4smartphone.net exchange hosted service

I signed up for a 4smartphone Pro account on Wednesday. It could not have been any easier. I setup my Axim X51v by following the screen shots. I can sync via WiFi and Bluetooth/GPRS with my Nokia 6310i. See my blog on how to do this. I setup ActiveSync on Windows Mobile 5 to pull email every 10 minutes during peak periods and manually during off peak periods since I cannot use the SMS push method on my X51v.

For Outlook 2003, I just downloaded the profile and it configured the mailbox automatically. Since I had been using Outlook with a POP3 mailbox, I attached my old .pst file and copied the inbox folders I wanted to use in my new environment. The only drawback was the time it took to synchronize my 500MB of data, but that was due to Comcast's network instability. Comcast came by this morning and fixed a bad connector at the pole, things seem much faster now.

Thursday morning everything was up to date and I am a happy camper. I can use Outlook 2003 on my machine, Outlook for Web Access (OWA) on any PC or Mac, Outlook Mobile on my X51v, and Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) with the PocketPC’s Internet Explorer. It’s just great.

Another interesting Exchange feature that is available with 4smartphone.net is the server side rules. I belong to multiple beta group email threads and used client side rules in Outlook 2003 to move incoming mail to specific folders. The problem with client side rules is that if you do not have Outlook 2003 running and you check your mail on your Pocket PC or web mail you receive all the messages. Now with server side rules all incoming messages get processed by exchange, I do not see them in my inbox folder, whether I use OWA or Windows Mobile. I can still go to the appropriate folder in OWA and on the Pocket PC I can choose to synchronize it.

The Microsoft Exchange team doesn’t get enough credit for what they have accomplished with Exchange 2003. Why would you pay more for a Blackberry? I believe this is the year Microsoft will make inroads in the Smartphone market and now with hosted services like 4smartphone.net you do not need to belong to a large organization to make use of exchange.

Comments

[chaznet]

While your post promotes 4Smartphone.net, it should be pointed out that with the Exchange-2007 rollout, they have increased pricing substantially while at the same time slashing storage space limits from 2 gigs (for the Pro plan) to 1 gig. At $14 per month there's a $4 increase (40%) over previous pricing with 50% of the storage. They asked me to pay the balance of the increase, pro-rated, for the remaining 6 months of my contract. When I complained they offered to not charge me more, but shorten the time I had left on my pre-paid service; a creative way of 'charging me more'... They charged me a hefty cancellation fee when I opted not to participate in their new pricing plan. This was their explanation:

4SmartPhone has decided to move to the Exchange 2007 architecture and equipment for many reasons, and one of the most important was because we could go to a passive-active cluster server configuration in order to provide seamless failover when a cluster node is unavailable or is taken offline for maintenance. This architecture while very reliable does comes at a price. Our Microsoft Exchange 2003 architecture did not have that robustness. As for the $9.95 My Hosted Solution price we cannot match it, you get what you pay for...

Fortunately, I found another company that has worked out flawlessly for the past few months. IT-Solutions-Now ( http://www.myhostedsolution.com/ ) . Their Hosted Exchange 2007 service is $9.95 per month, with >>>unlimited<<< storage space, and contractually it's month-to-month with no fee to cancel as with 4Smartphone.

Not sure what they were referring to by 'you get what you pay for'. So far, after 3 months, I'm getting exactly the same service, at $60 less per year, with unlimited storage.

4Smartphone was a great service when they were the only-kid-on-the-block. They aren't any longer, and have lost their competetive edge...

[Anon]

I'd stay away from 4smartphone as well. My price went from $7 a month for a 1 gig mailbox to $12.95 for a 500mb mailbox. I've requested a refund, but so far their support is slow.

[Brian Ellin]

Hi:

This is Brian Ellin, Founder/CTO of Machine Solutions, LLC. We create next-generation web host automation software and tools to help web host and service provider consolidate and run their business effectively.

I have noticed that you offer Hosted Exchange and I would like to offer HMC/MPS based Hosted Exchange control panel solution to you.

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Hosted email service plan manager for easy service plan creation
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Provider control center for management of mail quota, disk quota, mail boxes, distribution lists, mail contacts, features enable/disable (like OWA, activeSync, etc)
Customer control panel for self-service. Allows customers to see billing detail, pay bills, request service, and manage subscriptions. Customer may self-manage mail boxes, distribution lists, contacts, etc.
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Company Name:
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Phone #:
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Brian Ellin
Founder/CTO
Machine Solutions, LLC 53 Oak Street, Suite 16
Hartford, CT 06106
United States


brian@machsol.com Phone: +1 813 600 5691