fix it! But, for purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that the hotspot is working properly.

If you are close to the Access Point (the hotspot’s side of the 2-way) the Wi-Fi capabilities built in to your computer will work fine. But, if you’re a distance away, or there are obstructions, you may have problems connecting. The most common cause is that your internal Wi-Fi adapter is not strong enough to make the connection. And, by ‘a distance away’ I’m only talking 100 feet or so. When you see a rating on an adapter for distances of 300 feet or more, realize that is referring to ‘unobstructed line-of-sight.’

Wi-Fi was never intended to operate in a large outdoor environment. The technology was developed to work in a small, indoor location like a home, an office, or a coffee shop. If you take your laptop (with built-in Wi-Fi capability) to a coffee shop hotspot, you should have no problem connecting. But, take that same laptop to an RV park where you are some distance to the antennas, and there are many obstructions in the way, and you’re going to have problems. This is why many RV parks just have Wi-Fi available at the clubhouse, or office. It’s much more reliable there, and so much easier to manage. If you’re willing to take your laptop to the clubhouse, it should work fine.

If you want it to work at your site (and the park claims to deliver it there) your built-in adapter/antenna may not have what it takes to connect thru the metal walls and over the distance required. All laptops are not created equal when it comes to their Wi-Fi capabilities. My husband, Jim’s, laptop has the best built-in Wi-Fi we’ve seen. It is a 3 year old Sony Vaio. When I went to buy a new computer earlier this year, I almost bought a Sony, but decided there were a few other features I liked better about the Toshiba. I assumed that the Wi-Fi capabilities would surely be as good in my new Toshiba than in his 3 year old computer. I was wrong.

Ok, so what do I do now?

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If you use client-based email like Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Eudora, or Entourage, you may experience trouble sending email from Wi-Fi hotspots. If you missed my introduction to client-based email vs. web-based email, please read Email Choices on the Road first. In today’s article I will go into detail on how to properly configure your email client for outgoing email.

The first thing to understand is that receiving email and sending email are two separate processes handled by different servers. People ask me all the time, “I receive my email just fine, so why can’t I send?”

On the Internet’s email system, the place where you receive your email is usually a ‘POP’ server which stands for ‘Post Office Protocol.’ You will receive your email at the POP server for your email provider. Sending email is handled by a different server, called SMTP for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It used to be that you could send email by dropping it into any old SMTP server (just like a regular postal mailbox.) SMTP servers all over the Internet would accept any email given to them, and happily send it on.

All that has changed because of spam. Most SMTP servers have locked down and will now only accept email from known customers for fear of being liable for sending spam. Proving that you’re a known customer is called ‘Authenticating.’ You must now provide a username and password to the outgoing server (SMTP) as well as the incoming. This is done with settings in your email client software. I will use Outlook as my example. Detailed instructions for other software are included with many of the links later in the article.

When you are at home and you are connected to your home ISP (Internet Service Provider), your Outlook SMTP setting is probably also set to your ISP. You are authenticated to them because you are logged in to their service. They know who you are and they are happy to deliver your email.

When you are on the road and using a Wi-Fi signal to connect to the Internet - your home SMTP setting probably won’t work since you’re not connecting thru your home ISP, they don’t know you. They see you simply as some Internet connection from an RV park or a coffee shop somewhere far away. Without some authentication, they refuse to deliver your email.

There is an advanced setting in Outlook ‘Accounts’ under ‘Outgoing Server’ that can help … First click on Tools, Accounts or Account Settings, select the account you want to work on and click Change or Properties. You should see a button for More Settings … find and check the box that says “My Outgoing Server (SMTP) requires authentication” and “Use same settings as my incoming mail server”. This will solve the problem in many situations, but not all.

I hope you’re not too confused yet because there’s more! When email gets sent from your computer it passes through an imaginary doorway called a ‘port.’ The normal port for this process is number 25. Sometimes that port will be blocked entirely. Whether you’re authenticated or not, your email just can’t get out. There are other port numbers available, but only your email provider can specify which one to use, so you must get this information from them. Usually, you can find this information on their website. Sometimes you need to call.

In our work supporting Wi-Fi hotspots in RV parks for the last 4 years, my husband and I have helped many RVers to send their email. We always need to look up the settings for each person’s email provider. Below, I have links to helpful instructions for many such providers.

Outlook Express setup instructions for Comcast.net
SMTP settings for Earthlink
AOL Open Mail Access
Gmail setup instructions for several different email clients
Cox.net email setup instructions
Juno.com: Using Authenticated SMTP
AT&T-Yahoo-SBCGlobal email setup instructions
Email hosted by GoDaddy.com
Email hosted by 1and1.com

If you’re only away from home occasionally, using Webmail is the best way to go. You visit the website that your email provider offers and log into your mailbox. Since you’re logged in there - it knows who you are and will happily deliver your email.

If you really want to use a client-based email software and none of the above settings help,there is one more option. Use a different SMTP server.

For example, I have an email address (@jimandchris.com) from long ago using a little-known host. I can receive the emails no problem using the settings @jimandchris.com, but I cannot send using the jimandchris SMTP server no matter how I change the settings. So .. for the SMTP settings, I don’t use the server supplied with the jimandchris.com account. I use the SMTP server settings from one that works - like Gmail. If you do this, just make sure that you do not check ‘use same settings as my incoming mail server.’ You’ll need to Log on using the name and password for the SMTP server.

The WiFi hotspot may also have their own SMTP server that will work when you are using their network. Just remember to change it back when you leave there.

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com

Gmail is Google’s free email service. You can get your own email address, for example: SuzyRVer@gmail.com. You can use the gmail website to create, send, receive and manage your email from any Internet connected computer. Or, you can use your client-based email program, such as Outlook, to create, send, receive and manage your email. You can even have gmail fetch emails from other addresses.

There are other free email services that can do all this, but I trust Google products to work better than most. And, once you have a gmail account, you have access to all the other great free stuff that Google offers like the Calendar, Picasa Web Albums, and Blogger. I have been accused of being a Google evangelist, I just love their stuff. It seems all the seminars we teach revolve around one Google product or another. No, I don’t own Google stock! I just wish I did.

Signing up for a Gmail account is easy, just go to www.gmail.com and click on the link to ‘Sign up for Gmail.’ As soon as you’ve filled out the form, you have a gmail account. You can watch my short video on how to sign up for gmail.

Once you have the account, you instantly have an online inbox. You can tell people your new email address and start receiving and sending emails right away. It really is that simple.

In order to receive your gmail on your computer and be able to compose and read email offline, you have a little more work to do. This capability is called ‘POP’ access which I explained in last week’s blog post. Gmail also provides IMAP access, which is another, more sophisticatd way to get email on your computer. In either case, you must first turn the feature ON in Gmail. Just click on the menu option for ‘Settings’ then the tab for Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

You’re not done yet. Now you need to tell your computer’s email software about your gmail account. Your email client software, e.g. Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Eudora or Thunderbird, needs to know where to go on the Internet to find your gmail and what servers to use to send your email. It’s not hard, but you do need to follow the directions exactly. Gmail has help on doing this for each software.

When you’re done, you now can receive your email on your computer any time you are online. Then you can read it at your leisure offline, reply to whatever you want, and compose new email offline. The next time you are online, all the email you wrote will be sent.

If you find yourself in a situation where your computer can’t get online, but you have access to some other connected computer, you can go to gmail.com, log in to your account and read or send email there.

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com

Last week I told you that you could check your home-based email by visiting the provider’s website. We call that webmail. When you use programs like Outlook, Outlook Express, Entourage, Eudora, or Vista’s Windows Mail, we call that client-based email. This week I want to explain the difference between the two, and why you would choose to use one over the other.

Your email provider
Who is your email provider? If your address ends in @comcast.net, then your provider is Comcast. If your address ends in @telus.net, your provider is Telus. With all the Canadian snowbirds, I’ve been doing a lot of configuring Telus email accounts lately!

There are hundreds of email providers, Verizon, BellSouth, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Gmail, Roadrunner, Earthlink are all email providers and they all have webmail - a way to access your account thru their website.

What if you have a custom email address? For example my address is @geeksontour.com. GeeksOnTour.com does not have it’s own email server. I have to know what company is the host for GeeksOnTour. Since I set it up, I know that the host is GoDaddy.com. So, my webmail is available at Godaddy’s website.

Your email software: webmail or client-based
When you access your email, you are using some kind of email software. If you’re accessing your email via the web, you’re using software on your email provider’s website … webmail software (and each company’s can be different.) If you’re accessing email via software installed on your computer (Outlook Express, Eudora, Windows Mail) we call that client-based software. Your computer is a client to the Internet.

Regardless of the software you use, your email is originally delivered to your account on your provider’s email servers. Think of those email servers as a Post Office where you have a PO Box. All mail addressed to you is delivered to that PO Box. Using webmail is like you physically visiting the Post Office to read your mail. You must be online to do this, once you lose your Internet connection, you can no longer read or send email.

Using client-based software is like having a mailman who goes to the post office for you and gets your mail, delivering it to your computer. Once it’s on your computer, you no longer need the Internet connection.

Configuring your Email Client
Most people, when given a choice, prefer to use client-based email. I mean, who wouldn’t choose home delivery over having to visit the post office? For travelers, who only have sporadic Internet connections, client-based software is nice because you can read and write your email when you are offline. You only need the Internet to get new mail, or to send mail. You can also set up your email client to get your email from several different accounts, bringing it all into the one program on your computer. This way you can have many different providers, but only need to learn one program.

So, what’s the catch? Well, sometimes while traveling, you want to check email when you don’t even have your computer. If you use webmail, you can read and send email from any Internet-connected computer. Also, when you travel there are problems in regards to sending email. Sending email is handled by a different server than receiving. It’s called an SMTP server (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and there are customized settings to make it work when you travel. Many email providers have different SMTP settings, and you may even have to change the settings to match an individual Wi-Fi hotspot.

The best option of course, is to use both! With most email providers where you pay for their service, you can access your mail with their webmail software OR with your own client-based software. For example, Bellsouth.net offers webmail, and they also offer what is called POP access. POP stands for Post Office Protocol, IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol, and one of these is necessary for using client-based email software.

If your email provider is not a ‘POP’ or ‘IMAP’ email provider, you can’t use it with an email client such as Outlook. Most free email providers do not offer POP or IMAP access. A shining exception is Gmail. I’ll cover the details of how to set it up in a future article.

Chris Guld,
www.GeeksOnTour.com

It wasn’t that long ago that Pocketmail was our only option for email that we could use as we traveled. Now, with Internet connections available almost everywhere we go, email should work just like at home, right? Well … almost.

A friend of mine recently took a short trip from his home in Florida to North Carolina and he took his laptop computer (with WiFi) with him, but he said he couldn’t get his email because that always comes into Outlook on his desktop computer at home. I taught him how he can check his email from anywhere, and the same technique should apply to you as well.

His email is @bellsouth.net. So, all he needs to do is go to www.bellsouth.net - in your case it may be www.telus.net, www.comcast.net, or whatever the website is for your provider - and find the link to log in. On Bellsouth.net there is a spot in the upper right that says, “Sign In”. It doesn’t mention email because that is just one of the services provided for customers. Once you sign in with your account’s username and password, you will see a link to check your email. Other providers’ websites specifically link to ‘Webmail’ or ‘Check your Email’.

The point is, as long as you know your username (same as your email) and password, most providers give you a way to see your email thru their website. You don’t have to have Outlook, or any other email client, set up. You don’t have to have a specific webmail account like Yahoo! or Gmail or Hotmail, you can check your regular email on your provider’s website. If you don’t know your email provider’s website, or it’s not working right, you can try www.mail2web.com. It’s quite amazing. You don’t even need to be registered with them. Just enter your email address and password, and it will go retrieve your mail! It can even get your email on corporate accounts.

Once you know how to check your email from your provider’s website, you can make a shortcut to that on your desktop, or put it in your favorites. There’s a video on my website that teaches how to make a shortcut. It’s on the ‘Essential Skills‘ page, then click on ’shortcuts.’

If you are going to be traveling for extended periods, you may be canceling your service from Bellsouth, or Comcast, or whatever you use at home. Then, having a gmail account is a great idea. We like gmail a lot! We have a tutorial video on our website about how to sign up for a Gmail account. Just go to ‘More’ videos, and click on ‘Get a Gmail account.’

Next week I’ll tell you how you can have the best of both worlds by setting up Outlook Express to work with your Gmail account.

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com

Remember the old record player/radio systems we called Hi-Fi’s? It meant High Fidelity, and some people say that Wi-Fi means ‘Wireless Fidelity’. Although the term ‘Hi-Fi’ may have provided inspiration, Wi-Fi doesn’t mean anything. It is just a marketing term so people don’t have to call it ‘802.11′ — which is the technical specification. We also refer to it as ‘hotspot’ technology, because it only covers a small area, a ‘hotspot.’ You must be within range of the hotspot’s antenna, also called the ‘Access Point’, in order to use it. The range is usually a couple hundred feet. Wi-Fi is the most popular way for travelers to connect to the Internet. No contracts, no commitments, you just connect to the hotspot’s signal and start browsing! Many RV parks are Wi-Fi hotspots. Most all laptop computers sold within the last 3 years come with the necessary wireless equipment built in. You can also find hotspots in coffee shops, airports, rest areas, and libraries. To find a hotspot near you, try http://www.jiwire.com/. Just enter a city and state and you’ll see several choices. If you just want to see just RV parks, you’ll find a listing provided by RV.net users on the locations forum. Realize that all these lists are compiled by people - there is no such thing as a definitive list of all Wi-Fi hotspots. Some of these hotspots are free, some charge a few dollars a day. Or, if you’re going to be in one spot for a while, you can get a better deal by signing up for a week or a month. I know lots of people who would like to sign up once, pay a monthly fee, and be able to count on a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever they go. It just doesn’t work like that. Every hotspot makes their own arrangements. The best way to find out if a given campground has Wi-Fi is to look in a directory like Woodall’s. Each campground will have an indicator if Wi-Fi is available as well as an indicator if there is a charge, or if it is free. Of course, this information is out-of-date very quickly, so a phone call to the park is a good idea if it is important to you to have Wi-Fi. You might also want to ask if the Wi-Fi is available at your site, or only in the clubhouse. If you want to use the Wi-Fi at your site, the wireless adapter built in to your computer may not be good enough. I’ll tell you why in next week’s post. Chris Guld www.GeeksOnTour.com

Greetings from sunny and cold Arizona! I’m Chris Guld, and I blog about computer use while traveling. My husband, Jim, and I live full time in our 30 foot class C motorhome and we travel around the country giving computer seminars at rallies and RV parks. We’ve both been computer geeks for quite some time. Now we tour around the country, so we call ourselves Geeks on Tour!

My background is in computer training, database development, and website development. Jim is a hardware and network guy. Between the two of us, we can figure out just about anything when it comes to computers. And I love to write about it all.

When we first started our RV lifestyle in 2003, an informal survey of RVers showed that about half of them traveled with a computer in their RV. Today, I estimate that number at closer to 90%! And, half of those have TWO computers inside! For some of these folks, it is their first computer. They managed to retire from the workplace before computer use was required, and they only have one now because the grandkids want to send them email!

Not all RVers are computer beginners. There are a growing number, like us, who are not retired and who keep working on the road by using their computers. The people who most need this blog topic, however, are the beginners, so I plan to keep the posts at a basic level.

In our line of work, it is essential to have Internet access wherever we go. Before we ever hit the road, we equipped our motorhome with a rooftop, automatic, Internet satellite dish called the Datastorm. It set us back about $6,000 which sounds like a lot, but when you consider it a business startup investment it’s not so much! Here’s a picture of our rig.

There are now several ways to connect to the Internet on the road, and that will be a primary topic for my blog entries. For casual Internet users, you’ll find Wi-Fi hotspots all over the place. There is no contract or other commitment - you pay by the day, week or month. The fees are very reasonable and many hotspots even provide it for free.

If you’re like us, and need Internet *everywhere* then the satellite dish is the way to go.

The third option is cellular. Buying a ‘data card’ from a provider like Verizon and connecting to the Internet whenever you’re in range of a cell tower - which is most everywhere these days. This option is growing in popularity, we talk to people all the time who *love* their data cards.

I’ll be writing more on all of these options in subsequent posts. Make sure to check in here often! I also am active on the RV.net Technology Corner forum - as are lots of other ‘geeks’! Anything you want to know about using computers on the road - you can ask there.

Chris Guld
http://www.geeksontour.com/