Battery Usage (push mail vs sms) - Networking

Can someone explain how sms works, compared to push email? Most of the so called push email solutions are really polling applications running every so often and consuming considerable battery life. What is it about sms that allows it to accomplish almost the same thing with so little battery usage?

My experience of push applications are Intellisync and Onebridge (ianywhere).
They work by making a connection to the internet, obtaining an IP address and then registering this IP address with the push server. Then, whenver the push server recieves an email is simply sends it to that IP address. so the device NEEDS to always be connected to teh web, this can seriously drain any battery be it wifi or GPRS.
The other method they offer is powersave mode, this is basically pull email. The device isnt always connected and the installed application will connect to the server and sync either on request or at a specified interval. I currently have mine set to poll every 4 hours.
Intellisync is great but all push services are designed for the business, the few which are for the single user often lack a large number of features.
I think the SMS option is where the device is sent an sms which the application reads and is instructed to perform a sync. Never used it as I can expect it to be a bit pants.

Related

Useful Utility for PocketPC - Comments please....

I connect to 4 or 5 different wireless lans in the various places I work and also to GPRS.
For each one the connection to the internet will be with a different provider and therefore the SMTP server I need to use for sending mail will be different, or may even be a POP service running on a local Exchange server.
This is a pain. I have written a utility that solves this problem by allowing you to switch smtp server for all your mail acccounts in any mail client quickly on the fly.
Basically you configure any mail clients to use an smtp server called virtualsmtp and then you set up all the different smtp servers you use by IP address in the utility.
The utility sets a host record in the registry for virtualsmtp pointing to whichever smtp server you want to run.
It's called SMTPSwitcher (very imaginatively) and runs from a notification icon in the system tray.
It's a bit flaky at the moment (mainly windowing problems and issues with the NotifyIcon) and I also can't delete the server entries because RegDeleteKey always returns error 5 : Access Denied.
If anyone wants to test it or has any ideas or comments please post here.
I'd be happy to test it for you
nice software. I was wishing for it last thursday when I had to send mails from the wifi access point of a friend.
I would be glad to test it (qtek 2020, windows mobile 2003), once my phone decide to work (it did a quick 3 seconds journey in my wc today. oops)
OK. I can post the app here.
1) There is no install program at the moment, just an exe file.
The best way to install is to just copy to your PPC.
You can run by clicking on exe or create a shortcut in your startup folder.
2) It is written in c# for the .NET compact framework so you must have the .net CF installed which you probably have anyway.
3) The biggest problem at the moment is that the Remove button does not work properly.
If you need to delete entries from the list you will need to use a registry editor. The entries are stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SMTPSwitcher.
4) Sometimes the app stops responding and wont display its form when you click on the icon. If this happens you can try to terminate it using the Settings->System->Memory->RunningPrograms option or do a soft reset.
I will be trying to fix the Remove button and unless I can find a fix for some of the problems that cause the app to stop responding I will probably remove the feature that lets you run it as an icon.
I had this problem ages ago where i would go to a friends house or a wifi hot spot but of corse could not send email.
To get round this i purchased a domain name and email account with easyspace. this works well for me, as it done not matter how i am connected either GPRS, or WiFi i can still send emails from just the one account.
The only problem just noticed the other day is if i use orange UK it works fine on GPRS connection but not if its a 3g connection, Orange are looking into this.
Please dont take this as critisisum your program is a excellent idea, I just like the idea of not having to take any notice of how i am connected and email working
John
Subscribing to a roaming smtp service is another way round the problem as is using webmail.
My problem is that I have 5 or 6 mail accounts in different domains and a lot of roaming smtp services will not relay for any domains other than the ones you have with them.
I have uploaded a new version which has a DNS resolver built in.
Instead of typing in the IP address of any smtp server you want tp use you can enter the name and it will look up the ip address assuming you are connected to a network.

Push email through wifi

I am wondering whether push email is functioning through wifi on the prophet? I have wifi coverage over my city, and would prefer it then getting billed for GPRS...
Push Email client from Microsoft will not work over WiFi, it is meant to generate business for mobile providers
But Siemens and other mail server solutions companies offer push email over WiFi for WiFi Providers - but I think no one is offering it yet.
Note: Be carefull with push email over GRPS. Depending on individual settings this can generate a lot of traffic without downloading a single email. One engineer told me about 15 megs traffic just for polling the Exchange server, without downloading a single email. Of course you can work out conservative settings, but better get a GPRS or UMTS data flat...25 euros here in Germany (www.base.de)
Are you 100% sure of this?
Microsoft's implimentation of Push e-mail uses HTTP(S) so therefore should not be limited to the transport unless the implimentation is restricted on the device in some way?
All the information I have totally contradicts your statement, can you please justify it can as I fear it is absolutely incorrect.
Dear, I don´t have to "justify" anything. Do your own research, ask Microsoft MSDN like I did, and then write about it. Enjoy.
PS: The original question was - as I understood it: Can MS push email client for Mobile 5 work over WiFi.
Why you do not use POP3/SMTP or IMAP through WiFi ?
Thanks guys
Thanks Lucas, I think that pretty much answers my question.
Cheers.
You can setup a schedule like i did in activesync to poll email over wifi every 5 min and disable push.
If you want to use gprs, then just change schedule to sync as new items arrive and enable push in comm manager
What happens when out of wifi range?
Jamichy, what happens if you go out of wifi range with your settings? Do you get an error message or something you then need to respond to each time you are out of range?
Usually, activesync will try to sync, but does not generate any notifications. If I launch activesync, it shows me the time of last sync with exchange server on top line.
If i leave push settings on, and connect to wlan, Activesync Generates an "Attention Required:To syncronise you need to have a cellular network connection" message...
So when I'm at home or work, i disable push, and on the road i keep push enabled. BTW, Direct push can work using both GPRS web and wap settings

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.

PushMail with Exchange

Hi!
I just got PushMail activated on our company Exchange server and sychronising now works great, contacts, email etc. I do however got this annoying problem that mail shows up like 10 minutes after they have been sent and recieved at the server (I checked in Outlook and the mail had arrived) starting synchronizing manually or just hitting "send and recieve" in pocketoutlook immiedetly finds and downloads the new e-mail. If I wat about 10 minutes the mail shows up as well, but is this really how it should work isn't push mail all about the mail coming in the moment it's sent?
Push Mail is activated in my comm manager...
Any ideas?
Best Regards, Olle
Olleman said:
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, wait for a new ROM. Hopefully will be fixed then...
I have the same problem. Testet the server with MTeoR and 9100, they get the email direct, without the 10 minutes delay.
Go to ActiveSync --> Menu --> Schedule...
Change the settings in "Peak times" and "Off-peak times" to "As items arrive" instead of "Every 10 minutes".
Olleman said:
Hi!
I just got PushMail activated on our company Exchange server and sychronising now works great, contacts, email etc. I do however got this annoying problem that mail shows up like 10 minutes after they have been sent and recieved at the server (I checked in Outlook and the mail had arrived) starting synchronizing manually or just hitting "send and recieve" in pocketoutlook immiedetly finds and downloads the new e-mail. If I wat about 10 minutes the mail shows up as well, but is this really how it should work isn't push mail all about the mail coming in the moment it's sent?
Push Mail is activated in my comm manager...
Any ideas?
Best Regards, Olle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Olle
I also have push e-mail enabled on my TyTN and I normally receive my mails just a bit before they arrive in my Outlook Inbox.
Can you check your ActiveSync schedule? Is it really set to "As Items Arrive" or have you set a frequency (every 5 or 10 minutes)?
Also, what ROM version are you using?
Regards
Andreas
Hi!
Thanks for your answers, I went through all the settings I could find before I posted and I do have active synch and sceduling set to "when items arrive" it was actully my default setting.
My ROM version is: 1.18.263.2
Swedish language.
I do too, as many others have the same problem with bluetooth stereo sound so I'm looking forward to a new ROM release, perhaps that will solve my 10 minutes delay as well - or could it be some setting on the server?
I have also noticed that my device definetley seems to draw more power with pushmail activated than what it did when I used IMAP4 and looked for new mail every 20 minutes. I always have my 3G/GPRS connection active since I've got flatrate on data.
,Olle
Could be your Operator's DHCP lease timeout policy that's getting you. You're describing exactly the push email situation that happens when your phone's IP address changes faster than the 7 minute heartbeat. Your description fits right down to the increased power consumption too btw. Try this: check your IP address every 5 minutes or so using www.myipaddress.com to see if its changing. If it is then there's your problem and you need to see if your operator has a plan that provides a DHCP lease timeout that's greater than 7 minutes.
Also, there's an A2DP solution too but it involves buying more headset hardware.....
hm...not that problem either, I seem to have the same IP number as long as my connection is active..
,Olle
Hi again,
hm....just to add some more information to the subject that perhaps will help someone to see what the problem is...
I tried setting the schedule to every 10 minutes and back again to "when object arrives" (I've got swedish language on the phone so I'm not sure about the exact phrase) to see if the setting somehow had "locked"....same result though. I did however find something peculiar, my phone is synching every 8 minutes the WHOLE time, I've never used push mail before but I assume that it shouldn't behave like that except if I do get an e-mail every 8 minutes - right?
It also says in active synch that it's synching "E-mail 0/1" every time but I seldome have a new mail after this "every 8 minute synch".
Ohh btw, about the A2DP thing, I don't really considder it a fix if one needs to buy new hardware, that's more like going around the problem. I've got the latest Sony Ericsson A2DP Stereo headset and the phone should definetley be able to use it.
Any ideas anyone ?
Best Regards, Olle
hi guys when setting up push mail, will it auto detect if server has latest service pack etc, as i have set mine up and dont have the option for 'as they arrive' under schedule only got manual,5m,10m etc
Hello,
I think you have a problem with the setup of your infra.
You need to :
*Configure your exchnage to enable Direst push
*Put an HTTP timeout of a least 15 minutes
Take care if you are using Microsoft ISA2000 you need to adapt registry key.
More info please visit www.httpsync.net
Cheers
Hi!
Thanks for your answer, by infra, I assume you mean the exchange server that I'm synching with? I'm leaning more and more towards this as well since all the settings on my phone seems correct and our server admin has just enabled push mail on our server and noone else is using it at our company but me yet.
Best Regards, Olle
Yes in fact enabling the push on the exchange side (or your mobile) is quite simple but some strange behaviour can occur...
ie: the direst push is based on http session that must be keep online during 15 minutes...
also the device receive at it FIRST configuration that the Exchange is able to perform direct push if at the time of the configuration the exchnage was not able to perform direct push you have a risk that you would never be inform of the capability so you need to reconfigure your device ...
ISA2000 is not able to relay (by default, without modifiyng the registry) the fatc that you exchange is Direct push enable...
your sysop will found many information on my website here upper.
André
Olleman said:
Hi!
Thanks for your answer, by infra, I assume you mean the exchange server that I'm synching with? I'm leaning more and more towards this as well since all the settings on my phone seems correct and our server admin has just enabled push mail on our server and noone else is using it at our company but me yet.
Best Regards, Olle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, my TyTN is sync'ing every 8. minute aswell. But Push is working correctly with MTeoR and 9100 with the same Exchange server.
Guys has anyone got a step by step on setting up push, cause there seem to be options and things that some people leave out, My compnay is trying to test it to see if we should roll it out and microsoft just keep blowing their horn about how great it is and nothing on how to make it work!
Standard Tytn and standard exchange server, starting from scratch.
Also just a note that with the Tytn my boss has handed me and with it in it's current state the schedule option is greyed out, I would ideally like to reset and start again, but it is his one we are testing before we role out XDA mini-s's
EDIT:
OK, problem sorted, looks like the servers I was adding, if i clicked the adanced options it wouldn't save, so now, setting up of a server is done and is syncing.
EDIT; nope, still not syncing up although now I can press the sync button and it actually does something, takes ages , but says 'none' under last sync
Olleman, are you using Office 2007 as well?
I exited Outlook 2007 (beta) and it seems that the typical "syncronize every 8. minute"-thing has stopped.
EDIT: No I'm lying. It had no effect...
8 minute syncs mean the connection is being dropped between your PDA and your Exchange server. Every 7 minutes the PDA side heartbeat wakes up activesync and re-establishes the connection and AUTD syncs your mailbox. Exchange can't send email to you when it arrives because it can't signal your PDA's activesync and tell it to perform an AUTD operation because the existing connection is getting dropped. So it queues the request for the next time the connection gets established.
That being said, there are a number of things that could cause the connection to drop. Since your IP address appears to be stable, that isn't one of them and your next step is firewall timeouts. As has been stated earlier, if your Exchange system has an ISA as its front end then the heartbeat timeout has to be increased from its default value using the indicated links.
I actually implemented mine w/o an ISA by enabling http proxy on the front end server. So, the only device in my way is our Checkpoint firewall which has a 30 minute https timeout (no issues). You might also have to check your own firewall timeout settings for https (or http if, God forbid, that is your connection).
Also: the date and time are correct on your PDA right?
OK, now that I have the server there, thought it might work, but no go, can anyone give more details on what i should do?
Well, I have T-mobile and if I use the default t-mobile ROM. I can sync with all but email. I set up an exchange server without ssl so I can use the $4.99 tzones plan, (HTTP only). :lol:
Works fine if you hard reset and do not allow their ext rom crap to load by soft resetting after the hard reset.
Without their limited, BULL S*&##T, attempt at making more money by charging you extra just to use the Server Activesync functions, ,,, ya, stuff that is in WM5 and works fine by default, bastards.
:twisted:
Anyway, try to softreset after doing to pen alignment stuff, after a hard reset, before it loads the ext rom programs, and ServerActivesync will work, or use another ROM.
Settle down, Beavis :lol:

Company policy blocked additional emails and Windows Live

Hi
I have a personal phone (Niki) on which i managed to get my company's OWA (outlook web access) emails onto my mobile outlook along withh all my calendar, task and so on. Quite interesting but, recently the company merged mine and all other mailboxes in the company to a different server and since then i get a message every time i need to set up another email (a private one for instance) to recieve my personal emails or even Windows Live functions like Messenger on my phone it comes up with the same error message.
The message says my company policy has blocked this program or that it does not allow me to configure any additional emails. I'm connecting via 3G or GPRS (whichever is available), so no company WIFI here or anything and the phone is my own too. Any suggestions?
PLEASE HELP!!!
Paul.
paulinhosoares said:
Hi
I have a personal phone (Niki) on which i managed to get my company's OWA (outlook web access) emails onto my mobile outlook along withh all my calendar, task and so on. Quite interesting but, recently the company merged mine and all other mailboxes in the company to a different server and since then i get a message every time i need to set up another email (a private one for instance) to recieve my personal emails or even Windows Live functions like Messenger on my phone it comes up with the same error message.
The message says my company policy has blocked this program or that it does not allow me to configure any additional emails. I'm connecting via 3G or GPRS (whichever is available), so no company WIFI here or anything and the phone is my own too. Any suggestions?
PLEASE HELP!!!
Paul.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds like an Exchange ActiveSync policy being pushed down to the device? Are you sure you aren't using ActiveSync with your company Exchange server(s)?. The Exchange policy can be very restrictive if your company/admins want it to be - Strong alphanumeric passwords, forced password timeouts, you can also disable memory cards, cameras, WiFi, infrared, Internet Sharing, Desktop Synchronisation & Bluetooth. Plus as it looks like you have, you can disable consumer email, as well as web browsing, installation of unsigned applications and execution of unsigned applications. You can even specifically deny or allow certain applications to run.
If it is an Exchange ActiveSync policy then there are workarounds by editing the relevant registry entries that enforce the policies, however if the policy is configured to refresh at regular intervals then the workaround will only be effective until the next policy refresh. There are some tools available that will reset the policy for you instead of you manually changing the registry entries. There is also a tool (search Zenyee.com Stay Unlock.cab) that runs in the background and resets the policy each time it is enforced by the refresh. Be careful though as you could get yourself in hot water by bypassing your company security policy?
Fortunately the Exchange policy that is enforced on my device isn't as restrictive as yours and only enforces a password with an inactivity timer of an hour. This can still be a pain though when using TomTom or other applications where you physically don't touch the device for a period of time - Fumbling around whilst driving seems a much worse offence than not having a password to enter every hour
Andy

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