Help me work around Shaw Email BS

[Deemo]

I am a Shaw Cable customer in Canada who is *frustrated* to no end that I can not retrieve my email via POP3 via my 2210. Shaw blocks it to prevent spamming - end of story. They insist that you use webmail which is useless for anyone with a smart phone or PPC.
:devilboy:
So I am going to extreme and getting my own domain....which is kinda cool for my new company anyway.
:idea:
So now that I have the domain (from easyDNS) how do I set up and where should I set up the email. EasyDNS doesn't seem to offer that service and I am thinking I should have maybe gone through Network Solutions as they seem to offer a broader range (oh well.....first timer at this).

I basically need a step by step approach here as I am steep on this learning curve and there are a bazillion different sites that offer all kinds of services.

TIA

[Jason Dunn]

I've been where you are, and the only real solution is to get your own Web hosting account, and stop using your Shaw email - with a real domain, and a real mail server, you can send & receive email from your Pocket PC like you want to be able to do.

http://www.page-zone.com/ - that's the host I use

www.powweb.com

Or just Google and look for a cheap host - I've seen monthly hosting for $2 USD a month....

[Deemo]

Jason,
Thanks for the reply.
The frustration reverberated through the meeting somewhat if I recall correctly - and I do!
I really don't need a site (yet).
How about Telus EasyMail:

http://www.teluscentral.com/communications/easy_mail.html

Can I just keep my domain at easyDNS www.easyDNS.com (Canadian) where I registered it originally and sign up with just the mail portion with Telus?

Huh? huh? can I huh?

[Jason Dunn]

Well....that Telus option starts at $16 CND per month, so why would you pay more to get less? :-)

If you're worried about the Web portion, don't be - you can just put up a blank index page if you want - you're paying for everything, but you're really only going to be using part of it.

Please trust me on this - sign up with Page-Zone, change your DNS records to match the info they give you, and use their Cpanel setup to create your mail accounts. :D

[JustinGTP]

Jason,

I was looking at bandwidth per month on Page Zone and I wanted to know how many GBs you need to run Pocket PC Thoughts. I want to set up my own site without the free crap so that it actually works and has no ads.

There prices are really good per month, and is 1.5gb a lot of bandwidth? And Bandwidth is calculated per month?

Thanks,

-Justin.

[ctmagnus]

fwiw, I use Doteasy (www.doteasy.com)'s free service but they have a $8/mo package with

No Banners or Pop-up Ads
1000 MB Web Storage
20 GB Data Transfer
100 POP/Web Email Accounts
10 MB Email Storage Per Account

[JustinGTP]

Yeah, I would need the PHP/MYSQL to make anything of it, and they are all pretty comparable right now aren't they.

-Justin.

[Deemo]

Well....that Telus option starts at $16 CND per month, so why would you pay more to get less? :-)

That's what Telus is all about.....right? I waffling between knowing I will be irked a few times versus consolidating services under one umbrella.

[/quote]Please trust me on this - sign up with Page-Zone, change your DNS records to match the info they give you, and use their Cpanel setup to create your mail accounts. :D[/quote]

Trust???....I don't trust anyone until they earned it :wink:
I need data (ie reasons). What do you like about them? How did you get hooked up with them?

I am looking into this as well:
http://www.everyone.net/index.html
They seem to specialize in email and I haven't tried IMAP yet.
The more I think about Telus the more my gut says fagetaboutit

[Dave Beauvais]

Trust???....I don't trust anyone until they earned it :wink:
I need data (ie reasons). What do you like about them? How did you get hooked up with them?
I signed up with Page-Zone about a year ago after Jason recommended them and have been only somewhat happy with them. It's said that "you get what you pay for," and that seems to be true in this case. For the price, Page-Zone offers a lot of features and flexibility, but their servers seem to be somewhat unreliable and their customer support is terrible.

For the most part, the service they provide has been good, but there have been some serious (in my opinion) problems and changes in the past six months that have been making me consider finding a new hosting provider. In six months, the server my domain is hosted on has experienced two hard drive failures that resulted in complete downtime of all sites on that server of between three and six hours. That to me is totally unacceptable. Install a RAID or mirroring system, or something. Having to take the server down, install a new drive, install the OS from scratch, and reload user data from tape is absurd. At least they have a backup system in place, though. I now download my own local backup of my entire account at least once a week or after a major change or addition, however, because the last hard drive failure resulted in the loss of several hours of work which they hadn't yet backed up to tape. Hardware failures happen. I know that and understand it. However, there are ways to make servers more redundant and reliable that aren't too costly.

Also in the past six months, the public forums have been shut down and I have no doubt as to the reason: virtually every post was about server downtime, total lack of response to support e-mails and Help Desk requests, and no contact from the company except in the "pre-sales" forums where potential customers could post questions before signing up; existing customers were virtually ignored. Via these forums, I learned that the server my site is on had a third hard drive failure about two months before I signed up. Three hard drive failures within twelve months in one machine indicates a problem. In the forums, customers were also able to help each other since Page-Zone itself was so unresponsive. Now we don't even have that resource available. :roll:

The server status page used to provide the status of all services running on the servers including POP3, IMAP, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, etc. It also provided server uptime information, which was very useful. One time I looked and not a single server had been up for more than a week. That's a big red flag for a hosting provider to not be able to keep a server up for more than a few days at a time without a reboot. Now the status page shows only HTTP and e-mail status and provides no uptime information.

Supposedly, each server has a listserv that you can subscribe to in order to receive maintenance notices, planned downtime announcements, and status reports for repairs in progress. I have subscribed to the "main" list and the one for my specific server, yet have never received a single message. I'm tempted to subscribe to all of them to see if any of them are ever used.

I'm seriously questioning whether I want to stick with Page-Zone once the year I paid for is up. I really don't want to go through DNS hell again and I doubt I'll be able to find a host with the same number of features at such a low price point. However, it's nice to have reliable servers, redundant hardware to minimize downtime in the event of a failure, and support that actually replies to questions.

[Jason Dunn]

...how many GBs you need to run Pocket PC Thoughts. I want to set up my own site without the free crap so that it actually works and has no ads. There prices are really good per month, and is 1.5gb a lot of bandwidth? And Bandwidth is calculated per month?


So far this month we've used 222 GB for both PPCT and SPT, and PPCT makes up 90% of that number. That's actually quite low - normally we use up around 300 GB. Thankfully, I have 1200 GB to use up. 1.5 GB is actually quite a bit of bandwidth, if you keep your page size small and optimize your graphics. Yes, bandwidth is per month.

[Jason Dunn]

Trust???....I don't trust anyone until they earned it :wink: I need data (ie reasons). What do you like about them? How did you get hooked up with them?

No, my point was that you should find ANY cheap Web hosting account - it certainly doesn't have to be Page-Zone. Go to Google and type in "web hosting" and you'll get a lot of options.

Anyway, I don't feel particularly compelled to keep trying to convince you to do this, so I'm going to stop now - it's your call, so either pull the trigger or be happy with your Shaw email. :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

I signed up with Page-Zone about a year ago after Jason recommended them and have been only somewhat happy with them. It's said that "you get what you pay for," and that seems to be true in this case.

Yeah, I hear ya Dave - I've had some glitches with them over the past six months too, and I was only reccomending them because I knew the URL off the top of my head. The domains I have on Page-Zone are very low priority for me, so if there's some down time it doesn't bother me that much.

Has anyone found a good, reliable Web host that allows multiple domains under a single account at no extra charge? I wouldn't mind looking into other options...

[JustinGTP]

Thanks Jason!

When I host my own images on Angelfire right now, and I use it as my sig on the board, my site has been suspended 4 times this month because I go over :oops:

Maybe 2-4GB would be good. I dont really know :|

-Justin.

[Jason Dunn]

Maybe 2-4GB would be good. I dont really know :|

Total up the page weight (HTML+GRAPHICS) and divide that number into the total GB allotment, then you'll be able to see how many visitors you can have per month. It's all math. :-)

[Dave Beauvais]

Somewhat ironically, my Page-Zone-hosted domain has been down for about two hours now. As I write this, they have at least two servers down and a third with a hardware problem that's causing the system to detect only one of the two CPUs. I say "at least two servers down" because according to the server status page (http://www.rehost.us/statstest/), my server is up and running but it totally unresponsive. :evil:

At this point, I very strongly advise anyone who is considering Page-Zone to look elsewhere. I've decided that I will be moving to a new host, as well. As with SanDisk SD cards, there's more to a hosting provider than price...

(Edit 2004-01-25, about 08:00 EST:) Total downtime of my server was over five hours with no explanation at all from Page-Zone. BS. I don't know if they're hoping nobody will notice, or what, but I noticed.

[Jason Dunn]

At this point, I very strongly advise anyone who is considering Page-Zone to look elsewhere. I've decided that I will be moving to a new host, as well. As with SanDisk SD cards, there's more to a hosting provider than price...

Let me know where you move. I'm looking specifically for an account that will allow me to host multiple domains under a single account.

Dave, you might want to check our ev1 Servers, formerlly Rackshack:

http://www.ev1servers.net/english/all.asp

They have virutal hosting as well, starting at $10 a month, and they very, very rarely go down due to networking problems.

Alternatively, a few of us could get together and get our very own server and split up the $89 a month cost....hmm. That's not a bad idea! 8O

[szamot]

People too bad you missed the incredible 1and1.com 3 years for free hosting offer, it is a good thing. I have a couple sites running on it and it is fabulous, what can I say it is free. There is only one way of getting flawless performance - don't use SHAW!

[szamot]

Jason,
Thanks for the reply.
The frustration reverberated through the meeting somewhat if I recall correctly - and I do!
I really don't need a site (yet).
How about Telus EasyMail:

http://www.teluscentral.com/communications/easy_mail.html

Can I just keep my domain at easyDNS www.easyDNS.com (Canadian) where I registered it originally and sign up with just the mail portion with Telus?

Huh? huh? can I huh?

Leave it to a Canadian company to rip you off. Should have registered with godaddy.com or 1and1.com for $9 and $6 USD/year. too late for you now but perhaps next time you can remember these names.

[Jason Dunn]

Deemo, 1and1 has a cheap email-only package you might want to consider:

http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/InstantMail;jsessionid=C0481AF3BA747B749D744CB273022D2D.TC62a?__frame=_top

[Jason Dunn]

People too bad you missed the incredible 1and1.com 3 years for free hosting offer, it is a good thing.

Yeah, I saw that, but their monthly charges seemed too high for me, so I didn't want to move to a host that I knew I'd want to move away from after three years. Then again, three years IS a long time... :lol:

[famousdavis]

FWIW, I use ICDSOft (http://www.icdsoft.com) and have been extremely pleased. $60 a year, $40 for the second domain, 333MB for your site, 999 email accounts. They're based in Europe, but what is remarkable about this service is that they answer support ticket requests in usually 10 minutes, 24/7. I used them twice this weekend, and both times I got a response in about 5-10 minutes. I've used this service for a few years now, and I've never noticed any downtime on their servers, either.

[JustinGTP]

Maybe 2-4GB would be good. I dont really know :|

Total up the page weight (HTML+GRAPHICS) and divide that number into the total GB allotment, then you'll be able to see how many visitors you can have per month. It's all math. :-)

The thing is though, the MATH is simple but I don't know how many people are viewing my images that I put on forums. Not all forums have "upload avatar here" and my sig graphics, pictures I want to show, and that takes up bandwidth I cannot account for.

-Justin.

[Jason Dunn]

The thing is though, the MATH is simple but I don't know how many people are viewing my images that I put on forums. Not all forums have "upload avatar here" and my sig graphics, pictures I want to show, and that takes up bandwidth I cannot account for.


You need to analyze your log files then. Either get the raw log files and analyze them, or see if your Web host has Webalyze or another stats program.

[Deemo]

OK THIS ROCKS! 8)

I got the domain through easyDNS and signed up with everyone.net.
Neither companies offer the full meal deal but rather specialize in their respective field.
Pretty painless process and I figure the old adage "you get what you pay for" would eventually apply.

I can hit the everyone.net mail sever through Shaw and also through Telus and now I just need to try Fido's GPRS.

[karinatwork]

Ahem.. :oops: sorry.. maybe I didn't understand the problem right... but why doesn't it work for you to retrieve your Shaw POP3 email via your pocket pc? I'm a Shaw customer and it works fine for me...

I'm just being curious.

Oh, and btw, my website is hosted with Doteasy as well and I have nothing but good things to say about them.

K.

[Deemo]

Ahem.. :oops: sorry.. maybe I didn't understand the problem right... but why doesn't it work for you to retrieve your Shaw POP3 email via your pocket pc? I'm a Shaw customer and it works fine for me...

I'm just being curious.

Oh, and btw, my website is hosted with Doteasy as well and I have nothing but good things to say about them.

K.

Karin,
Have you tried from off of Shaw's network? ie at an office that has Telus as a provider. Via gprs or some other providers network.
If so, you may be on a business plan instead of a home user.
Shaw blocks access from off of their network.
If you can still get it....then we need to talk! :?

[karinatwork]

Hmmm. I'll try to test it and then report.

K.

[UHF]

Folks I had the same problem. And I'm on Telus in the Calgary area.

I'm using an iPaq 1945 with a Socket SDIO WiFi card, and I can't send email from my pop account. I can receive though.

Anyways, I ran an Ethereal sniff on my email access via my MS Outlook, Outlook Express, and on the Pocket PC I used vxSniffer (and a reviewed the log on the PC using Ethereal).

So... from work, I cannot send by directly using the POP account. Outook express error;
The message could not be sent because one of the recipients was rejected by the server. The rejected e-mail address was '[email protected]'. Subject 'test', Account: 'pop.telusplanet.net', Server: 'smtp.telusplanet.net', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '550 relaying mail to XXXX.com is not allowed', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 550, Error Number: 0x800CCC791

From the Pocket PC side, it appears that the POP client relealizes that it can't send email, so it doesn't try.

In short, I also need an email address that I can access while mobile. Actually I'd prefer if it had some security like SSL or something.

[Jason Dunn]

Folks I had the same problem. And I'm on Telus in the Calgary area. I'm using an iPaq 1945 with a Socket SDIO WiFi card, and I can't send email from my pop account. I can receive though.

The SMTP server you're using wants you to authenticate. Assuming that you've checked off the authentication box, and it's still not working, it probably means that Telus is authenticationg based on IP address as well. What you need is an external SMTP service that you can use, like www.smtp.com. But for a buck more a month, you can find complete Web + email hosting packages, so I'd say SMTP.com is a last-ditch option.

[UHF]

I hadn't realized how cheap hosting services have become.

I've started to feel somewhat uncomfortably slaved to my service provider.

I'm curious, but does anyone know of some server side software which could completely replace my use of outlook\active sync. Instead, I'd like to have my info 'out there' on the web for me to access rather than synced to my PC.

Complete "remote access in a box" put up on my own (hosted) domain, would be really cool.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm curious, but does anyone know of some server side software which could completely replace my use of outlook\active sync. Instead, I'd like to have my info 'out there' on the web for me to access rather than synced to my PC.

I haven't gone front-page with this yet (been waiting for the right timing), but a hosted Exchange solution is, I believe, the ultimate solution to what you want. Pocket PCs and Smartphones have been designed to work incredibly well with Exchange, but most people can't afford the cost of knowledge needed to have a server with Exchange 2003 running on it. ;-)

www.mailstreet.net - this completely and totally kicks ass. :-) For $12.95 USD a month, you get 100 MB of server space and an Exchange 2003 account. What this means is that your calendar, contacts, and email is kept up on a server. For $2 more a month you can get ActiveSync support, which means you can sync your Pocket PC directly against that Exchange server, which is supremely cool.

For years I begged and pleaded with Microsoft to stop building features into the Pocket PC that required an Exchange server, but now that I have one, I can see why they're so excited about it. ;-)

If you do happen to sign up, I'd appreciate it if you could use my reseller ID (11674) as the person who referred you.

[UHF]

There is now tons of MS Exchange software out there. In fact that is the real reason behind RIM's BlackBerry success. The fact that they provided a secure way to access corporate email through the firewall is the only thing selling their sevice. (The next best thing is desktop software accessing and re-forwarding account accesses.)

Technically, MS Exchange is no longer needed. The software interface to Pocket PC Outlook is completely open. Anyone can write an application which uses it.

For a non-corporate user like myself, I'd just like to access my mail, etc, from anywhere, and maybe get some web hosting.

Check out these guys, I was thinking of getting this service;
http://www.mailsnare.net/

Its secure and its cheap.

[Jason Dunn]

Technically, MS Exchange is no longer needed. The software interface to Pocket PC Outlook is completely open. Anyone can write an application which uses it.

Interesting...can you point me towards some of these applications? I haven't seen anything that will sync PIM data to an external data source in the way I have it set up now.

For a non-corporate user like myself, I'd just like to access my mail, etc, from anywhere, and maybe get some web hosting.

Well, yeah, IMAP is the solution for email, which is what I've been using for a long time - and what I still use for my various email accounts. But IMAP can't help with calendar, contacts, or a nice Web-based interface for the whole thing.

I'm always interested in other solutions, but I don't think we're talking about the same thing... :-)

[UHF]

Jason, I haven't actually seen any apps like that, but one of the books I've read (Pocket PC Network Programming) has shown the API's. I think that the full APIs may be new for Pocket PC 2003. (Maybe it was introduced in 2002.)

The problem with trying to use such an App is that it needs another service on the internet. Those kinds of services still aren't there.

I tried OneMail. OneMail only works while syncing to your PC, however, it drops incoming mail into a new mail box (ActiveSync-Hotmail for instance). This shows that an external application and access your PIM data structures.