Push Email & Exchange Servers

[Guest Pagemakers]

Now I've just updated my SP5 it now supports push email.

However, I've never used Exchange server for my email, instead I just connect to a pop server.

I notice companies such as Fasthosts and 1&1 offer Exchange servers for push email.

I have a mind field of questions....

1) Are the Exchange accounts relatively straight forward to setup?

2) Won't push email drive you nuts? I receive about 100 emails a day. Is my phone going to be bleeping all the time with every single message it receives?

3) If myself and my partner share an exchange account am I correct in thinking that if he updates the calender on his phone, my phone will update automatically? Or do I still need to sync my phone to the server to see the changes? If so, can this be silently automated?

4) What are the downsides of an Exchange account?

5) What happens to Outlook on my PC?

6) If the internet is down or the Exchange server crashes have I lost all my data or does it get stored on my local copy of Outlook?

I think that's enough for now.

Thanks in advance guys.

Edited March 24, 2006 by Pagemakers

[Guest chucky.egg]

I've never used Exchange other than internally, so I'm interested in these questions too.

1) Are the Exchange accounts relatively straight forward to setup?

I would guess that is all done by the hosts - I'm with 1&1 (non-Exchange so far)

2) Won't push email drive you nuts?  I receive about 100 emails a day.  Is my phone going to be bleeping all the time with every single message it receives?

Yep, I imagine it would. Maybe just set it to vibrate on emails?

3) If myself and my partner share an exchange account am I correct in thinking that if he updates the calender on his phone, my phone will update automatically?  Or do I still need to sync my phone to the server to see the changes?  If so, can this be silently automated?

I imagined that you each have an Exchange account for you own calendars and mail, and then (somehow) have a shared calendar (which wont sync with your phone)

5) What happens to Outlook on my PC?

Good question - apart from emails can you still "sync" your calendar to the Exchange server? That's a question for the host though.

6) If the internet is down or the Exchange server crashes have I lost all my data or does it get stored on my local copy of Outlook?

The Exchange server holds all your data, so it's not lost, but it's not accessible for the duration of the fault

I think that's enough for now.

Anyone using one of these setups?

Some pointers would be useful

[Guest spvc500callme]

Does this keep the GPRS connection on all the time and does this drain the battery even more?

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

1 - Its all set up on the hosts side, you get a control panel to configure stuff (rules, forwarders, etc)

2 - You don't have to receive the emails as they arrive, you can still set it to sync every couple of hours. But i thought you wanted push email?

3 - If you have one account that you both access, then one device updating the calendar will sync with the server, which will then sync with the second device.

4 - Downsides are all but none. I can't think of any reason to use pop3 over exchange.

5 - It is also connected to your exchange account and will sync in the same way as the device (eg read a new message and send a reply on your phone, after the next sync your PC's Outlook will have the new message marked as read and the reply in your sent items).

6 - You have an "ost", offline store, on your PC. You have to set up what to store and how long for, but if your host dies you still have access to the offline file.

GPRS is kept open permanently, it will drain the battery but apparently not by very much...

[Guest Pagemakers]

Great reply thanks.

1) I guess when I first set up my exchange account the system will sync with Outlook here on my PC and upload everything to the exchange account?

2) On average, how often do most people sync the PC? Their phone with exchange? How long does the sync take? I guess this is an automated transparent process?

3) On the 1&1 website http://order.1and1.co.uk/xml/order/MailExc...top&__lf=Static

They give you 1 exchange account. Can I have multiple email addresses on this single account or do I need 1 exchange account for every different email address I use in Outlook?

4) What happens when you are roaming. Does your phone constantly try to sync thus at £28 per MB on Orange giving you a heart attack each month?

Edited March 24, 2006 by Pagemakers

[Guest chucky.egg]

1) I guess when I first set up my exchange account the system will sync with Outlook here on my PC and upload everything to the exchange account?

Possibly not

2) On average, how often do most people sync the PC? Their phone with exchange?  How long does the sync take?  I guess this is an automated transparent process?

Syncing over GPRS can be slow, and isn't entirely transparent

3) On the 1&1 website ... They give you 1 exchange account.  Can I have multiple email addresses on this single account or do I need 1 exchange account for every different email address I use in Outlook?

There is a "catch all" email address, so the way I do it (locally) is to use the website name whenever I subscribe to something (eg my domain is 5gt.com, so to register here I used [email protected])

Doing it that way you can have a rule that runs on the catch all email address that says "automatically move everything that comes in addressed to [email protected] to the Modaco folder"

That way, when you sync with the phone, you can choose to only get emails from your Inbox folder (not the Modaco folder) thereby reducing the sync time and number of emails downloaded.

4) What happens when you are roaming

I'd turn sync'ing off on the phone when roaming, otherwise you will get billed to death. It'd be cheaper to find an internet cafe with WiFi and sync that way, manually, when you want to get your emails.

[Guest Pagemakers]

1) Why do you say 'probably not'? How then do I get everything from my local Outlook to Exchange initially?

2) So it doesn't do this in the background? Do I have to manually Activesync when I need to update devices?

3) What happens if my local version of Outlook works with Domain1.com, Domain2.com, Domain3.com - Will I then need 3 exchange accounts?

4) Do I need to do this manually? I am on a roaming network about 4 times a week.

[Guest leo-balou]

1) Why do you say 'probably not'?  How then do I get everything from my local Outlook to Exchange initially?

2) So it doesn't do this in the background?  Do I have to manually Activesync when I need to update devices?

3) What happens if my local version of Outlook works with Domain1.com, Domain2.com, Domain3.com - Will I then need 3 exchange accounts?

4) Do I need to do this manually?  I am on a roaming network about 4 times a week.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just in case you did not realise - 1 & 1 do not offer push email on their 2003 Exchange mailboxes at this time - they are still "testing". They told me to check back in a couple of weeks.

[Guest Pagemakers]

Oh ;)

I though for push email all you needed was an exchange server - obviously not. Thanks leo-balou - I'll not waste my time then!

chucky.egg - Still appreciate your replies though.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

1 - You'd have to import everything from your current pst into the ost. Its a simple and painless process.

2 - It is transparent, just not fantastically fast over GPRS if it has a lot of data to process.

3 - You'd need an exchange account for each domain, unless you set up forwarders on the pop3 domains to the exchange domain.

4 - You can turn off push email from the connection manager (its the little speedy envelope icon)

Edit - fasthosts (apparently) are running Exchange SP2 with push email. 1&1 told me they had SP2, i assumed this meant push email as well!

[Guest chucky.egg]

1) Why do you say 'probably not'?  How then do I get everything from my local Outlook to Exchange initially?

Because when you setup the Exchange mailbox, unless 1and1 transfer your emails for you, it will start as empty, and when you sync it will reset your Outlook Inbox on the device to sync with the Exchange mailbox - clearing out your emails in the process

If they are existing 1and1 mailboxes then they may be able to transfer your stuff, but I wouldn't be able to answer that.

2) So it doesn't do this in the background?  Do I have to manually Activesync when I need to update devices?

It will do it automatically and in the background, but (on my Dopod, syncing over WiFi to a corporate Exchange server) it slowed the device down. So bascially you know it's happening

3) What happens if my local version of Outlook works with Domain1.com, Domain2.com, Domain3.com - Will I then need 3 exchange accounts?

I would suspect so, but 1and1 should be able to answer that

Bear in mind that AFAIK ActiveSync will only sync with Outlook Inbox on your device, and you can only have one Outlook Inbox on your device - so basically you wont be able to use ActiveSync (and therefore Exchange push email) with 3 different mailboxes.

4) Do I need to do this manually?  I am on a roaming network about 4 times a week.

Yes, AFAIK there is no option to turn off sync'ing automatically when roaming. You'd need to go into ActiveSync on the device, and change the settings to Manual

[Guest Pagemakers]

Just called 1&1 and they say push IS compatible now.

[Guest Pagemakers]

Half way down this page there is an option in the schedule area to not sync when roaming... http://www.htcclub.net/en/toontips.php?ID=10

Is this what I am after?

PS: just set up a dummy exchange account on my phone's active sync. How do I delete it?

[Guest louisg]

Does this keep the GPRS connection on all the time and does this drain the battery even more?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does it charge you by being on all the time? Or do you only pay if you send a message back.

This is a worry as im recieving quite alot of mail.

Louis

[Guest chucky.egg]

Is this what I am after?

Looks good, dont have AKU2 yet to confirm personally

PS: just set up a dummy exchange account on my phone's active sync.  How do I delete it?

I'm not sure you can - the only way to empty it that I know of is to sync with another, empty, mailbox

[Guest Pagemakers]

Fiddled a bit and it's gone now. Not sure how.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Does it charge you by being on all the time? Or do you only pay if you send a message back.

This is a worry as im recieving quite alot of mail.

Louis

GPRS is charged by volume of data used. The heartbeat is small but over a month it can add up to about 10MB. You'll download every message you receive and this action will cost no more than you're currently paying...

[Guest Pagemakers]

I presume exchange can sync with more than 1 device at the same time?

[Guest louisg]

GPRS is charged by volume of data used.  The heartbeat is small but over a month it can add up to about 10MB.  You'll download every message you receive and this action will cost no more than you're currently paying...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I dont have a bolt on gprs bundle though. Thing is i was contacted by orange to trial their Orange Mobile Email. Wish i hadnt now if its gonna cost me at the end of the month.

Louis ;)

[Guest Pagemakers]

So if I only have 1 exchange account can I only have 1 'from' email address or can I have multiples?

[Guest chucky.egg]

You can still have multiples.

In fact there is a way you can have pushed email from all three, throug one Exchange account, and still be able to send emails from any of the addresses....

Suppose you have:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

In order to get away with only one Exchange account you'd need to forward the mail from the other addresses to your chosen address. So if [email protected] is the Exchange account...

no forwarding on [email protected]

forward [email protected] to [email protected]

forward [email protected] to [email protected]

Assuming your with 1and1 the address will not be changed, so although you get to them through another account they are still addressed to the original email address

Now on the [email protected] account you set rules:

on incoming message addressed to [email protected] leave it alone

on incoming message addressed to [email protected] move it somewhere

on incoming message addressed to [email protected] move it somewhere

Now you can choose which folders to sync. Inbox (containing emails to [email protected] mail) is the default, but you can also sync the subfolders that contain mail to [email protected] etc etc

On your device you can now create mailboxes on your device (in fact you probably already have them) as independent addresses for thewife... and thegf...

These you can use to send emails, but their inboxes will always be empty because you are forwarding their emails to your [email protected] address.

Is that the sort of thing you're trying to get to?

[Guest Pagemakers]

But what about when I want to create an email? Can I send an email from domain1, 2, or 3 and the reply to address in the email will be accordingly correct?

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

No...

P

[Guest chucky.egg]

But what about when I want to create an email?  Can I send an email from domain1, 2, or 3 and the reply to address in the email will be accordingly correct?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually Yes

If you create an email in one of the independent mailboxes then it will go from the "correct" address.

However if you do it the way I suggested and you REPLY to an email you received (which you'll be doing through the [email protected] account, because that's where ALL the mail gets diverted to) then it will go from the [email protected] address.

There may be a way to forward the emails AND keep a copy in the original mailbox, that way you could have the push notifications but you could still switch to the other accounts, download headers and reply to the message in question.

Not quite as complicated as it sounds there, but not ideal.

[Guest spacerace]

Actually Yes

If you create an email in one of the independent mailboxes then it will go from the "correct" address.

However if you do it the way I suggested and you REPLY to an email you received (which you'll be doing through the [email protected] account, because that's where ALL the mail gets diverted to) then it will go from the [email protected] address.

There may be a way to forward the emails AND keep a copy in the original mailbox, that way you could have the push notifications but you could still switch to the other accounts, download headers and reply to the message in question.

Not quite as complicated as it sounds there, but not ideal.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not quite.

If you have Outlook setup to sync to the exchange account and you create additional POP accounts in it then it can reply to messages as various identities yes. But from a mobile device that is Exchange Active Sync'ing it can only reply as the the main Exchange Account nominated email address....

If you haven't gone with 1&1 yet, take a look at 4smartphone.net. From memory they are cheaper.