Windows Mobile And E-mail: Keeping All Up-To-Date

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=2898' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?contentid=2898</a><br /><br /></div><i>"One of the main functionality in current connected handheld devices is e-mail. Users can collect e-mails from a server, have the e-mails sent to devices, and other little tricks. We tested some services that offer a combination of pull and push techniques to give the always-on e-mail experience. There are some solutions offering enterprise grade features, including an enterprise level price on this. Sometimes the price tag includes the requirement of having a Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server, or sometimes it includes the requirement of having a completely new server added to the mix. Other products are more accessible to consumers and end users, using a type of software called desktop redirectors. These solutions do not require any server side installation, but will need a computer with Internet connection. In this article we'll talk about these solutions and functionality available from an end-user perspective, not touching server configuration."</i><br /><br />Always-on email is the holy grail of connectivity, but historically, your choices for always-on has been Blackberry or... not much else. Mauricio over at Geekzone has written a lengthy article on various client-side solutions that most anyone can use. If you've got a Pocket PC Phone, in particular, you ought to check out the solutions reviewed in this article.

[rubberdemon]

This article doesn't really cover the super-simple option of having a pop program wake up every so often and dial into a server to check email. I've been away from Pocket PC's for a little while (long story) but will be coming back with the 6300 phone edition - has pocket inbox changed at all so that you can do this with a phone edition device, or do you need another piece of software? Snappermail on the Palm does this well, but I'm not entirely sure how well this will work on the PPCPE...

Thanks!

[alexm]

This article doesn't really cover the super-simple option of having a pop program wake up every so often and dial into a server to check email. I've been away from Pocket PC's for a little while (long story) but will be coming back with the 6300 phone edition - has pocket inbox changed at all so that you can do this with a phone edition device, or do you need another piece of software? Snappermail on the Palm does this well, but I'm not entirely sure how well this will work on the PPCPE...

Thanks!

The built-in Inbox on PPCPE has an option of checking e-mail every X minutes. I use it with POP accont and it works just fine.

[Philip Colmer]

I was very disappointed though that this article did not cover Exchange 2003 beyond saying that the author wasn't going to cover it because he didn't have it.

Although I don't have a phone edition of a Pocket PC, my understanding of the up-to-date feature in Exchange 2003 is that it is very good at doing its job, and it is integrated in.

I do already use OMA if I just want to access my email through a simple text browser interface or synchronise my ActiveSync inbox directly with Exchange - and that is fantastic :-)

Shame that the AUTD feature can't work with a mobile phone that has a connection to a Pocket PC.

--Philip

[Janak Parekh]

I was very disappointed though that this article did not cover Exchange 2003 beyond saying that the author wasn't going to cover it because he didn't have it.
Well, the article nevertheless targets a useful group -- end-users that don't have Exchange 2003 (install) access and need a bit more functionality than Pocket Inbox's check every X minutes. If you have Exchange 2003, that's probably your first choice anyway. ;)

--janak

[freitasm]

I was very disappointed though that this article did not cover Exchange 2003 beyond saying that the author wasn't going to cover it because he didn't have it.
Well, the article nevertheless targets a useful group -- end-users that don't have Exchange 2003 (install) access and need a bit more functionality than Pocket Inbox's check every X minutes. If you have Exchange 2003, that's probably your first choice anyway. ;)

--janak

Well said. In the article I say that these programs should be used when users don't have direct access to a POP server or VPN. Some companies do not allow external clients to access their POP servers and don't have Exchange.

Also, better than checking e-mail every {x} minutes, is to have e-mail delivered to your device only when something new arrives.

If you have Exchange 2003, go for it. If you have a visible POP3, go for it. Please have a second look on this article by reading the subtlety of these considerations.

[freitasm]

This article doesn't really cover the super-simple option of having a pop program wake up every so often and dial into a server to check email. I've been away from Pocket PC's for a little while (long story) but will be coming back with the 6300 phone edition - has pocket inbox changed at all so that you can do this with a phone edition device, or do you need another piece of software? Snappermail on the Palm does this well, but I'm not entirely sure how well this will work on the PPCPE...

Thanks!

Read the article again, please. It says:

I know, at this point you're asking “But I can configure my Pocket Inbox to poll my IMAP or POP3 server in regular intervals. Why would I need this?” The answer is security. Most ISPs provide POP3 or IMAP servers, and polling from Pocket Inbox will be enough. On the other hand, most companies have their e-mail server within a security perimeter, not visible on the Internet, and some do not have VPN access in-place. And here is where the e-mail redirector solution enters.