Hosted Exchange - 4smartphone

[entropy1980]

Which plan are you using from 4smartphone (http://www.4smartphone.net/affiliates.aspx?go=referal&ref=JD10726)? I am trying to decide if I want to take the plunge or if (being the glutton for punishment that I am) I attempt to setup my own exchange box at my house.

[Jason Dunn]

Which plan are you using from 4smartphone? I am trying to decide if I want to take the plunge or if (being the glutton for punishment that I am) I attempt to setup my own exchange box at my house.

I'm using their Professional Plan - 1 GB of space, all the bells and whistles. Take my advice, the time required to set up and manage a secure and stable Exchange 2003 server is not worth $6.99 USD per month. :wink:

[entropy1980]

I'm using their Professional Plan - 1 GB of space, all the bells and whistles. Take my advice, the time required to set up and manage a secure and stable Exchange 2003 server is not worth $6.99 USD per month. :wink:

Well I don't know about that.... that's one of my main jobs at work it's not so bad. Exchange 2003 is MUCH better than 5.5 or even 2000 were. My main problem is I have 3 email addresses I need to have so that presents an interesting problem guess it's time to consolidate or have them all forwarded to one address....

[HalM]

Exchange 2003 is MUCH better than 5.5 or even 2000 were. ....

Right you are on this point. I always find it amazing that when a Linux guy starts ripping MS platforms and they let you ask a few questions, you quickly find out they are actually refering to NT 4.0 or Exchange 5.x.

Hosted Exchange for $6.99 / month with 1 Gb of storage??? IMHO, that makes even ILLEGAL copies of Exchange look expensive.

[PR.]

I'm with eOutlook at the moment, I have to pay for three accounts even though I only use one and only get 100mb of space for $29 a month!

I'm always interested in saving money but I have a couple of questions if you don't mind? :)


Is this 4Smartphone reliable?
Does it support OMA as well as normal ActiveSync/Outlook Web Client/Outlook 2003?
Is the Outlook 2003 desktop setup as a HTTP connection back to the server?
Does it support Public Folders? I find this very useful as I have network places mapped on my Tablet and Desktop so I can share files through the public folders
Do they except international subscriptions? (I'm from UK)
Is the Spam protection they mention the built in MS Spam component for Exchange 2003 or some third party product?


I am interested although I'm a little nervous of paying for a full year subscription, and then find they don't upgrade to the latest version of Exchange or something.

Thanks for your help

[fulltilt]

I would gladly stump the 6.99/month, but then I would get stung with the 1c/k GRPS charge that we face here in australia....

I could continue complaining but you would tire very quickly...

[guardedthought]

I've been using a 4smartphone Pro account for the last 8 months now, and I have to say that it is very reliable. It goes down less than my corporate email server does (and that's saying something). It is one of the few hosted exchange services that supports "Always Up To Date" synchronization for smartphones. I have my gmail AND my corporate email forwarded to my 4smartphone account so I can be instantly notified from both those accounts too. I know they do support OMA (for not smartphone users).

Having a 4smartphone account DOES require you to have Outlook 2003 (otherwise you're stuck with using Outlook Web Access) as it does require an HTTP link back to their servers. I believe their spam protection is the built in spam protection on Exchange (blacklisting and such). I know they support public folders, but the details concerning those are something you would have to raise with customer support (as I don't use public folders).

I use it all the time and can't imagine how I ever lived when I had to set up an automatic synchronization every few minutes on my smartphone.

It is definately worth the $6.99 a month. They have a free trial, so you won't lose anything by giving it a try.

[guardedthought]

Oh yeah, and you can pay by either major credit card or by PayPal.

[PR.]

Thanks for your help guardedthought :)

[Jason Dunn]

Is this 4Smartphone reliable?
Does it support OMA as well as normal ActiveSync/Outlook Web Client/Outlook 2003?
Is the Outlook 2003 desktop setup as a HTTP connection back to the server?
Does it support Public Folders? I find this very useful as I have network places mapped on my Tablet and Desktop so I can share files through the public folders
Do they except international subscriptions? (I'm from UK)
Is the Spam protection they mention the built in MS Spam component for Exchange 2003 or some third party product?


1) Yes, quite reliable. I see pop-up warning messages now and then when Outlook loses the connection to the server, but if never seems to have any real impact because of the Outlook 2003 cached mode.

2) OMA? Outlook Mobile Access? No, I don't think so. Isn't OMA for WAP phones though?

3) Yes, Outlook 2003 is set up over an HTTPS, so no need for VPN. Very slick.

4) Yes, I believe so. I don't know how to set them up though, and in fact it's something I want to try because I want to give my wife access to my calendar. And you say you're sharing files with it? That sounds awesome - tell me how. :-D

5) Sure. I'm in Canada. :-)

6) No, it's a third party product. It's not all that great though to be honest, but I don't get much spam so I can't REALLY put it to the test.

[PR.]

Is this 4Smartphone reliable?
Does it support OMA as well as normal ActiveSync/Outlook Web Client/Outlook 2003?
Is the Outlook 2003 desktop setup as a HTTP connection back to the server?
Does it support Public Folders? I find this very useful as I have network places mapped on my Tablet and Desktop so I can share files through the public folders
Do they except international subscriptions? (I'm from UK)
Is the Spam protection they mention the built in MS Spam component for Exchange 2003 or some third party product?


1) Yes, quite reliable. I see pop-up warning messages now and then when Outlook loses the connection to the server, but if never seems to have any real impact because of the Outlook 2003 cached mode.

2) OMA? Outlook Mobile Access? No, I don't think so. Isn't OMA for WAP phones though?

3) Yes, Outlook 2003 is set up over an HTTPS, so no need for VPN. Very slick.

4) Yes, I believe so. I don't know how to set them up though, and in fact it's something I want to try because I want to give my wife access to my calendar. And you say you're sharing files with it? That sounds awesome - tell me how. :-D

5) Sure. I'm in Canada. :-)

6) No, it's a third party product. It's not all that great though to be honest, but I don't get much spam so I can't REALLY put it to the test.

Thanks for your help :)

To use the file storage via public folders (this works on eOutlook but I'm not sure about anywhere else)

1. Start > My Network Places > Add Network Place
2. Next > Choose another network location > Next
3. In the address you want the url that you use for webmail then append the public for the public folders section and then the name of your root public folder e.g. https://exchange.domain.com/public/mydomainname
4. Click Next and you will be prompted for your normal logon information put that in
5. Complete the wizard

You should then get an explorer window which you can dump files in, if you wish you can create even more public folders which act as sub folders. You can still view the folders from outlook and open the files as well. If you have Office 2003 then you should be able to open and save files in to the public folders using the dialog boxes.

You can also enable cached public folders in Outlook 2003 so its quicker to open those files

Hope that works

[Ed Hansberry]

Does it support OMA as well as normal ActiveSync/Outlook Web Client/Outlook 2003?
2) OMA? Outlook Mobile Access? No, I don't think so. Isn't OMA for WAP phones though?

WAP2 phones I've found out the hard way. OMA does work on a Pocket PC and smartphone. Useful in troubleshooting server ActiveSync if there are any issues, but as for actually using it, I cannot imagine why anyone would want to if they can use Inbox with EAS.

[PR.]

Still off topic :D

Thanks all I have setup a trial account to test the service, had a few problems setting it all up but the Live Support was very quick to resolve my problems and to answer a couple of questions I had.

I have my Phone/PDA/Tablet/Desktop all setup to retrieve information and it is working well, although I don't seem to have any access to the public folders I can see the root folder and "Internet Newsgroups" underneath but I am unable to put anything in them or create any new folders. I have contacted them as according to their website (http://www.4smartphone.net/plan_compare.aspx) I don't get them by default but I can pay for them as an extra, but am still awaiting a response.

I do occasionally use OMA instead of ActiveSync, its cheaper and it does support some features that you can't use in Activeync, Out of Office assistant etc.

[Jason Dunn]

I have my Phone/PDA/Tablet/Desktop all setup to retrieve information and it is working well, although I don't seem to have any access to the public folders I can see the root folder and "Internet Newsgroups" underneath but I am unable to put anything in them or create any new folders. I have contacted them as according to their website (http://www.4smartphone.net/plan_compare.aspx) I don't get them by default but I can pay for them as an extra, but am still awaiting a response. I do occasionally use OMA instead of ActiveSync, its cheaper and it does support some features that you can't use in Activeync, Out of Office assistant etc.

So it turns out that public folders come automatically with the Enterprise-level package ($9.99 a month) - sorry about that, I didn't realize that because I've never used them, and I've never used them because I had the professional level. ;-)

Regarding OMA, how do you access it via your Smartphone?

[PR.]

I have my Phone/PDA/Tablet/Desktop all setup to retrieve information and it is working well, although I don't seem to have any access to the public folders I can see the root folder and "Internet Newsgroups" underneath but I am unable to put anything in them or create any new folders. I have contacted them as according to their website (http://www.4smartphone.net/plan_compare.aspx) I don't get them by default but I can pay for them as an extra, but am still awaiting a response. I do occasionally use OMA instead of ActiveSync, its cheaper and it does support some features that you can't use in ActiveSync, Out of Office assistant etc.

So it turns out that public folders come automatically with the Enterprise-level package ($9.99 a month) - sorry about that, I didn't realise that because I've never used them, and I've never used them because I had the professional level. ;-)

Regarding OMA, how do you access it via your Smartphone?

I had a good read of the website and I expected that I wouldn't get Public Folders however it does say in several locations that you can get Public Folders as a pro user and when I was asking about maximum file attachment sizes they seemed happy to customise accounts for the users so all is not lost just yet.

To access OMA type https://secure.4smartphone.net/OMA in Internet Explorer, login for the first time then when you get the list of Inbox/Calendar/Contacts/Tasks etc. add that to your favourites then you can use that bookmark without needing to login again in the future. You will also need to setup the preferences as they are all the American timezones and languages etc but they are persistent on any other device from then on.

Hope that helps

EDIT: // Just looking at 4smartphones OMA and according to the version info they are still running Exchange 2003 RTM and haven't upgraded to SP1 which includes the extra features in OMA such as Out of Office assistant. I guess they are holding out for SP2

[Jerry Raia]

I have been using Mailstreet Exchange Hosting (http://www.mailstreet.net/default.asp) for years and they have been very good. Worth taking a look at.

[Jason Dunn]

I have been using Mailstreet Exchange Hosting (http://www.mailstreet.net/default.asp) for years and they have been very good. Worth taking a look at.

I was with them for a while, but they're charging $12.95 USD per month for 100 MB of storage space - that's just not competative with the market, so I starting looking for other solutions and came upon 4smartphone.

[Jerry Raia]

Yes quite right they are more expensive. I don't need that much data so it wasn't an issue for me.