4smarthpone question

[mpaque]

I'm testing the 4smartphone service for 15 days and I just set my WM5 device to get new messages as they arrive instead of polling the server every xx minutes for new messages. How does this work? Does 4smartphone new send an SMS to my phone? If so are these the kind of SMS that carriers charge for?

[Jason Dunn]

Yes, with the current generation of devices lacking MSFP (a software update), "push" email is based on SMS to device > device synchs. My understanding is that these SMS messages are charged for by the carrier like any other SMS message.

[victore]

I'm also testing out 4smartphone.net, mpaque. I have a Qtek 9100. One thing that I've noticed is that after my device receives the SMS message and turns on GPRS and synch's my inbox, my GPRS connection remains active. I have to remember to turn it off. Is that what's happening with your device?

[Jason Dunn]

I have to remember to turn it off.

I'm curious, why would you need to turn the GPRS connection off?

[victore]

I turn off my GPRS connection off because I have a limited data plan. I'm only allowed a set number of megabytes per month.

[PhilH]

I turn off my GPRS connection off because I have a limited data plan. I'm only allowed a set number of megabytes per month.

Me too, but you can leave your GPRS on because you're only charged for data.

Just make sure you're not doing anything automatically.

[mpaque]

I used Verizon. My data connection remains connected after synching, but it's inactive and is not transmitting data. I have an unlimited data plan, so I'm not concerned about charges. The only downside I see is the battery probably drains faster.

[acetuk]

I'm also trialling 4smartphone and have been impressed.

However I have noticed a few things and was hoping that those of you also going through this or have gone through it can give me some advise.

When I connect either my Universal or my Wizard to my laptop I am always asked to enter the password for Activesync to access 4smartphone. Is there a way to stop having to do this? It's not too much of a problem other than I can't plug the devices in and leave them until I have enter my log in details.

Also I have a PC at work which I want to sync to but which is behind a firewall and internet filtering system which will not allow Activesync to get to 4smartphone (not that I can see anyway, even though I can use their Outlook Web Access without issues). Is it possible to sync these devices to this PC locally without syncing to 4smartphone for calender, contacts etc? This way I could use my PC to enter my Outlook data, sync it to one of the devices (whichever I have on that day) then periodically manually sync to 4smartphone via GPRS. I can't see how to set Activesync up to do this. I should also say that this machine is running Outlook 2000.

I am struggling to find the best way to sync my devices to 4smartphone and the two PCs that I use, one at home which can connect via Activesync to the exchange server and one at work that cannot.

Any advise from those of you in a similar position would be great!!

[Jason Dunn]

I turn off my GPRS connection off because I have a limited data plan. I'm only allowed a set number of megabytes per month.

GPRS, when idling, uses up exactly 0 KB. It merely keeps the connection live so you don't have to wait for the delay of it coming back.

[Jason Dunn]

The only downside I see is the battery probably drains faster.

Does it? I've never seen any hard data on this, it just seems to be what people think, but your cellular radio is on and powered up regardless of whether or not you have a live data connection, and if there's no data going up or down...will it really use more power? I've always been curious about this, but it's so hard to benchmark something this specific.

[Jason Dunn]

When I connect either my Universal or my Wizard to my laptop I am always asked to enter the password for Activesync to access 4smartphone. Is there a way to stop having to do this?

It's actually Outlook that's asking for the password, because Outlook fires up in order to sync with your Pocket PC. It's a security issue on the desktop, you always have to enter your password to sync with an Exchange server. No way around it that I'm aware of.

Is it possible to sync these devices to this PC locally without syncing to 4smartphone for calender, contacts etc?

I don't think there's a way to do what you want. The problem is that the Pocket PC doesn't have multiple ActiveSync profiles. Once you've configured it to sync calendar/contacts with Exchange, it can't ever sync those locally again. I think you're out of luck, unfortunately.