Wireless Synching for a non-business - Page 2

cruiser78 · #11 (**permalink**) 08-16-2009, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boredandtattooed

whats wrong with the OTA syncing with MS MYphone, thatll even sync your sd card..

MS MyPhone is nice but one of the reasons I wanted an Exchange account was so that I could manage my contacts/calendar/email for my company from my computer as it's much nicer for entering data on the computer than on the phone. I use MyPhone for backing up my txts and whatever else it backs up that doesn't sync with Exchange. You can manage your contacts with MyPhone but it's a very cumbersome online interface and isn't something I want to deal with.

@ KCHruby

Yes, you are correct in thinking that your phone and Outlook will be the same.

One thing to consider is that you need your own domain name for Sherweb or Mail2Web's service that allows syncing to Outlook 2007. Registering a domain through Sherweb is $15/year which is quite expensive. Registering a domain through Mail2Web is $8.95/year which much more reasonable. I registered a domain through GoDaddy.com as I already had a couple domains registered through them but you can use any domain registrar you like. Going through GoDaddy.com or another registrar you should be able to get a better deal than $8.95/year if you pay up front for multiple years and quite often they have "sales" that make it cheaper as well. When setting up your custom domain to work with Sherweb, you get fairly good instructions to go by but if you have any questions or problems setting it up, their tech support is quite good from the couple times I emailed them. I got a reply back quite quickly.

Glad I could help. Good luck on deciding which option to go with.

KCHruby · #12 (**permalink**) 08-16-2009, 11:23 PM

Thanks to all who've given me advice and now I have more questions.

I've discovered that it is possible to do this grough Google's GMail and I've set that up but now I've noticed a couple of "glitches" that I'd like to fix. Google is good because it's cheap but I'll happily pay $8.95 a month to get rid of the glitches.

The biggest glitch is that Google's GMail calendar doesn't support categories. That means every appointment that I have on my desktop looses it's category when it gets to google and subsequently looses the category when it gets back to my phone.

I'm assuming that Outlook Web Access that the other companies use (i.e., mail2web or sherweb) will keep the categories since it's a web-based version of Outlook. Can anybody confirm that's true?

The second glitch is my reminders. I've got all my reminders to go off at a particular time (8:00 pm for instance) but they all go off 5 minutes early. The appointment still says the correct time but all the remidners go off ealry. That one's confusing me.

Anyhow, can anybody confirm that Outlook Web Access (OWA) does support categories in the appointments?

Thanks again for all who have helped.

KCHruby

cruiser78 · #13 (**permalink**) 08-17-2009, 03:27 AM

OWA does support categories. If you do go with Sherweb or the mail2web service that allows syncing to Outlook on the PC, you get all the funcionality of Outlook in your syncs. Nothing gets lost in translation so to speak.

I can't answer your other question about the reminder times for Google as I've never used Google for syncing.

KCHruby · #14 (**permalink**) 08-17-2009, 08:02 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen, It's done and I want to thank everybody who contributed. I've already hit the "Thanks" buttons but wanted to thank you again.

Also, as a brief synopsis for anybody that may read this read at a later time, here's what I finally came up with.

Google Calendar (through GMail) will sync between Outlook and the Windows-based phone; however, since it's not actually Outlook you lose a lot of the things that makes Outlook so user friendly (categories for appointments and contacts for example). If someobdy is just using it as a calendar and they're not as "anal" as I am regarding my phone then Google will probably work and it's free. You'll get your appointments and your contacts but that's it--just the raw data.

For those (like me) who are more structured (some would call me anal) then you're best to go with a True Exchange Hosting Service. I personally went with Sherweb and although their instructions were not as complete as I would have liked or expected I did eventually get it working EXACTLY how I wanted. I did have to call their customer support center twice and had to do a Google Search a few other times to figure out how to set up all three areas (Desktop Outlook, Sherweb Account and the Active Sync in my phone). The end result though was/is exactly what a control freak (some would say moderate OCD) person like me wanted to accomplish.

My suggestion is bypassing Google and going straight to an Exchange Hosting Service such aw www.sherweb.com.

Again, thanks to everybody that offered suggestions and led me in the right direction.

KCHruby

cruiser78 · #15 (**permalink**) 08-18-2009, 01:16 AM

Glad to hear it all worked and you found what you were looking for.

It took me a bit of work to get it all set up too but definitely worth it in the end.

land2634 · #16 (**permalink**) 08-18-2009, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCHruby

Ladies and Gentlemen, It's done and I want to thank everybody who contributed. I've already hit the "Thanks" buttons but wanted to thank you again.

Also, as a brief synopsis for anybody that may read this read at a later time, here's what I finally came up with.

Google Calendar (through GMail) will sync between Outlook and the Windows-based phone; however, since it's not actually Outlook you lose a lot of the things that makes Outlook so user friendly (categories for appointments and contacts for example). If someobdy is just using it as a calendar and they're not as "anal" as I am regarding my phone then Google will probably work and it's free. You'll get your appointments and your contacts but that's it--just the raw data.

For those (like me) who are more structured (some would call me anal) then you're best to go with a True Exchange Hosting Service. I personally went with Sherweb and although their instructions were not as complete as I would have liked or expected I did eventually get it working EXACTLY how I wanted. I did have to call their customer support center twice and had to do a Google Search a few other times to figure out how to set up all three areas (Desktop Outlook, Sherweb Account and the Active Sync in my phone). The end result though was/is exactly what a control freak (some would say moderate OCD) person like me wanted to accomplish.

My suggestion is bypassing Google and going straight to an Exchange Hosting Service such aw www.sherweb.com.

Again, thanks to everybody that offered suggestions and led me in the right direction.

KCHruby

You can't go wrong with SherWeb. After mail2web cut their free exchange service, I tried them out as well as SherWeb and I was pleasantly surprised with SherWeb so I stuck with it. They're really good about informing you of potential downtime several days in advance as well, which is always nice to know so you know something isn't wrong with your device when it stops syncing.

**stroths** · #17 (**permalink**) 12-13-2009, 05:02 PM

I have been o Sherweb for a while. I have a google apps account under my name and have my email forwarded to my sherweb email address. However, to cut costs, I have been considering using my Google Apps acct for email hosting now since they offer free OTA activesync. However, its not as consistent as Sherweb in receiving emails quickly. I tried using IMAP Pusher (and the newer xImapPusher) for email w/gmail, but its not the most reliable solution yet. However, its fast when it does work.

I ran across http://atlasnetworks.us/email-exchan...osoft-exchange which is $6.95/mo for 5gb exchange hosting (2007). Can't find many reviews on them though.

Exchange hosting is just so much more convenient than any other method IMO.