[Stockmarket]

I've heard a lot of you talk about adopting Fastmail accounts so that you can utilize the IMAP push feature of Chatter. I've read through Fastmails website about their product and I'm still confused about a few things.

First, I have Gmail and Prodigy which are both Pop3. What I don't understand is how you set-up the account in Fastmail. Fastmail is going to give you a new email address correct? So then what? Do I forward my Gmail accounts and Prodigy accounts to me@fastmail.com? Then Fastmail pushes all the forwarded mail accounts to my T650? Is that how it works? Because I don't want another email address. I just want to be able to receive mail in a "push" fashion from the Pop3 accounts I already have.

Second, where do I access this mail to delete it off the server? Will I get an email page similar to my Gmail account (well nothing is similar to Gmail, but you understand)?

Third question is storage space. For $14.95 I get 16 Megs of storage. Is that enough? I'm assuming if I check the account daily and delete messages it is enough. I get about 15 - 25 emails a day and this will grow as my new business picks up speed. I just want to pay the fee once and be done with it. So the $19.95 per year for 600 Megs doesn't interest me. I'd rather pay $30 once and be done with it.

Last, I must still be confusted about IMAP because on Fastmail it says "Unlike Hotmail/Yahoo! Mail, we also let you access your emaiils from home/work using programs like Outlook Express, Eurora, Netscape Messenger etc using a protocol called IMAP." Well I can access my Prodigy and Gmail accounts which are POP3 from any computer. I simply log in. My mail is stored on a server so it's available with any computer I use. So please, someone, anyone, explain to me what I'm missing????

[Insertion]

Once you have your Fastmail account setup, go to GMails Settings page, and configuring Forwarding to your username@fastmail.fm account. I use gmails smtp server for outgoing messages. Works great.

I've also got Gmail setup to keep a copy.

Fastmail does have an HTML page, just like Gmail or Yahoo.

As to storage...couldn't say. I just use the free account for now. I delete the fastmail messages (since I still have the copies on Gmail.)

Regarding Hotmail/Yahoo...you can't access those accounts with something like Chatter, Snapper, Outlook...without paying for POP access (Hotmail will work on Outlook Express though)

[trjons]

Here is how I set mine up:

I have my POP email address (the one I give out to friends, family, co-workers, etc.) forward all e-mail to me@fastmail.fm. I then have Chatter set to poll my fastmail address and instantly receive all emails sent to me (usually they hit my Treo before they hit my computer).

I configured Chatter to use the SMTP profile of my POP email address for replies so all emails from me using my Treo appear to come from my POP address.

I use the $14.95 account and its plenty. You just need to remember to "Expunge" your inbox every so often so that deletes on your Treo migrate back to the server.

I also "bcc" all my sent mail back to my POP address so that I can store sent mail on my PC.

[Chatter]

The sentence in italics is poorly written. My sense is that it's supposed to read: "Unlike Hotmail/Yahoo Mail, we let you access your emails [...] using a protocol called IMAP". Now THAT you can't do with those, right?

As far as your other question, yes you DO need another email address for your IMAP account. POP3 accounts are horrible in almost every way compared to IMAP; push isn't even conceivable for POP3. So what you do is forward your mail to an address that CAN do push and then configure Chatter to receive them and reply as though from the original account.

Marc

[Stockmarket]

Okay, now it's making sense. I love this web site! Thank you all.

BTW, Marc the Beta version did eventually work on my T650. Thanks.

[hsk]

Third question is storage space. For $14.95 I get 16 Megs of storage. Is that enough? I'm assuming if I check the account daily and delete messages it is enough. I get about 15 - 25 emails a day and this will grow as my new business picks up speed. I just want to pay the fee once and be done with it. So the $19.95 per year for 600 Megs doesn't interest me. I'd rather pay $30 once and be done with it.

I think the one-time fee is $14.95. For me, the main problem with fastmail isn't the storage quota (you can delete messages after you read them, they're still on your primary email) it's the bandwidth quota - 40megs/month free, 80megs/mo for the $14.95 1-time fee. If you only get text emails that's fine, in my business I was getting a lot of attachments with documents, drawings, ad proofs... eats it up pretty fast. I had all my email accts forwarded, I had to set fastmail up to bounce back messages over 100k, which was OK, I'd get the message rejected alert forwarded. The annual subscription gives you 300megs/mo.

[Stockmarket]

Ahh that's a good point HSK. I'm going to look into a few other services mentioned on TreoCentral before I purchase. I'm doing a trial version of Chatter for 30-days and want to see what this "push" mail is all about. I get A LOT of attchments as well. I'd hate to not be able to access them because of the 80meg limit. Gosh, there's always something. Grrrr

[hsk]

Try mailsnare.net - it has a bigger quota than fastmail.fm, but only a 30-day trial. I tried both, put a LOT of pressure on my ISP to get their act together on the IMAP IDLE thing and finally got some action, so I don't use either, now.

PS Chatter eats up a lot of data usage being constantly online - I don't have unlimited data, I found that using Chatter used about 2x what I was using previously with pop every 15 mins. Still under my limit, and worth it for the instant delivery, but something you should be aware of.

[Stockmarket]

I appreciate the advice hsk!