I am planning to get the new iPhone and had thought Mobile Me owuld be the perfect (easy) push solution to syn my office and home PCs (both running XP with Outlook 2003 for mail and calendar) and the iPhone. Seems that will not work, since MobileMe only pushes @me.com addresses, and I want o keeep and use my business email addresses.

Will an exchange server such as MailStreet work? Any simpler services? It is just me with one phone and two PCs.

Thanks.

Well I’ve been looking at hosted mail recently.

The current options (for me) are:
Sherweb
SimplyMailSolutions
Mail2Web
4smartphone

My problem is that I’ve owned my own domain for a while, and when registering on sites I use the format “sitename@mydomain.com”. However MOST exchange hosting companies do not allow the catch-all option. They will allow you to add multiple aliases, but for me this would be hugely time consuming!

However I am seeing the huge benefits in having a hosted exchange service, purely from the instant mail on my smartphone, and having the contacts and calendar all constantly up to date in one place.

Those of you who use ES, what’s your solution for file sync? Do you just sync files with your PC every so often?

Ok guys, you convinced me. I just signed up at sherweb.com. I’m curious if James is right and I will be more productive at once .

I like Exchange so much that I host my own Exchange Server for personal use.

Having desktop and web access (and now Mobile access– yes, I just caved in and bought my first cellphone ever, a Sprint Mogul) to the same set of data– email, calendar, tasks, and notes– is a lifesaver.

If you’re currently using Outlook with a PST file for POP3 accounts, you can easily import that data into a hosted exchange setup and then ditch the desktop-only PST file (that probably hasn’t been backed up in ages, if ever). This includes personal folders.

JK, you’re definitely right– Exchange is definitely the way to go. The only negative is the one Matt mentioned above that Outlook and WM phones only support one Exchange account at a time. So if you use it at work, you have to make a decision on which you want to use through ActiveSync’s DirectPush or which you want to use through IMAP4 (and not have access to more than email).

In my case, I made the decision that it’s a personal phone, so work email is just an “extra”. If work wants to pay for the phone, I’ll gladly switch that, lol.

Oh, thank god for this posting! I’ve been playfully arguing with my good friend Dan over the necessity of Exchange. I feel vindicated! And, of course that’s because I agree with all of your points, James. My device menagerie, a bit smaller than yours, also spans a few OSs.

Oh, and just in case anybody’s interested, I use sherweb.com. They’re a smaller company, the prices are decent and the customer service is fantastic.

Don’t that the other big benefit of Exchange is OWA which allows you to access your email wherever you’ve got access to Internet Explorer.

Hi James,

Don’t forget you can use hosted Exchange servers with Linux desktops (via Exchange Connector for Evolution), PalmOS (Versamail), an awful lot of phones (Dataviz Roadsync) and even natively on some Motorola phones, including the lovelies A1200, ROKR E6, ROKR Z6 and RAZR2 V8 (MOTOSYNC).

And yes, having an hosted mail solution (I use an Zimbra hosted server with SimplyMailSolutions.com) is a must if you need to take your email seriously

Now if only Outlook would allow more that ONE Exchange account…. Without having to set up different profiles. One good thing about pop, it that I have 1 exchange account and 3 POP accounts all coming in to the same profile.

I use a hosted Yahoo server. All my contacts and mail are also hosted and backed up centrally, I have excellent spam control, large amount of storage, and the service works on most of my devices. (Yahoo Go for syncing contacts onto phones.) $20/yr! Work also hosts Exchange for me, so I’ve got that too.

Thanks James.

Port 80 is our Trojan horse!

S.

Will a Microsoft Exchange use the existing set of personal folders?

I have time and billing software that has a conduit that allows for syncing between that proprietary calendar and Outlook (2003). This works fairly well. Entries made in either calendar, show up on the other. When I sync with my BlackBerry, appointments, contacts (no email), also are sent to the BB. Appointments created on the BB are synced with Outlook and then put in my time and billing software calendar.

The problem is that when I signed up for, and tried to set up a BB Enterprise server, the company created their own calendar, and my time and billing software could not see it. No appointments or contacts were being synced through the conduit. I had an exchange server, but no integration with the program I need the most. I gave up.

Do you know if simply a MS Exchange Server would use my existing Outlook calendar? Or do all exchange servers use their own calendar?

I d/n care about email delivery, since I seem to get my emails within a few minutes, even just using BIS

Steve, most services interact with the Server via HTTP so it should be ok.

Hi James

Does it all work over port 80? Many people are being offered unlimited ‘Internet’ access in Europe that is turning out to be port 80 only. (HTTP) Can those people get the services in this restricted mobile environment?

Generally I would advise to stay with a service that is port 80 only to assist mobility between service providers and countries.

Regards
Steve.

Gilson, I use MailStreet and have for over 6 years. I am very happy with them but they are expensive and really geared more for small business use. Kevin uses 4smartphone and is happy with them the last I asked about it.

JK,
I’ve been using a free Exchange account at mail2web. It works fine, but I’m ready to go for a more definitive solution. Where do you host your account? Sherweb seems to be a nice option…
Regards,

Gilson