Help Requested: Direct Push - Push e-mail for Windows Mobile - Networking

So I've been trying out the new ROM's on my Wizard (Cingular 8125). And, one of the new features is support for 'push e-mail'.
I found a pretty useless Microsoft marketing drivel-site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/articles/directpush.mspx
I would like to learn how I can either create my own push e-mail server, or else get reviews of ISP's who offer this service.

Cingular has a ssytem called Xpress mail that comes in two components. One is the xpress mail (push email) client for your device, and another piece of software that runs on your computer, grabbing emails, calendar/contact info fomr outlook, and sends that info to a server at cingular that will then push that to your device
additionally, emoze provides this service for free: www.emoze.com

Related

XDA II will have blackberry functionnality?

My IT manager has informed me that the XDA II will have blackberry capabilities once "O2 implement some changes to their servers" , which will apparently happen somewhere after X-mas.
Anybody else heard of this?
It was my impression, from something I read I believe, that the functionality comes from both 2003 mobile upgrade, and microsoft .net (2003) exchange server. Basically I was lead to believe that if you have say MS exchange server .net or 2003 what ever it is officially called, and a pocket pc phone running 2003 mobile the blackberry type functions can be had.
RIM client is being shipped in new O2 XDA II firmware next year. This means you can use it with RIM BES servers to deliver push E-mail.
This will not give the true Blackberry experience though as the carriers have only licensed a portion of the BES solution and it's functionality is limited. There is no push calendar, contacts etc. etc. and the configuration aspects are limited on PPC2003.
Good for marketing purposes but pretty much useless in my view in an enterprise deployment. It's my understanding that the RIM BES support is a firmware only solution and you will not be able to add extra functionality without the carrier licencing it and delivering it to you in ROM form.
The RIM BES is done with software. So in theory it could be implemented on the XDA II. However the BES is not cheep!!
It would be good to see if an XDA II could get the seamless e-mail connection that the Blackberry does. However the Blackberry is not a particularly good phone and when I last looked did not support SMS but P2P. If they can get over the technical aspect and the cost of the BES it would be great and I for one would perches the service in a second.
Gil.
Yes it can
the xmail software can be used to match what blackberry can provide - you will need a computer permanently linked to the network (either yours or a shared machine)
A T-Mobile manager in San Francisco explained it this way: The combination of the new Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003 software on your PDA and new mail server software (undoubtedly Exchange Server 2003, although she didn't say), lets email show up on your PDA without you having to check for it manually, just like SMS messages do. If that's what you mean by Blackberry capabilities, then it looks like everyone who has or upgrades to Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003 and gets email from an updated Exchange Server will have "Blackberry capability." She explained that the mail server will send a specially coded SMS message to your PDA (which you will never see) which will notify the OS that there is email waiting to be downloaded. The PDA will then automatically initate a download of the email. From your perspective, it will seem that the email will simply show up -- a la with a Blackberry device.
It is Exchange 2003 and Windows Mobile 2003 combo. You can set Active Sync to sync "as new items arrive" option. This option sends a special email via SMS to your phone to pull the new data. So, it becomes very close to Blackberry RIM, I love it. It saves my time to check for new messages on the road.
People are confusing two capabilities here
RIM / Blackberry INBOX software is rumored to be shipping with / in the XDA II firmware sometime in '04 (might be available now). This would allow EITHER a RIM desktop redirector OR a Blackberry Enterprise Server to wireless synchronize Exchange email with the XDA II. The BES option is much better than the 'redirector' as it doesn't require a PC to be constantly running redirecting email for every user doing this (dumb approach).
There are multiple "Blackberry Like" capabilities that support the XDA II that some of you have been referring too. Microsoft new 'titanium' / Exchange uses SMS (dumb approach) to wake up the XDA II and 'tell it' to come pick up it's mail, calendar, etc. SMS is costly in some cases, and not guaranteed message protocol in all cases.
Other ISV's are developing / have developed 'Berry like' capability for XDA II -- Synchrologoc, Extended Systems, Sybase iAnywhere, others.
Most of these take the same approach as described above by Microsoft -- some are a bit more clever approach that uses TCP/IP as the underlying Push notification vs. SMS -- which makes them alot more flexible and reliable.
NET-net: There are two options to achieving the Pushed email / PIM to the XDA II: via RIM / Blackberry approach, or via the MS / ISV approach described above.
Make sense? FYI: I know this because I am the RIM product mgr for my company, and have been exploring some of the options that are RIM-like with other device and platforms.
jpd
There are 3rd party solutions that allow for this kind of thing also. We are currently using Synchrologic Email Accelerator to do true IP push to our WM2003 devices. The device polls the server to see if new messages are there and pulls them down if there are any new items. Email, Contacts, Tasks...any of your PIM items are "pushed" (it actually appears to be a pull, but oh well) without SMS messaging taking place.
I guess my point is that this is WM2003 capability, not necessarily XDA II. You can have this "blackberry experience" today if you use the right software. Granted, its not cheap, but I know our mobile users love it.
-wurd up
wurdipus said:
There are 3rd party solutions that allow for this kind of thing also. We are currently using Synchrologic Email Accelerator to do true IP push to our WM2003 devices. The device polls the server to see if new messages are there and pulls them down if there are any new items. Email, Contacts, Tasks...any of your PIM items are "pushed" (it actually appears to be a pull, but oh well) without SMS messaging taking place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but the device has to be on to do this, right? I mean to "poll" the server, your PPC has to be turned on, right?
With the Exchange Server method, it will send the SMS which will cause your PPC to wake up, dl the email, and tell you "you've got mail".
-arebelspy
your PDA is never actually off unless you let the battery die. When you turn it "off" the screen just blanks to save battery. I agree, SMS message wakeup is a stupid and wasteful approach.

AKU2 (push email) providers - experience

Anyone got any recommendations for push email providers. Or just names to compare.
So far I have tried:
4smartphone.net - good service but not cheap
mail2web.com - good and cheap
any other recommendations ?
colonel said:
Anyone got any recommendations for push email providers. Or just names to compare.
So far I have tried:
4smartphone.net - good service but not cheap
mail2web.com - good and cheap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've gathered so far, go with one of those two.
or register your own domain and build your own exchange server, works fine
adonker said:
or register your own domain and build your own exchange server, works fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just like that?
If you would like to have direct push mail from Microsoft on your Universal, it can be done with MS Exchange server SP2
having Echange SP2 on your own (Hosted) server, and building your own certificate on this server (domain) which you later can import on your Universal, you can use Direct Push mail (Https) fron the Universal to your Echange server.
I'm using it,..and the mobile active sync is constantly keeping the GPRS HTTPS connection allive and is syncronising constantly my inbox (agenda, contacts, email and tasks) Not the same as blackberry, but only several seconds delay (depends on gprs network, umts will be faster)
Download the latest rom with the AKU2 feature pack from MS build in, install it on your device and you can use the Direct Push function
adonker said:
If you would like to have direct push mail from Microsoft on your Universal, it can be done with MS Exchange server SP2
having Echange SP2 on your own (Hosted) server, and building your own certificate on this server (domain) which you later can import on your Universal, you can use Direct Push mail (Https) fron the Universal to your Echange server.
I'm using it,..and the mobile active sync is constantly keeping the GPRS HTTPS connection allive and is syncronising constantly my inbox (agenda, contacts, email and tasks) Not the same as blackberry, but only several seconds delay (depends on gprs network, umts will be faster)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes yes, I know all this... but you can get exactly the same thing for four pounds a month with 4smartphone.net and they take care of 90% of the hassle for you. Setting up an exchange server is beyond 95% of people with handhelds. And even then, I may be being charitable.
Even downloading a dodgy copy of Exchange via bittorrent is more hassle than getting 4smartphone.net to host it for you.
adonker said:
If you would like to have direct push mail from Microsoft on your Universal, it can be done with MS Exchange server SP2
having Echange SP2 on your own (Hosted) server, and building your own certificate on this server (domain) which you later can import on your Universal, you can use Direct Push mail (Https) fron the Universal to your Echange server.
I'm using it,..and the mobile active sync is constantly keeping the GPRS HTTPS connection allive and is syncronising constantly my inbox (agenda, contacts, email and tasks) Not the same as blackberry, but only several seconds delay (depends on gprs network, umts will be faster)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would rather look for a personal assistant at the cost of your solution
haha,....sorry. Im a system engineer.
I've been using mail2web with my XDA Exec for the last few days and it works really well. Pretty good for a free service!
Been using 4smartphone.net trial for a few days now... My Exec's mail keeps de-syncing with the Exchange server.
I figured that if I MOVE emails between folders a lot, I start getting ActiveSync problems with error code 0x80070008 and I can't sync anymore. After a soft reset, I can sync again, but the folders on my Exec are now out of sync with folders on the Exchange server. i.e. some mails that were moved are now in Inbox of Exchange, whereas they have been moved to another mail folder on my Exec.
Seems too unreliable for me :|
My take on 4smartphone.net is that its a bit more professional then mail2web. It also ensures that emails sent are stamped with the email address you want to use (i.e. the one fwded/pop3ed to 4smartphone).
mail2web is a little more DIY, however the FAQ is good.
Ultimately I have opted to use mail2web as its only $1.99 a month vs $3.99 a month for 4smartphone (also have to keep up my IGN subscription
rgds
I found 4smartphone.net quite reliable.
did you setup manually - ? I did, maybe the autosetup has an issue.
are you syncing over wifi ? this has to be done manually
have 4smartphone.net given any reason why folder moving should case a trouble ?
colonel said:
have 4smartphone.net given any reason why folder moving should case a trouble ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't actually contacted them yet... I've been googling 0x80070008 and found it to be memory related issues on the device. I'm thinking memory leak leading to lack of memory on my device -> ActiveSync dies.
yeah, could be too many things running as well.
I haven't rebooted for 2 weeks now (since the new O2 update) - famous last words !
what is that aku2 thing and can I use push mail on WM2003se? thnx
no. u can use activesync over a GPRS/3G with wm 2003se. look at mail2web.com FAQs.
however this is not push, its periodic activesync.
push email is where your device gets email as soon as its delivered.
this means that you get the email straight away. the technical difference is that push (in WM5) is server driven and not device driven.
I presume you don't have a universal as they are all WM5.
rgds
colonel said:
the technical difference is that push (in WM5) is server driven and not device driven.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a question: does this mean that you don't pay for the data required to send the e-mail to your device? The one thing that's held me back from diving into push e-mail so far is the worry of going over my data limit (5mb/month on O2 - I can't afford any extra...) and paying too much on my contract.
If MMS messages are free to receive, is it the same for push e-mail messages because the server is initiating the connection? Or do we still have to pay? If you could answer this for me I'd really appreciate it, so thanks in advance
Mach
You'd still have to pay.
thanks for answer colonel. I will look at mail2web.com.

Newbie Question... What is push email?

Hello,
Just got my Cingular 8125 as I have a need to check email on the road. I will be using wifi for connectivity to the internet and hopefully to check email.
I'm very new to this and don't understand the concept of email to smartphones. I keep coming across the term push email when researching upgraded roms. I think I want it but I'm not sure what it is. I'm assuming it allows my phone to just get email without having to connect to GPRS or wifi. Sort of like text messages. But really I have no clue and don't know if I need exchange server or not.
Here is what I am looking for... I have about 5 different POP3 accounts for my own domain names. I would like to be able to check these 5 accounts from my phone. I would also like to check my gmail account. I did find some instructions for this on these forums. Ideally, they would just go to the phone as they arrive. Another option would be for me to manually check email occassionally throughout the day through GPRS or Wifi. Would I be able to receive a phone call if I'm downloading emails?
These email accounts are from my websites on shared servers with a hosting provider. I do not have an Exchange Server. Looked into a company called web2email but not sure if I need that either.
Basically, what is the best solution for me to get my emails in a quick and reliable manner. Also, if anyone has any advice on syncing with Outlook that would be great... for instance, if I check email with my phone, is it removed from the server so when I check on my laptop it will show no emails? Then when I sync, will the phone emails be added to my laptop? Vice versa?
Appreciate any advice you might have. I tried to search and couldn't really find anything. If you would rather post a link to another thread or site tutorial that would be fine as well.
Yes i think you guessed right, push email is email that is sent to your device as soon as it arrives to your email account, but you will need a push email account and your gprs will need to be on continously. Some have reported higher costs with push email as it has a higher data use the ordinary pop email. Choice is yours!
When you check emails with your phone, the email stays on the server, and you can set your laptop to do likewise under your pop email account settings.
Thank you. That makes sense.
I plan on getting an unlimited plan (either medianet or dataplan) so I don't think it would be a problem for GPRS to always stay on.
I read something about some setting that will default to wifi if available.
Sounds like this "push email" is exactly what I was looking for. And to think I almost got a Blackberry.
Thanks again.
The push e-mail system on Microsoft Windows Mobile devices requires an active cellular data connection. The device at periodic intervals issues a "heartbeat" to an Exchange server (belong to either your company, yourself, or an e-mail provider). The Exchange server checks the account, sees if you have new mail, and then pushes it back onto the device.
The battery drain is minimal compared to setting up Pocket Outlook to check for messages every X minutes, but it is slightly more than a true push system such as RIM's Blackberry devices. This is because RIM uses true push e-mail, where the network wakes up your device when you receive a new e-mail.
There's a free e-mail provider out there that supports Microsoft Exchange and Direct Push with ActiveSync. Check out the Mail2Web live service, at:
http://live.mail2web.com/
GliTCH82 said:
The push e-mail system on Microsoft Windows Mobile devices requires an active cellular data connection. The device at periodic intervals issues a "heartbeat" to an Exchange server (belong to either your company, yourself, or an e-mail provider). The Exchange server checks the account, sees if you have new mail, and then pushes it back onto the device.
The battery drain is minimal compared to setting up Pocket Outlook to check for messages every X minutes, but it is slightly more than a true push system such as RIM's Blackberry devices. This is because RIM uses true push e-mail, where the network wakes up your device when you receive a new e-mail.
There's a free e-mail provider out there that supports Microsoft Exchange and Direct Push with ActiveSync. Check out the Mail2Web live service, at:
http://live.mail2web.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it sounds like I will need an exchange server which I don't have. I just have a standard POP3 account with my site hosting...
I like the push idea and will checkout mail2web. I will email them some questions as their site is somewhat confusing for me. It says the free account does not support POP3. I'm pretty sure I would need that. Their business accounts will work but I'm not sure if the pricing per user would allow me to use all 5 email accounts. That said though, if the free version won't work for me the paid accounts are very reasonably priced.
So can someone post a easy walkthru to getting functioning push on a 8125?
To anble Direct Push, you shd hv AKU2 ROm installed on yr device.Then u can very well use it...also you can visit www.mail2web.com for live mail..
Well, when you use a provider like Mail2Web you don't need to setup your own Exchange server, they let you use theirs. And unfortunately, Mail2Web's free live service which lets you use Direct Push doesn't let you use POP3. However, their Outlook Mobile Access is a web based e-mail system that is absolutely great, it mimics Microsoft Outlook's interface and for all intents and purposes eliminates the need for you to use POP3 to check e-mail from your account. When you sign up with them, your e-mail address is [email protected].
As you may have already noticed, for a fee you can upgrade to POP3 access and other e-mail solutions including using your own domain (such as [email protected]) but I have yet to find a need for this. I just forward all my e-mail accounts to my mail2Web account with one drawback: When people get my e-mail it says it's from [email protected].
But with 1 GB of free storage, and a 10 MB (if i remember correctly) message limit and free Direct Push, I'm not one to complain.
IdeaDirect said:
So it sounds like I will need an exchange server which I don't have. I just have a standard POP3 account with my site hosting...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some hosting sites (running on Linux usually) will run something like Procmail that allows you to set up filtering and forwarding rules. You might be able to get your hosting POP3 accounts to forward copies of new mail to your mail2web account.
Alternatively, you could poll the POP3 accounts from your PC at home, and have an Inbox rule that forwards relevant (ie non junk/spam) to your mail2web account. That just means having your email client running all the time to do the forwarding...
Final thought is, as you said, to set up Exchange at home, poll your POP accounts (which I believe you can do with the version of Exchange in the Small Business Server) and then set up Push with your own server.
Regards,
Dox
Dox said:
IdeaDirect said:
So it sounds like I will need an exchange server which I don't have. I just have a standard POP3 account with my site hosting...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some hosting sites (running on Linux usually) will run something like Procmail that allows you to set up filtering and forwarding rules. You might be able to get your hosting POP3 accounts to forward copies of new mail to your mail2web account.
Alternatively, you could poll the POP3 accounts from your PC at home, and have an Inbox rule that forwards relevant (ie non junk/spam) to your mail2web account. That just means having your email client running all the time to do the forwarding...
Final thought is, as you said, to set up Exchange at home, poll your POP accounts (which I believe you can do with the version of Exchange in the Small Business Server) and then set up Push with your own server.
Regards,
Dox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good suggestions. Yes, I can set up all sorts of forwards on my hosting server but I like keeping things separate as they are all different businesses. I like to reply from the different emails as well. I also don't want to rely on my home email client and setting up an Exchange server seems complicated (to someone that didn't even know what push email was :wink: )
It does seem that the paid version at web2email will do the trick. It is only a couple bucks a month. I need to see if I can have multiple pop3 accounts though. I don't mind paying a few bucks each month for this service as it is quite important to me. It is the primary reason I got this phone.

Private eMail Push Service

Hi all,
Do you know an existing eMail Push Service like emoze for the Hermes Device - to install it on your private PC? (not BlackBerry - here you need an existing Server, or?)
http://www.emoze.com/
what about mail2web live?
live.mail2web.com
uses ActiveSync DirectPush, so no need for 3rd party ****
or 4smartphone.net ..
i use live.mail2web.com and so far seems pretty decent, havent had any real issues with it yet
I believe emoze and active sync can run in parallel. Good for people that want to sync personal and business account reliably

Pushmail on X01HT

For all who'd like to have real pushmail on the SB X01HT without doing Blackberry, there's an interesting free solution. Provided that you have a PC running consistantly somewhere, check out www.emoze.com. They provide client a client for the PC as well ast the X01HT (I use the HTC TyTN version...).
The way it woks is that whenver a mail arrives at your PC, emoze syncs it to their servers and pushes it back to the X01HT. The mobile client is configurable, so you can be always on (real push) or sync at regular intervals.
Works great on corporate domain accounts behind firewalls as well... only issue I see is that the X01HT get's pretty slow if you are running 'always-on' on a WIFI connection...
imap
dandare123 said:
For all who'd like to have real pushmail on the SB X01HT without doing Blackberry, there's an interesting free solution. Provided that you have a PC running consistantly somewhere, check out www.emoze.com. They provide client a client for the PC as well ast the X01HT (I use the HTC TyTN version...).
The way it woks is that whenver a mail arrives at your PC, emoze syncs it to their servers and pushes it back to the X01HT. The mobile client is configurable, so you can be always on (real push) or sync at regular intervals.
Works great on corporate domain accounts behind firewalls as well... only issue I see is that the X01HT get's pretty slow if you are running 'always-on' on a WIFI connection...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
isnt imap push ? i mean the mail arrives within 10 seconds.
I just want to document my ideal e-mail solution as I just got everything working perfectly on my Softbank X01HT.
I have my own e-mail address on rented server space
[email protected]
This is my "real" e-mail address. All mail here is forwarded to a gmail account:
[email protected]
where it is filtered for spam, THEN forwarded to a mail2web.com Personal Exchange account.
[email protected]
mail2web.com exchange account can synch in realtime with your phone, (i.e. true PUSH mail. Maybe the free one can do this too, BUT with a paid-for personal account you can also set the FROM: field to a specific e-mail address. In my case, I set it to [email protected]!
So if you send me an e-mail to [email protected] it is checked for spam then sent to mail2web who then PUSH it onto my phone instantly.
and if I send an e-mail from my phone, the From: field just says [email protected]. The receiving party need never know it went through mail2web.com
I highly recommend this solution, the cost is less than $0.65 per month!
What is the cost for?
sorry I missed this. mail2web charges a small fee for the privilege of setting the "From" address to something other than mail2web.com . Otherwise it's free.
Could I change it to my GMail address?
yes. You can change it to whatever you like as long as you can validate that you have access to that address (you ahve to fill in a code which they e-mail to you)

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