Managing Mobile E-mail Access

For customers with small budgets, lack of extensive IS support staff or the need to support only a few users, I recommend a cobbled-together solution using Danger's SideKick device running on T-Mobile's wireless network, coupled with Pumatech's Intellisync goAnywhere workstation-based product. Almost by magic, my clients have Web-based access to their Exchange server e-mail and other folders, including calendars, contacts and tasks, and at a reasonable cost: SideKick costs about $250, and an annual license for goAnywhere, which includes use of the Pumatech intermediary Web site, costs close to $100. You can buy unlimited, wireless data-only services for SideKick for roughly $30 a month, with a 20-cent-per-minute charge for phone calls. You can also purchase any T-Mobile wireless phone plan for SideKick.

Getting Started
First, install goAnywhere on a desktop computer (make sure your computer has a continuous connection to the Internet; dial-up won't work). The goAnywhere software interacts with Microsoft's Outlook on the same desktop computer. Over the Internet, goAnywhere provides a Web-page view of your Outlook mailbox and its contents to your SideKick device. In other words, whatever you do on the SideKick is actually happening in Outlook. Conversely, whatever you do in Outlook is reflected in the updated Web pages on SideKick. What's more, if your Outlook mailbox is connected to an Exchange server, then the contents of your mailbox on the server will be synchronized with your Outlook mailbox.

Also, SideKick, combined with T-Mobile's wireless service, includes a number of other capabilities: wireless phone, wireless Internet browser, wireless POP3 e-mail to any POP3 server available on the Internet, as well as calendar, address book, to-do list and notepad functions.

Another nice feature: T-Mobile offers a custom Web site for each SideKick user. This Web site provides a large-screen view of the various SideKick functions, including POP3 e-mail. Anything the user does on the SideKick Web site is synchronized wirelessly with the SideKick device, and vice versa. But, in keeping with the POP3 protocol, whatever the user does to POP3 e-mail on the Web site or on SideKick is not synchronized with his Outlook/Exchange mailbox.

Using goAnywhere
To use goAnywhere, follow these steps:

• To access your Outlook/Exchange mailbox and its many functions, open the SideKick Web browser and go to Pumatech's intermediary Web site. The browser logs into the Web site and requests a current view of your Outlook/Exchange mailbox from goAnywhere running on your desktop. This view is presented through SideKick's Web-browser screen.
• To read a message, first highlight it using the thumb wheel on SideKick's right side, then press the wheel down. Essentially, you've highlighted the URL for the message. The message is then quickly retrieved and displayed.
• There is a URL for anything you want to do, including replying to and deleting messages, or accessing other Outlook/Exchange functions, such as your calendar. Messages even include live URLs that may have been included in the original message.

Barry Gerber is an IT consultant and author of Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 (Sybex, 2003).