My Digital Life

Exchange Tasks and the iPhone – Part 1

One of the many advantages of the iPhone is the inclusion of Exchange ActiveSync which allows email, contacts and calendar items to be pushed to the device. Although they are licensing ActiveSync from Microsoft, it seems that Apple is devoting little time to fully implement the ActiveSync functionality. One of the big holes is the lack of support for tasks. This does not seem to be an affront to Microsoft, the base iPhone OS has no support whatsoever for tasks. Maybe Apple does not believe in task management, hard to believe but here we are at OS 3.0 and users have to rely on third parties to provide any kind of task support on the iPhone.

If you search for "task" at AppShopper, the results include 690 applications with some sort of task functionality. Out of those I found three which synchronize directly with Exchange. TaskData, Tasks'n Notes, and TaskTask. Back in January, I plunked down $12.99 for TaskData. I had high hopes but even with the latest version 3, I have never been able to get it to work consistently with my GoDaddy Hosted Exchange account and for the price the support has been lackluster. Even though the application looks good, it sounds like the developer does not fully understand how to use the Exchange web services. I would recommend staying away from TaskData, especially for the price. Yesterday, I decided to try TaskTask, it is a new Exchange task application and for now is selling for $1.99. I was pleasantly surprised, the configuration uses the Exchange Autodiscover feature (worked with GoDaddy) and although the functionality is basic the synchronization is fast and so far it is working consistently. The only missing functionality I have found is the inability to set reminder times which I believe is an iPhone OS issue.

Hopefully that will come in time, but I wanted to explore the possibility of having task reminders. I found a somewhat convoluted solution which works with Apple's alert push model. I will describe the solution in part 2.

GoDaddy Hosted Exchange - Forwarding to multiple email addresses

The problem: I use several alias email addresses to forward emails to myself and my wife. For example when I make a travel reservations I use an email alias called travel@mydomain.com to receive the confirmation. This eliminates the need for me to manually forward the confirmation to my wife. The problem with the GoDaddy Hosted Exchange service is that their Microsoft Email Manager Email Forward feature only allows you to forward to one email address. With GoDaddy's standard SMTP email service, you can forward to multiple addresses.

The resolution: GoDaddy's Hosted Exchange Service does allow you to create Exchange Server rules which can be executed when email arrives in your inbox. Here are the steps I use:

1. Create forward using GoDaddy's Microsoft Email manager under Email Forwards. The display name is the alias email address you want to use and the forward to address is your email address.
2. In Oultook 2007, go to Tools/Rules and Alerts.
3. Under the E-Mail Rules tab, click on New Rule.
4. Under the Start from Blank Rule section, click on Check messages when they arrive.
5. Click Next.
6. Select the check box next to sent to people or distribution list.
7. Click on the hyperlinked people or distribution list (in rule at bottom)
8. Select (double click) the email alias you created in the GoDaddy Microsoft Email manager (step 1). You may have to select the Global Address List under Address Book to view the email aliases.
9. Click OK.
10. Click Next.
11. Select the check box next to redirect it to people or distribution list.
12. Click on the hyperlinked people or distribution list (in rule at bottom).
13. Select (double click) the email address you want the email forwarded to.
14. Click Finish.
15. Click OK.

Now every time an email comes from an alias address you created in the GoDaddy Microsoft Email manager (step 1), it will automatically be forwarded to the other individuals you specified in the redirect step 11/12. These rules will run even when you are not signed in to your email account.

GoDaddy Hosted Exchange service - 2 weeks later

Two weeks after switching to GoDaddy's Microsoft email service, that is what they call their Hosted Exchange sevice which I think confuses people, I am very satisfied with the service. The iPhone and AT&T networks is working well with push email with messages arriving almost simultaneously with those in Outlook 2007.

My friends and colleagues are now starting to switch. The only issues so far have been:

1. 4smartphone required an entry in the hosts file to make Exchange's autodiscover feature work. That entry must be deleted.
2. We found one PC which is unable to find or connect to GoDaddy's Exchange server and are currently thinking that is PC related since we have been able to successfully create profiles for the same account on 2 other PCs. I will update when we find the issue.
3. Calendar items with invitees created under the 4smartphone account sometimes are not modifiable. Exchange tells you that you are not the owner. Updating your organizer email address in the item solves the problem.

In conclusion, the switch has been seamless and it was worth it from cost standpoint and better integration with my domain name DNS.

GoDaddy - Hosted Exchange Providers - Part 3

Wednesday, I wrote about creating the organization and mailbox on the GoDaddy server, today I will describe how to move your mailbox from your current Hosted Exchange provider (in my case 4smartphone.net) to GoDaddy's Hosted Exchange service.

This process will also work if you use POP3 or IMAP email from other services. The key assumption is that you are already using Outlook 2003 or 2007.

Migrating your email:

Now that you have setup the organization and mailbox, the email should start flowing to GoDaddy servers within 20 minutes, although it may take up to 24 hours for the change to fully propagate across the Internet. You will want to check your old email account using web based access like Outlook for Web Access (OWA).

The first part of the process is to export your mailbox. You may want to clean up your mailbox by emptying the deleted and junk mail folders. You can also archive mail to another file on your hard disk by going to File / Archive (Microsoft article on Archiving).

To Export your mailbox, open Outlook (connected to your previous email service), then follow these steps:

1. Go to File / Import and Export.
2. Highlight Export to a file
3. Click Next
4. Highlight Personal Folder File (.pst)
5. Click Next
6. Highlight Mailbox - nameofmailbox
7. Check Include subfolders
8. Click Next
9. The default name of the export file is backup.pst, there is no need to change this
10. The default option is Replace duplicates with items exported, there is no need to change this
11. Click Finish
12. You will then be prompted for a password if you would like to password protect the backup. This is up to you. If you enter a password, you will be prompted for it on the import.

The export begins, based on the size of your mailbox and PC configuration, it could take a while (tough to predict but my 500MB mailbox took about 20 minutes).

The second part of the process is to create a new Outlook profile which will link you to GoDaddy's Exchange server.

To create a new Outlook profile:

1. Close Outlook
2. Go to Start / right click on Outlook / select properties
3. Click on Show Profiles
4. Click on Add
5. Type in a new profile name (I used GoDaddy)
6. Click OK
7. Type your Name, the GoDaddy mailbox email address you setup, and your password
8. Click Next
9. The Outlook 2007/Exchange 2007 autodiscover process will validate your account and start the mailbox creation process
10. Once the validation process is complete, a sign on window will appear.
11. Enter your password / Click OK
12. Outlook should start up, if it does not just go to Start / Outlook

At this point Outlook should be running and you should have an empty mailbox. If you receive a lot of email you may see email starting to flow into you inbox.

The third part of the process is to import your old mailbox.

1. Go to File / Import and Export
2. Highlight Import from another program or file
3. Click Next
4. Scroll down and highlight Personal Folder File (.pst)
5. Click Next
6. It should have found the backup.pst file you created in the first part of the process (if not click on Browse to select the file you created)
7. Select Replace duplicates with items imported
8. Click Next
9. Highlight the mailbox (top level)
10. Select Include subfolders (if it is not already checked)
11. Select Import items  into the same folder in: (your GoDaddy mailbox name should be in the drop down box, if not select it)
12. Click Finish
13. The import will start (if you added a password to the export file in part 1, you will be prompted to enter it)

Depending on your broadband upload speed the import process could take over an hour.

When the import is complete you should be set to go. If you need to setup Outlook for this mailbox on other computers, all you need to do in create the profile in part 2 above. No need to export or import, since your mail is now in Exchange it will download automatically to Outlook.

GoDaddy - Hosted Exchange Providers - Part 2

Yesterday, I posted my reasons for switching to GoDaddy's Hosted Exchange service, today I will describe the organization/mailbox setup process I used.

The major assumption for this part of the setup is that my domain name is registered with GoDaddy. If you do not own a domain, I strongly suggest purchasing one. A domain is like a phone number. It can follow you wherever you go. You can switch from one email service to another without having to worry about losing emails or informing all of your contacts about the switch.

GoDaddy organization/mailbox setup:

I purchased the service on Sunday and even though I had completed my migration on Monday I received an automated call from GoDaddy checking in with to see if I needed any migration support. This is a very nice touch...

Once you have purchased the Microsoft Email Plan (I chose the Outlook with Mobile plan for 1 year), there 2 main steps to setup the account on GoDaddy's server:

• Create the organization, this creates an Exchange account in which all of your mailboxes will reside. All of the mailboxes under one organization will be able to share email items, contacts, calendars, and tasks as long as the mailbox owner gives permission. GoDaddy has basic instructions to set up organization under help but assuming your domain name is registered at GoDaddy, here are a couple of tips which may not be obvious to the first time user:

1. Enter the domain name registered on GoDaddy.

2. Make sure you click on the update Update MX record and Fix DNS button. The update MX record button redirects the mail associated with your domain name to GoDaddy's Exchange server. The Fix DNS button creates two DNS entries, one for Outlook for Web Access (OWA) as owa.yourdomainname and one for the autodiscover process in Outlook 2007 to simplify setup on your PC.

• Create your mailbox, by entering  the email address you want to use and the amount of space to associate to the mailbox. For single mailboxes not part of a group plan enter 2048.

When you are ready to add another mailbox to your organization, all you need to do is purchase another Microsoft Email Plan and add another mailbox. There you will be prompted to select the Microsoft Email Plan you just purchased.

Part 3 migrating your mailbox data

GoDaddy - Hosted Exchange Providers - Part 1

Microsoft's Exchange email system is the corporate de-facto standard. The Outlook integration is wonderful and Outlook 2007 provides many benefits when used with Exchange 2007. Exchange 2007 provides Outlook Web Access which provides web based access and mimics the desktop Outlook, albeit with less functionality. Mobile device access with ActiveSync push email (Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone/Touch, Nokia Symbian, etc.) is also integrated. Exchange (no need to buy anything extra like a Blackberry server). Exchange provides the ecosystem you need to help manage your daily life all in one place from just about any web enable device. In addition it allows you to share email folders, calendars, contacts and task with other individuals using the same Exchange server. Exchange was designed for larger corporation but the little publicized Hosted Exchange program allows individuals and small businesses access to the same functionality enjoyed by larger corporation without the need to own servers or software licenses. Hosted Exchange services work well with the iPhone/iTouch 2.x software, although Apple has a ways to go to implement all of the Exchange ActiveSync functionality.

I have been using 4smartsphone as my Hosted Exchange provider since 2005 and have been very satisfied with their service. My only complaint is that they do not provide the ability to create aliases or contacts that I could use as distribution lists for emails which need to be received by my wife and I. This meant that the domain names I had registered on GoDaddy needed to use GoDaddy's email system so I could create forwarding email aliases. The disadvantage of using this technique is that all emails are funneled through GoDaddy's servers before being delivered to 4smartphone's Exchange server. Not that this is a big deal but technically it adds another point of failure. An important item to note; If I had not wanted the alias forwarding functionality I could have created a DNS MX record on GoDaddy to point my email directly to 4smarthphone.

This last weekend, I was renewing the subscription on one of my domains names when I noticed that GoDaddy was now offering Microsoft Hosted Exchange services (they sell it as Microsoft email). Since they provide the alias forwarding functionality on the vanilla email services, I thought they might do the same with the Exchange service. I found that they did, but was that enough for me to go through the pain of switching. When I checked out the pricing it, the decision became a no brainier. I currently pay $11.95 per month to 4smartphone per 500MB mailbox (I have 2, my wife and I). That totals to $286.80 per year for the both of us. GoDaddy is offering a 2GB mailbox with mobile access for $97.09 per year. For the the two of us that comes to $194.18, a savings of $92.62 per year.

The yearly price is less than the $99 per year retail pricing of Apple's MobileMe which mimics much of basic Exchange functionality, but has been froth with problems.

If you don't own Office 2007 with Outlook, another great feature included in the Hosted Exchange service is a license of Outlook 2007 or Entourage with each mailbox.

Part 2