4SmartPhone.net
Editorial

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I failed to add in any number but instead went for <4smartphoneaccount>@4smartphone.net based on the idea of push email being around the corner.

So far it has worked to pull in the email and we're not even on push yet!

I get the dialog up every so often and I agree with WC that it does tend to pop up randomly.

OK- alls well now.

Part of the problem was me being dense- I'd forgotten that I'd done a hard reset yesterday afternoon, and not re-entered the connection settings, so A/S Exchange was wanting a dial-up instead. DOH!!

Anyway, to prevent further problems, I did another hard reset, into Corporate, then entered the connection settings before remaking the A/S partnership.

I'd already configured the PC Outlook 2003 for 4Smartphone and it was working well.

Connecting the Exec immediately popped up the Exchange configuration screen on the PC, and a mixed Exchange/Local PC partnership was created, and the Exchange sync downloaded fine, but did insist on using GPRS rather than A/S passthrough.

Since then, I'm pleased to report that Exchange sync seems to be working very well, with emails, tasks, appointments and contacts changes being downloaded quickly.

So the next task is to change my 4SP settings from POP3 polling, to mail forwarding from Spamarrest, and see how that works.

Glad it is working well! Let me know how you get on with that mail forwarding as I'm still using polling at the moment.

Well I've signed up for the free trial and have set one of my pop3 accounts to be polled by 2smartphone.

It has to be said that anyone who uses this service will be doing "despite" the terrible performance of the website, fortunately the performance of the actual service is very good indeed. The OWA is well implemented, and as OWA offers a lot better functionality than most webmail services it is almost worth the cost on it's own.

The fact that the service will give access to what are usually corporate tools, such as the forthcoming push email functionality of WM5 AKU2, into the hands of the masses has to be applauded and the basic service is very reasonably priced for this functionality.

If you're regularly on the move and don't have access to an enterprise mobility offering then 4smartphone certainly looks very appealing.

I use Outlook 2003 & webmail for work so this probably won't appeal to me in the long term but it looks like a very good service

Well for me it integrates well. I use it with SpamArrest, as that is used to filter my mail. Once the mail is on the SA server then the 4SP system polls the SA server and get the mail to the hosted account.

Once I've got it there it can be accessed by the PC, any of my PPCs and the Smartphone.

No more worries about leaving the PC on all day and it pinching the mail from SA by auto-receive meaning I can't access it from the PDA.

So.... suits me Sir

I have 3 PC's (office, home office and home multimedia) and 2 PPC's, and was using Outlook 2002 on each PC, then A/S synching office PC to PPC's.

I then used an online backup system to backup outlook.pst (among others) which I then restored to the other PC's. Clunky but functional!

When I read this review, it seemed it might be a useful alternative and so it has proved.

Despite the poor 4SP website I decided to subscribe from the outset, because that allows download of Outlook 2003, without which the system won't work offline.

An initial config glitch was sorted by 4SP within an hour of contacting CS, which is excellent, and with the PC version up & running, next step was PPC config. As admitted in my earlier post, due to an error on my part this did not initially work, but once my device was properly set up, the Exchange sync was initiated perfectly.

I now have a setup where my 4 main email accounts go to Spamarrest for filtering. SA then forwards authorised messages to 4SP from where tney are synced to all my other clients.

One thing to note on the PPC- all syncing is via GPRS, though you can do a manual send/receive via WiFi.

I suspect this is to do with IP addressing, as the servers can't cope with quick changes between the GPRS and BB ISP addresses.

But, the GPRS usage is small, and once Push services are available with the next ROM update, should be even smaller.

So, a hearty recommendation from me!

Looks like you are in a similar position to me but the other way round - as you have multiple PCs where I tend to have multiple PDAs.

Certainly does the job, one thing I've not tried yet is the OWA web access - anyone tried that out yet?

Yes- I've used it, and so has Ian. It has an interface identical to desktop Outlook, and is fast to load and update.

Not sure about the refresh though- When I was testing the PDA functionality, I had OWA open on the PC, and new messages only appeared after doing a page reload.

Right, will play nicely then methinks!

I've used OWA at work for a while so the 1st thing I checked was how well it had been implemented here and as mentioned previously it seems pretty good, SSL present & correct.

However, as Neil says, the auto update doesn't appear to be working, having to hit refresh continually is a pain. My work OWA works just like the client notifying me when mail arrives, odd!