Mobile User issue with SMTP Server

[Mike]

Hi,

I have one user with a laptop who travels quite a bit. He would prefer to
use Outlook 2003 for mail while traveling, instead of webmail through IE, but
because his account is hardcoded for when he is at the office to our incoming
and outgoing mail servers, often he can't send mail when at a hotel or other
place because the SMTP server is different. Is there a way around this for a
mobile user without setting up e-mail account with the SMTP server of the ISP
at the individual hotels he stays at?

Thanks for any help!

Mike

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Is there a reason why he can't connect to your SMTP server to send mail when
on a foreign network? (e.g. can your site allow the relay if he
authenticates to the SMTP server? Remember this can be made secure if you
implement SSL/TLS.)

 

[Mike]

Neo,

Thanks for the reply. Our e-mail is currently hosted by our ISP, not
internally, so I'm not sure I know the answer to your question. However my
experience is that I have two satellite office users, and the outgoing mail
server for both of them have to be set to their local ISP, and not the main
office ISP, but their incoming mail servers are all set to the main office
ISP's incoming mail server. I'm assuming that this applies if I am at a
hotel as well. If I set the satellite office's SMTP mail server to the home
office, it won't send mail. When I contacted our home office ISP about this,
they told me that the SMTP mail server generally has to be set to the ISP of
the network you are on to work properly, and my experience has shown this to
be true for us anyway.

It almost sounds like there is a setting that perhaps the ISP can do, to
relay authentication, is that right?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

yep, but don't be surprised if they say no. many are just warming up to
this because more or more expect connectivity from anywhere thru any type of
device. the question you want to ask the ISP is, is it possible to relay
mail from a foreign network if the user authenticates to the SMTP server?
ideally you want everyone to point to that "home office ISP" whether they
are in or out of the office.