Database Users

4smartphone.net Exchange Server Service

Greetings all,
I upgraded my 8125 to the Qtek ROM via summiter's ROM upgrade tool, (worked perfectly, thanks summiter!) and I enabled push email.
Since I didnt have and Exchange server, I signed up for one with 4smartphone.net after reading about them in PocketPC Mag. Anyone use them? there's a 15 day trial, but they couldnt get my account setup right after calling them 3 times and about 4 hours wait, then it seemed to work, push email worked great..
Now this morning, they're server is unresponsive again.. jsut wondering if anyone uses them and what their experiance with them is.. i'm not to happy with them right now..

I would also be interested in this. I need to find a good shared exchange provider and I am thinking about going with Intermedia.net.

I wasn't happy with the response I got on a pre-sales query. So I used 1and1.co.uk instead.
They provide push mail (but don't list it) and support a multi-domain email. The only down side is that they don't provide spam filtering. But I figured out how to block it (spam) via filtering.

fowen said:
I would also be interested in this. I need to find a good shared exchange provider and I am thinking about going with Intermedia.net.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using 4smartphone for about a month w/o difficulty -- I use Outlook rules to send copies of all my office mail to 4smartphone which then pushes them to my k-jam. Only negative in this is that all the msg. come in with my name and address as the sender (no prob changing this if I use reply but it is an extra step). Service is quite fast and so far w/o problems in either direction.

well, just got an email from them about the server outage, with them profusely apologising.. at least they're letting their customers know about it..
another thing i didnt really like is you have to pay for a full year up front.. although right now i'm diggin' the fact that i get push email(tested i get an email within 15 seconds of it being sent), and also that my Outlook on my laptop and my 8125 are fully synced.. if i read it on my 8125, it's listed as read on my laptop and vice versa, so i dont have to re-read anything or whatever.. pretty slick.. they also sync contacts, tasks, calendar, etc too..
they have a 15 day trial, so im gonna give it another week or so and see how it goes..

Just signed up for this at mail2 web. I used to use them ages ago just to check a couple of pop3 accounts at work, but they are doing a beta of a free hosted Exchange service. Even better is that you can get a personal Exchange account for $1.99 a month. You need to create an email address with them, but you can link other pop3 accounts to it as well.
http://services.mail2web.com/FreeServices/m2wLive/

What I like about 4smartphone.net is that when you send mail through them, it will show as your own pre-set email address and not [email protected].
I just finished the trial and signed up for their Express service. I think you can get your money back (pro rata) if you cancel before your subscription expires.
I was considering 1and1.co.uk or 1and1.com too, but couldn't be asked to change all the settings.

I've been using 4smartphone since January and so far I am very happy with them. I have sent about 4 emails to tech support and I received responses within a few hours and they were very helpful. They even verified that my account switched from SMS notification to direct push when I asked (after I upgraded).

I really like using them, so much so that I got the company I work for to sign up with 4smartphone. There are a total of 9 people at my work. Great customer service and a great price.

I just setup a mail2web account and had some problems getting either the txt message based push to work or the direct push to work.
After I contacted them they told me this functionality hasn't been installed and will be done over the next week.

good service
I used 4smartphone when i was working from my office at home and the service was good. I am in a 30+ staff office now and we use Intermedia which is great to. I've got my email set up on my blackberry and you can check your email through outlook on the web which is convenient as well.

Anyone got an Exchange Hosting guide?

For push email, looks like I'll be using one of the exchange hostsing services:
1&1
Option 1: 69p/mth for "Instant Email"
"1&1 Instant Mail gives you 5 dedicated POP3/IMAP e-mail accounts to create [email protected]. Send and receive e-mail from any Internet - connected computer."
Option 2: £5.99/mth for "Microsoft Exchange"
"Experience the benefits of seamless communication and collaboration with Microsoft Exchange. Use Outlook to send and receive e-mail from any Internet-connected computer."
4SmartPhone.Net
Option 1: $3.99 for "Express"
Includes Push Email, Wireless Sync, OWA: Outlook Web Access
Option 2: $6.99 for "Professional"
As above plus Outlook 2003 support, Sharing of email, contacts, calendar and tasks
Mail2Web
Option 1: FREE - Pop3, IMAP4 or SMTP not supported (huh???)
Option 2: $1.99 for "Personal Exchange"
"With our Enhanced Email plan, based on Microsoft Exchange, you are never far from your email, contact, schedule and other personal information. It’s all available from either your desktop, the web, as well as any Windows-powered mobile devices as Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition and Microsoft Windows®-powered Smartphones. Get information as it arrives where ever you may be.
Microsoft Exchange is much more than an email solution - it's a complete messaging solution that goes way beyond email to provide calendars, task management, contact lists, advanced rules for sorting your messages and much more.
Previously this solution was only available to businesses but we have developed a special version with the individual in mind. Now you can get your own Personal Exchange account on the mail2web.com domain."
OK, now I'm confused...
What exactly does everyone else use, and how much does it cost, what option and what does it give you?

looks like very attractive services, wonder if anyone has had a few months using these services, and can comment on the reliability etc.
Always a bit weary of hosted services, had dropped emails from hosted services in the past!

I was going to go with 1&1 however, it seems to me as though I have to pay for six months up front.

trapper said:
I was going to go with 1&1 however, it seems to me as though I have to pay for six months up front.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've went for the $6.99 a month (but a year upfront after the fifteen day trial) 4smartphone.net service. So far, so excellent!

Does it include the Universal client or are you using a new ROM?

There isn't a client as such as the functionality is already built into ALL of the Roms.
The main difference is the existing ROMs may not have the push functionality that a lot of people are waiting for.
I used smartphone during the trial on my original O2 ROM, this meant an SMS being sent to my device everytime I got a new message, however once I got hold of a ROM with push technology, I tested it with an Exchange Beta and it just worked out of the box - I suspect the same will be the case for 4smartphone.

belfast-biker said:
trapper said:
I was going to go with 1&1 however, it seems to me as though I have to pay for six months up front.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've went for the $6.99 a month (but a year upfront after the fifteen day trial) 4smartphone.net service. So far, so excellent!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, I was downloading an outlook profile to I can use my outlook fully synced as well as OWA, and there was a problem which stopped me getting into my outlook at all!
I emailed them, and they replied with a full solution within 20 minutes. On a Sunday!
I tend to judge a company by how they handle things like this - any company is good when things work, but when things go wrong it's good to know you'll not be left up the creek without a paddle.
Top marks. Will definitely be buying the years service after the 15 day trial.

I'm just applying for it now.
Did you say that you worked for o2?

trapper said:
I'm just applying for it now.
Did you say that you worked for o2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, in Business Sales. I've to give a training session in Data tomorrow - group shared tariffs, personal tariffs, GPRS/3G/Wifi, BlackBerry vs. XDA, Email vs. Push Email, that kinda thing. Having done all this at the weekend will help me - otherwise I'd be telling them to tell our customers that if they want Push Email on the XDA IQ, they'd have to invest in Server 2003, Exchange etc etc.... at least this way, you do without all those capital costs and do it for just £4 per month to 4smartphone.net, plus minor data costs. Although I'd not recommend the process to normal humans.

How do you set it up on the phone agan? :roll:

trapper said:
How do you set it up on the phone agan? :roll:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You only get the Direct Push Email button option in the xconnections manager once you set up your activesync properly, and manual instructions for this are on their web page quite good ones I may add. I could foolow them!

Receiving text messages related to ALL of my email accounts

Hello,
My MDA is set up to grab my exchange email, etc over the air through activesync. When I set up the account on the MDA, the setup wizard told me that I could set the account to grab new messages as they arrive. That of course sounds great so I chose that option.
Anyway, occasionally (not always) when I receive a new message on the exchange account, I get a text message silmultaneously with the same from address and subject as the new exchange email that arrived. I assume that "directpush" works by sending out these texts to trigger an activesync. However, as I mentioned, i don't ALWAYS get these texts. Also, it appears that I occasionally get texts a day after the message arrives in my inbox and even after I know I've read and deleted the message from my MDA.
Regardless of the sporadic nature of the texts, shouldn't the MDA keep them hidden from me? It's a little frustrating having to go thru and delete all these erroneous messages.
Any suggestions as to how I can clean this mess up?

First you need to provide more information.
What Rom are you using?
Only AKU 2.x Roms support Direct Push and then you need to have the correct version of Exchange Server (I think 2k5 sp2).
Direct Push does not use SMS but rather a heartbeat via GPRS.
I believe the old version of AS with Exchange Server used SMS (1.x Roms).

Thanks for the response.
I'm using xelencin's rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=53300
I have "direct push" turned on via the comm mgr. My office uses exchange 2k3, not sure what service pack. I don't believe there is such a thing as 2k5.

I might have typed the version number wrong, haven't been an exchange guy for many years. I would suggest talking to the guys responsibly for it and see if they support "MSFP".

kyphur said:
I might have typed the version number wrong, haven't been an exchange guy for many years. I would suggest talking to the guys responsibly for it and see if they support "MSFP".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is, it works. I get mesages delivered to my phone nearly instantly. However, my SMS box is full of useless crap and this dilutes the usefullness of SMS in general.

That would lead me to believe that the exchange server doesn't support the true Push and since the Rom does it isn't disposing of the SMS as that is the old method.

kyphur said:
That would lead me to believe that the exchange server doesn't support the true Push and since the Rom does it isn't disposing of the SMS as that is the old method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, that makes sense. I'll get a hold of the exchange admin weds and see if he can do anything for me.

It's Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2...
Are you receiving these texts if you eliminate the exchange server relationship?
(domain can be case-sensitive)

This is most odd. Another strange thing is that you mentioned that you got the option to get new messages as they arrive. That would happen pre AKU2 and SP2. I'd really suspect that your IT guys haven't really gone from SP1 to SP2 as you should not get that option during the AS configuration.
Also, I know that a big concern was that originally MS was thinking of using SMS which was a major pia as we have to purchase that "add-in" from Cingular and get charged for any SMS over our limit. In other words, you might want to see if you're getting charged by T-Mobile....
Steven
chow

pmow said:
It's Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2...
Are you receiving these texts if you eliminate the exchange server relationship?
(domain can be case-sensitive)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I removed the relationship from activesync (activesync basically now asks me to set up sync with a pc or exchange server), but I'm still getting the texts. Sometimes, I'm getting duplicate texts. They're all coming from "701" if that helps.
HALP!

Dr Puttingham said:
This is most odd. Another strange thing is that you mentioned that you got the option to get new messages as they arrive. That would happen pre AKU2 and SP2. I'd really suspect that your IT guys haven't really gone from SP1 to SP2 as you should not get that option during the AS configuration.
Also, I know that a big concern was that originally MS was thinking of using SMS which was a major pia as we have to purchase that "add-in" from Cingular and get charged for any SMS over our limit. In other words, you might want to see if you're getting charged by T-Mobile....
Steven
chow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there anyway for me to check the version of exchange as a user?
Ya, the SMS thing is a concern for me. I had to sign up for a text plan on tmobile so that I don't end up oweing a fortune at the end of the month!

That's a good question, determining Exchange SP level remotely. I just tried my OWA but it tells me nothing. I'll keep looking.
Steven

Also, I just re set up my exchange OTA active sync. I get a "pop up" saying that I can synch as items arrive. When I go into "schedule", there's a link there to set that up which then asks for "Text messaging address for this device". Previously, I put in [email protected] which seems to work, but maybe I need to enter it differently some how?

That's a good question, determining Exchange SP level remotely. I just tried my OWA but it tells me nothing. I'll keep looking.
Steven

I have an idea.
It appears that even the new versions of exchange have the feature "AUTD" which does the SMS message triggered update. I set up the exchange account for "auto update" 2 times now, but haven't set it up a 3rd. Is it possible that when the user configures the auto update feature, it triggers the AUTD sms messaging bit on the server? Since I've done it twice, I'm now getting two sms messages per incoming email. However, previously, when i had pocket outlook configured to handle the auto-update bit, it was concealing one of the two identical SMS's, but not the other.
I'm sure I explained this horribly, but it was worth a shot.

Not sure why I didn't notice this earlier...
I'm getting texts related to ALL of my email accounts configured on the device. This includes the exchange account mentioned earlier, but also two GMAIL accounts. For what it's worth, I set these two gmail accounts up through the tmobile set up wizard and later deleted the accounts from the device in an attempt to test things out. When the accounts were setup, they seemed to be grabbing the mail through a tmobile proxy or something instead of directly from the gmail servers.
No idea why I'm getting these messages, but this is getting crazy!

Stranger and stranger! I think that I would contact T-Mobile asap and cancel that SMS. I personally have never had any need for Texting, etc but people have different needs.
What I would start out with is to hard reset the phone after syncing it. Then I'd delete the partnership with AS. I'd setup my Exchange by installing your Exchange server's Security Certificate on your device(which you should keep on your SD card), configuring the AS on the device, never connecting to the PC. Wait a while to setup your GMail accounts, etc. ... one step at a time.
Good luck!
Steven
chow

RESOLVED!
Ok, I think I figured it out.
T-mobile apparently uses these text messages to trigger email synchs.
I logged into my tmobile account and decided to pay attention to the "t-zones" section for the first time. "Setup My E-Mail" takes you to a page that allows you to configure email accounts for your device. It also allows you to check your email for those accounts. Anyway, there's an "Alerts" section that you can configure and it appears to relate to these texts that I've been receiving. Even my exchange account was configured here and was setup to send the text messages.
Additionally, it appears that I wasn't being charged for the texts. None of them have shown up in my online bill.
I believe that ALL of this was the result of using the tmobile email setup wizard that's included on the phone xelencin's cooked rom.
Whew, I feel like I've solved a puzzle.

Good for you! Makes sense now...
I've never run that email wizard myself, always manually create the accounts.
Steven
chow

EMOZE screwed up my bill!

Hey,
I recently installed emoze for push email and then i ditched it. I jsut want to know, how does it work exactly? Is it genuinly push email or does it check for emials ever so often?
I"m asking this because i have about $300 of Internet usage (overages) on my account. I mainly used my internet for emails and i can't udnerstnad how i went over.
Also, how does Microsoft push email work? is it possible that was the problem?
I only receive about 10 emails a week anyway. please let me know
Thanks.

Short review about emoze
Hello all,
I'll start by saying that I'm part of emoze team.
emoze is a FREE push email & PIM solution for Pocket PCs, Symbain, Smartphones and other devices.
emoze synchronizes the Outlook's Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks with full support of attachments. With emoze you have a wide range of configuration possibilities for every folder you choose emoze to synchronize.
Concerning the data package, with emoze as long as data is not being transferred you are not being charged for data. We suggest you review with your providers to understand your data plans.
Furthermore, you can use a sleep mode, which will connect the internet every few minutes. The only data emoze will transfer is the emails and PIM.
If you have anymore questions about emoze please fill free to connect our support: [email protected]
For conclution please remember one thing, emoze is the easiest & most secure push email solution available.
Regards and good day,
Oren.

I suggest you to get an unilimted data plan if you want to get online.
If you decide not to get one, then I recommend you to use SPB GPRS Monitor to keep a eye on your data consumption. Not that your carrier will take that information as valid, but at least you can be alerted when you reach a certain configurable limit.
Cheers!
Rayan

Hello. I tried emoze, and after a few tried it finally worked. I must say, there should be a detailed instruction on how to set it up. I mean from the very beginning.
ALso, while setting it up on my iPhone, there were pop up windows that says "cannot verified" or something. 2-3 times. I didn't know you have to keep on pressing continue. The instruction doesn't say anything about that.
ANyway, I finally got it to work, well sort of.
I can send email from my iPhone, but cannot receive.
Here's what I've done so far.
(1) I donwloaded emoze software.
(2) I have username/pw. I registered it with my gamil email (this is what I want to be pushed to my iPhone)
(3) I setup my GMAIL email account to my MS Outlook 2007.
(4) I clicked EDIT on emoze, and selected INBOX.
(5) When I send/receive email on iPhone, I can see that the icon on emoze changes, meaning it syncs.
(6) I also truend off SSL on iPhone according to other users.
Still can't receive email. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
emozeoren said:
Hello all,
I'll start by saying that I'm part of emoze team.
emoze is a FREE push email & PIM solution for Pocket PCs, Symbain, Smartphones and other devices.
emoze synchronizes the Outlook's Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks with full support of attachments. With emoze you have a wide range of configuration possibilities for every folder you choose emoze to synchronize.
Concerning the data package, with emoze as long as data is not being transferred you are not being charged for data. We suggest you review with your providers to understand your data plans.
Furthermore, you can use a sleep mode, which will connect the internet every few minutes. The only data emoze will transfer is the emails and PIM.
If you have anymore questions about emoze please fill free to connect our support: [email protected]
For conclution please remember one thing, emoze is the easiest & most secure push email solution available.
Regards and good day,
Oren.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

DirectPush (and similarly Emoze and most other 'Push' e-mail technologies) work by simulating true Push communications.
Because server-initiated communication isn't strictly possible over GPRS, the cell data network, these Push e-mail solutions work by sending requests (called pings) to a server at regular intervals. If no new e-mails are waiting, the server simply acknowledges the ping. Otherwise, it instructs the device to retrieve the new e-mails.
The advantages over pure-pull technology (i.e. setting Outlook to check for e-mails every 15 minutes) lie in the smaller amount of the ping-packets compared with the packets exchanged when checking e-mail over pure Exchange/POP/IMAP. This, in turn, uses less bandwidth, enabling the checks to be done more frequently and in the background without significant use of bandwidth or resources.
Unfortunately, this does create data traffic, costing you money. I wouldn't reccomend having any type of 'always-on' solution, such as these 'push' e-mail simulations, unless you're on an unlimited data plan.
A few true Push e-mail schemes do exist for the HTC Wizard; these utilize cell-network messages (usually SMS-based) to initialize communications on the server-side. These messages are then intercepted in the notification que, instructing your device to check for new e-mails. These do not use data except for when the e-mails themselves are downloaded.
T-Mobile offers one such solution with their 'My E-Mail Triggers', and I believe AT&T/Cingular offers a similar solution.
For more information on DirectPush's simulated push technology, a good article is available on the MSDN here.

Nice to see you here RAYAN
In poderPDA dont answers...
En poder PDA no contestan...
reed you soon man!
Te leeo despues!

thank you for this useful clarification !!!!!!

Exchange mail services (free / trial accounts available) includes push / aliases

hey guys from Trinity forum!
had started this service out to TYTN users and figured i should spread the news around to some of the other boards. if you guys are looking for push email, please get in touch here's what i posted in the tytn forum:
I'm now offering exchange mailboxes to users (subscription based service). right now i see two, one by austindkelly in the wizard forum (he's disappeared for over a month and looks like he doens't offer his service any more) and one by denial in the kaiser section ($5/month). I thought I'd offer up a similar service starting with the hermes group (cheaper of course) with a few extra tidbits of joy...
- supports iphone exchange services, saves a heck of money over apple's mobileme service!
- outlook web access (with the advanced interface)
- 1gb quota
- both SSL as well as standard port options
- *IMAP access* - you don't even need outlook, syncs flawlessly with your phone.
- *MAPI* outlook access - hook up your outlook on your PC to sync with my service which in turn syncs with your phone. no plugging in ever needed!
- alias included (get your own email)
- changing your password through outlook web access (one-way non-reversible encryption).
I figured it's a bit of an overkill having my own exchange server that's serving a single account (i.e. mine). so why not open it up!
Price is $10 for 3 months, $19 for 6 months.
Please PM me if you're interested... I'll probably set up your account within 12 hours (probably less).
And yes, will give you unused credit money back etc etc if you're unsatisfied for whatever reason. I'm really not in this for the money, it's more to utilize something I spent hours building up, plus to cover the costs of my internet / server hardware.
And, as usual, if you need any files hosted for xda-developers just let me know, i'm already hosting over 40 ROM images and serving 5-6gb/day in ROMs from the wiki!
cheers!
free accounts:
will provide 10 rotating free accounts at any given time for test purposes, will base it off of usage. so if you use the free account, i'll keep it up indefinitely, if not then account will be removed after 14 days and given to the next person in line.
Free accounts do not have MAPI access, have 50mb storage, have no aliases either.
Depending on utilization I may increase this 10 free account limit.

few people are asking about synching from multiple sources...
from my understanding i can only give you one alias for your accounts, which means you can't select your "from." however you're free to forward as many accounts as you wish to the account i create for you, but you can only send from one "alias."
another multi-synching thing people are asking is whether you can sync calendar with your desktop and email with my service. sure!! its best that way in fact - that's what i do. i have my outlook on my desktop which has my calendar, contacts, and only sync my email via push on exchange to my server... you can even take this a step further and set up IMAP access so what you see in your email client is the same as what you'll see in your pocket outlook... if you delete from your desktop, whoosh it disappears from your PDA too

MAPI (i.e. desktop outlook) access is now enabled
still plenty of resources to use up so drop me a line if interested!

Alternative for MS Exchange server for home use
Hi!
I have been searching for preferably free alternative of MS Exchange server. Does anyone know if there is a program that you could just install on your home computer wich anyways is always online? So that I could do my synchronize needs with my home computer myself? I have Vista installed and I use it everyday remotely for my studying purposes, so it would be ideal just to sync the information between my P3600 and home computer throught internet..

Not really the best thread for asking this, as it's totally off topic.
Start a new thread, thanks

...
Ok, sorry guys

going to take the server down for about 15-20 minutes this afternoon for a quick reboot and offline backup. planning for 3:00pm GMT. please be patient, hopefully it should be done much much faster!

Quick update regarding update in the server!
I know I've had some VERY avoidable downtimes this past few months. Because this is running on a laptop it has been unplugged from the power / ethernet while its been moved.
however good news! I've just purchased a replacement - a nice server
Specs - dual core AMD 5600+ with 2 gb RAM, 820gb storage (for those attachments ).
i'll do the switchover soon as i get the machine, should hopefully take 10-15 minutes as i just need to image the drive across.
once i get the machine i'll push up the trial accounts to 15 or 20 so if you're interested i'll post here when the migration is done and you can drop me a note
cheers!

I'd be interested in a test account please if you still have any available? Been using gmail IMAP and a variety of pop3 servers for a while but have never tried Exchange.
Is the 500mb quota your email quota?
What does "alias included" mean?

iamwhoiam said:
I'd be interested in a test account please if you still have any available? Been using gmail IMAP and a variety of pop3 servers for a while but have never tried Exchange.
Is the 500mb quota your email quota?
What does "alias included" mean?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check your inbox for the trial account
the quota is currently 500mb, i'll bump it up to a gig once the new server is set up, although nobody is coming even close to their quota limit.
"alias" means that emails you send will appear to come from the email address of your chosing - i.e. gmail, yahoo, whatever you use...

can someone who has successfully set up outlook 07 with my service PM me with the settings they've used? i need to get some instructions on my site on how to do it, and i don't use exchange 07 myself...
thanks!

UPDATE Now offering Exchange 2010 accounts - fully compatible with latest outlook, html email etc!
Information and registration at https://exchange.etbox.info