pop email and internet questions (pre-purchase)

[caractacus]

Hey there... looking at the 7100t as a phone / email app (on T-Mobile in the UK). I do *not* have any enterprise server to sync it with - just a bunch of normal pop email accounts (gmail, yahoo, etc). A few questions:
- is it easy to setup the pop servers?
- how reliable is the connection?
- can it use the providers smtp server (the google or yahoo SMTP server, for instance)?
- how often can it check for new mail?
- does it download the whole message or can it be set up to just grab the headers?

Other stuff I'm interested in:
- is a MSN messenger client available?
- how full featured is the internet browser? does the firefox mobile browser work?

And if there's anything else internet-related anyone would like to add, feel free!

Thanks *very* much for your help.

[caractacus]

I was a bit concerned by this from the pocket-lint review (http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/fullreview.php?reviewId=885). Can anyone confirm this? The user manual on the Blackberry web site isn't very helpful on this matter...
You can also specify up to ten email accounts for the device to poll. The unit will then pull in those emails and allow you to reply to them, although it’s pulled in via the T-Mobile email account you can set it so that it replies from your own account, however rather than using the push solution of pushing the emails directly to you when they are received (as in the enterprise edition), T-Mobile, like Vodafone, has a 3- to 15-minute cycle for this consumer friendly version – something T-Mobile insist is a RIM thing not them.

The system works by checking for mail every 15 minutes, if it receives mail within this time period, then it will check again after only three minutes. If it receives mail in this time period then it will check again after another three minutes has passed. If however the 7100v doesn’t receive any mail it reverts back to the 15 minutes and continues like this.

Either way, three minutes isn’t that long, until you are waiting for an important email, after all you could boil an egg in the same time and that takes forever. What makes this slightly worse is that annoyingly you can’t force push the email, something which we think undermines the usability of the ideology.

[jibi]

The 15 minute intervals is a RIM network thing. you can setup forwarding for your gmail, yahoo, etc accounts to redirect their email to your BWC/BIS account, at which time it will be 'push' email.

Emails sent from these accounts will be sent from your BWC/BIS account. To circumvent this, search for a utility on here called BBReply, which allows you to setup multiple reply from addresses. Also, BWC has the option to set a reply from address.

POP'ing the email will be the least effective method of email delivery if you want it real-time. See above statement about forwarding.

The connection is as reliable as your wireless coverage.

The message will not download unless you open up the email header (it shows general info - Time, From, Subject).

MSN Messenger is only an option with a 3rd party application - VeriChat (http://www.verichat.com/verichat_bby/index.html) or IM+ (http://www.shapeservices.de/eng/im/) or WebMessenger (http://www.webmessenger.com).

Depending on your provider and if they have implemeneted BIS yet, you will have a good enough browser to do HTML and WML. It parses CSS and Javascript, as well as Flash and SVG. It handles basic browsing functions.

As for Minimo (if thats what you mean by Firefox Mobile), it is still in beta and is not supported on very many handhelds currently. I would imagine that it would be ported to J2ME at some point in the future.

[caractacus]

jibi, you're a star. That's a super answer.

Yes, I did mean Minimo - forget that it had a proper name!

[idencustom]

May i suggest looking at O2 and Vodafone, before getting into bed with Tmobile UK?

[ventmore]

May i suggest looking at O2 and Vodafone, before getting into bed with Tmobile UK?
What's wrong with T-Mobile UK?...I am with them now, and had a 7230 with them a few years ago, and have had no problems.

Ventmore

[caractacus]

May i suggest looking at O2 and Vodafone, before getting into bed with Tmobile UK?

I have, but T-mobile are the cheapest way to get the 7100. Vodafone have it on their business tariffs and at most of the places I've looked, the handset is free on the cheaper T-Mobile plans but costs on all but the most expensive 02 plans. But please point me in the way of cheap deals if you have any, on any network!

[tinkerhell]

I have, but T-mobile are the cheapest way to get the 7100. Vodafone have it on their business tariffs and at most of the places I've looked, the handset is free on the cheaper T-Mobile plans but costs on all but the most expensive 02 plans. But please point me in the way of cheap deals if you have any, on any network!

Until I switched from T-mob to Vodafone recently I didn't think I had a problem with coverage, but now I've switched, vodafone is loads better. You can get the vodafone 7100 as an individual customer no bother. I bought direct from them and paid half the advertised price for the handset, so I would suggest you at least talk to them about what they'll do for you before you write it off as an option.

[caractacus]

Until I switched from T-mob to Vodafone recently I didn't think I had a problem with coverage, but now I've switched, vodafone is loads better. You can get the vodafone 7100 as an individual customer no bother. I bought direct from them and paid half the advertised price for the handset, so I would suggest you at least talk to them about what they'll do for you before you write it off as an option.

I went to see Vodafone this morning, actually. The cheapest tariff they have (with 6MB data) comes to about £37 per month, plus another £50 for the phone. On T-mobile, I can get the handset for free at a £30 tariff including 50MB of data, plus six months of half price line rental. I had a bad experience with Vodafone last time I was with them, though I think that was more with Carphone Warehouse rather than Vodafone... Not too bothered about the coverage as I'm going to be almost exclusively urban. Was interested to see how light the 7100 is, though - much lighter than I thought it was going to be.