4SmartPhone.net Offering Free Licensed Copies Of Outlook 2007

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2007/03/get_outook_2007.html' target='_blank'>http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkonthe...utook_2007.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Not sure when they updated it, but 4Smartphone.net now offers a licensed download of Outlook 2007 with their top two hosted Exchange plans. What this means is: for $84 annually (the Professional plan), you get a hosted Exchange service, direct push e-mail support, 1 GB of storage capacity for your mail, nightly backups and Outlook 2007 included."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/hisham-20070403-4smartphone.net.jpg" /><br /><br />You won't see this on their service plan features page, but <a href=">4smartphone.net</a> registered users under the Professional and Enterprise plans have access to a fully licensed copy of Outlook 2007. I'd originally hesitated to post this as there appears to have been a service outage of sorts a couple of weeks ago (read the comments in the link), but 4smartphone.net do have a decent service reputation, and this kind of deal is awfully tempting. If you aren't on a hosted Exchange service already, would this deal tempt you?

[wonkman]

I know I may be a little naive to expect something for free, but shouldn't this read ".... free Outlook 2007 with hosted plan? I almost sprained my wrist clicking on this from an RSS feed.

[Tony Rylow]

I subscribed to 4smartphone for about a year, just switched off in January. In that time, I had only one issue with service. It was the day after I signed up, email was very slow to get pushed to me.
During that time, I had a hard time contacting support. My plan indicated there was phone support available. When I called, their attitude and response was less than professional. They sounded angry that I called, suggested that I wait until it started working again, and try back in a couple days.

[Underwater Mike]

I've used them for about a year as well, and have a couple technical issues which haven't been resolved. One is that, unlike my Exchange account at work, I can't get Outlook to remember my 4smarphone password between sessions. The other is some obscure error on the Exchange server which they tell me to ignore but which generates an error message at every sync. In both cases, they're aware of the problem but can't provide a workable solution.

I also find the connection to be slow. I have 15mbit downstream, and 4smartphone is the only service I have issues with. I've been thinking about switching to 1and1 since they appear to have greater capacity.

Lastly, I appreciate the announcement here, but I'm disappointed that I didn't find out about this from the company itself. You'd think that they'd want to ensure that their existing customers knew about a deal like this.

:?

[ScottC]

I hope that this means they'll be moving to the new exchange versions as well soon. I can't wait to get html email working on my device.

I agree with the criticism on their support, every now and then they'll go down and there is no way of know why, or when it'll be resolved.

A simple network status page would help so much.

[Majestic]

For all who don't know, the company just went through a 44 hour outage with little to no explanation until AFTER it was over. They made no attempts other than a simply and uninformative post on their homepage saying they were having a problem and were working on it. They never even updated that. No emails were answered. No phone calls returned.

I'm still with them because my initial move to mail2web showed messages being delivered a full 10 minutes slower than 4smartphone and mail2web couldn't explain why. When I find a comparable host that has phone support and Exchange 2007, I'll consider switching to it.

For now I gamble on 4smartphone not crashing again. Shiver!

[Silver5]

I have not experienced any of these issues with 4smartphone. My service has been very reliable since December of 2005 and synchronizing has been very easy and not slow at all. However, every time I read about someone's issues with their service it makes me consider moving to 1and1.com. I had considered this company initially but decided to go with 4smartphone and have been pleased. If the problems some people are commenting about in relation to 4smartphone continue I will be making a change though.

A deal such as Outlook 2007 would tempt me if I were not already with their service. I will probably download it soon to give it a try, since it is included with my services, but it won't be enough to keep me as a customer if they don't keep their servers working more reliably. Redundancy might cost a bit but I'm sure it would be worth it...instead of chancing a loss of everything.

[Marty1781]

I've had 4smartphone for a year now and am quite pleased with their service. For whatever reason, I was not affected by their recent outage. They always respond to my emails within 24 hours and are quite helpful on the phone (although I had to dig around to find their phone number on their website). I've emailed them with several small requests over this past year (change my display name, whitelist my account from their spam filter, etc) and they have been very accomodating. Its definitely very alarming to know they were down for 44 hours but as long as these issues continue not to affect me, I plan on sticking with them.

[Bacco]

I went through 2 outages with 4smartphone over the past 2 months.

I just switched to Sherweb...great service. Fast delivery of the email and a live person that you can speak with if you have issues. They also offer Outlook 2007 for hosted accounts as well as a SharePoint portal for $8.95 a month.

EDIT: Oh, the storage space is 1.25 GB as well as fully configurable virus/spam protection through Barracuda.

[aussienick]

mail2web offer Outlook 2007 as part of their Proffesional Exchange program. You can sign up for their free push service and that gives you acces to OWA and works great! :D

[Underwater Mike]

Where did you download this from? I can't find it on the site, and the FAQ says they support only Outlook 2003.

[ctmagnus]

Sign in to their site and the link is towards the bottom of your account page.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I can't find it on the site, and the FAQ says they support only Outlook 2003.

You have to sign up for their Professional or Enterprise before you can get access to it.

[HaraldB]

I was a customer for one single year. Support was non exsistent, so all issues I had to solve by myself.

I started with the free trial but when I went on and paid for a full year, they deducted the free 14 days of trial.

Overall I am not impressed with 4smartphone...

[brianchris]

First of all, I've been a hosted exchange customer of 1and1's for over a year, and have been extremely pleased with them. No such outages, fairly responsive tech support, and $6.99 per month for 1GB of storage and Outlook 2003. To be honest, I don't know why more people aren't with them.

Second, correct me if I'm wrong, but the main way these various hosted exchange providers could offer Outlook 2007 is if they were running, or at least licensed for, Exchange 2007. Which means, if a provider is offering the Outlook 2007 client, then they have at least purchased Exchange 2007, with plans to be running it soon, if they aren't already.

The Outlook 2007 offer would be appealing for me, except for the fact I'm already running Office 2007 Enterprise on three computers of mine, so I've already got Outlook 2007. Now, I'm considering a Hosted Groove solution.

[floepie]

I have never tried other services other than 4smartphone Pro. I don't think I've experienced any outages before, but what I cannot understand is why it takes SO LONG from the time I start Outlook (client) to update the Inbox.

First, I usually have to wait about 15-30 seconds for the login prompt. After the logon, the inbox won't be updated for another full minute or so, often much longer. I'm not sure whether to fault Outlook or the Exchange Server.

Any ideas?

[Underwater Mike]

I have the Pro account and still couldn't find it last night. I'll try again when I get home today.

I can't find it on the site, and the FAQ says they support only Outlook 2003.

You have to sign up for their Professional or Enterprise before you can get access to it.

[beq]

Bacco are you sure that Sherweb.com offers Outlook 2007, because their website only lists Outlook 2003 (like with 4smartphone.net).

brianchris, do you know when (or if) 1and1.com will offer Outlook 2007? I'm currently subscribed to them as well, but their control panel still only offers Outlook 2003 for download.

Has any of these providers actually upgraded to Exchange 2007 yet (like Intermedia.net, which is more expensive)?? I like the new enhanced Outlook Web Access. Also, Intermedia claims that Microsoft now recommends 2GB storage for hosted Exchange 2007 mailboxes, supposedly because searches are a lot faster. Will any of the providers mentioned here jump to 2GB, or at least offer cheaper storage upgrade options? After all, I suspect storage on the consumer end will become a non-issue after Yahoo starts providing unlimited mail storage for all Yahoo Mail accounts next month.

On their 10-mailbox-and-up plans, Intermedia adds 2GB storage for each mailbox, and the storage is pooled so that you can allocate over 2GB for some mailboxes and less storage for other mailboxes. This would be great because I have a family member constantly running out of storage (he has to archive items older than 3 weeks just to stay under the 1GB that 1and1 Exchange provides), whereas other family members stay within a few hundred MB's without ever having to archive anything.

Would be great, except that my family only uses 4-5 mailboxes, not 10! For 3-9 mailboxes, Intermedia only adds 500MB per mailbox, which is a step backward :( So what's making me stay away from Intermedia is the 500MB storage, no Exchange Server ActiveSync for free, and higher $11.95/month per mailbox price.

[brianchris]

brianchris, do you know when (or if) 1and1.com will offer Outlook 2007? I'm currently subscribed to them as well, but their control panel still only offers Outlook 2003 for download.

I have no such inside information. I only stated a hosted exchange provider that offers Outlook 2007 client has LIKELY purchased Exchange 2007, if not installed it. 1and1 may never go to Exchange 2007, but all hosted Exchange Providers should upgrade to stay competitive.

Personally, I'd love it if 1and1 were on Exchange 2007, but I must admit, the fact they're not yet is not a reason for me switch at this time (it may become a reason over time).

[beq]

Thanks, I'm in the same boat as you.

I wrote to 1and1 tech support, and they said that they have not heard anything from the admin department about any plans to upgrade to 2007, nor about increasing the 1GB mailbox storage...

[sparkythoughts]

A friend of mine is a 4smartphone Express customer and clicked the button to upgrade to Pro but changed his mind and never completed the paypal info.

Meanwhile his profile shows the upgrade as pending, waiting payment but he is able to download Outlook 2007 and has been given an activation code.

That's what I call free! :wink:

[ScottC]

http://www.4smartphone.net/ServicePlans.aspx

I see that they have discontinued their express membership. I guess this will be my last year with them...

[ctmagnus]

http://www.4smartphone.net/ServicePlans.aspx

I see that they have discontinued their express membership. I guess this will be my last year with them...

:confused totally: Xpress plan is still there.

[ScottC]

http://www.4smartphone.net/ServicePlans.aspx

I see that they have discontinued their express membership. I guess this will be my last year with them...

:confused totally: Xpress plan is still there.

Read again, pay attention to the bottom of the list, with the prices ;)

It says "service discontinued" :(

[ctmagnus]

Read again, pay attention to the bottom of the list, with the prices ;)

It says "service discontinued" :(

Whoops, sorry. :oops: In Firefox, that row of the table is shifted way over to the right and off of my browser window. I did not notice that part.

[ScottC]

Read again, pay attention to the bottom of the list, with the prices ;)

It says "service discontinued" :(

Whoops, sorry. :oops: In Firefox, that row of the table is shifted way over to the right and off of my browser window. I did not notice that part.

Yeah, I had the same, had to view it in IE just to be sure I wasn't reading it wrong :(

Ah well, plenty of other mail providers out there so once my year is up I'll just pick a new one. Shame really, since they were pretty decent.

[developerzero]

I just wanted to post and let everyone know something I've learned about 1and1.com's Exchange hosting. While you don't get Outlook 2007 free with the service (they are still only giving subscribers a copy of 2003), you can use your own version of 2007 with it: the hosting company does not need to be running Exchange Server 2007 for you to use Outlook 2007. However, it is not officially supported, but it will work if you know how to configure it.

One other thing to note: If you are also running Vista, there were a couple of changes made to the way Mail works (i.e. the way "Mail" works in the Control Panel).

Specifically, the changes you need to manually configure the exchange server connection, and you have to make the following changes to 1and1's setup process (see http://faq.1and1.com/ms_exchange/ms_exchange_account/ms_outlook_2003_setup/19.html) are:
Step 5) Use ntxbeus06.exchange.xchg for the Exchange Server, instead of ntxbeus01 or ntxbeus02
Step 9 &amp; 10) (1)I always select the "Basic Authentication" thing first and (2) there is no "Mutually authenticate the session when connecting with SSL" option on the page anymore. Instead, you need to have "Only connect to proxy servers that have this principle name in their certificate" checked. It should look like this:
http://developerzero.net/Microsot%20Exchange%20Proxy%20Settings%20for%201and1%20Echange%20Server.jpg

I hope that this helps anyone else who has been having problems with Vista &amp; 1and1 Exchange Server hosting. If you have any questions with this, or any problems, just leave or message, or e-mail me directly.

I've had their service for over a year now, and I'm loving it. It is so great being able to synchronize my data over the internet, and having access to it from anywhere I can access the internet. The only thing I don't like is the junk mail filter doesn't work too well, and they limit the size of your block list, so I end up doing all my filtering using the desktop version of outlook. In addition, they REALLY limit the number of Rules you can have (which is kinda annoying).But other than these quirks, I really love the service. $7 a month (charged every three months), for 1gb storage (which I really hope they upgrade), OWA, OMA, and more. Check here for a complete list:
http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/MailExchange;jsessionid=E795C0857E9193971FB6C512DAB0B3AE.TC60b?__frame=_top&amp;__lf=Static

-DeveloperZero

[onlydarksets]

I have never tried other services other than 4smartphone Pro. I don't think I've experienced any outages before, but what I cannot understand is why it takes SO LONG from the time I start Outlook (client) to update the Inbox.

First, I usually have to wait about 15-30 seconds for the login prompt. After the logon, the inbox won't be updated for another full minute or so, often much longer. I'm not sure whether to fault Outlook or the Exchange Server.

Any ideas?

Are you by any chance using OpenDNS? I had that same problem on 1and1 and 4smartphone after switching my router to use OpenDNS - loading up took FOREVER. Switching it back to my ISP's DNS servers solved the problem, and now it's almost instantaneous.

[beq]

Well I asked Sherweb and they said that for the same price (currently $8.95/month for 1.25 GB):

Exchange 2007 will be offered within the next months. We will upgrade all our clients with 3 gb disk space.
I'd also asked if they pool/aggregate mailbox storage space in a group account (so that some mailboxes can use more space while other mailboxes use less). They said they can do that for larger groups but not with only the 5 mailboxes that I would need for my family.


As for 4SmartPhone:

We are currently testing Exchange 2007 and we are planning on deploying it during the second quarter of this year, and for general commercial availability in Q3.

Like 1and1, 4SmartPhone Professional Plan is currently $6.99/month for 1 GB. But they said only the $9.99/month Enterprise Plan is able to pool/aggregate mailbox storage space for a group account.


P.S. 1and1 tech support unfortunately has not heard anything about Exchange 2007 upgrade plans.

[NColburn94]

a free copy of outlook is a great deal. the company we use, Intermedia, gives free copies of outlook as well. free outlook is a pretty good deal when you consider that otherwise you would have to buy a copy for each of your users and they run about $100 a piece.