Need to get either an SMS from a PC or an e-mail to a Nokia 6600

[Guest Confused Stu]

My brother in law has a problem - and I need to help him. He has someone he needs to communicate with quickly, promptly and easily but he's on a Nokia 6600 and the other person is on a PC. My first thought was that I have an Orange phone and an Orangemail account and whenever I get an e-mail I get a free text alert letting me know it's arrived. Sadly he's on a Virgin Mobile phone and doesn't have an e-mail account yet.

I can get a new e-mail account set up for him, but does anyone know of any who offer free text alerts to a UK Virgin Mobile phone? In that case, I'd also need to know how to set the Nokia 6600 up for retrieving e-mails. Alternatively, does anyone know of any software/website that will let a user on a work PC send an text for free?

As an added complication, he's over 200 miles away so I'll need to explain everything to do over the phone and while he's a very bright bloke, he does rely on me for the geek things so the simpler the better! :)

Thanks for reading me plea for help, and if anyone can offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest Jay3gsm]

My phone number is on Vodafone but I can get Orange email alerts for emails sent to my Orange email address. Setting up email on a Symbian phone is very easy. Messaging > Options > Settings > Email > Mailboxes > Options > New Mailbox > Select. Then select Mailbox settings, name the mailbox, select the APN to be used (APN's will need to be set on the phone in advnace, and you can send them automatically from the Nokia website if not already on the phone) set the email address, outgoing server will be the server name for Virgin, incoming server will be pop.orange.net if using Orange mail. Enter the username and password for the mail account and choose mailbox type (IMAP or POP)

Your other option, and probably a better one is to use an IM setup. Agile messenger is a very good IM program to install on a 6600, and will work with MSN and Yahoo, also ICQ. Instant messaging, as easy as writing text on the phone and then hitting the send button. You should also look at YGO, a Yahoo Symbian app. Will give you access to Yahoo messenger on the phone and the interface is very good. You can also access Yahoo messenger via the Yahoo WAP site, wap.yahoo.co.uk

Instant messaging is more reliable than email, Orange email alerts regularly fail or can be late in arriving. You can leave the IM app open in the background on the phone, and the phone will beep like having received an SMS when a message is received via IM. Another option with YGO is it integrates the phone mailbox with Yahoo email inbox, any email received in the Yahoo box is forwarded to the phone via GPRS. Just another option available.

Either of the two above options are going to be cheaper than SMS

Hope that helps.

[Guest DylJones]

I have a thought that may help although it sort of depends on whether the other guy involved has an Orange phone account.

I use PC Messenger from Orange. It's a plug-in for Outlook which allows you to send and recieve texts via your PC.

When you send a text you can specify whether it comes from your number (so replies go to the phone) or from your 'PC's number' which is a newly generated number for your account. This one means replies come into your e-mail inbox.

The software is free to download but you need to call Orange to set up an account. Once it's set up, any texts you send are added to your account just like if you sent it from your phone.

This has been a great tool for me since there's no signal in my office :)

The full details are here: Orange - PC Messenger