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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.
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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.
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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...
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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!
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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?
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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:
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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!

MS Exchange G1 vs Magic

Hi all,
Am I correct in thinking that the Magic will sync with a MS exchange server without additional software, where as the G1 requires a third party application?
If so, can the Magic version of Android be install on the G1?
Apologies if this has already been covered but I havent found a thread covering this despite yet.
Cheers
Pug

Hi,
Neither of the phones have exchange support out of the box. HTC had put exchange support in their Hero rom and people have ripped it out and used it in their own cooked roms.
Your correct there are 3rd party apps for using exchange in the market place.
Personally i dont have any recommendations for any of them though.
thanks,
Jon

The Android builds with Exchange support work OK, but it's pretty barebones in features, and you can't select folders other than Inbox and Sent Items to be automatically synced. I started using Nitrodesk's Touchdown and it seems to fit the bill.

Thanks for the answers. My brother has the G1 and was about to buy Touchdown and I should have a Magic by the end of the week, so we were hoping that if the has native exchange support, there was hope that the G1 would soon have it. We will look at the Magic exchange offering before buying Touchdown's solution.
Does the native exchange client software sync with Inbox sub folders?
Is there a review of Touchdown anywhere?
(I dont have an Android phone to hand quite yet)
Thanks

touchdown review
I pretty much swear by touchdown. It's got a lot of good features, exchange 2003 and 2007 support activesync/push support, sig support, calander view and creation support, and lots of other stuff. go to the market and try the trial version and see if you like the look and feel, but overall, it's pretty awesome.

rkimbal45 said:
I pretty much swear by touchdown. It's got a lot of good features, exchange 2003 and 2007 support activesync/push support, sig support, calander view and creation support, and lots of other stuff. go to the market and try the trial version and see if you like the look and feel, but overall, it's pretty awesome.
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its good in every respect but one. it doesnt push its internal calendar to the phones calendar

pnayak77 said:
Thanks for the answers. My brother has the G1 and was about to buy Touchdown and I should have a Magic by the end of the week, so we were hoping that if the has native exchange support, there was hope that the G1 would soon have it. We will look at the Magic exchange offering before buying Touchdown's solution.
Does the native exchange client software sync with Inbox sub folders?
Is there a review of Touchdown anywhere?
(I dont have an Android phone to hand quite yet)
Thanks
Click to expand...
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I just said it doesn't. Touchdown is able to though.

Exchange contact sync breaks after a few hours

When I first recieved the Evo, everything synchronized just fine. Contacts both ways, emails, and calendar, but after about 5 hours, I started getting a notification that there were Exchange sync issues.
Whenever I would open up the accounts page under settings, I would see the sync symbol next to Contacts, repeatedly trying, over and over again. Finally, after a while, it stops, and a sync symbol with an exclamation point appears in the notification bar, as well as next to Contacts, and at the bottom of the accounts page, the same symbol with "An I/O error has occurred," explanation.
I don't understand what is going on here... as the original sync worked great. I can remove my Exchange account and re-add, and it works great for a few hours. Same thing if I wipe the phone completely, (factory reset.) The only solution I have had so far is to un-tick the Contact sync, and it seems to work okay, but obviously I need this service to work properly.
I have tried searching for a few days now and couldn't find anything really related to this. Some have had issues with reboots, and I had it BAD two days ago, and I finally wiped my phone. I do believe that there are some serious core Exchange integration problems on the Evo..
Does anyone have any insight on the matter, or should I just email HTC? Would a cooked ROM perhaps be any better?
Thanks guys

Same issue here. Very frustrating.

theadlee said:
Same issue here. Very frustrating.
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Also, this DESTROYS my battery. If I actually let it attempt to keep syncing, it's completely dead within an hour.

Also have the same issues and was searching for answers to no avail. Another problem I have is that sometimes random emails just stop showing up on the phone. I can open once and view but later they are gone even though they haven't been deleted. I obviously see them on my outlook on my computer but never see them again on the phone. I hoping an update in the future will fix these issues as I never had a problem with my Touch Pro so I'm thinking it's not the server at work.

njward75 said:
Also have the same issues and was searching for answers to no avail. Another problem I have is that sometimes random emails just stop showing up on the phone. I can open once and view but later they are gone even though they haven't been deleted. I obviously see them on my outlook on my computer but never see them again on the phone. I hoping an update in the future will fix these issues as I never had a problem with my Touch Pro so I'm thinking it's not the server at work.
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No problem on my Pre either, and I really don't want to have to buy 3rd-party software to fix something that is supposedly integrated into the phone...

Fellas, talk to your IT dept and have them check the Exchange logs. Different versions of Exchange have different levels of administration over mobile synchronization.
I have an EAS on my EVO with no issue whatsoever.
Bear in mind, Exchange 2003 doesn't seem to like Android synching with a mailbox that was previously synched with another device. I have seen synchs crash consistently until the synch relationship is deleted on the server side.

i have zero issues with exchange on the android.
you guy can try touchdown form the market. its the best exchange app out. dataviz has road sync which is another idea. i have not used road sync but have used touchdown on the hero. it works well.. bullet proof.
i would check with your respective IT Admins and make sure they allow Android handsets to access the server. some companies do not OR recommend you use a 3rd party app (such as touchdown)

Strange, I had my phone replaced yesterday, and it worked from about 5pm to 9:45am today, perfectly... then out of nowhere, it failed, and is now in an infinite loop to sync contacts.

Something to do with Facebook
I think it has something to do with contacts that are linked to Facebook. Very Very frustrating.

theadlee said:
I think it has something to do with contacts that are linked to Facebook. Very Very frustrating.
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I just created a ticket with my IT department to investigate the logs to see what is going on. Something tells me it's related to Sense, and not my Exchange server at all... considering that multiple Windows Mobile phones, and my Palm Pre have all worked fine... even some of my old Sprint dumbphones worked okay, when I used Sprint Email.
I would root my phone and try a standard version of Android, but isn't it Sense that does the Exchange sync? or is that built into Android at this point?

ScrapMaker said:
I just created a ticket with my IT department to investigate the logs to see what is going on. Something tells me it's related to Sense, and not my Exchange server at all... considering that multiple Windows Mobile phones, and my Palm Pre have all worked fine... even some of my old Sprint dumbphones worked okay, when I used Sprint Email.
I would root my phone and try a standard version of Android, but isn't it Sense that does the Exchange sync? or is that built into Android at this point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried touchdown and can't even get it to create an account. I think it maybe something with my work server that these programs don't like. I know that my employer was too cheap to get an exchange server so they use some sort of activesync client that runs on the standard server. Not an IT guy so I don't know how this affects things but I do know that I had no issues like this with the windows mobile email. On top of my contacts not syncing, I still have emails that randomly disappear or no longer have a body to the email after viewing once. Very strange and very frustrating that I have no work around.

Well we are definitely using Exchange 2007, and I had to bypass our whole "ticketing system," and contact our Exchange/Outlook department secretly. I am hoping for a response in the next day or so. I bet you anything it has to do with the policy-push that happens once or twice a day... basically re-affirms your device is compliant. IE, if you went through and manually disabled your password protection, this is SUPPOSED to push out the requirement again.
One thing I should probably try, is re-wiping my phone and NEVER installing lockpicker... even though the phone is nearly non-functional without that handy utility, perhaps that can be causing issues?

Been running HTC Sense, and Exchange on my EVO without any issues for three weeks.
I have not made any changes to the original setup, other than adding about ten apps from Market Place.

Holy crap, I just got a call from two highest-level managers (with attitude, I might add,) that no one from the company is _ALLOWED_ to help me get this to work. It's an unsupported device. So are iPhones and all WM phones... so this is bizarre.
Basically, this ActiveSync service is a back-door offering, with zero support, and everyone is real hush-hush about it. My asking to investigate the logs seems to have REALLY irritated people in my company, and this is a big place. I hope I didn't create waves... damnit Android, you are ruining my life!!

What assholes. I hate these arrogant ass IT guys. They need to recognize that they are a cost center which only exist to make you a more effecient employee. If your effeciency is enhanced by using android vs a crappy blackberry, they need to make reasonable efforts to accomodate you.
I would send an email to THEIR boss, and ask him what the mission of an IT organization should be. And if he gives you crap, ask the CIO.

You don't understand... the top-dogs just made their call... the next higher up is the VP of our IT group... basically, if I bring it up again, I can consider myself terminated. I didn't realize this was such a sore subject, but apparently it is.
Apparently it has a lot to do with export control, policies, all sorts of random BS that I don't really know about. The ActiveSync service is mainly provided as a back-door 'friendly' service to help those who don't get corporate blackberries.
So it's totally unsupported, and I don't know anyone I can buy a few drinks for in order to get this fixed. I guess I'll have to work the other angle with HTC, but damnit, I already know nothing will help there. Even if they were to offer to help, my IT department would be less than willing to lend a helping hand.
Also, most of our stuff is out-sourced... but I know there are DEFINITELY people in my own building that can help me---I just don't know who, and I also don't want them getting in trouble.
It just bothers me that when the iPhone came out, there were enough 'important' people around, so that even though it's "not supported," our environment was definitely modified to work with the phone...
Le Sigh.

Man, this problem is killing me... I have delete my exchange account twice a day.

man, I wish there was a solution to this... no one else is having this issue?

You could root and get Cyans new Froyo build, it has native exchange support. There is definitely differences between HTC sense exchange and Android exchange.

fragchild said:
You could root and get Cyans new Froyo build, it has native exchange support. There is definitely differences between HTC sense exchange and Android exchange.
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Does this build support Camera and 4G? I keep hearing about these new ROMs and all their problems.
I just installed TouchDown and figured I'd give it a whirl. If the new Froyo build works on all aspects, I'd obviously rather have that. I like the integration of the stock solution. I don't like that I will have to use TouchDown for everything... calendar alerts, and everything, but we'll see. I also hate that I might have to pay $20 for something that should work out of the box...

[Q] Convince me to switch to Android!

Hello my friends. Thank you in advanced for any help/input you give.
Here's my thing.. I am an avid M$er (yes I know, but I get as much good from it as the bad). I'm a professional IT guy, and I run my home network on Enterprise lvl MS Server software and Windows on all PCs.
I have been using WinMo since the days of PPC, so I know the software. I decided to give WP7 a test run (even knowing the limitations) a couple months ago, and still am disappointed. Unfortunately I got stuck with it till now, because just after I installed it my personal Exchange server crashed. It's significant because it holds all of my contact info and schedule (for backup and retrieval when I change roms), so I had to wait till I had time and patience to recover the server and my database, which left me with my only current copy of info on the phone as it couldn't get pushed back to the server to store (I never put my info online so no uploading it wasn't an option for me).
Finally exchanger recovered, its time for me to be rid of this headache of a mobile OS and initially I was going to go back to my favorite HD2 WM6.5.3 rom, but when I finally visited the thread, I came back to realize my fav rom cooker is no longer developing for my device..
So I'm faced with the choices of still using the most current from my fav cooker, finding another WM cooker and get acquainted, or try out Android seriously for a little while at least (I've had it on SD from the beginning, but not definitively explored it).
My main thing is it has to connect to my servers. That's my bread and butter so to speak. I need it to connect to my Exchange and sync seamlessly contact and schedule (main things, but would definitely like as much sync as possible), but never upload my info to Google or anywhere else. So my first proviso is can it do that? (please remember I've never seriously explored Android for this intent), and can you provide info on it?
On remote desktopping and file sharing, like I said I have enterprise lvl servers so my network is high lvl security, can it connect to this kind of network (with certs from my CA)?
Third important thing to me, and one of the big reasons I dislike WP7, the interface. I'm in lust with HTC's sense from WM6.5 roms. Absolutely like it. Is there a way to at least mimic this sense? I've been missing the at-a-glance full screen weather updates soo much too.
Aside from those things, Android on HD2 already has a plus from me for having flash, my favorite IM program (Trillian), and the wifi calling (I live in an area where I don't get service till I'm miles from home).
So with those things in mind, can someone recommend Android to me, and possibly give me as much info as they can on the features that are most important to me? Again, I've played with Android, only a little (American Android currently), and mostly to help clients and friends out.
Thanks again for your help
DemonLoader ;-)

http://www.motorola.com/Support/US-EN/Support-Homepage/Android-Support/Microsoft+Exchange+Email

Thank you PresidentMcCain that is very favorable info. So my question is now, if I set Exchange up as primary email, then add my google account, will it try to sync my exchange contacts with google?

Have you looked at Appbrain website - you can explore all the apps on the market with a good description.
Im new to android (from long standing 6.5 use) and im extremly impressed, using sd method so i can fall back on 6.5 if i need it (), but it wont be long before its ditched.

You can choose specifically what or what not to sync with Google the first time when you boot up the ROM or in the Settings.
Using the "Email" app will not sync with Google servers unless you choose to forward your mail to your Gmail account (duh).

Thanks again. So what about calendar and other info synced with exchange, one note, sharepoint ect?

You can sync your contacts, tasks, messages and calendar from exchange (all of it, or you can choose which sections to sync), and it will never share it with Google for no reason (in fact you would have to explicitly copy the info yourself using import/export methods). It's worth noting that Google accounts themselves actually use exchange so both work similarly.
Sent from my HTC HD2 überphone

Thanks kbm, I didn't know about the site. But that will be very helpful if I switch.
Thanks Atomix86, That puts to rest my questions about connecting and syncing with my exchanger. Very helpful info indeed.
Anyone have any thoughts about the rest?

DemonLoader said:
Thanks kbm, I didn't know about the site. But that will be very helpful if I switch.
Thanks Atomix86, That puts to rest my questions about connecting and syncing with my exchanger. Very helpful info indeed.
Anyone have any thoughts about the rest?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem at all, let me know if you need any more help.

Looking at the link PresidentMcCain posted, I realized the info was for Exchange 2003 and 2007. Will this also help for connecting to Exchange 2010 as well? That is what my exchange server is, and remembering a friend who just got a Mytouch 4g recently was having a problem connecting to Exchange 2010 with the default app.

DemonLoader said:
Looking at the link PresidentMcCain posted, I realized the info was for Exchange 2003 and 2007. Will this also help for connecting to Exchange 2010 as well? That is what my exchange server is, and remembering a friend who just got a Mytouch 4g recently was having a problem connecting to Exchange 2010 with the default app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179050
Maybe this might help. I read it this morning than came across this thread.
i dont know about exchange accounts. So if this is what you needed than its all good.

Thanks czarsuperstar, that app would help with note syncing, but looks like not for connecting to Exchange 2010 in general.

I was on winmo for a while and loved it to be honest but i went to sd android back in January an the google syncs convinced me and not long after i got nand and Ive not once looked back, i went back on winmo about a month ago just to see whats new etc and think i had it on for about 20 miutess before i flashed android straight back so its always worth a shot so id test the sd builds first to get your own opinion and then build on from there
Good luck and enjoy the future....