Database Info

Push email and GPRS

I now have the push email working through mail2web.com, but the phone wants to be constantly connected to GPRS and seams to sychronise 4 or 5 times an hour even though no new emails have been recieved.
Is this normal behaviour as i'd rather it just dial GPRS and synchronise when a new email arrives.
Thanks
James

With the push email, the GPRS session will stay open.
As far as sync'ing when there is nothing new, that is NOT normal. I have gone hours without sync'ing (due to no mail, contact changes, or Calendar changes), then when a new mail comes in it still gets it right away.
There was a good explaination of how the push email works via a technet blog... I think this is the link, but can't get to it right now for some reason. It's a good read... http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2006/04/03/424028.aspx

That's right - for Direct Push the GPRS connection will be permanently up, so that the server can flag to the handheld when a new message comes in. If the connection is dropped (ie. passing through a no coverage area), then it's up to the handset to re-establish it, and it does this with a timeout of 15 mins. Maybe this is what you're seeing. The other explanation is that the router/firewall at the server end is killing SSL sessions after too short a timeout. I believe the Microsoft recommended timeout is 30 mins. Hope this helps. br

Thanks for that guys, i suppose GPRS doesnt run the battery down too much. It still seems to be syching a couple of times an hour with no change to my exchange contents.

have you got your settings on "when items arrive" or do you have it set to periodically check? particularly in off peak times.
open activesync on the device and check the schedule.

Direct Push 'Heartbeat interval'
Using Direct Push on Tornado/imate sp5, the gprs 'heartbeat interval' can be set in the registryHKCU/Software/Microsoft/ActiveSync/Interval, as well as MinHeartbeat and Max Heartbeat. I've got mine set to 1800(30mins) for Min and Interval and 2700 (45 mins) as Max.
Most Servers run between min8mins and max 45mins, so your device should 'ping'or be 'pinged' by the server within this time frame.
I'm using 4Smartphone. Works like a dream. Heartbeat is about 3kb/hour, ie 2 beats an hour
I tested Mail2Web, and the heartbeats from the server come at a rate of 1 kb per minute 60kb/hour ! ouch! regardless of my device settings, i mailed them and they're looking into it !
good luck

I've done a bit of reading on the mail2web service and it seams that is the problem. Some users have been finding that the download costs have been huge because the heartbeats have been coming so rapidly. I've stopped using push on mail2web on the phone. I'll have to wait until work gets its certificate sorted and i can use my exchange box there.
Thanks for the replies

Any problem using Mail2Web lately?

Hi,
Just to check anyone facing problem using Mail2Web lately especially this week?
On my side I'm having problem synching my set to Mail2Web
Thanks

RE
Sorry, I mean using 3G/GPRS?
Thanks

Mail2Web
possibly check yr settings in Active Sync, sometimes the schedule gets mixed up by synciing with yr PC,....btw, is the 'heartbeat' interval with Mail2Web still at 30 seconds, in other words is your phone sending and receiving data every 30 secs ? Mine was getting data 'heartbeats' continuously which was killing my battery and my data usage was 6kb/minute, just for the heartbeat, regardless of my registry settings. I've switched to another exchange server, and it uses 4kb per HOUR, and battery life not affected at all !!!!

YES YES YES
I am glad it is not only me. Mine started working again 5 minutes ago, but I don't know if it is something I did, or a host file I made with the ip address in it. I was always able to sync over wifi though. Maybe cingular DNS lost them.

FOSA said:
Just to check anyone facing problem using Mail2Web lately especially this week?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, since yesterday no sync via GPRS is possible (o2 Germany).
With wifi via my home cable connection syncing is possible.
When using https://mobile.exchange.mail2web.com in Pocket IE via GPRS I get a certificate warning and after that a login page with a cisco logo, http-connections work fine.
Unfortunately I need a secure connection for active sync :-(

Certificates
That makes sense, that is what the error code points to. Anyone else up and running? What ever it was, I am glad it is fixed.

there is a problem.....I confirm...tried syncing with 4 differrent operators..every time got the error message " Sync cannot be com,pleted.Try again Later" :shock:

I can't sync via gprs either.
I'm on T-Mobile's network in the USA. I can surf the web via GPRS, but syncing via activesync and mail2web is not working via GPRS. Certificate error, which means its an issue on their end...
It IS working via any WiFi connection though...

...wow...
I submitted a trouble ticket at http://services.mail2web.com/About/Contact/
I used "mail2web exchange email" in the subject drop down box.
They replied w/n 10 minutes...!!! Thats better than my Verizon, T-Mobile and Direct TV customer service...and I PAY for those...!
The message:
"Greetings,
Please try doing a hard reboot of your device, by powering your device
off and then on again.
If you are using SSL with your account, please try then turning off your
SSL in your device and sync with the severs, then turn SSL back on and
try to sync again.
If this does not help, please verify that the time and date settings on
your device are correct, as this can also cause an issue when using SSL.
If you continue to experience difficulties syncing your device with your
account, please let me know and I will look in to the issue further.
If you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact
our 24/7 support team at [email protected].
Thank you for choosing mail2web.com!
Regards,
Marya
Customer Support"

...and wow...it worked...!
Try turning OFF the SSL option in your Active Sync Exchange options. Then hit the sync button.
I feel bad, like I should be paying for this...lol...its a rare thing that a CRS over email can INSTANTLY solve a tech issue for me...!
Gotta give em credit for this one...
I am still having an SSL email issue and they are looking into it...but I dont have an issue w/ sending non-ssl email for a few days...
Give it a try...

Specific Steps:
Go to your Active Sync Screen, then:
-- Menu
-- Configure Server
-- UN-CHECK the "this server requires an encrypted (SSL) connection" box
-- dismiss the password warning if you get one
-- Next, then re-enter your password (removing the SSL kills your password)
-- Keep hitting "next" then "finish"
-- Hit the "sync" button
This worked for me. I got my full gprs syncing back...
Again, hats off to them...

Doesn't work for me. Do you use GPRS?

Sync without SSL doesnt work either
Hi, urksaddy
Are you using SSL to synconize? Because, if I swith to Sync without SSL, the active sync shows that the sync couldn't reach the Server and an error code of 80072f78 is given. What server and Domain did you use for the sync without SSL?
thanks in advance.

No SSL
Mine is working without SSL only, switching it back on does not let it sync.

Doesn't work for me either, because my O2-Wap-Flatrate in Germany needs SSL-Connection!
The MS-Support-Code is 0x80072F17

Re: Mail2Web
kashortie said:
possibly check yr settings in Active Sync, sometimes the schedule gets mixed up by synciing with yr PC,....btw, is the 'heartbeat' interval with Mail2Web still at 30 seconds, in other words is your phone sending and receiving data every 30 secs ? Mine was getting data 'heartbeats' continuously which was killing my battery and my data usage was 6kb/minute, just for the heartbeat, regardless of my registry settings. I've switched to another exchange server, and it uses 4kb per HOUR, and battery life not affected at all !!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exchange server did you switch to? always looking for an alternative.
thanks,

Direct Push mail
I eventually unwillingly switched from Mail2Web because of the heartbeat interval ( possibly to do with the firewall settings at their server ) the device/server connection was pulsing every 30 secs, using data in ídle'mode and draining my battery. Ï mailed them often and they couldn't/wouldn't resolve it ( but I agree, they always reply fast, !! ) 4Smartphone is an alternative, althought there is a U$ 3.99 per month fee, I calculated it to be cheaper than the "ïdle"data cost per month with Mail2Web. (2kb every 30 secs adds up if you're connected 24/7 !! ) and i'm not on an unlimited plan ! Battery life is also a big issue for me when i'm "on the road". Interesting off topic, for anyone using a non-windows device, push mail is coming to 'normal' mobile phones. Search net for Tricastmedia and/or "Alwayssend" due July 06

thanks for the info, I keep hoping Mail2web will resolve the heartbeat issue, however they seem happy the way it is.

i have mail2web and got no problems connecting.
HOWEVER, my battery life has decreased dramatically once I started using the service. How do I know the pulse interval?
Also, i really dont know if this is an issue with activesync or with mail2web, but sometimes it takes FOREVER to get an email. Sometimes more than FIVE minutes. this way its even more effective to turn on automatic check every five minutes on outlook. Its really not push at all!
I used to have "chatter mail" on my treo 650, and any account that supports IMAP idle (a LOT of providers support it, many of them free) makes it true push. It would take, on everage, 2 to 6 seconds to receive an email. Now THATS push!

urksaddy said:
Specific Steps:
Go to your Active Sync Screen, then:
-- Menu
-- Configure Server
-- UN-CHECK the "this server requires an encrypted (SSL) connection" box
-- dismiss the password warning if you get one
-- Next, then re-enter your password (removing the SSL kills your password)
-- Keep hitting "next" then "finish"
-- Hit the "sync" button
This worked for me. I got my full gprs syncing back...
Again, hats off to them...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks your information , when I took off SSL it work fine.

lots of questions about Pushmail and blackberry

Hello all
I have several questions that I haven’t been yet able to find answers to yet. I am new to all this and I would really appreciate it if you can help me answer them:
1. If MS Direct Push is free and can even be used on Nokia phones (mail for exchange) and other other platforms. Then why do many companies are still stuck with BlackBerry?
2. What are the advantages that BB has over direct push? And are they enough to convince many corporations to stick with BB
3. Are there any numbers that compares the data (gprs)usage between the two technologies. I read somewhere that the cost to get BB device connected is about %30 less than directpush. If that number is true, why?
4. Would someone refer me to good articles that explains how BB or direct push work.
5. Are there any articles that contain tips and tricks that would help get the data usage direct push to the bare minimum. GPRS here is just way too expensive (around $1.5 per meg)
6. In the interest of saving cost, Is it possible to get the exchange server to only push unread messages or even not push at all if I am connected to the exchange server using outlook from my desktop.
7. I read somewhere that microsoft pushmail is not true push like RIM’s BB, why? And should we care if it isn’t. Is there an advantage of having “real” push solution.
8. Which uses less data and better battery life: enabling push mail or auto-synching every 1 hour. I honesly couln’t care less about push if its going to end up costing much more than normal.
9. My friend (uses BB and direct push) says that BB is a little faster than direct push. Why? My understanding is that BB uses a Blackberry enterprise server BES server (connected to the exchange server) and some kind of e-mail relay server (connected to the BES and the phone) somewhere in the internet. So why is direct push a little slower even though there is no middleman (exchange server talks directly to the phone)
10. My friend also claims that BB proved to be more stable than direct push (many times stops receiving e-mails for no apparent reason) in his company. If that is true everywhere else, why? In principle, shouldn’t direct push be more stable\reliable as its design is simpler => less things are likely to go wrong.
11. can you have more than one account pushing to the same device on wm5
Thanks. Thats all I have for now will post more if I get more

Hi, welcome to the forum!
Wow, that is a lot of questions for your first post
Let me try to answer some of that:
1) Push mail is not free. You need to install MS EXCHANGE 2003 with SP 2. Most companies that use BlackBerry already have dedicated expansive RIM servers so they don't want to invest in changing the infrastructure.
2) Don't really know the answer to this one, but here is an interesting article I ran in to a while ago.
3) Also not sure but I remember reading somewhere that without transfer of any mail MS PUSH takes about 12MB a month.
4) Here is a link that might be helpful.
5,6) Sorry do not know the answer to that.
7) It's true. You'll see after reading the article in the previous link that while it is not "true push" it is fast enough to appear as one. I've been using push mail for the last 4 month and noticed an interesting phenomenon: When my phone is next to my desktop at the office I often get new mail notification on the phone as much as 1min before the desktop outlook pics it up.
8) Auto sync each hour uses much less data and battery. That is because to have push mail MS sends about 400 bytes each 2 minutes over the connection to keep it alive.
9, 10) As I never used BlackBerry all I can say is that I never had late arrival or dropout in push in four month nor did anyone else in my company. Still MS products are known to be buggy.
11) No. You can only define one server and one account on it.

thanks for the exellent replay and the links
many questions are still unanswered though, still need your help guys
thanks

13. what are some of the improvments to direct push that we are expected
to see in the future (exchange 2007 and wm6)
14. i tried MS direct push on Nokia e61 and N80 using wifi (free+faster) and it seems to work just fine. why no wifi on wm5 push mail.
15. is it possible to automatically switch to wifi active synching (not push) when you then switch to pushmail over gprs if the phone gets dissconnected from wifi.
16. i have tried MS direct push and its working great but the data usage is too much. yesterday i logged 1.9 MB of gprs traffic(only pushmail working and i only recieved 12 simple text e-mails. i talked to the security people to varify that the https connection time-out is more than 15 min and they confirmed that it was set to 30 mins. i talked to exchange people and they confirmed that the heart rate signal was set to 8 mins. so what else can i check to see the root of the data-use and battery problem.

Couple more answers:
13) No idea, but I wouldn't hold my breath for WM6. I think it's about a year - year and a half away (Crossbow should only be like WM5 SE).
14) M$ believes that push mail should always be connected. On most WM devices (including my Jamin) WiFi is turned off during standby, so push mail tries to force GPRS whenever possible. It will go through WiFi for a while if your device is on and you manually disconnect GPRS but it will not switch automatically to WiFi.
15) Starting with ActiveSync 4.0 MS removed WiFi sync option for 'security' reasons. I remember seeing an articles on setting up some kind of VPN or something to bypass this, but I don't remember the link and I am not sure it works past 4.1
16) I am not 100% sure but I think MS push ignores those settings and uses its own. Partially because it has to go through the cellular network and partially because its MS.

Partial answers:
1) As noted above, many companies have spent large sums of money on their BB infrastructure so aren't about to throw that away. There's also, in my opinion, a perception that BB devices are "for email" whereas MS devices are phones. Hence conservative big business goes for email devices rather than phones.
2) Personally I don't believe BB has any real advantage, but some people would disagree. Some like the BB devices more than the phones. Certainly from an IT and cost perspective, setting up a BB infrastructure is not for the feint hearted.
3) There's a huge amount of misconception about the traffic that DirectPush generates - it need be nothing like what many people make out (certainly nothing like the 400 bytes every 2 mins quoted above) but it does depend on - primarily - your firewall settings and how swiftly your firewall terminates the HTTP(S) connection.
5) Ensure you have good anti-spam software so that you're not getting spam pushed to your phone! Set it up so that only the first few K of any email is sent by default - you can always request the entire email if it's necessary. If you have access to WiFi periodically, then sync your mail then - that way, when you get a new email, it won't trigger a large sync. Likewise, if you're only using DirectPush occasionally then keep your Inbox lean - don't store loads of emails in your Inbox as those will get sync'ed down.
6) Umm... if you're connected to Exchange via Outlook on your desktop, then wire your phone via ActiveSync and you won't need DirectPush on... and then your phone will be fully sync'ed as soon as you unplug and go on the road.
7) <rant> Forget the moaners who tell you that DirectPush is not true push as there's a 'ping' sent from the phone. That's irrelevant - who cares!! When an email is received in Exchange, it's pushed to the phone. That's all that matters!</rant>
9) I don't believe that DirectPush is slower. There are many other factors that may affect the timescale by which an email is sent to either an MS or BB device and those factors are much more likely to have an impact on the timeliness than DirectPush itself.
10) Never had any problems with DirectPush myself.
16) It is the firewall settings as you describe that are key. But how are you deciding that you're using that number of Mb? Data traffic is charged by some operators in blocks, and hence a small 'ping' could be costing you one block even if it's only a fraction of a block. Also, some traffic monitors can be configured to count in blocks. So my first suggestion (if you haven't already) is to double-check that this 1.9Mb is what you are actually using, not simply whatever some piece of software is incorrectly reporting. Next up, how many K of each email have you set it to download per message? Secondly, remember that it's doing a sync when a new message arrives. So, if you're in Outlook on the desktop, and you get 10 messages which you leave in your Inbox, then you put DirectPush on, then you get 1 message, you'll be sync'ing 11 messages. I can be a relatively heavy user of DirectPush on any one day and still use nothing like 1.9Mb.
Hope this helps.

[REQ] "Sleep-Mode" App

I currently use push email every 20 minutes and while this is great, it's annoying being woken up at 4am in the morning by your phone vibrating because you've just got a text from Domino's Pizza.
I have no idea but I'd hope a "Sleep" toggler app would be pretty simple. Something similar to the Wifi/Bluetooth togglers I'm currently using, but whereby one press turns off all data, wifi, bluetooth, email pushes, syncs etc - basically everything that you don't need while you're asleep - and then pressing again puts them back as they were.
Or, even better, a tweak that allows you to schedule email pushes when to and not to run (ie. don't download emails between 11pm and 8am).
I could do it manually, but let's be honest, that's a faff to do every day, and it'd be nice to just have a quicklink for it all.
Thanks in advance .

Russinating said:
I currently use push email every 20 minutes and while this is great, it's annoying being woken up at 4am in the morning by your phone vibrating because you've just got a text from Domino's Pizza.
I have no idea but I'd hope a "Sleep" toggler app would be pretty simple. Something similar to the Wifi/Bluetooth togglers I'm currently using, but whereby one press turns off all data, wifi, bluetooth, email pushes, syncs etc - basically everything that you don't need while you're asleep - and then pressing again puts them back as they were.
Or, even better, a tweak that allows you to schedule email pushes when to and not to run (ie. don't download emails between 11pm and 8am).
I could do it manually, but let's be honest, that's a faff to do every day, and it'd be nice to just have a quicklink for it all.
Thanks in advance .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use push email for Hotmail? Google? Outlook?
I know with Hotmail, you can tell it to sync between certain times. Check around, there may already be options on sync times without needing a third party app.

I use Gmail and a private web server currently.

In G-Profile by ageye you can create time-based profiles with certain functions. I disabled all phone, bluetooth and data-connections over the night. Very useful program, but it costs.

I also use G-profile, it will do what you want and it's only 4.99 euros. A worth while investment.
There are a few free alternatives as well, try using search and I'm sure you'll find them.

Another vote for G-profile well worth the €4.99

And another vote for G-Profile.... i used to use phoneAlarm for my profiles at first but G-profile is AWESOME!
You can make a night profile and the phone wont do anything when an email comes in at night.
You might also consider chaning the value of peak times and non peak times and to not check as frequently during the night....

xavierdemon said:
I also use G-profile, it will do what you want and it's only 4.99 euros. A worth while investment.
There are a few free alternatives as well, try using search and I'm sure you'll find them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
G-profil works fine for my HD2, but I have 1 problem. If I want to set some tel numbers to ring in night profile when all other calls should be rejected, how to do this? I think the exeption does not work on HD2. I used to use SPB profil with my Touch Pro and it was very good with it's white list and black list. But they say it does not work on HD((

I use SPB phone suite (not free). It has almost the same functions than G-Profile. It is completelyintegrate in Mobile Shell, and every night I disable Phone, Data, and all connections.
If you're looking for a free app, you can give a try to Wireless Time.
http://www.pdainfo.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=52f3bfde5b6bad62fb558bed9f80c503&topic=222.0
It's free, as far as I know, and it do the same things.
Hope it help.
PS: you can schedule your activeSync for not retrieving message at night, too...
It's a server setting in activeSync

Whats up with Push notifications in Mango?

Ive had my Omnia 7 with Mango RTM for about 3 weeks now and one of the most annoying things about it is the terrible UN-reliabiliy of push notifications. I don't care much about weather tiles or tweets but this things is utterly and completely useless for email.
Ive tried using both my @live and @gmail accounts set to "as item arrives" but it seems to only work for the first email. So many times i randomly check emails on the desktop to discover 3-4 new emails (sent 2hrs ago) and glancing on my phone there is none. It just says (email is up to date)
Anyone with advice please share otherwise its one of those things i cant cope with, might have to sadly go back to IOS. My iPhone 4 had "functional" email

Is ur data connection turned on? My email is working fine
Sent from my OMNIA7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

antmagpie said:
Is ur data connection turned on? My email is working fine
Sent from my OMNIA7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, i have excellent 3G signal where i live. Full bars
Wifi is also turned on but tried using data only and still push stop working after a few emails.

Considering 99.9% of users have reported extremely reliable push in Mango, including myself, I think the issue may be with your wireless carrier maybe dropping idle connections... Or another signal issue.

I have my Gmail set to receive every 15mins. Have you ticked the 'email' check box in 'content to synchronize' in Gmail settings? Otherwise I aint got any ideas. All my email accounts update on the start screen fine.
Sent from my OMNIA7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Yep, my e-mail notifications work perfectly fine. No issues here. Sometimes, I get so many e-mails, my phone is too attentive to this fact and it gets annoying, but hey, at least that means its working.

i wasn't really hoping to hear positive news about push, means its just me
my latest setup is to have my phone @live id push everything but unticked the "sync email" and then created an outlook email account with the same @live email that syncs email, calendars etc with push
what does the "logging" bit have to do with email? its in email settings (off -recommended, basic, advanced)
my push works fine but just for the first few emails then for some reason it stops working. i wonder if its the constant connection/disconnection from wifi that trips it up

I have web.de...so it's a free email provider,too. Normally you can login every 15 mins at free mailproviders. My phone uses mango beta 1 and it loads every mail I get. Maybe you have set up something wrong...
Sent from my HD7 T9292 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

SicilianTony said:
i wasn't really hoping to hear positive news about push, means its just me
my latest setup is to have my phone @live id push everything but unticked the "sync email" and then created an outlook email account with the same @live email that syncs email, calendars etc with push
what does the "logging" bit have to do with email? its in email settings (off -recommended, basic, advanced)
my push works fine but just for the first few emails then for some reason it stops working. i wonder if its the constant connection/disconnection from wifi that trips it up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had this happening before on Nodo. I figured out I wasn't deleting enough emails, keeping loads of them as read for no particular reason and at some point the inbox on my phone would get full and stop synchronising. Happened about 3 times since I've had the phone and I solved that by deleting plenty of emails on the phone itself before doing a manual synchronisation.
I'm not saying it's the solution but that worked for me.

SicilianTony said:
Ive had my Omnia 7 with Mango RTM for about 3 weeks now and one of the most annoying things about it is the terrible UN-reliabiliy of push notifications. I don't care much about weather tiles or tweets but this things is utterly and completely useless for email.
Ive tried using both my @live and @gmail accounts set to "as item arrives" but it seems to only work for the first email. So many times i randomly check emails on the desktop to discover 3-4 new emails (sent 2hrs ago) and glancing on my phone there is none. It just says (email is up to date)
Anyone with advice please share otherwise its one of those things i cant cope with, might have to sadly go back to IOS. My iPhone 4 had "functional" email
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same WP7 device, same eMail accounts, same problem, and I also have an iPhone 4 with full working push notification!
I'm trying to let them work... Keep in touch...

I have LG Optimus 7 with Mango RTM. Push notifications worked fine before Mango for both personal @live and corporate exchange mail. After Mango update push notifications has worked similarly as the first post describes (hasn't worked properly).
Today I manually added APN setting in mobile network settings and after that push notifications has worked. So for me the problem seemed to be a network connection issue, even if I was connected to WiFi.
Before Mango I had not touched APN settings in this phone and 3g did work.

It's worth knowing battery level also affects push reliability - to save power it turns the channel off when the charge is below around 25%.

Mixaus said:
I have LG Optimus 7 with Mango RTM. Push notifications worked fine before Mango for both personal @live and corporate exchange mail. After Mango update push notifications has worked similarly as the first post describes (hasn't worked properly).
Today I manually added APN setting in mobile network settings and after that push notifications has worked. So for me the problem seemed to be a network connection issue, even if I was connected to WiFi.
Before Mango I had not touched APN settings in this phone and 3g did work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not working for me...
otherworld said:
It's worth knowing battery level also affects push reliability - to save power it turns the channel off when the charge is below around 25%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've two battery, so I never enable battery saver...
I'm waiting for the Hotmail event in San Fransisco and NYC: if tomorrow emails will not arrive in push, I'll hard reset my WP7... :-(

In this two days, sometimes emails arrive in push, and sometimes not. Also, if I manually sync, sometimes it gives 2-3 different sync errors... :S I hope that is a server problem that will solved soon... :-\