I switched to Mail2Web Live Exchange - And I Like It!

[Pete Paxton]

About three weeks ago I switched to Mail2Web's Live Exchange service for my MS Exchange needs. I was previously using 4smartphone's Exchange service but over the last several months I have found their service to be questionable. Let me elaborate. Back in April, the 4smartphone service exprerienced server problems. I was not able to get my email or sync my appointments, tasks, and contacts for about a week. One morning I woke up and found that not only had my Dash synced with the 4smartphone server but it doubled all my appointments, tasks, and contacts. I didn't have a recent backup (my bad there) so I had to manually delete each of the doubled entries. Very frustrating. In this whole mess I found that my son's birthday had been deleted as well as my anniversary and friends birthdays. Again, very frustrating. I emailed the support staff of 4smartphone several times but they didn't reply. If that wasn't enough, I found out that 4smartphone has discontinued their Xpress plan of $3.99 and that I must upgrade to their professional plan of $6.99. Not an unreasonable price but poor timing considering my feelings of their service. That's when I decided to switch to Mail2Web's Live Exchange. It's free and so far I haven't had even one glitch. There is some advertising on the right side of the screen but it hasn't bothered me one bit. My emails are sent to my phone almost instantly and my appointments, tasks, and contacts are synced almost instantly as well. I have emailed their support staff to test thier response time and both times I received a response within 24 hrs. Bottom line is that if you want to sync your pda with push email and virtually instant syncing and you don't mind about an inch of advertising on the right side of your screen, you should consider giving Mail2Web Live Exchange a shot. And did I mention it's free! :D How about you? Do you use a MS Exchange service? If so, what are your thoughts and opinions?

[scottb]

I also use Mail2Web. I agree you can't beat the free service. They had some performance and stability issues a few months back, but seem to have that straightened out now.

I pay the $2 per month to have outgoing messages sent with a return address of my choice. This also gets rid of the advertising.
The free account will use your Mail2Web address as the return address. Even at $2 per month, it's a bargain.

[modgnik]

Great free service.
3 caveats on the free service.

1. Can't save sent messages when sent from phone.
2. Can't logout from website when accessed from phone. (no logout button)
3. All mail sent is from Mail2web.

[ScottC]

Same here, and similar story.

When it was time for me to renew my membership at 4smartphone I noticed that the express plan was gone. I emailed asking whether I could still get it, since I'd been with them for a few years. And they never replied.

I doubt they'll be around much longer if they lose all their consumer customers and present crappy service like this.

Mail2web is just great, I'm on the $2 plan as I wanted my own "from" address.

[Mike Temporale]

Wow, $2 a month. That sure is nice. That wasn't there when they launched it, if I recall. I really should get going and either setup my own Exchange box or pay the $2 eh....

[humayunl]

hello,

i read your post and created an account with them.

I sent myself the activesync confirguraiton file and now there's an account configured on my (ppc WM5 with Push) device. I can do manual send/receive and it gets the messages from the server. i dont have to force it to send everytime i send, it sends automatically.

My question is: is the push configured automatically or do i have to manually enable it somehow? because i'm sending mail to the mail2web account but it doesnt show up on the phone unless i do a manual send/recv.

Also, in the sychnorization settings i can see options to calendar, contatcts and mail but nothing for tasks. Is that a extra pay-only option?


--UPDATE --
It works. I was just impatient. calendar synchronized, mails are coming and going. I disable the contact synchronization because i have too many of them and it would've been costly to sync. them (at least while i'm in trial mode). And like I said, i dont seem to have the option to sync tasks.

This is awesome. This is the first time i've seen PUSH from MSFT work as reliably as my blackberry (i never really tried it before :)

if i can get this to work reliably, i can start thinking about replacing my blackberry!
Thanks,
Humayun

[zx6guy]

I have heard a few people talk about this "outage" that 4smartphone had but as a user myself I don't remember having any problems. The problem that I do have is with how poor my battery life is now that I'm using "true push" exchange provider. I have a Sprint Q and I often have a hard time making it through the day even though my usage is low to moderate. If the signal is low (example: being inside an office building) there's no chance.

[chaznet]

Any idea when they'll (mail2web) be updating to Exchange 2007?

[Pete Paxton]

I asked them that question and they replied that they need some kind of update from Microsoft. Not sure what it all meant but I think they'll be updated before the end of the year.

[paulperroni]

I actually have their "Professional" service and pay $8.99 per month.
I feel like a fool if the same service is available for free.

However, I am extremely happy with their service!
Sync is almost instant.

Their customer service is also superb.

Cant wait until their Exchange2007 update which should be soon!
I recommend it.

[superrrguy]

I've been using 4smartphone.net for about 10 months and it's made my life so much easier. We have a few 2nd tier accounts with them. (i think that's pro) and we're able to share calendars and contacts even though it looked like u needed the 3rd tier plan to do that. I remember the server issues and the duplicates and with the help of 4smartphone we were able to get rid of the duplicates by sorting by 'date created' and deleting all the new stuff.

I've contacted 4smartphone serveral times through their online support form and have always gotten prompt helpful responces. I've never contacted them by email through and I'm not sure why they wouldn't reply.

I've tried the free services from mail2web but never looked into their paid services after such high recommendations for 4smartphone from this site.

[chrisjaffe]

I have been using mail2web for my email for a while now. It's been great. Very reliable. Most of the time I get the messages on my phone before I get them on my computer.

My only request would be that I could use multiple aliases but maybe there is a higher plan that would allow that.

[chrisjaffe]

I do have a question though...

Are you guys that are sync-ing your calendar and contacts with m2w keeping everything in outlook on your computer too. Or are you switching everything to your m2w acct. exclusively? I

If you do sync to both, does that create dups? How is it configured?

Thanks,
cj

[scottb]

PLEASE PARDON THE CAPS--PIE GETS STUCK SOMETIMES.

I SYNC EMAIL, CALENDAR, CONTACTS AND TASKS WITH M2W. I DON'T SYNC ANY OF THESE WITH MY PC. THAT'S THE MAIN REASON I WENT WITH AN EXCHANGE SERVICE--TO SYNC WIRELESSLY.

[Mike Temporale]

I do have a question though...

Are you guys that are sync-ing your calendar and contacts with m2w keeping everything in outlook on your computer too. Or are you switching everything to your m2w acct. exclusively?

As scottb pointed out; everything is sync with Exchange. If you crable your device you don't want it to sync contacts and calendar. To get these on your machine you setup outlook to sync with the m2w exchange box as well. So as you make changes in outlook they sync to m2w and then sync to our phone. Both your computer and your phone will always be in sync.

[Foxbat121]

Great free service.
3 caveats on the free service.

1. Can't save sent messages when sent from phone.
2. Can't logout from website when accessed from phone. (no logout button)
3. All mail sent is from Mail2web.

1. Sent messages are stored in sent folder. You have to enable syncing sent folder in order to see them from phone. Webmail client can see all the sent mails.

2. I don't see why you ever need to use website from phone.

3. As posted before, free account does noy allow return address change. Paid account does.

[humayunl]

As scottb pointed out; everything is sync with Exchange. If you crable your device you don't want it to sync contacts and calendar. To get these on your machine you setup outlook to sync with the m2w exchange box as well. So as you make changes in outlook they sync to m2w and then sync to our phone. Both your computer and your phone will always be in sync.

Mike, this is exactly the setup I want to have i.e. sync my desktop outlook with m2w so that my phone, outlook on my desktop and my m2w are always in sync.

Can someone please tell me how i can configure my outlook on the desktop to sync with m2w? This would be great!

[Foxbat121]

Can someone please tell me how i can configure my outlook on the desktop to sync with m2w? This would be great!

The free Live account does not support desktop sync. You will need a paid account to do so. If you do have a paid account, you can simply configure your desktop Outlook to connect to mail2web.com's exchange server. It's very simple. Once you set it up, you will have:

Phone <-> exchange server for emails, contacts, tasks and calendar.
Desktop PCs <-> exchange server for emails, contacts, tasks, calendar and notes.

[modgnik]

Great free service.
3 caveats on the free service.

1. Can't save sent messages when sent from phone.
2. Can't logout from website when accessed from phone. (no logout button)
3. All mail sent is from Mail2web.

1. Sent messages are stored in sent folder. You have to enable syncing sent folder in order to see them from phone. Webmail client can see all the sent mails.

2. I don't see why you ever need to use website from phone.

3. As posted before, free account does noy allow return address change. Paid account does.
Thank you for enlightening me. I did not realise one could sync the Sent Folder. I have done so now.
I only logged in from my phone to check my Sent mail. This now falls away. Cheers.

[ctmagnus]

Previously I was unable to sync the Sent Items folder. Is syncing that folder not doable in a desktop Outlook-only situation?

[Rocco Augusto]

yeah, i was bit by the upgraded 4Smartphone plans as well. What annoyed me as well was the fact that they never sent me an email or anything that stated that prices were raising as well as my account was expiring. All in all, not a very good customer support experience in the least! :(

[jimsparkman]

I had problems with 4Smartphone a while back too, now I use a paid 1&1 Exchange Account, $6.99/mo, and have been for about a year.... it's much nicer to have your own domain name associated with your excahnge account. This monthy fee also includes one Outlook license. So, my laptop, smartphone and desktop are always in sync, plus I have OWA from anywhere. Never had a problem and would never go back to the days without push email, calendar, contacts and tasks.

- Jim

[zx6guy]

Maybe a little more competition in the "Exchange for hire" field might smooth some of these problems out.

[humayunl]

The free Live account does not support desktop sync. You will need a paid account to do so. If you do have a paid account, you can simply configure your desktop Outlook to connect to mail2web.com's exchange server. It's very simple. Once you set it up, you will have:

Phone <-> exchange server for emails, contacts, tasks and calendar.
Desktop PCs <-> exchange server for emails, contacts, tasks, calendar and notes.

My desktop outlook is currently configured to connect to a POP server at some ISP where we (all employees in my company) get our company email.

If i get the paid account and configure my desktop outlook to connect to the mail2web's exchange server, how does that affect my ability to use it for company mails?

Is there a way to just use the mail2web exchange account only - even for the work mails - but of course it would have to be transparent so that the senders/receivers of the mails still just see my work email address.

Sorry, if these questions are too novice...

[ctmagnus]

My desktop outlook is currently configured to connect to a POP server at some ISP where we (all employees in my company) get our company email.

If i get the paid account and configure my desktop outlook to connect to the mail2web's exchange server, how does that affect my ability to use it for company mails?

Is there a way to just use the mail2web exchange account only - even for the work mails - but of course it would have to be transparent so that the senders/receivers of the mails still just see my work email address.

You can set up both accounts in Outlook so that the work emails come down into your inbox via its pop account, and then they get synced up to your Exchange account. I'm not sure about mail2web, but with 4SmartPhone, you can specify a different reply address other than your Exchange account address. The pay versions of mail2web may offer the same thing.

[onlydarksets]

There is no Outlook access with the free or $2 version of Mail2Web, but it should work as you describe if you order the full-boat package. That's how 1and1 works, as well.

[floepie]

You can set up both accounts in Outlook so that the work emails come down into your inbox via its pop account, and then they get synced up to your Exchange account. I'm not sure about mail2web, but with 4SmartPhone, you can specify a different reply address other than your Exchange account address. The pay versions of mail2web may offer the same thing.

That solution is good, but you would have to keep your desktop running if you're on the go with your Exchange account. Instead, if you have 4smartphone, you can configure up to 1 POP3 account that is polled directly into your Exchange account. 1and1 does not have this option, but you can use GMail with either to do the same thing.

Gmail will allow you to poll a POP3 account and immediately forward it to your Exchange account. You even have the option in Gmail to either save a copy of the forwarded emails (for a nice backup) or simply to delete them. You can also configure Gmail to keep or delete the emails from the POP3 server, but there would be no reason to keep them there at all.