What is the difference between 4smartphone and 1and1?

[Sgt_Strider]

4smartphone's $3.99 plan is useless for me since I have to make all the changes via OWA and can't do it from Outlook 2003. I'm just curious, what is the difference between 4smartphone's $6.99 plan and 1and1's $6.99 plan? It seems very similar to me.

[Silver5]

It seems that 1and1 offers a few extras regarding domains that are not available on ANY plan from 4smartphone. This makes sense since 1and1 does website hosting and 4smartphone does not. Also, 1and1 says they allow catch-all email addresses, which offer you the ability to have any email sent to the wrong email address on your domain to be filtered back to you at your address, as I understand it. This is really nice in the event that someone accidentally skips a letter/number/symbol in writing your email address. You still get the message.

I am using 4smartphone.com right now. If I ever decide to get my own domain I'll probably use 1and1 but 4smartphone seems to be very reliable and aside from the advantages of having your own domain with the same company, it is just as feature rich as 1and1.

[Underwater Mike]

I use 1and1 hosting for several domains, and signed up last THU for the Exchange hosting too. I canceled the service 3 hours later.

I spoke with two support reps and neither one could tell me how to get my account set up, how to forward my other (POP) accounts to my Exchange account and then reply with the correct email addy noted, or how to sync my PPC. As much as I'd like to consolidate hosting, I am now considering 4smartphone.

Silver5, what were the extra things that 1and1 could do?

[Underwater Mike]

Does anyone here currently use 1and1 for hosted Exchange? Does their push email work?

[Underwater Mike]

After four attempts at getting pre-purchase information -- which my earlier conclusions about the level of service -- I finally got some answers from 1and1. (BTW, this was going to be the second time I gave 1and1 a chance.) Their service, unlike 4smartphone, includes group folder functionality in the $6.99 package. But, the 1and1 service does not include push email, only ActiveStink. Since that is the biggest reason I need hosted service, I guess I'll go with 4smartphone.

Using the affiliate link, of course! :wink:

[emmfan]

I had been using 1&1 for a couple of years, but after upgrading to a phone edition device and having trouble with their direct-push (it actually worked for about a month) and no effective support whatsoever, I am now trying out 4 smartphone.

1&1 actually does allow you to modify the sender e-mail address, but their whole setup process is rather cumbersome and not user-friendly. They have 24-hour telephone customer support, but as mentioned before, this has been out-sourced and is not very helpful, especially for hosted exchange which tends to be rather complex and not something you can just run down a checklist to figure out. In the end, I was never able to get direct-push to work again.

From my brief experience with 4smartphone, here are my thoughts. When you first sign-up for hosted exchange, you actually input your sender address as your username, and then they provide you with a wizard as to how you want your e-mail retrieved into your exchange account whether by forwarding, mx record or pop retrieval. 4smartphone's customer service is all via e-mail where they say they will respond within 24 hours, but I received most responses within 2 hours, and most even less.

At this point, I have my work computer all setup with 4smartphone's hosted exchange (using the downloadable profile setup file), and my pda phone is working with direct-push (with a few dropped connections, so have to keep an eye on that). I will try setting up my home computer with manual settings later tonight.