Synchronica mail gateway for iPhone: does it work?

One of the main reasons I held off on the iPhone (well....ordered, canceled and then bought) was my reliance upon hosted Exchange for my e-mail. Without a doubt in my mind, one of the compelling reasons to use Windows Mobile is the rock-solid native support for Exchange mail synchronization. To borrow a well-known phrase, "it just works". Seriously, it's that good. Much better than the ActiveSync experience of connecting to a PC. In any case, I figured there would be a workable option with the iPhone and my Exchange provider does support IMAP on Exchange, so from day one, I've been able to send & receive mail. Until this past weekend, that is. That's when I was glad to be in the Synchronica beta for the iPhone.

I'm not sure what happened at 4Smartphone (my hosted Exchange provider) over the weekend, but on Saturday, my mail stopped coming to the iPhone. I kept getting security errors and couldn't sync with the server at all. Turns out, it wasn't just me: Matt Miller and Ken, one of our readers, also had the same problem. The common denominator here is that we're all with 4Smartphone. My suspicion is that they're in the midst of migrating from Exchange 2003 to 2007 on the server side, but that's simply an educated guess.

So what's an iPhone-totin' Exchange e-mail junkie to do in a case like this? I had previously registered for a 60-day trial with Synchronica and simply switched mailboxes on the iPhone; you can have several configured and each can be turned "on" or "off" which is nice. I turned the 4Smartphone mailbox "off" and switched on the one I set up with Synchronica. Sure enough, if didn't know this was a different mailbox, you'd never see the difference. All of my folders were there along with the contents of each as needed.

Synchronica uses OWA, or Outlook Web Access, as a the conduit between the iPhone and Exchange. I found it simple to set up and it worked flawlessly yet a tad slower in retrieving mail. Using a web interface, it was a breeze to set up the account and once that was done, the mail started flowing. You won't get your contacts, tasks or appointments sent to your iPhone; this simply handles mail from the server, the same as if your server allowed for IMAP.

Looks like the demand for the beta is high: the company appears to be adding servers just to meet the demand for the beta. Pricing hasn't been announced that I know of, but until a native iPhone / Exchange solution comes around, Synchronica's Mobile Gateway is a viable solution. It worked for me exactly as advertised and when I needed it the most.

Comments

[bobm]

It looks interesting but doesn't seem to be setup for the solo user?

Did you see a price anywhere for the app?

[Kevin C. Tofel]

No price yet and it could be that Synchronica offers this to Exchanger providers and enterprises. I've seen no details yet on who they'll be selling this to or how much it will cost.

[David Reynolds]

You say it uses OWA, does that mean they have to know/cache my exchange credentials?

I guess I'm asking are my credentials secure, if they have them they could be used or compromised and I'd never know or be able to trace anyone logging into OWA as me directly, and that scares me...

[Kevin C. Tofel]

David, yes you have to provide your Exchange credentials for their gateway service. There's no way for them to be the conduit for your e-mail without. Agreed; it's a less than ideal situation and one that folks will have to evaluate if their Exchange provider doesn't offer IMAP support.

[David Reynolds]

well I have an iphone but I don't want to risk giving someone else my credentials without any control because I have stuff like online banking details etc do you know if activesync is coming soon for iphone ?

[Kevin C. Tofel]

David, no official word on Apple licensing Microsoft's ActiveSync yet but we're watching and waiting to see if it happens.

[jfl]

It's working for me, but sometimes really struggles to pull down anything other than the headers (even over wifi). I'm sure OTA EAS via HSDPA on the BlackJack left me a tad spoiled, but I've been tempted to go back to simply using OWA in the mobile Safari browser - it's probably faster for checking if not replying in my experience thus far.

[mk]

Looks like iPXSync.com also does this,
but also syncs Calendars, Folders and Tasks to the iPhone - sounds as good as true ActiveSync.

http://www.ipxsync.com

[Sean]

Synchronica is the real deal if your company has blocked out imap and pop access for security reasons. It works flawlessly!!! I can send and receive email as if I was using my company issued blackberry. Calendars and Tasks can not be synced even though they show up on the phone.