🚀 go-pugleaf

Jen,

I completely agree that security is a major question. When I
suggested the PANDA site, I was simply responding to a request
for information.

In classes the same check-while-traveling question comes up
often. Here very briefly is what I tell students:

1. Consider whether you REALLY need to check your e-mail while
away from home! Some of us might be getting entirely too attached
to our electronic brethren. (I know, that's heresy.)

2. Consider having an paid account with one of the
national/international providers; they have local dial-in numbers
in lots of places and 800 numbers from almost anywhere.

3. Consider getting a freemail account (or several), of which
there are many varieties. Some are web-based only and will allow
checking POP accounts also. This still raises the question of
typing your password into a system you don't personally "know."
Some are free POP accounts with POP and SMTP servers and can be
checked either online or from an e-mail program like Eudora,
Pegasus, etc. This still raises the how-do-I-safely-check my
other e-mail question.

4. Consider looking for "home" accounts that allow forwarding at
any time; have e-mail forwarded to a freemail account, which you
then check while away from home. Remember to remove the
forwarding on return.

5. Consider finding an ISP that allows you to telnet into your
account. The ISPs I am familiar with were once much more likely
to allow users to telnet into e-mail accounts. Not everyone
enjoys a telnet interface to a UNIX or other command line e-mail
;-)

6. If your e-mail is not POP, check with your provider and ask
for access directions. GroupWise, for instance, is often used in
businesses using LANs and is not set up as POP. But there may be
web access.

In addition I mention a few side comments:

One main problem is that you to have Net access somehow. If it's
a free access, like some libraries provide, is there a resident
hacker/cracker who has left some kind of sniffer program on the
machine?

If it's a Net-cafe kind of access, do you know how to be sure
that your e-mail info isn't left on the machine?

If it's some friend's access, can you use your e-mail without
changing the existing set-up?

All of these have a down side, and we discuss them.

All in all, e-mail access can raise some tricky questions, and
these comments and questions barely scratch the surface.

Myself, I practice a deliberate pseudo-paranoia.

Roger Britt
brtittj@ibm.net