MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Microsoft's push e-mail isn't really push?

vadim · 06-21-2005, 10:45 PM

Well, it is well known, I guess, that Microsoft is much better at selling than at building. Apparently (and unfortunately), the US marketing community adopted the ancient Phoenicians maxim: "Either sell or be truthfull..." .
That is not to say that the quoted article is very clear by itself. The technology described there supposedly refers to upcoming Exchange SP2 but actually does not specify in which way it is different from the current implementation of ActiveSync. Nor does it tell exactly about this part where the device PERIODICALLY requesting the server to monitor new changes (how much it is different then from the scheduled syncs?). Besides, according to Microsoft in the current setup the server is initiating the sync by first sending notification to the device about new changes and only THEN the device initiate the sync. That makes sense. Then what's all this about device all the time sending requests to the server???? Whatever. It is also typical for Microsoft documentation.
And to those who as one of the members who posted a little bit earlier about Blackberry server been a nightmare I just wanted to let know - do not keep a very high hopes for ActiveSync. I have tested somewhat similar to Blackberry GoodLink and then ActiveSync (on Exchange 2003). It took me ~3hrs to set up and make to work and GoodLink - very detailed and simple documentation, works flowlessly (plus some nice features). I still after four days can not make ActiveSync work. That is manual and scheduled sync from device works fine (though took me some time to figure it all out) but this famous "push" update which is not really "push" just would not work. Period. Actually, seems like it worked in the beginning and then just stopped, which makes it even worse. Documentation is poor and superficial and try to get troubleshooting info. Good luck with that. ActiveSync troubleshooting tool gives me a message "could not access CDO.Message" when I'm sending control message. Very informative! Either the tool or the ActiveSync is a crap (more likely its a tool problem - after I run it I have to restart IIS to be able to sync at all, even manually!). And what about UNDOCUMENTED feature - UP-To-Date notification works only 12.5 hrs after any manual sync! If you do not sync manually from the device after that you get no notification! And it seems it is by design.
So do not tell me how ActiveSync will compete with something like GoodLink. You will loose more on air time charges and headaches than on GoodLink license fee by going with ActiveSync. Push it or pull it.

06-21-2005, 10:45 PM	#9
vadim Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2005 Device: Motorola220	Typical for Microsoft (and not only...) Well, it is well known, I guess, that Microsoft is much better at selling than at building. Apparently (and unfortunately), the US marketing community adopted the ancient Phoenicians maxim: "Either sell or be truthfull..." . That is not to say that the quoted article is very clear by itself. The technology described there supposedly refers to upcoming Exchange SP2 but actually does not specify in which way it is different from the current implementation of ActiveSync. Nor does it tell exactly about this part where the device PERIODICALLY requesting the server to monitor new changes (how much it is different then from the scheduled syncs?). Besides, according to Microsoft in the current setup the server is initiating the sync by first sending notification to the device about new changes and only THEN the device initiate the sync. That makes sense. Then what's all this about device all the time sending requests to the server???? Whatever. It is also typical for Microsoft documentation. And to those who as one of the members who posted a little bit earlier about Blackberry server been a nightmare I just wanted to let know - do not keep a very high hopes for ActiveSync. I have tested somewhat similar to Blackberry GoodLink and then ActiveSync (on Exchange 2003). It took me ~3hrs to set up and make to work and GoodLink - very detailed and simple documentation, works flowlessly (plus some nice features). I still after four days can not make ActiveSync work. That is manual and scheduled sync from device works fine (though took me some time to figure it all out) but this famous "push" update which is not really "push" just would not work. Period. Actually, seems like it worked in the beginning and then just stopped, which makes it even worse. Documentation is poor and superficial and try to get troubleshooting info. Good luck with that. ActiveSync troubleshooting tool gives me a message "could not access CDO.Message" when I'm sending control message. Very informative! Either the tool or the ActiveSync is a crap (more likely its a tool problem - after I run it I have to restart IIS to be able to sync at all, even manually!). And what about UNDOCUMENTED feature - UP-To-Date notification works only 12.5 hrs after any manual sync! If you do not sync manually from the device after that you get no notification! And it seems it is by design. So do not tell me how ActiveSync will compete with something like GoodLink. You will loose more on air time charges and headaches than on GoodLink license fee by going with ActiveSync. Push it or pull it.