I know this may seem OT, but it is actually tied back to my HTC Wizard. My company currently has accounts with Mailstreet, and they have an excellent interface for managing our accounts. It is Abridean Provisor, and it launches a Java app that allows me to set up users, groups, specify admin rights, etc.
I have tried mail2web, 1and1.com, and 4smartphone.net in some capacity because most of them can a) reduce our costs, b) get more storage space, and c) allow me to use AKU2 push e-mail to my phone. In most cases, though, their support is non-existent, and I haven't been able to figure out how any of these could replace Mailstreet. Here is what appears to be the case:
1and1.com - cannot use company-wide distribution lists and GAL, setting up a single admin account is easy
4smartphone.net - don't remember as much about this one, exccept push mail works well and support was about on par with the others
mail2web - appears to offer full Exchange functionality, EXCEPT that first account created becomes the admin account, period, with no way to change it or specify an additional admin account
Does anyone else have experience with these? I am talking about the Enterprise accounts, not the free (where applicable) reduced feature versions. Does anyone have any other suggested providers?
Thanks!
Mark
We had similar dilemma while moving our multiple companies mailboxes from inhouse to a provider. We finally signed up with apps4rent.com (http://apps4rent.com/hostedexchange.html). The pricing is cheap....
Everyones Boss-the CEO uses Blackberry and some of us use a Widnows phone or iphone....now Apps4Rent provides free syncronization to all Windows phone and iphone.....Considering that they sell mailboxes for $6.95 for 1 GB and free sync for Windows phone....this proved to be cost effective...other were charging something or the other...For blackberry we had to pay a bit additional. Support is good....
You can try and if you think they are not worth it you can cancel in first 30 days and they will refund your money.....
Related
This may be old news to some but new news to others.
As you may know your WM5 and WM6 device can do a wireless sync with Exchange and offers blackberry style 'push' email.
To do this you need a configured Exchange server and for most this can be expensive or impossible to do yourself.
But there is hope, and its free.
www.mail2web.com offers FREE hosted exchange email. The only thing is you get a little add banner along the top but apart from that its corporate style exchange for free. Whats more it comes with OWA enabled also free of charge.
You can even set it to pull email from other POP3 email accounts.
You can access your mail via the web or POP3/IMAP4 clients.
For around 80p a month you can upgrade to their Plus service, this allows you to have the outgoing FROM: address to be your own. For me I use it to send mail from my personal domain.
So the upgrade is well worth it given the other extra features you get.
But take a look at the free service. I first switched a while ago as ntlworld.com has really crap webmail. So got a free account and just forwarded it all to mail2web.com for full outlook wonder.
I think this is a useful tip as I couldnt find anyone else offering free push enabed services.
alternative
Since this service is goint to cost next month, does anyone have a alternative?
I tried windows live, but it doesnt push emails instantly nor does ita have calender and contacts synchronisation :/
I've been trying to find a good new solution as well.
I'm currently trying out emoze, which is an app that allows you to configure push email (with certain service providers). It WORKS, but it doesn't allow full folder sync with gmail, so it's not quite as useful as true push from my IMAP gmail account would be.
seven is another.
I tried mail2web and was unimpressed though all our domains are there now. It wouldn't push html email.
I'd search out a provider that offers IMAP idle but Flexmail is the only app on the WM side to support it.
I see from another posting in the diamond forum that people have managed to get BB Connect running on the diamond.
At the moment I use system7 on my nokia n95 to get email pushed from my work exchange server, however everyone else in the office has a blackberry (I didn't want one of these hence my finding an alternative solution).
does anyone have any experience of the direct push technology offered with windows mobile 6?
I might use the bbconnect application (if I can get it working) as it appears to do everything I want it to, but I just thought that if there's already an app in WM that does the trick, I might as well stick with that.
You say you have exchange at work?
The push email system will work just nicely with it, you might have to get onto your network admin and see if they offer activesync connection to it but its very likely they do. You sync your email, contacts, tasks and calender with it...works a treat.
I currently use DenaiL's service on here and it works very nicely...you should be up and running pretty swiftly if ur network admin confirms you can use it.
EDIT: Activesync is built into EVERY ROM in windows mobile and this is the primary way to sync the device over the air (via GPRS/HSDPA or wifi to get push email) or via USB.
we have exchange server at work, but I doubt they'll let me add any software (activesync) to it.
Exchange already has the software needed in it, its a native function of exchange to allow a windows mobile device to sync with it.
EAS is a native part of exchange, but it is turned off by default i think.
I know my place have it turned off, despite all the company mobile supporting EAS, and all the employees using HTC devices that natively support it.
Go figure.
I think they want to save a couple of hundred of quid on a certificate, and spend thousands of pounds on corporate intellisync licenses instead.
so my company would have to invest in a new license to enable EAS?
I'm pretty sure they would have to buy a license to allow me to use BBConnect too? I know that we are running 5 or 6 BBs in the company, each one requiring a license....or have I been misled?
thanks, I really want to ensure that my push email will work perfectly on the device when I get it.
I dont own a HTC Touch Diamond or a Touch Pro. I own a HTC Touch and use Hosted Exchange as my primary email service provider. I use the direct-push technology in WM6 and sync with my exchange account. It works like a charm and I have yet to experience any problems with it. I get my email on my Touch within 10 seconds of receiving the email in my inbox.
Memory fades about Exchange 2003, however, I *think* Exchange direct-push is enabled by default on Exchange 2007. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
Exchange 2003 w/ SP2 automatically enabled Direct-Push. Same w/ all flavors of 2007. With Exchange 2007, admins DO need to enable Active Sync, but they can do it on a user by user basis if they want to. It shouldn't be a big deal for your IT admins to turn it on for you. Hope this helps.
excellent, thanks for the replies. We are running 2003 SP2, so hopefully in a few days time I might have proper push email. the app I'm currently running (system7) is totally crap at the moment..had nothing pushed for nearly a week!!
I am looking to set up a hosted exchange for myself. I really only want the direct push but the other stuff would be nice too. The major caveat is that I want to use my own domain. I have a mail2web account, I just don't want adbots looking at my mail, nor do I want a mail2web.com domain address.
So, what is the current favorite solution?
I am also not above hosting my own email server on a linux machine if I can find something cheap and reletively easy. I don't know what servers support it on linux.
I run my own server Exchange 2007 on Windows server 2008. I can tell you that I'm really satisfied. I have a dynamic dns account with dyndns and works perfectly.
It was my first time setting up a Domain but I found it affordable with some google search for issues and explainations. I really didn't know where to start but after some hour I had my exchange working great!
I think is the best mail server, expecially the 2007. And great integration with wm
anyway I'm using these stuff because I have msdn subscription (so the software is free for me) and I had an unused pc which already had 64bit environment and a good amount of ram (exchange is really heavy!)
But without msdn I don't think Windows solution will be cheap. You can try linux but I think it requires more skillness and it has no integration with wm phones
I was gonna say... Exchange is like $700 bux in my neck of the woods. I can't lay out that kinda dough. Plus, I don't have the machine to run it right now. Unless I found a used copy of '03. But, I don't think you can do that.
Anyway, I am always up for learning. I found a program that provides direct push from a linux server, but it was also expensive. I find it very hard to believe that there are no open-source linux solutions for emulating exchange.
I guess I will have to pay someone to host it. The best I have found so far is around $15/mo for one user. The only reason I wanted to have my own solution is so that I could set it up for the family/friends too. I don't want to start a business, but I know my dad would like to have m$ DP.
email [email protected], $5 per month for 1gb storage, he'll alias your domain for you also.
Supports Direct push & OWA (believe me it's more useful than I thought it would be).
Great Service and his Customer Experience is tops.
I've been using him for months.
I may go that way. I really wanted something all in one. I have been spoiled by the convenience of my IMAP access to gmail. Way better than pop.
I really don't want to give up the freedom that comes from only having one account. I just want one account, with my domain, that has IMAP access for home, and OTA sync/push for my phone.
Basically, I want my own exchange server without the costs. Again, I wonder about linux exchange clones but haven't found any free/cheap ones.
Let me know if you're still looking for a hosted solution. I can support Outlook Anywhere, OWA, IMAP, POP3, and best of all can host your domain or you can just point your MX record at my gateway. FWIW, I do spam filtering better than just about any other host out there.
PM me if you've got any questions.
IMO, what's really needed for these phones, and might even be on the cards with Google's licensing of the Exchange ActiveSync protocol, is a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server)-like relay package.
A piece of software that sits on a computer or server (or the server) in the office, and stays logged into each of your user's Exchange mailboxes via MAPI, then syncs messages, calendar, contacts etc. realtime to the Google Mail / Gmail account.
Shouldn't be very hard to create, especially for those who have written apps like GsyncIT.
I believe there already is one such package, I found it a few days ago, can't remember the name - it has an M in it ( ), but it looked a bit pricey and like it was intended to do more than just Exchange -> Gmail (was a generic Cloud-sync package).
A fairly simple extension of something like GsyncIT I should think. The Exchange Information Store ACLs would be modified so that user "GoogleSyncAdmin" has Full Mailbox access to the mailboxes concerned, and the users would be mapped to GoogleMail accounts. Job done, proper push synchronisation on Android. The handsets would just be registered to a Gmail account.
The alternative, which may also be on the cards for the same reason, is that Google develop a BIS (Blackberry Internet Service)-like extension to Gmail, whereby Gmail stays logged into your Exchange Account via ExchangeActiveSync, and pulls changes down. This would require working EAS on the user's Exchange Server, and would require providing Exchange credentials to Gmail. I guess it'd be just like their current POP-downloading facility, but for Exchange, and hopefully including Calendar & Contacts sync.
I prefer the BES-like solution personally. No ports need to be opened on the user's Exchange server, you could run multiple Exchange servers behind a no-inbound firewall, and it's probably less troublesome overall. The BES-like package could also inject hidden instruction-messages that control features of the handset, IT policy, block downloads, wipe data etc.
Doing exchange->[beslike software]->gmail->phone would mean that any messages sent from the device would come from your gmail account though, not your exchange account.
Much better to have a true exchange client on the device, then it works both ways.
Deicist said:
Doing exchange->[beslike software]->gmail->phone would mean that any messages sent from the device would come from your gmail account though, not your exchange account.
Much better to have a true exchange client on the device, then it works both ways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they would just allow you to set Reply-To/From: just like they do with your other existing emails addresses at the moment.
I think this device rapidly needs Exchange/Activesync support, Office Documents and USB internet sharing for free and quick.
I am testing this device for our company and unless it can do these well and ideally free then its a non-starter for us.
This is the product I had seen: http://www.cemaphore.com/index.html
Lowest pricing is $325/yr for 5 users with the online service, which isn't so expensive, but annual pricing is a pain, and can't buy less than 5 users.
cemaphore is buggy.
Their client crashes constantly, and says mail is sent that never really was. Avoid or wait till it's more stable in later versions.
G'day.
I've been running Exchange 2003 for myself and a couple of winmo using friends for around a year now, but I really want to use Exchange 2010 for its SMS features and better Outlook web access.
Unfortunately due to the hardware requirement of the latest Exchange, it is not financially tenable for me to host it for a small group. So I was wondering if you guys would like to be hosted for?
Exchange 2010 features specific to winmo (6.5+);
-SMS Sync'ing/backup
-SMS response from Outlook/OWA
-Push
Naturally there is the usual exchange features of contacts/calenders/etc. Don't think I will be able to do Voicemail without messing around with a SIP provider.
I'll also add host server using applications that people think would be nice. For me, that would be TrackMe - others may have other ideas which I will have no issue adding provided it is possible, and it can be shared for us all. Will also be able to allow users to point there own domains at the server, and send from them.
I imagine I should be able to allow mailbox sizes to go between 2-6GB, depending on how many people are interested.
So for this poll, would you be willing to pay $5 towards such a service? I'll try serve for as many people as possible, but I won't oversell the space. Could upgrade specs as and when necessary though .
Feel free to ask me any questions about my idea!
Bumpedy bump
Exchange is good stuff. I don't think that many people realize the many benefits of using it!
Intrested yes
But a few questions, what about reilibility if your server breaks? are we going to have to change our email addresses?? lastly how fast is your connection as you could get quite a few accounts ???
Thanks
dr_strangetrick said:
Intrested yes
But a few questions, what about reilibility if your server breaks? are we going to have to change our email addresses?? lastly how fast is your connection as you could get quite a few accounts ???
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a number of ways you can ensure mail delivery without the intervention of the Exchange server
-1. Setup a secondary mail account, and a forwarder as your second MX entry in your DNS config (provided you have your own domain - 123reg.co.uk do this for example)
-2. Wait. The message will be delivered eventually. SMTP servers tend to retry for awhile until successful.
I doubt I will add our own backup exchange server. Although I will backup mailboxes so if the server does die for whatever reason, they can be restored when it is fixed.
Yes, you will be able to use your own domain to receive, and send mail from the server. Obviously, this won't work with domains you don't own (hotmail, gmail etc). So yes, you can use your own email address. Should that be an issue, I will provide a generic address such as [email protected]
As for connection speed - this is not something I would be hosting on my home connection, although it would handle it fine. Home connections are often blacklisted by destination SMTP servers. The server will be in a datacenter with either a 10mbit or 100mbit uplink, in the country where most our users are. However, it is unlikely I will allow more than 30 users on our server due to mailbox storage considerations. I only want enough people to make the server financially viable for myself, I am not out to profit.
Besides, judging from the poll so far, I don't think I'll have enough users to start!
I actually have a hosting setup for a few XDA users. I charge $50/year with "unlimited" storage - I haven't seen any mailboxes grow uncontrollably thus far, so we'll see how it goes. I have two mailbox servers (for those of you in the know, yes, it is a DAG) to ensure uptime. Both servers have RAID 1 hard drives. One is hosted in a datacenter in Chicago (Ubiquity) using a Dell PowerEdge 1950. The backup server is self hosted at home - so mail access may be slow if the primary goes down.
Let me know if you guys want more details.