From their homepage:
4SmartPhone is experiencing technical difficulties. This is causing inflated loads on some of the machines, as a result making our website unresponsive.
Our technical personnel are diligently working towards resolving this issue. Due to these issues, the 4SmartPhone website will be temporarily unavailable.
We are well aware of the situation and so we ask you to not send an email to support. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will keep all of you updated as often as we can.
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Both the Outlook Web Service, the normal Exchange Service, and the Push Mail Service have all been unavailable for over 48 hours and I'm starting to wonder if they're going to be coming back at all.
AND --- this is the second time this has happened within 2 months.
Drat.
Dwimmerlaik said:
From their homepage:
Both the Outlook Web Service, the normal Exchange Service, and the Push Mail Service have all been unavailable for over 48 hours and I'm starting to wonder if they're going to be coming back at all.
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I stupidly thought that my device was having problems so I removed the 4smarphone settings (which removed all my email/contacts/tasks/calendar entries from my PDA)... Got home and found out OWA and Outlook sync didn't work either. So I'm stuck!
This is pretty bad... they haven't answered my support email and the website notice - simply stating only the 'website' only is down - is highly unprofessional.
I wonder whether it has anything to do with their recent upgrade to Exchange 2007?
It looks like the service is back online as of 5:00 PM Pacific. I received the following in an email message:
Dear 4SmartPhone Customer,
Over the past two days we have experienced a rather serious crash on one of our Exchange Servers.
We are very sorry for any inconvenience this problem has caused you, but we are pleased to report that we have fixed the problem and taken all steps to ensure it will not happen again. Here are some things you will notice in the next few days:
1) Although it is now possible to connect to your mailbox again, it will only contain your new emails.
2) You can now send and receive emails.
3) Within the next few days, we will bring all original emails back on the Server.
4) Pro & Enterprise Clients can use their local copy in Offline Mode, and you must switch to connected mode to send & receive email. We will send a link to help you understand in a following email.
5) In addition, we are taking the following steps concerning the current Exchange 2003 servers: 4SmartPhone is rolling out more reliable Exchange 2007 on a brand new architecture; The fact that Exchange 2007 is more robust and combined with the new architecture, any failure are less likely, simpler and faster to recover from should we have to.
4SmartPhone sincerely appreciates your business. To demontrate our appreciation, your patronage, patience and trust in our service, we would like to extend a free month's service to you. We will automatically add the free month onto your contract. If you have any additional questions, please email us at [email protected] ,
Thank you.
4SmartPhone IT staff.
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I've been able to access new mail in my mailbox since around 5:00 PM Pacific, but all of my old mail is missing (as they indicated in thier message). I suspect it'll get populated from backups over the next day or so.
Not only is all the old mail missing, EVERYTHING is missing, CONTACTS, CALENDAR, MAIL.
EVERYTHING!
Anyone got there data back already? I still haven't and I am starting to get worried.
I haven't either.
If you access your accout via Outlook, then you probably already have a backup of your data in your OST file (file used by Outlook to store a local "cached" copy of your mailbox). I've been considering just exporting all of the data from my OST file into a PST file and then importing it into the new mailbox; however, I'm concerned that doing so may complicate the data migration 4Smartphone already has planned since the current mailbox is really only a "temporary" one.
Any Exchange experts want to comment??
Oh my gosh that sound horrible! 48 hours plus down! I have given 4smartphone.net a couple of trials in the past but always ended up going with other services, mainly due to the lack of a control panel with some extra user settings at 4smartphone.
Thank goodness I did not sign up!
Although I have used a fair few Exchange services I am definitely not an expert. This is critical stuff and I would not want to give incorrect advice. But to attempt a little reassurance, 4smartphone state in their FAQ that they run a full real-time "mirror" back-up of all data, plus an additional daily tape backup for long term protection.
It is almost certain that ALL data will be restored to your accounts, but they are a big company and with a lot of data. If they were down for 2 days this could take several more (at least) to fix and fully restore everything.
Also, most email servers keep attempting delivery for about 2 days, so messages that could not get through should still arrive... hopefully. Worst case they will bounce back to the sender with a message saying they couldn't be delivered so people know there was a outage and will hopefully resend.
Once you have data back I would suggest looking at other services... and I would try and pick one that specifies they have co-location if possible i.e Datacenter 1 is in Phoenix, Datacenter 2 mirrors everything in Norway or where ever.
I have used 1 and 1. I would not call them "good" and customer support is extremely weak. But they do have servers in the US, the UK and Germany. It would be quite hard for them to lose all their systems as they are just so huge. But I am sure there are much better services. I guess another reason I might pick 1 and 1 over 4smartphone is 1 and 1 let you have Outlook right away and it doesn't interfere with your right to cancel if you are dissatisfied. They also bill in just 3 month blocks. 4smartphone make you pay for the full year before you get Outlook. Many handhelds still only come with Outlook 2002 so many people really need at least the 03 version or it is not possible to check out the account properly (You have to have 03 at least to fully use the features of Exchange)
Take this is a reminder to have your own independent back up stategies. For example, I do not have my various domains registered with the same companies that do my hosting... I have an account with a domain reg company seperately. That way, if the hosting crashes, I can quickly set up another account elsewhere and point my DNS records at the new nameservers.
I also do not use Exhange as my primary account. My email accounts are hosted elsewhere and forward to Exchange for Direct Push. So I just have it for Push and as an archive. I have everything on my PC too.
Actually, I go one step further, I don't actually use Outlook for email (other than Push. It is probably a great email client at this point, but it has not always had a stellar history. I prefer Thunderbird. That's just me.
I also always retain offline data on my local PC and back it up every day or so (if only by dragging a copy of outlook.ost to another folder and dating it).
I also use a back up program on my handheld and use it daily.
If my Exchange hosting crashed with a total loss, all I would lose is the ability to use direct push temporarily. I would not lose a grain of data.
End of the day, there is only one person who really truly cares about your data and can take charge of protecting it.. YOU! Don't leave that solely to anyone else!
Sound like hell. Sympathies to all involved. Hope it is fully resolved very soon.
Edit: Here is the link to the list of MS Hosted Exchange Partners on their website. Might be useful to anyone considering looking at other providers:
http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/catalog.aspx
Thanks for you detailed answer.
Actually, I DO have a backup. A REAL backup, not just the OST file. The last few days will be missing tho. I guess I will survive.
4smartphone ain't half bad WHEN it works. And even this crash would not have been so bad, if they just had kept us informed. They have not responded to 3 mails I sent. I understand they will have been inundated with mail, but then they should just post some kind of LATEST NEWS or UPDATE or whatever on their site.
Anyway, they just sent me a mail stating that all data WILL be restored, but that it could take another 48 hours.
Thanks again.
flamingcrumb said:
It is almost certain that ALL data will be restored to your accounts, but they are a big company and with a lot of data. If they were down for 2 days this could take several more (at least) to fix and fully restore everything.
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Take this is a reminder to have your own independent back up stategies. For example, I do not have my various domains registered with the same companies that do my hosting... I have an account with a domain reg company seperately. That way, if the hosting crashes, I can quickly set up another account elsewhere and point my DNS records at the new nameservers.
I also do not use Exhange as my primary account. My email accounts are hosted elsewhere and forward to Exchange for Direct Push. So I just have it for Push and as an archive. I have everything on my PC too.
I also always retain offline data on my local PC and back it up every day or so (if only by dragging a copy of outlook.ost to another folder and dating it).
I also use a back up program on my handheld and use it daily.
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Mail2web also down!?!?!
Last night mail2web was also down. I had experienced huge delays (of hours!!!) and some message skipping.
Something weird is going on in the mail service providers kingdom!
mail2web down as well??!! That is freaky. Is this a 2007 upgrade induced horror that is going to bite us all? Hopefully I am just being paranoid (I do tend to be!).
nispen, I do apologize if it sounded like I was wagging my finger like you didn't know to back up your stuff! Of course you do - and that wasn't what I meant. I was sincerely symphathesing and that was about the only half-constructive thing I could throw in
I completely agree that communication from the company is key. ANY service, can have a crisis, no matter how good their continency plans. If they do a really good job keeping customers in the loop when it happens it could even leave me feeling positive about them. It would be more like, "wow this is bad, but these guys do care and I can see they are really breaking a sweat to fix this and it makes me trust them to resolve a crisis... which will inevitably happen to every company sometime".
But the generic "sorry for any inconvenience " notices would tick me off. I would want to hear regular updates with more specifics. Wouldn't even matter if I didn't understand the tech jargon involved. I just want to know that hour by hour they know what they are doing and are making specific progress.
Good to hear your data is going come back. Best of luck
No worries, no fingerwagging detected!
flamingcrumb said:
nispen, I do apologize if it sounded like I was wagging my finger like you didn't know to back up your stuff! Of course you do - and that wasn't what I meant. I was sincerely symphathesing and that was about the only half-constructive thing I could throw in
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mail2web has been down since last Thur, and the outage continues, just got a reply from [email protected] saying they are still "trying" to fix the problem. So if 4smartphone is down and mail2web is down at around the same time, may be both of them have upgraded to MS Exchange 2007 at around the same time. If so, that say so much about Ex 2007 and WM5 push email, it is far from a mature and stable product.
Blackberry then has nothing to fear for the rest of this year.
For the non-Blackberry folks, IMAP IDLE is the way to go, it is fast and reliable, and almost free.
And for the less time discerning/sensitive folks, POP is the way to go. Just set the auto retrieval to every 5 min or 10 min.
Mail2web/4Smartphone vs. Blackberry vs. Idle vs...
I am also here strugling with mail2web. After my subscription, the first two weeks were ok, but then last week (or maybe in the end of the week before) it all started to fail.
The service is intermitent now. And delays of up to 3 hours are common.
I've used BB Connect but could not make it work in WM6 roms (I now there is a how-to-hack available, but I could not handle it alright). Also, I do not like much that BB Connect steals my GPRS connection and that whenever I want to use other network applications I have to disconnect from blackberry.net APN and connect to my operators'.
So I prefer to make a redirection of my work emails to another account.
That account could be an IMAP idle capable I have, but the problem is that poutlook does not handle idle and I didn't like much to have poutlook AND another client such as the good flexmail (which is a complete but also heavy app).
So I am now stuck here with not many options, except hoping that mail2web staff manages to overcome the difficulties they currently have. If the service works alright, I believe I would certainly upgrade my free subscription and begin using only mail2web as my 2nd email address...
Some very valid points being raised here which are worthy of more discussion. May I suggest we maybe think about breaking this up into separate threads though for clarity? This thread is essentially an immediate check in as to which Exchange servers are giving people grief (and it sounds like a rough ride, many sympathies to those affected).
Blackberry does seem robust, but I am not clear about it's full capabilties when used on WM devices. Be gr8 to discuss it more so I can learn!
Exchange has has some very powerful features (if it is working) but there is just as much I dislike about it! Only being able to send from one email address and frequent false positives for Spam when it's mail is received by some Linux based mail servers are among my gripes!
IMAP IDLE is cool. My experience is limited to vgsmail/ppc and Webis Flexmail. vgsmail is still sold I believe but not longer developed and I have found it very incomapatible with my more recent devices. I also bought Flexmail but found it very buggy at the time. To be fair it is being actively developed still further and supported and is sure to get better - may have done so already. I have also found that there seems to be slightly different deployments of IMAP IDLE and not all servers appear to give equal results... that is all way beyond my technical grasp though.
Then again there are also Exchange alternatives (not sure how they do on push) like - I might have these names wrong, Zimbra, Open X-change (or something like that. Plus there is SyncML and Funambol ( I know I have that spelled wrong.. someone please help me!).
What do you good people think! Should we maybe split this into threads (or even make use of existing ones and share the links around so we all know where to look?). I would really like to be able to review the options, but it would also be good to keep this forum fasirly organized and readable!
Here ya go if ya want it. It is currently in alpha/beta "depends on where ya read about it".
http://dc151.4shared.com/download/316061541/604e0ccd/mIQ.apk
"Mobile technology is pretty amazing, but getting the most out of it can sometimes be challenging. mIQ was created to make it easy for users to unleash the potential of their mobile phone. mIQ from Best Buy Mobile helps users sync their contacts, text messages, calendar events, calls, photos, videos, and internet favorites from their mobile phones to their private web-based mIQ account. Once in sync, the user can backup and interact with their information, share their experiences with friends and social sites, discover the top solutions available for their phones, and restore their content when moving from one phone to the next.
The mIQ service keeps the phone and the web constantly connected, so that the stuff done on one automatically shows up on the other in just a few seconds, helping users access and share their stuff whether they’re on the go or in front of their computers – no cables or effort required!"
I'll be honest, I have been working for bbym a year and a half. I have never installed this app on anyone's phone (android or not).
I'd never synchronize my information outside of something I have installed myself and know is secure, or with Google. That's the only 2 places I will give out all that information to.
jerry43812 said:
I'd never synchronize my information outside of something I have installed myself and know is secure, or with Google. That's the only 2 places I will give out all that information to.
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Its BestBuy & the creators of Dashwire.
If you are using Windows Mobile do NOT install this or rely on it. It crashed about three weeks ago and despite the "engineers working on this as their number one priority" it will not allow you to connect to their server and sync your data.
MiQ said:
Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to get around this error.
Every single Windows Mobile user out there that is trying to log in to mIQ on their phone is getting the same message.
Please know that we are working on it! Fixing this is our team's number one priority. We know it's taking forever to solve and we know it's frustrating. We wish there was a simple solution, but as of this moment, there isn't.
We will update you as soon as it's back up and running.
We know this won't be acceptable for some of you, please email us at [email protected] if you would like your account deleted.
Sincerely,
mIQ
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Ok so I have been wondering how many people here are using a US Windows Live ID and is currently living outside US?
My Windows Live ID (NZ) has been perma-banned recently because I took photos of my girlfriend and I touching. I have forgotten that the auto-upload was on hence all that taken photos went straight to skydrive, but that mobile uploads folder was set to private or "only me" so no one could see it. Still MS banned my account, leaving my zune and xbox profiles untouched.
I was still able to receive emails, but not send, nor share photos to facebook and twitter, and even buy apps and games from marketplace, hence that Live account is totally useless so I deactivated it. I made a new one set in the US so I could get features that I couldnt before with the NZ account, but I accidentally made a new xbox profile so I couldnt transfer my current one to the new one. Now I'm making another new US Live ID even though I live in NZ. I have asked my cousin if I could use their home address so I could put in my credit card details.
The only drawbacks I could think of using a US-based Live ID are the currency, and Local Scout. Currency conversion doesnt bother me. I have paid $11NZD for the ChevronWP7 unlock and that was $9USD. Games in NZ are usually $4.99NZD, but converting them from $2.99USD will cost around same price so its not really a problem to me. Local Scout isnt supported in NZ hence it wont work.
So the whole point of this is, how many here are actually using a US Live ID but not living inside the US?
Hi there !
Yesterday i created developer account and published an app. App was approved. Now today i wanted to close the google account and get the refund so i contacted google support.
They told me that first i have to transfer my app to another account.
So can anybody help me to move out of this stress. ?
I just registered at this form in hope to find some solution. I'm even ready to pay 300rs for your time but most users here are not Indian, so i can't transfer money. Do you have any other method.?
androidinindia said:
Hi there !
Yesterday i created developer account and published an app. App was approved. Now today i wanted to close the google account and get the refund so i contacted google support.
They told me that first i have to transfer my app to another account.
So can anybody help me to move out of this stress. ?
I just registered at this form in hope to find some solution. I'm even ready to pay 300rs for your time but most users here are not Indian, so i can't transfer money. Do you have any other method.?
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Click to collapse
Create another account.
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