Email access constantly blocked on international travels
 

We have MSN as an email provider. Whenever we travel internationally, MSN will block our accounts several times due to" suspicious activity"Friends have the same problem with gmail. I jump through hoops getting them unblocked, sending codes, changing passwords, etc. Can you fellow travelers recommend an email provider, based in the USA, that doesn't cause all these problems when traveling? It is especially difficult when the various airlines are sending us messages to check in. Thanks. HT

I use gmail (as does my husband) and last year we were in 8 countries (including middle European) and never had our email blocked, nor did we ever have issues getting, sending or reading our individual email accounts.

Good to know. It usually happens in Europe, no problems in Asia. We are heading to Europe soon so I may change to gmail before we leave. Thanks.

I have a friend who has the problem with hotmail when she travels. I have both a gmail acct and hotmail acct and have never had any issues.

Yes, that happened to me recently in Europe with my hotmail account. Luckily I was with my daughter, who was able to retrieve it for me by email after I jumped through multiple e-hoops.

I've had no problems with Yahoo mail.

We haven't had trouble with comcast....but then haven't traveled as widely as you. curious what you discover

Are you reading your email on your own device (phone/tablet/laptop)? Or are you reading it on some random computer at a hotel or something? If the latter, then I'm not surprised email access was blocked.

I travel with my netbook, and I almost always connect to my VPN at home when I'm in Europe. That way, Gmail and every other website I visit think I'm connecting from home. A VPN like mine will eliminate any problems like you describe. It's also more secure in general - you don't have to rely on the security of your local network for your web site activity.

gmail also does this and so deos hotmail. If you are setting up multiple factor verification, think hard if that method, e.g. cellphone, is available when you are abroad. I have gmail, hotmail, and yahoo mail and each serves as the multiple factor verification of others so that if at least one of them if functional, I can unlock the other two. If that fails, I use VPN to move the accessing address to a U.S. server. However, VPN brings in additional hurdle with google in that google complains too many request coming from the same IP address, the VPN host, and deems my access to be generated by a bot.

greg: <i>However, VPN brings in additional hurdle with google in that google complains too many request coming from the same IP address, the VPN host, and deems my access to be generated by a bot.</i>

Setup your own VPN on your home internet connection and you won't have this problem. Just get a router that supports it - or get a router that is compatible with Tomato firmware and use OpenVPN.

We take two iPads and one or two cellphones when we travel. I use a hotel computer to print our boarding passes or have the hotel front desk do it for us.
I will call our computer guru and discuss the VPN, etc.and hope that solves it, that he can fix it for us. Thanks everyone for all of your thoughts and help.

I pay for my email account, as I value my privacy. I have had the same account, with ekit.com, for over a decade, during which time I have traveled extensively. I have never had trouble accessing it. I also use a VPN these days, witopia, but not on my home computer as I travel for extended periods and don't want to leave my system powered on.

You probably wouldn't run the VPN on your home computer - you'd run it on your home wireless router. Leaving your DSL or cable modem + router on while you travel probably consumes about 15 watts, about as much as leaving one CFL light bulb on.

You'd either need to be a computer tech person/hobbyist to install such a VPN yourself - or get a tech person to set it up for you. Would take them a few hours, most likely.

I use Gmail and have never encountered any issue in my travels.

Are you using web-based mail access to read the emails, or some program or app to actually download them to your device(s)? That might make a difference.

I use gmail, Outlook.com and Live.com (both MSN of course) for web based mail and can access my private, paid for, e-mail address also. I have never encountered a problem with reading any mail on my phone or laptop. I haven't tried using a hotel computer or whatever to do so.
Odd that you always encounter problems when so many others don't. Have you contacted the help desk, while at home to find out if they can help you? I have always found the help desk to be very helpful in the past, when I messed up my Skype account and on another occasion.

I use gmail and never had the problem traveling all over. I have set up gmail txt checks on my old Nokia dumb-phone with google so if they have a worry they can drop me a txt and I can confirm straight away, but this has never heppened outside my home.

Andrew and greg-- I tried using google translate on your comments, but it didn't recognize what language you were speaking. :)

me too, same as DebitNM/

For you non-techy people out there, all you need to know is: you can use a VPN service while overseas to connect your device to a US server, and that means Google, Facebook, etc. will think you are in the US. You won't get directed to Google's France site when you are in Paris. And all internet transactions will be communicated securely over the VPN - you won't be at the mercy of the security of hotel's WiFi network.

You can get (monthly fee) a VPN account with a company in the US so all you have to do is sign up, get the account info from them, and set it up on your device, then connect to the VPN (maybe automatic) once you are connected to the WiFi at your hotel in Paris or whatever.

What I am talking about above is setting up a VPN service on my home network (something I have done for years) instead of paying some company for an account. It's not something the average person would do himself/herself, but you can get a tech-savvy person to do it for you. All you need is the right kind of router. The benefit of this approach is: no monthly fee and no other service to use. When I connect to my home VPN while I'm in Paris, Google thinks I'm at my HOUSE, not at some VPN company's server farm in Minnesota or wherever they are physically located.

VPN by the way stands for "Virtual Private Network." It's a fancy way of saying I can connect to a network remotely, as if I were really there wired or wirelessly connected to it. When I am in Paris and connect to my VPN, my laptop is in effect connected at home.

I recently had problems accessing Yahoo Mail from free public wifi in airports, etc. But I was able to use Google Mail. When I had time to investigate this it appears that Yahoo Mail is now blocking access from open wifi. I could still access it from hotels that had passwords.

It may be worth setting up a Gmail account if you don't have one. And perhaps forwarding your Yahoo or Hotmail emails to Gmail.

Usually you discover these things when you urgently need to send a message or have only 10 minutes to check emails between flights.

BTW I should add that this happened overseas (Ecuador), not in the US.

I had trouble with Yahoo mail. They were suspicious and wanted me to use my usual device, which was not easy, as it was at home.

mlgb: <i>I recently had problems accessing Yahoo Mail from free public wifi in airports, etc. But I was able to use Google Mail. When I had time to investigate this it appears that Yahoo Mail is now blocking access from open wifi. I could still access it from hotels that had passwords.</i>

There's no way for Yahoo to know whether the WiFi you are using has a password on it or not.

They may know that certain networks are suspect and block those networks - like some public Wifi networks that have been used for fraud in the past.

make sure you are logged out of your account on your usual device, if you try to login on a second unknown device you can be denied access to your account

We use AOL, no one cares about AOL any more.

Yeah, not carrying my desktop with me was a problem.

I was able to use my tablet with Google Mail at the same places which included the airports in Baltra and Quito.

I'm not alone with this Yahoo mail problem. If you really want to know the how and why, go ahead and dig through all the Yahoo Help complaints about the same thing.

The workaround fix was to delete the account on my tablet (Android), then add it back, then log in again and I was able to at least download the messages for a while, before Yahoo blocked the access again.

IMDonehere..I had AOL back when you had to pay for it, in 1993 or 1994.. Should have kept it!
I will change my email but not until after next European trip is completed as our hotels and airlines all have the MSN one. I think airport wifi does trigger some of the problems.

Open a Gmail account and have Gmail read your MSN email. Then you can keep the MSN account and just read it on Gmail when you're traveling.

http://www.rizwanashraf.com/2009/03/...gmail-account/

I have three email accounts that are read by Gmail.

I sometimes open an email account for a specific purpose. There is then the risk that the provider will close it for inactivity if you don't remember to check it now and then. If you have Gmail read the mail, there's no inactivity, so you can keep it open forever.

<.I had AOL back when you had to pay for it, in 1993 or 1994.. Should have kept it! >
You probably still have it. AOL never deactivated my email after I stopped paying for it. The last time I checked the account a decade ago it was chock full of junk emails. Usable, though, if I wished to use it.

For frequent travelers overseas--and actually, stateside, too--VPNs make a ton of sense.

I access both my AOL and gmail accounts abroad in Mexico and all over Europe and have never once had such a problem. Sure, if you are logging on from a computer it doesn't recognize, it asks you to verify yourself by some secret question or your backup email address or phone number, etc. But one should know that information. I usually use computers at a hotel or cybercafe, I don't think I've used my tablet when outside the US for that, yet. I just try to travel light so don't carry it. I'm not that important, I don't get urgent emails ever.

"DebitNM on Jul 9, 15 at 8:00am
Andrew and greg-- I tried using google translate on your comments, but it didn't recognize what language you were speaking. :)"

One of the best replies EVER~

My wife's in Turkey right now and she can't access her Gmail there.
Then when I sign on here, it says "Someone Has Your Password!"
Still looking for a solution.

I opened another account... with hotmail. works better.
I wanted to open a gmail account somewhere (forgot) got it blocked, never been able to unlock it...

(but since it is an alternate e-mail address, I just dropped it).

We use a company called Ipower which is web-based. It hosts our websites, provides email services, etc. I am sure there are many other companies you can use.

I can log onto the mail anywhere in the world. It has never been blocked for any reason. Using something that provides nothing but a pain in the ass even if it is "free" just isn't worth it but your opinion may differ.

I have had this issue with g-mail, and it was on our own computer. I specifically remember trying to log in while in transit in the Amsterdam airport about 6 months ago.

I have never had this issue with Gmail. WOnder why?

Update: we spent five weeks in Euope this fall and never had any problems accessing our emails which was a huge relief. This was the first time we haven't had a problem ? I will look into all the recommendarions for a different option for our emails though. Thanks for so many helpful replies.