HappyTrvlr

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

DebitNM

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.

HappyTrvlr

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.

yestravel

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.

stokebailey

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.

Michael

I've had no problems with Yahoo mail.

lauramsgarden

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

Andrew

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.

greg

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.

Andrew

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.

HappyTrvlr

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.

thursdaysd

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.

Andrew

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.

sparkchaser

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

PatrickLondon

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.

hetismij2

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.

bilboburgler

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.

DebitNM

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

yestravel

me too, same as DebitNM/

Andrew

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.