Email Client cannot Access bell.net email using 3rd party client while outside of Canada

[Stormin84]

I cannot access a bell.net email account using Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird when traveling in Europe.  Does anyone know the reason or if there is a fix for this?  I do not want to use \bell's webmail portal, namely, bell.net as I find this inconvenient from a phone.

[Waria]

Email access from Mexico

[Gaston]

I am vacationing in Costa Rica am unable to receive my emails via sympatico. What should i do?

[WelshTerrier]

Good Morning

How are you trying to access your emails? Are you using your device mail program or are you accessing your email via a web browser. Is Airplane mode On? If so, turn Wi-Fi on manually & connect to a local network. Open any web browser & select the following web link & enter your email & password.

https://webmail.bell.net/

Take care.

[FSzeto]

I can never access my @Bell.net or @sympatoico.ca emails from MacMail or Outlook when I am oversea.

And I dont want to use Webmail.

How can I access my emails? would a VPN help? what VPN would you recommend?

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day.

Apple emails may fail to load content due to slow internet, damaged mailbox data, or application malfunctions. Check your internet connection, restart the Mail app, or rebuild/re-index your mailbox to solve this issue.

I can not speak for the mail clients that you are using when you are accessing webmail when overseas. This in all likelihood is an Apple issue. Have you also verified that your OS & apps are current? Locations services?

Are you experiencing this issue in specific countries or everywhere outside of Canada?

Are you using IMAP or PoP3? Have you tried to do rebuild your mailboxes? How stable is your connection?

You mentioned that using a web browser to access your Webmail was not a viable option.

A VPN will not solve your problem if you do not have a stable connection or application issue.

Take care.

[ZaneP]

Bell restricts access to those domains when you're not in Canada. Your best option to get your mail is to use a web-based email client.

[dks]

This has been my experience. Access to mail outside of the web mail interface is not possible. 

[FSzeto]

It is NOT a Mac issue and it is NOT a connection. Same prooblem in Italy, Germany and Honk Kong. And my non-Bell email are working fine on my Mac with my email client. 

[dks]

As I said earlier, Bell does not allow access to their system to download e-mail using third party clients outside of Canada. They only allow web mail access from outside of Canada and off the Bell network, to the best of my knowledge. It has been this way for decades. The reason I have been given in the past is their network security. Services such as Google, who have a larger and a global network, behave differently. 

[ZaneP]

The fix is to use a web-based client. Your current clients (Outlook, Thunderbird) will not be able to access Bell's email servers when you are in Europe.

[Stormin84]

Surprisingly, a phone email app/client on an Android worked fine from Australia via both a mobile (roaming) network connection and via WiFi.  Go figure!  (BTW, I find the Web browser "solution" both slow, inconvenient and outdated method of accessing email compared to a phone email program in which the messages are available for reading at all the time.) 

[Cholo]

Every time I travel overseas I can not receive or send emails. How can I fix this?

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

You will need to use web-based Bell email to access your mail.

Access to bell.net, bellaliant.net or sympatico.ca email via an email client like Outlook (Windows) or Apple Mail (macOS) is currently restricted to and will only work in the following countries:

• Australia
• Bahamas
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Italy
• Portugal
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States

Outside of these countries, you will need to use web-based Bell email to access your mail.

To sign in to your Bell email account from the web:

1. Go to www.bell.net or bell.ca/webmail .
2. Enter your Bell email address and password.
3. Click Log in.

Take care.

[Canada73]

I cannot retrieve or send email with my Thunderbird when I am in South Africa or Mexico.. Webmail is slow.
In anticipation of similar problem with our holiday to Mexico soon, I have tried 4 VPN.  With 3 of them I cannot retrieve mail despite making changes in SMTP setting.  However, with PROTON VPN it works fine.  If you are going on a vacation, I would advise getting a one-month subscription.  Underlying program is open source.