Windows Mobile and E-Mail

Do you have a Windows Mobile phone and wondered how the heck to get you e-mail working? You should find a solution here. These instructions were based on Pocket PC 5.0 but they should work for Windows Mobile and Windows CE.

1. Gather the needed information - You may need to call your ISP or look on the help section of their web site to get everything but that may be confusing, it will be easy now knowing what to look for. Here is what you need to find out: What mail protocol for incoming e-mail does your ISP use? This will be POP or IMAP (most use POP), for example 1and1’s pop e-mail server is pop.1and1.com. You will then need to know your SMTP outgoing server address, 1and1’s SMTP server address is smtp.1and1.com. Last, you need to know your user name and password, but  you must pay special attention to this part because your user name can be your e-mail address or something else. User names, I think, is one area where people get confused. Your password is the password you use when you log in and check your e-mail.

2. Input e-mail information in you Windows Mobile phone - First, open Pocket Outlook in you phone and at the lower right corner click “Menu”. From menu, click “Tools” and then “New Account.”

Second, you will now be prompted to enter your   “e-mail address” and the phone will attempt to auto configure your settings, this is a great idea but usually does not work so you will have to click “next.”

Third, enter your “name” (your real name), your e-mail “user name”, your e-mail “password”, and be sure to check the box “save password.”

Fourth, you will select your e-mail protocol, “POP” or “IMAP.”

Fifth, enter your “incoming” e-mail server address (ex. pop.1and1.com) and your “outgoing” e-mail server address (ex. smtp.1and1.com). Be sure to leave the area that says domain blank and don’t click finish.

Sixth, while on the server address area, click “options” and the first page is optional. You can tell your device to check for new e-mail every few minutes if you want, but then click “next.” After clicking next, the next page gives you the option to display the messages in your inbox for a certain amount of days. The amount of days does not matter but you may want to keep the amount of days small for memory conservation purposes. The important part of this page is to check the box “outgoing mail requires authentication” and don’t check “use separate sentences” (you may not need this) and it will be addressed later in the trouble shooting part.

Seventh, after checking outgoing server needs authentication, click “next” and then “finish.”

3. Test your account - Once you have set everything up in your phone, you must test your phone by sending and e-mail and receiving an e-mail. To do this, click “new” on the bottom left of the Pocket Outlook screen, you should know how to do the rest. Make sure to send an e-mail to someone and have them send you an e-mail and (this is important) in order for your phone to send and receive your e-mail, you must click “menu” and then “send/receive.” You will not see your new e-mail or send your outgoing in your phone unless you click “send/receive.”  Also, conversely, you don’t have to select “send/receive” if you set your phone check every few minutes as stated earlier.

4. Trouble shoot - If your e-mail will not send and receive, you will have to trouble shoot. To do this, click “menu,” and then “tools,” and then “option,” and finally click the name of the e-mail account your created.

Here you go through the setup just as you did when first setting up the account, be sure to check the spelling of everything and your password. Most likely, the problem is with your outgoing server, you may want to try un-checking “outgoing server requires authentication” or contact your e-mail provider if the outgoing server requires a different password for authentication.

If you do all this and it still will not work, contact your e-mail provider. Some free e-mail services will not allow you to set up your  e-mail this way so it will be worth making a call after many unsuccessful attempts.

5. Exchange Server - Instead of using traditional e-mail, you may want to consider subscribing to Microsoft's Exchange Server which will allow you to set up an e-mail account with Outlook on your computer and Pocket Outlook. The advantage of exchange server is that you can wirelessly synchronize your e-mail, calendar, tasks, contacts with Outlook on your computer with your Windows Mobile phone. As an example, say you are at the office and you get a client, you enter their contact information in Outlook and then leave to do something else. If you need to contact that person, their information will automatically be in your phone. This also works the other way, if you are in the field and enter a contact or a reminder in your calendar, you will be notified on your phone and your Outlook at home. Also using exchange server allows you to receive e-mail on your phone automatically without having to hit “send/receive” so you get your e-mail automatically on the fly like blackberry. 1and1 offers exchanger service for $5.99 a month which is also much cheaper than Blackberry’s $49.99 service.