Anyone use a Microsoft Exchange account on their iPhone?

[slugg]

Is it any good? Do emails actually get pushed (like MobileMe), or does it still poll every 15 minutes? Do contacts, calendars, and other things get synced correctly? Anything else you'd like to share?

Before I plunge into an Exchange server, I'd like to hear of others' experiences.

Thanks!

 

[Kmax82]

Why are you going to use Exchange?

I have to use Exchange because my ancient IT dept at work says that we do, but I would choose an IMAP setup hand and fist above Exchange, personally.

Anyway, to answer your questions, the mail is indeed pushed. I usually get the mail on my phone before I get it through Entourage, but I think that has more to do with that fact that I have Entourage set to check for mail every 5 minutes. Overall, it's a decent experience. I don't use the contacts, calendars, etc.. to their full potential, since I hate Exchange.. but the email works well enough for me to use it. The one thing that does bug me, but this could be my IT dept's settings in Exchange, but emails older than 5 days don't show up on my phone. I can't even use the new 3.0 search to find them. Yet this works just fine via Gmail and MobileMe. So I'm not sure why that is...

Anyway.. good luck.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

I thought the only way to get push is with yahoo, exchange or mobile me. Are you saying you get push email with gmail IMAP?

 

[slugg]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
Why are you going to use Exchange?

I have to use Exchange because my ancient IT dept at work says that we do, but I would choose an IMAP setup hand and fist above Exchange, personally.

Anyway, to answer your questions, the mail is indeed pushed. I usually get the mail on my phone before I get it through Entourage, but I think that has more to do with that fact that I have Entourage set to check for mail every 5 minutes. Overall, it's a decent experience. I don't use the contacts, calendars, etc.. to their full potential, since I hate Exchange.. but the email works well enough for me to use it. The one thing that does bug me, but this could be my IT dept's settings in Exchange, but emails older than 5 days don't show up on my phone. I can't even use the new 3.0 search to find them. Yet this works just fine via Gmail and MobileMe. So I'm not sure why that is...

Anyway.. good luck.

So why exactly do you hate Exchange?

Anyways... I might switch to a Windows based web host that includes Exchange. I also think that MobileMe is a big piece of garbage. I cant use it natively with my own email address (non @me.com) and I hate the idea of Apple owning my email address. Currently I have a really ghetto forwarding setup to use MobileMe with my Gmail account.

 

[Kmax82]

Sorry, I didn't mean to turn it into a bashing of Exchange. I just really hate the price, the fact that it's mainly only supported by Office for Mac (which I think is a dog of a program) and the server seems like it constantly goes down. This just might be my crappy IT dept who doesn't know what they're doing, though.

If you're getting a hosted account it's not as big of a deal. I thought you were hosting your own Exchange server, which seemed extreme. A hosted setup is the way to go with Exchange, since you don't have to maintain any of it.

Overall, it's a fairly seemless process. You shouldn't have any issues.

 

[DnetMHZ]

I have my work email set up on my iPhone and it works great. I actually get messages on my phone BEFORE they even pop into Outlook.
I haven't enabled the calendar/contacts sync because I want to keep my personal contacts on the phone instead of my exchange info.

I have the misfortune of supporting Blackberry devices at work and the iPhone is a DREAM compared to Blackberry/BES

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: DnetMHZ
I have my work email set up on my iPhone and it works great. I actually get messages on my phone BEFORE they even pop into Outlook.

Same here

 

[ItsPat]

I've been using it for a year on my iPhone connected to Exchange. Works great. Calendar, Appointments, Contacts, E-mail all sync flawlessly.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: DnetMHZ
I have my work email set up on my iPhone and it works great. I actually get messages on my phone BEFORE they even pop into Outlook.

Same here

This. I just wish it could sync the sub-folders. I wonder why that is so hard for these companies to figure out.

 

[NaOH]

Works 100% fine for me. Use it everyday.

 

[IHAVEAQUESTION]

Last time I tried MS Exchange to sync with my Google contacts, it dumped all the google contacts onto my iPhone. These contacts are really just email addresses saved by Gmail. So how do you go about doing this? Currently, I am saving all contacts locally on my Win 7, but I'd like to sync wirelessly with Google Contact if possible.

 

[lokiju]

I use it and two gmail accounts also on my iPhone with no issues.

Mail comes through before my Outlook client most of the time. Calenders and contacts sync perfectly also.

You get the added bonus of making contact groups when using Exchange/Outlook/Entourage.