activesync vs. wireless vs. exchange?? help!! - Treo Forums

enderwiggin510 · 03-28-2006, 12:00 PM

Hey Everyone,

I had thought I had my Treo 700w under control, but now am starting to wonder. Here's a story of what happened.

I had a Samsung phone before thru Verizon. Once I got the 700w, they transferred all my fone numbers to the treo. Then when I used activesync with my laptop, i found all the contacts on my phone and all the old numbers on my outlook as well. No problem - I took the time to go thru and clean it all up.

I currently use dixiesys.com for hosting, email, etc. They do not have exchange, but are linux based. I use pop3 from my laptop pulling emails from them. I also have over 1200 contacts in my outlook. I noticed there were some duplicates however, so started cleaning some of them.

Cardscan 700 is also another device I am using. This relationship is between the cardscanner and also Outlook. Once the informatoin is in outlook, it gets sent to my treo. It worked fine.. I wondered what this wireless sync was, so I turned it on, registered, etc. I had thought it was a way to backup the existing contacts, email, etc. I noticed the contacts were still there, but the emails were all gone (that were from my laptop).

Cardscan seems to either create duplicates or have dupes and then erase the multiple email addresses I might have for people.. or label the 2nd ones Compuserve, etc. Perhaps I now know to have a 'field' or home for those other numbers to go to.

When I tried using activesync, I get an error/warning message if I am sure I want to sync up because I would be creating duplicates. So for some reason, my laptop does not recognize my treo. I was hoping the data that was deleted by cardscan would be put back (2nd or 3rd emails) from contacts.. and not the whole contact itself being a duplicate again. Not sure what I should do at this point..

What I would like to happen:
1. have a single source email, contacts, etc. all stored on a server - do i find a new hosting solution or can I use the existing pop3 from a linux server and do push/pull from my device? ( what is the diff. between push/pull anyway?)

2. have all my devices be in sync (laptop, treo, desktop) - i currently dont even use the desktop for fear of duplication of contacts, emails, etc. which hapepend quite often on my old toshiba PDA

3. have all my contacts, emails, calendar be in sync seamlessly!

Can anyone help?? Thank you in advance..

Beachbum26 · 03-28-2006, 02:18 PM

Hi - I'm not sure how to fix your current contact conflicts/duplicates issue, but I'll take a stab at answering your questions about what "you want to happen". Ultimately, IMO, you should try to get all your information onto one "information store" or server. Right now you have email (POP3) hosted on a linux server and contacts coming from Outlook on your desktop (by way of the cardscan). It's a tricky process to manage. If you were to switch to a hosted MS Exchange Server solution, you'd have everything coming from the same source. This way it should be easier to manage as well as give you the ability to set the rules for dups etc. in just one place. I don't know what you pay now for your POP3 email, but there are a lot of Exchange Server Hosting companies out there. Perhaps there's one that fits your budget.

I've done some consulting and last year setup a small office on a Hosted Exchange service with Mi8 Corporation. The prices were reasonable and the service pretty good.

http://www.mi8.com/

I'm in no way giving Mi8 an endorsement, they're just the only one that I have any direct experience with.

Here's a list of some others:
http://www.msexchange.org/services/Exchange-Hosting/

With Hosted Exchange Server you could be syncing your Treo and Desktop with the same email, Calendar and Contacts.

Of course, you don't have to go with this setup. Lots of people use POP3 for email and a separate source for the Calendar and Contacts. I just think it's more work to maintain.

Good luck.

enderwiggin510 · 03-30-2006, 01:15 AM

I'll elaborate a bit.. thanks for your response!!

--

I am a newbie and I've read the threads on async issues and also wireless sync and push/pull, etc.

Here's my situation:
10 or so pop3 email accounts setup in outlook 2k3. I have folders and rules wizard that will move emails to the right folders. I use contacts (over 1000) and also business cardscan 700. I also use the calendar often. Some notes and some tasks, but not many.

All of the above is on my laptop. So what solution should I use? Ideally, I'd like or my main emails to appear on my phone. However, I want everything to be on my laptop (as master) and on the phone as duplicates if possible.

So do I use activesync exclusively or wireless sync exclusively or both or would that cause duplicates? I got a warning message saying NOT to use async after I installed wireless sync. I think I understand wireless sync a bit more now that I logged onto the vzn site and saw everything there.

2nd Question -> I am thinking about paying for service for Exchange server for only one of my emails but not all of them. The one I'd like to pay for service would be for the main business email one. If I get a hosting site to do that (mi8) would cost about $50 + $8 per email account - that would essentially allow me to host the emails, contacts, calendar on an actual server - thereby preserving or having a backup and using push technology to my phone - yes?
Please help clarify since I checked the manual, forums, etc. and just wanted to know the best solution to my situation.. thank you gurus!!

enderwiggin510 · 03-30-2006, 01:18 AM

.. the other thing I noticed was that the verizon online displays all of my various emails into the main 'inbox' and also has all the emails going out from one 'sent' folder (which is correct). Is there a way to have multiple folders setup and also have it go to the right folder as my outlook currently works?