GMail uses AJAX in it's interface due to which it takes a considerably long time to open your inbox, compared to other webmail services, even over fast Internet connection. This becomes painful for people on dial-up connection. Sometimes an ISP can have a problem and pages can take long to open. It gets worse when Gmail's own server is under load. That's exactly what's happening with me today. Gmail is refusing to open. When this happens, you can access Gmail by any of the following methods.

1. Basic HTML: As I said, Google Mail uses AJAX for it's interface which is the primary cause for the delay. You can speed up the process by switching to the basic HTML view which is ten times faster than the standard Gmail interface. To use the basic HTML view use this URL

http://mail.google.com/mail/h/
OR
https://mail.google.com/mail/h/ (Secure SSL link)

2. Gmail for Mobile: A pretty basic interface optimized for viewing in PDAs and cell phones. Not something you wouldn't like to use often, but at least it opens.

There are several links for accessing Gmail on mobiles

http://m.gmail.com
http://mail.google.com/mail/x/
https://mail.google.com/mail/x/ (Secure SSL link)