Mobile Connections
In order to access email from a mobile phone you need to be able to connect to the Internet from the phone. The types of connection that exist for mobile phones include dial-up, GPRS and 3G. You may need contact your mobile network operator to get information and help for setting up an Internet connection from your phone.
What is ActiveSync?
ActiveSync is a technology available on a growing number of new "smartphones" and PDA phones. ActiveSync allows a phone to synchronise content in your LSE mailbox directly from the School's email servers over a mobile or Wi-Fi connection. As well as synchronising email, many phones that support ActiveSync can also synchronise your calendar, contacts and task list.
This page details the settings required to configure an ActiveSync device for access to content from the School's Exchange email system.
How ActiveSync works: Pull and Push
The term "pull" refers to a connection initiated by the phone to 'pull' (download) new emails and calendar entries from the School's email servers to the phone. Connections can be made over a dial-up, GPRS, 3G or Wi-Fi link according to the capabilities of the phone and the user's service options. A connection can be made manually as required or scheduled on the phone to occur automatically at an appropriate frequency ranging from every 5 minutes to every 4 hours.
"Push" refers to the email servers' ability to "push" (forward) an email to the phone as soon as it received by the School's email servers. The servers do this by sending a system text message to the phone when a new email is received in the user's Inbox. Receipt of the text message by the phone causes it to make a connection to the servers to synchronise email.
The current push service involves additional requirements in the user's mobile service options and results in additional costs as the charge for each notification text message is borne by the user.
A new improved push technology that does not use notfication text messages has been installed on the School's email servers. This alternative technology, known as Direct Push, does away with the additional cost and complication of notification text messages. It works by keeping a "session" open between the phone and the server in a similar way to a normal email program like Outlook. When a new message arrives on the server, the server sends a notification message to the phone over the open connection to instruct the phone to download the new message. If the session is disconnected the phone will re-connect to establish a new session. The extra data traffic between the phone and the email server to establish sessions is about 1MB per month.
Current Windows Mobile 5.0 based phones will be able to use the new "Direct Push" technology after installing the "Messaging and Security Feature Pack" update which should become available from handset manufactures before Summer 2006. The next generation of compatible handsets should include support for the new push technology.
Costs
The cost of a smartphone or PDA phone that includes ActiveSync can vary enormously according to how sophisticated the device is and whether it is bought with a connection contract. Prices can range from free, for a basic smartphone with a connection contract, to about £600 for an all-singing all-dancing 3G device without a contract.
After buying an appropriate device, the main running cost that results from mobile access to email is the cost of connection or data download. For a slower dial-up connection the user usually pays for the cost of the call over which emails are sent and received. Faster GPRS or 3G connections usually charge for the amount of data transferred to and from the phone. In both cases, the more information passing between the server and the phone, the greater the costs. Heavy users of mobile email may be able to reduce these costs by incorporating them into their service packages where an additional supplement can often be used to buy a cost effective allowance of data traffic or call time.
Further costs may result from use of one of the email push options. The current push service sends an sms text notification message for each new message arriving in the Inbox on the server. The cost of these text messages is usually borne by the user. The new push technology does not send sms text messages but the regular polling of the server by the phone could add up to 1MB per month to the data costs.
Devices that support Wi-Fi have the option of making free connections to the email servers while at LSE over the School's Wi-Fi wireless network rather than via chargeable dial-up, GPRS or 3G services. See the tips below for more information about using Wi-Fi. ?"
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