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[MSE Natasha]

This is the discussion link on the back of Martin's 'Downloading my friend’s wedding photos cost me £100!' blog. Please read the blog first, as the discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Downloading my friend's wedding photos cost me £100!" Blog

[Godders]

Some of the users I used to support hated it when that happened so we had to design a solution (we used Lotus notes though),and we ended up with them being happily able to use it over a mobile phone GPRS (not even 3G) link.

I'm not an Outlook / Exchange expert which I what I guess you use - but I've found the following settings -

Tools -> E-mail accounts
View or Change Existing E-mail Accounts
Click on your account and choose "Change"
Click "More Settings"
Theres a tab labelled "Remote Mail"
Choose "Retrieve Items that meet the following conditions"
Click "Filter"
Click "Advanced"
There some size filters in there - I suspect they will stop it downloading huge messages over dial up / 3G connections.

This doesn't appear to exist if you use POP for mail retrieval (sorry), or if you happen to use Lotus Notes then it's a doddle to set up limited file size filters over slow connections, while still being able to download improtant large files on demand.

[frak]

Martin,
webmail is your friend here. I am not sure exactly how you have your email set up but from what i can guess you are downloading emails directly to your laptop through a pop 3 account. It is possible to have webmail set up on your servers so you can access the mails that are stored there without having to download them through pop3 until you can do it on a cheaper. If your mail server uses Linux/unix you can use squirrelmail in conjucntion with an IMAP or pop3 mail server. I am using a lot of jargon here but i am sure you have access to someone techy who can help with this. The beauty is you can also access your mail anywhere as long as you have a web browser. The amout of data you would transfer with a 3g card would be a lot less using webmail than pop and you could be selective about what you download.
hope this helps

frak

[Smiley_Mum]

If anyone wishes to send you large files in future, could they not download them onto a site online where they could be stored for a bit so all you would be sent is a link so you could access them at your leisure, rather than your inbox being seriously slowed up. You could drop a LARGE hint by sending a note to everyone in your address book. Just a thought, and would save any hassle in future and big bills.

Here, look's like you could do with a vodka and cranberry juice...

[Sillychuckie]

Martin.

You are going to have to put this one down to a lack of technical knowledge.
It would have been useful if you specified which email client you were using, but as it clearly isn't web mail, I'll take a punt at MS Outlook.

Do the following:

'Tools', 'Send/Receive', 'Send/Receive Settings', 'Define Send/Receive Groups'.
This window can also be opened with the shortcut key CTRL+ALT+S.

Select the main send receive group that you use for the email account in question (in all likelihood, there is only one present anyway).
Click 'Edit'.

Select the account on the left hand side, and then check the radio button on the right which says: "Download headers only".

What this essentially does is, when you retrieve your email, it will only download the headers. You will see an entry in your outlook showing that you have an email, who it is from, its subject etc...
BUT, It won't download the content. Only when you double click to open it will it fully retrieve the item.
This will mean you can nit-pick which ones you want in these circumstances.

You can even fiddle with the size restrictions and block even the headers from being retrieved.

Happy to help.
SC.

[Now then]

Martin

As a person who gets very many emails have you thought about separating your personal from your work emails, with different addresses? If this were in place you would have able to bypass your friend’s photos and access your work stuff at a fraction of the cost.

Also, if you are self employed (and VAT registered) then sending your report would be a genuine business expense and wholly off settable against your income for tax purposes. So whilst the cost may be £100, the affect to your ‘take home pay’ should be circa £40, much more bearable.

Finally, 36 hours filming in Malaga for GM TV, it’s a hard life for some!

Regards

Now then

[MSE Martin]

Thanks folks

Actually the problem is my email is an MSE email and therefore in the purvue of the techies. Don't worry the bill is in my company name and is therefore a work expense so can be written off.

As for 36 hours in malaga - sounds fun- actually doing 5 films in that time is ultra hard work. I know it doesn't sound it - but filming is a truly draining process and that type of schedule is a killer.

Martin

[dronid]

Many of us have been hit by this. In my less MSE informed days I was visiting my family in Spain during the Boxing Day Tsunami. We were miles from anywhere, without a local sim card and my sister, who normaly lives in Thailand, together with the rest of us checked the news online on my Orange PDA. We also had calls from concerned relatives checking on my sister and loads of text messages. All good reasons for using the phone but cost me over £250! A mistake I will never make again!

[markymoo]

MSE must be hosted somewhere that offers a webmail service?
and if MSE is microsoft exchange based you can normally access it via webmail too... seems odd that your techies are limiting you to pop3 only..

and no wireless in malaga? there are at least 17 commerical hotspots, and i'm sure a number of FON hotspots... hmmmm

[lean&mean]

Hi Martin,
Sillychuckie makes a cracking suggestion if you do use Outlook (but not Outlook Express). [Select the account on the left hand side, and then check the radio button on the right which says: "Download headers only".]

It doesn't matter how your email is hosted, what matters is what email client (programme software) you use to download and read your mail.

This IS a great moneysaving tip for any travellers and also time saving if you've got a really slow connection. It used to drive me crazy when people sent huge files (yes, usually photos of their pets looking cute) and all I had was a GPRS (slow wireless), or a dialup connection. As wireless cards charge on the amount of data you download using Sillychuckie's method for just downloading the emails you really must read while abroad, and leaving the rest 'til you get home, is a really good idea. It takes about one minute to set up and anyone can do it.

Alternatively if you really want to save money, before you leave Blighty, register for Yahoo mail and Yahoo allows you to pick up your normal popmail account, like your MSE mail). Once abroad, if you can get to an internet cafe, you can sign in to Yahoo and read all your regular emails and reply to them. Then you can download your mail properly when you get home, including those wedding photos and cute pets...

Hope this encourages you and others to avoid paying the mobile phone companies those exorbitant bills for data when abroad.

Cheers

[alanjrobertson]

Originally Posted by markymoo

MSE must be hosted somewhere that offers a webmail service?
and if MSE is microsoft exchange based you can normally access it via webmail too... seems odd that your techies are limiting you to pop3 only..

Even if you have a POP3-only mailbox then you can have a DIY webmail service by using the free mail2web site - http://www.mail2web.com.

Cheers

Alan

[kramii]

I am sorry to hear you got caught out, Martin.

As a newbe money saver, I have been caught out on deals a few times already. Usually because I've not read t&cs properly, not kept my eye on the ball. I must admit I do find it reassuring that even the Expert gets stung occasionally! The great thing about moneysavingexpert.com is that we can all learn from each other's mistakes.

Many thanks for being honest with us, and thanks to those who have posted ways to avoid this kind of thing.

[Mrs Wossinge]

Why does anyone email photos any more, when they can store them online and just email a link? I really don't understand. Surely anyone with the technology to email photos could open an account with one of the online photo development companies, or post them on a blog/social networking site?

In one job I had a related, but different problem: a very low email attachment size threshold imposed by an over-zealous IT department. I work in publishing and it was embarrassing to have to tell people their photos were too big to squeeze through the company firewall and to use my personal internet email account instead.

It still suprises me that not just individuals but highly media-savvy PR agencies don't stop emailing photos and just store them online. It would make everyone's lives easier.

[davidriley]

Alan's comment is worth highlighting - used web2mail for years - it is perfect for this type of issue..... You dont need to worry about configuring anything. You can "organize" messages through the web browser & then use your normal email client to download that "stuff" that is important (by leaving it in your inbox)

[alanjrobertson]

Forgot to mention before - they've also got a mail2wap page for access from mobile phones if you don't have a PC handy!

Cheers

Alan

[stuartduffy]

All this advice seems a little over complicated for Martin.

My advice:

1. register a GMail account (Google email) Happy to send you an invitation to join!

2. Set up a rule in Outlook (TOOLS > Rules and alerts) to forward all MSE mail to your Gmail account.

3. If stuck in the middle of no where you can access your mail from your phone or any internet connected computer.

3 steps! Easy! Got to love it!

[alanjrobertson]

Hi Stuart

I agree GMail are pretty good - I've just started using them a bit whilst I'm between ISPs - I was particularly impressed with the small applet you can download to your phone to get quicker access to your GMail account.

If Martin doesn't use Outlook then he could also use GMail to check his POP account for him instead and bring the messages across (leaving the originals in the POP account for when he returns home).

Cheers

Alan

PS - @Martin - greatly enjoyed the ITV programme re. Moneysaving lessons for kids. Was impressed by how quickly they picked things up and how much money they saved. I'm please the Gov't are introducing lessons on this subject but I worry they won't be anywhere near as fun/interesting/informative as your lessons looked!

[stuartmc]

Spain has one of the more enlightened approaches to 3G data. Vodafone Spain charge 60Euros for 1G worth of download. Your datacard will need to be unlocked for this to work though as most are locked to a particular network.

Buy a Vodafone Spain SIM card. You then need to load it with 70Euros (they add VAT to the cost so you need more than 60Euros) You then text C PRE to 207 and your 60Euros buys you a Premium Bono which is the 1G download.

I know this sounds too simple but it does really work. I have been using this with a Linksys 3G router in Spain as we have no phone lines. For the long version look at the 3G forum at http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/showthread.php?t=32431

[jackbremer]

Originally Posted by stuartduffy

1. register a GMail account (Google email) Happy to send you an invitation to join!

2. Set up a rule in Outlook (TOOLS > Rules and alerts) to forward all MSE mail to your Gmail account.

3. If stuck in the middle of no where you can access your mail from your phone or any internet connected computer.

3 steps! Easy! Got to love it!

Not so much use though if he turns the computer off when he leaves to go on holiday - which as a money saver I suspect he does!

Best bet is to use "Google Apps For Your Domain" (http://www.google.com/a/) and do all email, calendars, document sharing, etc etc there. You can still pick things up in Outlook as nurmal, and use it for webmail too... AWESOME.

[Geoffrey Coan]

It'll require a bit of techy help to configure the settings to point to your MSE pop mail server, but an excellent way round the problem is to use the free popcorn mail program (just google for it).

I think it's no longer being developed but it's a really nifty tiny email client that downloads the mail headers and then gives you the option of deleting mail messages or reading specific ones. I use it when my friend (who's still on telephone dialup) gets sent a massive (junk) email that blocks up his mailbox - it's dead simple to download the headers and delete the offending item

Good luck

Geoffrey