While all the attention and hoopla has deservedly been focused on the new Palm PRE, there are (literally) millions of Treos and Centros still out there in the wilderness. One of the biggest problems facing them is how to deal with the latest versions of Blackberry and MS Exchange email servers at their place of employment.
Back in the day, tech managers would open POP (later, the much more secure IMAP4 protocol) and SMTP ports on their companies' email servers; so, that remote users (laptop, home office and mobile device) could receive and send mail with their normal business credentials. With the advent of Blackberry Server, the idea of secure 'push' email became the mandate for modern business; and, soon after Microsoft added that feature with ActiveSync for Exchange Server. As part of their partnership with Microsoft, Palm was able to embed ActiveSync in the Palm OS; enabling Treo and Centro owners to have remote credentials for Outlook.
The current problem is that the latest version: Exchange Server 2007 (which most companies are now running) dropped support for the Palm OS version...no more syncing with contacts/ email/ calendar...bummer. While this may seem to force Treonauts and Centro-gnomes into buying new devices, there is a way around this.
First, be nice to your email administrator and get them to open the IMAP port. For those not in the know, IMAP4 is a secure email protocol that allows remote users to access all of the folders residing in their email server; and manage the contents of those folders, just as if you were in the office (move emails between folders...delete, etc.).
Next, get an email client that provides full IMAP functionality. The default PalmOS email client claims to be IMAP4; but, is very limited in what it actually lets you do.
I recommend the splendid Snappermail Enterprise Version. Always the best email client for Treos (with apologies to Chattermail fans), it has recently been updated to include an even richer user experience...including search capability of all your online email folders, and message list filters (click here to see my article about Snappermail v 3.0, and a link to my full review). While not pushmail, Snappermail can be quickly set to auto-check your email in increments from every 5 minutes, to every few hours, or manually (at the touch of a single button). It can handle up to 8 POP and/or IMAP4 accounts; and, you can set it to recieve all, just a few or just one account at a time.
The composite graphic to the left shows the process for adding more of your online folders to Snappermail, so that you can sync them with your Treo/ Centro. The beauty of IMAP4 (and Snappermail) is that you don't need to have any save your most used folders (and their contents) in your Treo/ Centro's memory. This method allows you to access them in real time; managing them on the server, instead of your device. Pretty sweet, eh?
The next part is a little more complicated. Even with IMAP4 open, you still have the issue of SMTP (outgoing mail). These days, almost no one allows public access to SMTP; which means without supported ActiveSync or a Blackberry, you have to use your personal email address to send replies to emails from your Treo/ Centro. Bottom line: if you're replying to partners, clients or vendors, it looks very unprofessional; and reflects badly on you and your company. Most management (like mine) won't allow it. So, what do you do? Go to SMTP.com, and spoof your business email address.
SMTP.com has been around for about 10 years. They have a simple, inexpensive series of spoofing solutions, that allow you to register the email address you want your replies to come from (so, that the recipient gets the email from your business email address, instead of your personal email address). They offer different packages (based on increments of sent mails per month) on a monthly or annual payment basis. For example, my company pays the $15 per month which lets me send 150 business emails each month from my Treo.
So, is it as convenient and cheap as push mail? No...but, its simple, it works and its one heluva lot cheaper then getting a replacement for your PalmOS smartphone. Think about it!
PJ Arts
