While in Italy, I want to be able to use a computer to:

1) correspond with folks at home (USA)
2) access my documents that I will have scanned for emergency backup
3) access the internet (hotels, maps, fodors, etc.)

I may be able to use my daughter's laptop, or I may have to go to an internet cafe.

My questions: Can I use the same AOL account I have now, or do I need to set up a different account with hotmail or something like that? If I can use my AOL account, do I access it in the same way I do now?

Thanks.

Hi Maire,
my advice to you would be to set up a Hotmail account, put in there only the stuff you need for the trip, you can pick up mails etc, on any computer.It is pretty secure and even if someone were to do something nasty you can just close it without any worry that your main e mail address has been compromised.

My address that you see here is used only for Fodors correspondance, that way if I get spammed, (which I do quite often) Hotmail can easily segregate and block them and the address book is almost empty so Multiple messages cannot be sent via my address book.

It makes sense.

Good luck

Muck

You can use your aol account.

You would go to www.aol.com and log in there with your screen name. You can do anything that you would normally do on aol.

Just be sure not to check the box that lets the computer save your name and password.

My kids used aol all the time from internet cafes on our trip.

Donna

Register with Skype (skype.com) & ask all your contacts to register as well. If the computer you use has a microphone & speakers,skype them & you'll talk rather than type.

I have a free Yahoo mail account. I saved all my hotel confirmations in folders in my account that I could access while I was on my trip. Internet cafes are all over the places and prretty inexpensive. You can log in and access you mail and send mail. After you've scanned your documents in, just emil them to yourself and store them in a folder you create. Very simple.

Thank you everyone. Any more opinions?

ttt

I have accessed AOL many times in Europe. www.aol.com