[Leica] OT Wifi and Apple Computers in Germany

[reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)]

This issue is unrelated to Mac or PC, or WiFi or wireline, laptop or desktop.
It is a byproduct of spam control efforts. Laptops, being more mobile, are 
more likely to encounter this problem.

The standards-compliant protocols for sending email are entirely unrelated 
to the protocols for reading it. Mail sending is much more tightly regulated.

There are two separate things that can go wrong here, which have the same 
result. The error message that you get will be quite different, but most 
people when frustrated do not remember the phrasing of error messages.

If your computer is set up to send mail by handing it off to your ISP and to 
receive mail by checking with your ISP, then it is quite likely that your 
ISP will reject attempts to send from a hotel, in Germany or anywhere else. 
The error message there typically says "relaying denied" or some such. You 
need in this case to use the wireless provider's mail-sending computer.

Some ISP's block access to all mail-sending computers except their own. If 
your ISP does this, then either you need a corporate VPN to send mail (ISPs 
can't block that) or you need to change to the wireless provider's mail 
sender.

If you are using Microsoft Exchange, it has its own set of protocols that 
are not network standard; some work and some don't. And if you use Eudora, 
it has an option under the "Exotic options" tab (which isn't even visible 
until you activate the exotic options) that allows Eudora to do what 
Exchange does, and send mail on a back-channel through the mail reader. This 
is also not blockable by ISPs.

Brian Reid
LUG saloon keeper