Problem with laptop on multiple Internet providers

[mosquito]

I have an internet connection at work, at home, and at my girlfriend's place. They are connected with a different internet provider (with their own SMTP server). When I want to send mails I each time have to configure the smtp server in my mail client (it's okay when you have to do it once or twice, but every day starts to get boring)

So the question is, is there no solution so that I configure my system to work on one SMTP server?

I thought about installing IIS 5 (My laptop is a Win2K box) and using the SMTP server in there, but I'm not sure if it's going to work.

[glc]

No, most ISP's won't allow mail to be sent unless you are connected to *their* dialup - this is for spam prevention. The easiest way around this is get a free Web based mail account like Yahoo.

What email program are you using? It might not be too difficult to set up multiple profiles or identities. I do this with Pegasus and each identity uses the same set of folders, and identities can be switched on the fly within the program.

[Omletteboy]

You can also create different identities if you are using Outlook Express. Much easier to manage than changing smtp server.

[mosquito]

I'm using Outloook 2000.
But I want to keep my archived mail visible at any time + my calendar and contacts and stuff.

[Omletteboy]

You tried using the Rule Wizard in tools for Outlook 2000.

[UncaDanno]

Here's what I've done:
Create a profile for each combination of connection/ISP you're using. Right-click on the Outlook icon (with Outlook closed). Click on Properties in the popup menu then on Show Profiles in the dialog that pops up.
Add and configure a profile for each connection/ISP combination.
After you have added all the profiles you want, pick your favorite from the list that says "When starting Microsoft Outlook, use this profile:"
Next time you open Outlook, it'll use the one you picked from the list. While you're in there (in Outlook), go to Tools|Options and click on the Email Services tab. You'll see that "Always use this profile:" is clicked and the profile you picked from the list is visible in the dropdown.

How do you pick which profile (connection/ISP combo) you connect to? One of three ways. 1) You can pick another here and shut down Outlook. 2) You can click on "Prompt for a profile to be used" and each time you start Outlook, it will display a dropdown and ask you to pick one to connect to. 3) You can right-click the Outlook icon, go into Properties and List Profiles and pick another to connect with.

But each time you change your profile choice, you gotta shut down Outlook and re-open it so it can disconnect from the current profile and reconnect to the one you picked. That's why I use "Prompt for a profile to be used"

Now, each profile will have its own set of folders (inbox, outbox, deleted, calendar, etc). So what I did was use my fave profile as my "home" profile and use that one for the calendar, contacts, etc. And I connect all the profiles to each others' private folders so I can go into any profile and see the mail files of all the others.

It isn't that difficult to set up and I have all the info available at any given time.


And glc is correct about ISPs "hardening" their SMTP servers, trying to prevent spamming. The majority (all?) of them have set their SMTP servers so that an email coming from an IP address outside their domain going to an IP address outside their domain gets refused with a message about "transport not available". You can send an email from an IP address outside their domain to one inside their domain or from inside their domain to one on the outside, but they've disabled the three-IP passthrough (outside IP to the SMTP server to another outside IP).

[mosquito]

thx for the replies, I'll check it out.

[mosquito]

The profiles thing is that in Workgroup mode, because when I click properties, I see my e-mail accounts dialog. I scanned the helpfiles from outlook, and they don't mention profiles. Do you mean profiles in Win2K?

[UncaDanno]

I was talking about right-clicking the Microsoft Outlook icon on your desktop and clicking on Properties in the popup menu.
This brings up an MS Exchange Properties dialog. At least it does on my machines (Win2K Prof, Server, and Advanced Server) and on past machines running NT 4.0. Running Outlook 2000.
That is the dialog that has the "Show Profiles..." button at the bottom.

[mosquito]

Aah, I see, I have to switch to workgroup mode.
thx for the info

[mosquito]

Found an easy way.
I made a regfile that replaces the following information in the registry with the providers I have. It's just three regfiles on my desktop.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\OMI Account Manager\Accounts]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\OMI Account Manager\Accounts\00000001]
"SMTP Server"="relay.provider.com"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\OMI Account Manager\Accounts\00000002]
"SMTP Server"="relay.provider.com"