[Infomofo]

I am considering switching to sprint because of the number portability thing. I have a question about Sprint's business connection program. It says that it will allow me to check my business e-mail. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that requires my corporation to support that program too, right? Or does it use a standard PPTP protocol (which my firm won't support)?

-Thanks

[Infomofo]

This is probably another stupid question, but does Sprint's network support SMS and MMS? All my friends are still on the T-Mobile network, and I would like to be able to communicate with them via both MMS and SMS.

-Thanks.

[Spiffyis5150]

1) Business Connect uses HTTPS to connect the BC servers outside of your corp's network. No VPN such as PPTP or IPSEC is required. You just need to be able to surf the Internet to connect.

2) Sprint currently supports a service called Shortmail which some will refer to as SMS. You can use Shortmail to SMS your friends and they can SMS you back too. With that said, Shortmail is a piece of crap. When you compose an SMS message you have to go online to a web page to compose the message and send it. The same is also true of checking SMS messages though you will get a message on your phone indicating that you've received a shortmail message. You then click on the URL in the send message and you can read the SMS message that is in your Shortmail box. Sprint is currently testing MO-SMS(the one where you compose the message on the phone and send it) and it should be rolled out by the end of the year. Like all things with Sprint, that date could be a bit earlier or a bit later. Sprint does support MMS, nor are there any plans to support at MMS at this time.

[Infomofo]

> 1) Business Connect uses HTTPS to connect the BC servers outside of your corp's network. No VPN such as PPTP or IPSEC is required. You just need to be able to surf the Internet to connect.

I'm a little confused. How can I check and send corporate e-mail if the BC servers are outside my corp's network?

[Infomofo]

> 1) Business Connect uses HTTPS to connect the BC servers outside of your corp's network. No VPN such as PPTP or IPSEC is required. You just need to be able to surf the Internet to connect.

I'm a little confused. How can I check and send corporate e-mail if the BC servers are outside my corp's network?

[John P. Smith]

There are two versions of BC. One requires an application to be running on your corporate email server. The other, BC "Personal Edition" uses an application running on your office PC which sends your email to/from the wireless device using the internet connection on this PC. Your office PC has to stay on and connected to the internet for this to work. I.e. this is not a solution if your office PC is a laptop you carry with you.

[nrosser]

Just a quick add-on re SMS -

with an additional software app (Treo600SMS from PDAApps - www.pdaapps.com - ), I send and receive SMS all day long to other carriers' users, without using the dreaded ShortMail web interface. (actually, the app uses the shortmail as a proxy, and I as the user don't ever have to see it - MUCH better than how Sprint would have us use and send text messages).
Check it out!

[mrmobius2000]

Originally posted by John P. Smith
There are two versions of BC. One requires an application to be running on your corporate email server. The other, BC "Personal Edition" uses an application running on your office PC which sends your email to/from the wireless device using the internet connection on this PC. Your office PC has to stay on and connected to the internet for this to work. I.e. this is not a solution if your office PC is a laptop you carry with you.

Ok ... I am waiting on my replacement T600 (1st one was DOA), and I want to use BC. But my office PC is a laptop I carry with me.

My question: is there anyone who has figured out a strategy with respect to the synch schedule and whatnot that permits use of BC personal edition and a laptop that is not on all the time? In other words, I am grasping at straws here, John. Is there really no way to make this work?

Thanks,
George.

[John P. Smith]

George, in another thread on the Communications software area of this board, MobileGhost has advised that BizCon Personal Edition WILL work, at least to some extent, without a desktop computer running 24/7. In this thread he tells how to set this up. The BizCon Treo client basically functions as a simple IMAP email client. The primary difference in this mode of operation with regards to email is that mail will not be pushed to the Treo; you have to initiate the download or use scheduled sync. No big deal for me -- I personally would rather just pull my email when I want to look at it, as opposed to getting beeped every time a new piece of spam rolls in.

What I haven't figured out is whether the calendar and contacts functions of BizCon PE are still available if you don't use the desktop component. Supposedly these features normally work over the Treo Web client, and I don't know whether/how this works if you aren't using the desktop piece. And, if contacts and calendar don't work in this mode then all you are getting from BizConn is email, in which case you might as well use a standard IMAP email client like VersaMail which provides better mail functionality (e.g. support for Personal Folders which BC apparently doesn't have)