Email on the move

[Callan Jefferson Davies]

> Further to my request re email on the move - if I can collect/send email
> via a USB modem is there some way to preview what is held at my ISP so I
> can selectively download only those I want at the time.
> In Windows desktop I do this with Mail Washer - however although I can
> load it onto Ubuntu it does not recognise the Evolution mail prog.



Hi All,

Thought I'd chime in with my advice about Email on the move.


(1) GETTING ONLINE

You need to subscribe to a 3G mobile broadband service. Typically these 
are provided with a USB "stick" modem. But remember, you need to check 
the model you're getting to make sure it'll work with Ubuntu. I work for 
a local Adelaide ISP, we have a 3G service that uses the Optus network. 
The sticks are the Huawei E160 or E169, they both seem to work in Ubuntu 
just fine.

One other option that may be cool, is one of the new travel 3G routers 
from Netcomm. I recently bought the 3GT1WN - I just plug my mobile 
broadband "stick" in the side, it runs off a battery (or mains), and it 
provides Internet to my laptop via local wifi. Very cool, particularly 
if you have multiple devices ... eg in my case a laptop + an iPad.

There's a similar model there too, that instead of plugging the stick 
in, you put a sim card in directly.

I chose the one that uses the stick, as the stick has a spot for an 
external antenna, say from www.rfshop.com.au. I recently drove to 
country Victoria with the Netcomm router in the boot, running off 
battery of course, connected to my external antenna which has a magnet 
and was stuck to the roof of my car. Internet at 100Km/h was sketchy, 
but was fine the moment the car stopped.



(2) EMAIL

You might want to ask your ISP if they have a "webmail" area, where you 
can just get your emails from their website. This way you look at only 
what you want to look at.

The other option would be to just download everything, surely you can't 
have THAT much mail, the download caps on mobile sticks these days are 
fairly decent.

If you use Webmail, the problem is that you have to be online all the 
time to read your mail.

Whereas if you just use Evolution (or Thunderbird) to download the lot, 
you can then disconnect the stick and read the mail at your own leisure 
- you don't have to be online at the time.



Hope all this helps!

Cheers
Callan