Need Email Hosting (Blackberry & WebMail) - NOT Microsoft

September 3, 2007 7:40 PM

I am looking to find an email hosting provider that supports a decent “webmail” client and also Blackberry “push” email. From what I have seen, the majority of email hosting providers, that support the Blackberry, make use of Microsoft Exchange, which I am trying to avoid. These are the things I am looking for... 1. Good "webmail" client - Browser based client to read/manage my email/contacts/calendar 2. Blackberry "push" email synchronization (including calendar and contacts) 3. Does not use Microsoft Exchange ( I cannot stand Outlook Web Access) 4. Price < $10/month per Mailbox Thank you for any assistance.
posted by DerekTheGeek to computers & internet (8 comments total)

My cell provider gave me a push email address ([e-mail]) and I forwarded all my mail to it from my IMAP ISP. So on the desktop I had 10m IMAP checking but on the BB it would appear immediately. Is this not an option?

Another option is to make sure both your email ISP and your mail client support IMAP IDLE.
posted by neustile at 7:53 PM on September 3, 2007

Using Blackberry Internet Service, gmail pushes e-mail to my Blackberry. Or maybe it doesn't, because that seems odd to me, but at the very least it arrives immediately, usually before it hits my computer if I have both in front of me.
posted by awesomebrad at 8:34 PM on September 3, 2007

including calendar and contacts)

Then you need exchange, specifially the BB BES service. if you just want email you have other options.

Actuall according to wikipedia they also have it for lotus notes and novell. I'd stick with exchange. Exchange also has a decent webmail interface (OWA).
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:12 PM on September 3, 2007

Some responses from original poster...

[neustile] It is an option but I don't want to give my wireless carrier access to my email accounts. Also, BIS (Blackberry Internet Server), which is what you are referring to, syncs email and not calendar and contacts. Same problem with IMAP IDLE.

[awesomebrad] Same issue as above. Also, I prefer not to use Google, as they make it pretty clear that they archive & index everything. Pretty big privacy risk IMHO.

[damn dirty ape] As mentioned in my original post, I don't want to use OWA (Outlook Web Access). I feel it is junk. Reduced features when using Firefox (by design I might add), inability to choose email account to send email from.
posted by DerekTheGeek at 5:13 AM on September 4, 2007

I have never tried it, but your question got me curious and I did some digging. I just came across funambol, which looks interesting. It's not an open-source package that you'd install on your mailserver. I have zero experience with it (yet?), but it looked apropos and interesting.
posted by fogster at 6:20 AM on September 4, 2007

That should read... "It's not an open-source package that you'd install on your mailserver." No idea where that "not" came from.
posted by fogster at 6:21 AM on September 4, 2007

Reduced features when using Firefox (by design I might add)

MS doesnt want to code for every browser on the planet, thus they have a full version for the ie product and another for all other browsers. Its not a conspiracy.

That said, like I wrote above, you are asking for a BES server. There are plenty for exchange you can pay for, but not so many for novell or lotus. On top of it, BES is an addition to a mail server, so you probably cant keep your @whatever account. You'll have to migrate to whatever domain the novell or lotus host uses.

I think your laundry list of requirements is mostly not doable unless you buy and configure your own domain, mail server, BES, and webmail and have them modified to your specifications.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:09 AM on September 4, 2007

Its not a conspiracy

I must disagree. It is in fact a deliberate move by Microsoft. Firefox, Mozilla, and Opera are ALL far more standards compliant than IE is. Microsoft goes out of their way to ensure that their products look bad on any other browser than IE.

so you probably cant keep your @whatever account

Your are completely wrong in your assumption that one cannot use their own domain. One could in fact run their own mail server (or use a hosting provider) and use BES to deliver email to their Blackberry. The only limitation is that BES only function, according to RIM, with Novell Groupwise, Lotus Domino, ansd Microsoft Exchange. That being said, there are other providers that are in the process of supporting BES natively. One example would be Zimbra. BES native support is expected around Q4, 2007. I chose a provider that supports Zimbra, http://01.com, and have been very happy with their service so far.
posted by DerekTheGeek at 11:43 AM on September 5, 2007