Ever need access to an SMTP server so you can send e-mail when you’re out doing the mobile computing thing?

Use Gmail: Set your e-mail client to drop outbound mail to smtp.google.com, and use your Gmail login credentials. It even supports using an SSL connection, if you like.

Gmail is a free webmail service, currently in beta testing, created by Google.

For more than a year after Gmail’s initial release on March 31, 2004, access to the service was restricted to those who had received an invitation token from an existing account holder.

While Gmail is not entirely open to the general public yet, most Gmail users have many invites to spare, as Google has lately been giving quite a few of these out. Gmail invites are also given away at random through Google’s home page.

The service is notable for providing over 2.1 gigabytes of storage space—an increase from the former limit of 1 gigabyte. This change was announced on April Fool’s Day 2005, the one-year anniversary of the launch of Gmail. This number continues increasing, and all Google will say is that it will keep increasing as long as they have enough space on their servers. Gmail makes intensive use of modern browser features such as JavaScript and keyboard access keys, allowing for a richer user experience, while retaining the benefits of a web application (most importantly, immediate availability of the service on any computer with a supported browser). [Encyclopedia Lockergnome]