[vinmontRD]

Originally Posted by moneyandmoremoney

Will my carrier charge me for the data received/sent in regards to the emails sent and received?

Excellent question -- and my guess is that your carrier will still be charging you for data, as it it their network over which you must communicate with any back-end BES.

That's part of my concern as well. I've been a BES and BIS user, and currently have BIS via T-Mobile. If I were to sign on for this, I'd have the benefit of the extra features that BES offers (e.g., syncing calendar, phone book and tasks, OWA), but I can't imagine having this work unless I still pay T-Mobile for a BIS/Internet data plan.

I'm currently using Google Sync and Google Calendar (via Google Docs) to sync my Outlook calendar (on two workstations and a laptop) to my Blackberry, and it seems to work quite well. Also exploring Funambol (which is finally maturing) and services that make use of Funambol to potentially get more features than Google Sync offers, and it looks pretty promising. With this, I also don't risk having security policies imposed on my Blackberry by a 3rd party BES administrator over whom I have no control. I don't mean to suggest anything inappropriate might happen, but I personally prefer to cede as little control and risk as possible within the constraints of getting the services I need.

Also: re OWA - I'm using the IMAP interface with my mail provider (Google Apps / GMail), which gives me webmail and web calendar. Different feature set than OWA, but I haven't been slowed down by it yet. Also, after many years of being dependent on Outlook, I'm finding less and less to love about it. Under Vista, Outlook with an IMAP server is an embarassment, whereas Thunderbird performs beautifully with IMAP.

I'm realizing that, after 25+ years in IT, it's valuable to reevaluate assumptions about the environment and tools I'm using. I know this has dragged off-topic, and I apologize for that. I guess it's all a long way of my saying, "Thanks, but I don't see the value in switching to 3rd party BES right now". I appreciate the offer and wish you well, and I'm sure this will be a boon for many others. Just not right for me.

- Jon

[wu-wei]

I haven't been able to get Outlook to talk to the hosted exchange yet, but I'm seeing all kinds of authentication stuff in my firewall logs, so I'm fairly certain it's an issue on my end. Just haven't had time to sort it.

Wireless sync is wonderful. It's nice not to have to kludge together various syncs across various servers to get all my goodies backed up and up to date.

Activation process was smooth, and OWA is performing as expected.

[glenng]

Hi Guys,

Just want to let you know that Geoff Turner at syncmemobile.com is awesome! He setup my account up super quick, and has been so responsive in dealing with my issues (quickly too). Some of the best support I have seen in years. The whole process is really easy too. I'm already a big fan of the way these guys handle business. Definately check this service and company out.

Regards,

Glenn

p.s. on my Sprint BB with BIS, the BES works too.

[searly]

Originally Posted by glenng

Hi Guys,

Just want to let you know that Geoff Turner at syncmemobile.com is awesome! He setup my account up super quick, and has been so responsive in dealing with my issues (quickly too). Some of the best support I have seen in years. The whole process is really easy too. I'm already a big fan of the way these guys handle business. Definately check this service and company out.

Regards,

Glenn

p.s. on my Sprint BB with BIS, the BES works too.

I have to agree with glenng here... I have had some issues with set up (started with Entourage and now moving to Outlook again), however, I can tell you that it is complete user error (me be the user). I have exchanged numerous emails with Geoff and even a couple phone calls. I even talked to him on his off time while he was in a social environment and not in front of his computer. He was still able to take the time to walk me through a couple of issues. He was even able to remember my username and password during the phone call while he was out and about on the town! The service is great and customer service is even better. Although I have had some issues on my laptop, the OTA syncing is working on my blackberry. Once I get the laptop stuff figured out I will be moving smoothly.

If you get a chance to jump on board for the beta, I highly recommend it. If you were not able to get in the beta, I highly recommend purchasing the service. It has made my traveling life much easier!

[shadedworld]

Hi there,

Just like the other folks I did have some initial concerns and Geoff with Syncmemobile support was able to help me through them by working around my schedule.

I highly recommend this service, especially with the Blackberry!

-Justin

[paulbblc]

**Moved to Aftermarket Software forum**

[wu-wei]

I just got off the phone with Geoff - customer support from this company is outstanding.

I'm very confident in the way things are handled from a security perspective, and the responsiveness to my initial setup issues was phenomenal. I should be clear - I did not have any technical issues. SyncMeMobile requires you to call in for any Outlook activations (a nice touch) and I simply didn't have the time to make the call (for about a week and a half).

Once I got ten minutes freed up, Geoff walked me through everything and I'm up and running.

I should also share with others that the beta is closed - they've got their test pool filled up for now.

Thanks again Geoff - I really appreciate the great service.

[vballcoach]

how is this beta going so far?

[Redflea]

Sent an email...never got a peep back.

[scaevola]

Wirelessly posted (8300)

I'm interested in participating send an email to that "support" email?

[wu-wei]

Originally Posted by scaevola

Wirelessly posted (8300)

I'm interested in participating send an email to that "support" email?

If you check my last post, you'll see that the beta offer is closed.

[RFHavens]

This is somewhat of a long time coming but I wanted to get some thorough use first. I was lucky enough to get in on the beta of SyncMeMobile.com’s MS Exchange services beta offering. Bottom-line(s) first (in case you do not want to read this): Geoff Turner has been an exceptional person to deal with and will help anyone getting up and running. The cost of the service is well worth the ability to have email coming in reliably and quicker than the BIS I was on. Tutorials on the website are easy to follow and are up to date. Once you have this service you will not be disappointed and may wonder why you never had it earlier. What makes it even better, is the latest update to MS Exchange 2007, which adds many new features that you will find intuitive and very useful. If you would like to sign up for an account and you found these comments helpful, let Geoff know you got it from me. Thanks and all the best BES to you, Robert F. Havens

Some additional info. My experience with MS Exchange has been with the military only using MS Outlook. I went through the Palm Treo phase with Windows OS and never thought about Exchange services. That is not a slam on the Treo as it was and is a great device and held up to some serious abuse for three years. I just plodded along with the basic email pull that it would do. When I switched over to a BlackBerry 8330 Curve, I liked the BIS as it was simple and included with the data plan. I did find that email was sometimes slower that I thought it should be, but since it was included did not think about it much. Now I am the kind of guy who will jump on beta versions of software and test the living cr@p out of it. Sometimes it works out and other times I uninstall it. When I saw the beta offered to a limited few I thought what the heck. Lucky me, I was allowed the privilege to be a part of the beta test. The initial stages of the setup were a bit slow as there were issues (on my end) with Outlook and an activation setup problem. Geoff Turner was a great help in that he would even call me at home after hours (at my request) to work through some issues. This did identify some things that a beta test should and they got fixed. Now that everything was running smooth, I found I really liked the speed of getting email and actually reduced some of the time I had to spend on my laptop. A couple of weeks later I called Geoff to ask a few questions and he let me know that I had the 2nd highest message count with over 1000 messages. I must say I was a bit surprised as I never really paid much attention to just how much email I go through. I do have four email accounts forwarded and one Google group subscription which add up. The latest upgrade to MS Exchange 2007 is a nice upgrade and adds some nice features to the online web interface. I won’t go into details of their plans, as this is all online at their website SyncMeMobile.com. As above, I cannot say enough about the personal service, timely responses, and costs that are fair.

Sincerely,

Robert F. Havens
Founder
TekZones

[MissKalunji]

i might try this up

[MissKalunji]

ok question. What software do you need to install your blackberry to have the push e-mail? i read the website and didn't get that info

[RFHavens]

It is handled thru OTA activation. Once you purchase/signup for service, you should receive an email with instructions on getting setup. The Enterprise Activation on your BlackBerry is under Options -> Advanced Options -> Enterprise Activation. Once there you will enter your complete SyncMeMobile email as specified in your account i.e. 1stInitialLastName"at"syncmemobile.com and then the password they specify under password. Then push the trackball, select Activate, then wait while the Activation process occurs. Depending on your data connection, it can take up to 30 minutes to complete. Once done your account will be setup. Next you will need to configure your personal and business email accounts to forward email to your syncmemobile account. When done you should be receiving email in a timely (fast) manner. You will also want to setup your Email client to interact with the Exchange services and add the Outlook Web Access bookmark to your browser (In this case you more functionality with MS Internet Explorer but other browsers work for most functions).

I hope I did not leave anything out. If you are so inclined, you can use me "rhavens" as a referral and I can try to help with any other questions you might have.

Hope this helps,
Robert Havens
BB 8330 Curve

[MissKalunji]

But to do this don't I need a blackberry plan? Cause I have a standard internet plan cause my cell phone companie doesnt support blackberries. So I don't have access to the blackbery browser is that a problem?

[wu-wei]

Wirelessly posted (8800)

That's correct, you need a BES data plan to use a hosted BES/Exchange solution.

[MissKalunji]

i see thank you