During your travels you will stop at many different Campgrounds that access the Internet using many different Internet Service Providers which can pose some problems, mainly for sending Email. If you're experiencing problems sending Email while staying with us, or simply want to be as prepared as possible for your travels, here is a guide for you.

Here's a quick example - At home you have Verizon Internet while here at Happyland we use Tbaytel. When you try to send Email to the Verizon Mail servers they basically say "I don't know who you are. You're trying to send me Email, but you're using a different ISP in a different part of the world. I'm going to just ignore you unless you use the secret entrance and password."

There are 3 solutions to this problem and you will find links to those instructions below organized from best to worst.

Outlook Express and Windows Mail are the 2 most popular Email programs out there so these guides will be limited to Outlook Express (Windows Mail is very similar, as is Incredimail actually). For assistance with other Email programs you may wish to contact your ISP's Internet Helpdesk.

Best - Enable SMTP Authentication - By telling your computer where the secret entrance is, you should have no issues sending Mail using any ISP's further down the road.

Good - Use Webmail - Most, if not all ISP's provide Webmail access for their customers. If you log onto your ISP's Webmail site you can send and receive Email from any computer.

Worst - Temporarily Change Outgoing Mail Server - Worst is the worst word to describe this option, as it's not bad, but rather just temporary. If you follow these instructions you will have to reverse your changes when you leave Happyland.

Enable SMTP Authentication

SMTP Authentication basically tells your Email program to connect to your Mail server a certain way. Most ISP's use the same Authentication settings so this guide only covers the basics. If these settings do not work you will have to use one of the other options or contact your ISP to find out what settings they require.

Step 1 - Open Outlook Express

There may be an icon for Outlook Express on the Desktop, or you can click Start, All Programs, and find it in the list.

Step 2 - Click Tools and then Accounts

Step 3 - In the Internet Accounts window, select your Mail Account from the list and click Properties on the right.

The picture below is just an example. You will need to find your actual mail account in this list.

Step 4 - On the Servers tab, place a check mark beside "My server requires authentication" and then click the "Settings" button.

Step 5 - Make sure that "Use same settings as my incoming mail server" is selected and click the "OK" button.

Step 6 - On the Advanced tab, change the "Outgoing Mail (SMTP):" number from 25 to 587 and click the "OK" button.

Close the Internet Accounts window and try to send your Email using the Send/Recv button at the top.

If you're able to send Email with these settings you can leave them this way permanently. This setting should work for all other ISP's including your own when you get back home.

Even if your ISP doesn't require SMTP Authentication while you travel, some of the ISP's you use while travelling DO require it. If someone with a nasty virus uses our Internet and the virus sends out tons of spam, our ISP will block the default Email port (25) so that it can't happen again in the future. If this happens, all our users will need to enable SMTP Authentication to get around the block. If you enable SMTP Authentication on your account now, you will hopefully not have any problems sending Email from any other blocked ISP's down the road.

Use Webmail

Any decent Internet Service Provider will give you access to Webmail by default. You just need to go to their website and find the link to their Webmail page and remember your Username and Password.

As an example, Tbaytel(our ISP) customers can go to the Tbaytel website and click Webmail, or go directly to http://mail.tbaytel.net using Internet Explorer. Verizon customers use http://netmail.verizon.net , and Shaw customers use http://webmail.shaw.ca . As you can see, it varies by Internet Service Provider but most have a link right on their Website.

If you do not know or cannot find your ISP's Webmail page, there is a website called mail2web that you can use. Simply enter your Email address, Password, and it will check your Email for you and display it on that website.

Temporarily change Outgoing server name

These instructions require that you make one important change to your settings. Please have a pen and paper handy so that you can write down the old setting so that you can revert back when you leave our park as the setting will not work when you leave Thunder Bay.

Step 1 - Open Outlook Express

There may be an icon for Outlook Express on the Desktop, or you can click Start, All Programs, and find it in the list.

Step 2 - Click Tools and then Accounts

Step 3 - In the Internet Accounts window, select your Mail Account from the list and click Properties on the right.

The picture below is just an example. You will need to find your actual mail account in this list.

Step 4 - On the Servers tab, write down the contents of the "Outgoing Mail (SMTP):" box and then change it to mail.tbaytel.net and make sure there is NO check mark beside "My server requires authentication"

When you leave Happyland, you will have to change the "Outgoing mail (SMTP):" box back to the way it was before you got here.

Step 5 - On the Advanced tab, click the "Use Defaults" button which will change the "Outgoing mail (SMTP):" number back to 25. Click the "OK" button.

Close the Internet Accounts window and try to send your Email using the Send/Recv button at the top.

This should hopefully work and allow you to send Email while staying with us, but remember that it is temporary and will only work if the ISP your next campground uses is also Tbaytel. Your best option is to contact your ISP or Email provider and find out what settings you should use to make it work everywhere.