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Any Email Service that is: 2GB+IMAP+PUSH+Desktop Client Accessible?

MBHockey

MBHockey

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 4, 2003
4,063
314
Connecticut
I'm trying to find a good solution for keeping my mail synced between my desktop client (Mail.app) and my iPhone. Gmail is not working out so great, needless to say.

Are there any email services out there that offer at least 2GB of storage, support IMAP, support PUSH, and are accessible by means other than a webmail interface?

Here's my short list of email services I've come across:

Gmail - Not IMAP, Not PUSH
Yahoo IMAP - Not accessible via desktop client (WTF?)
AOL - Not PUSH

That's all I've got so far -- does such an email service exist?
 
I dont think it supports push but i use .mac. It starts with 1gb but u can buy more upto 4 or 8gb i think.
 
I was a .Mac user for two years. It is horribly overpriced, so I opted not to renew this time around.
 
AIM/AOL does all of that except push, but it just seems so lame and there are very few option settings. I have not found a way to reply using a different address like you can do in gmail, for example. Hopefully Apple will update the .mac service soon.
 
I've recently switched my emails from .mac to 1&1 and have 2GB of storage, IMAP, IMAP IDLE (push) and is obviously compatible with mail.app.

Emails seem to push ok to my Nokia E61 but some users have reported problems. I do not know how well it would work on iPhone - would be curious to know if somebody has tried.

I am quite happy with the service which is slightly faster and syncs better than .mac. Also it costs only $6/year!
 
$6/year is for the domain product which includes a 2GB IMAP mailbox. Just click on the Domain tab.

$7/month is for the Microsoft Exchange product.
 
MBHockey said:
I see $6.99/month on that site. Where does it say $6/year?
Click to expand...
I think that is for ms exchange mail. Their own mail is $0.99/month, plus the domain registration that you must have (most are $5.99/year from their site). So the total cost is about $18/year.
 
danny_w said:
I think that is for ms exchange mail. Their own mail is $0.99/month, plus the domain registration that you must have (most are $5.99/year from their site). So the total cost is about $18/year.
Click to expand...

You only need to pay .99/month if you want more than 1 email account. The domain registration service comes with one 2GB email account.
 
jpl88 said:
You only need to pay .99/month if you want more than 1 email account. The domain registration service comes with one 2GB email account.
Click to expand...
Yes, sorry, I missed that. However, to be really useful for a family you would need to add the extra email package for 5 accounts plus the spam filtering if needed.
 
Oh i see it. Is there any way to test it out? I don't see anything about a trial period, or anything about PUSH either.
 
MBHockey said:
Oh i see it. Is there any way to test it out? I don't see anything about a trial period, or anything about PUSH either.
Click to expand...

I don't think there's a trial period. Purchase is linked to the purchase of the domain and I don't think these are cancelable.
The Push functionality is enabled by the IDLE command that's an optional part of the IMAP protocol.
You can check if an IMAP server supports IDLE by opening Terminal and typing telnet "imap server" 143 and then entering "001 capability"

For example:

Jeremys-Macbook:~ Jeremy$ telnet imap.1and1.com 143
Trying 74.208.5.6...
Connected to imap.1and1.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK IMAP server ready H mius11 42669
001 capability
* CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID STARTTLS CHILDREN QUOTA IDLE NAMESPACE UIDPLUS AUTH=LOGIN AUTH=PLAIN
001 OK CAPABILITY finished.​

1&1's Push works on my E61 but I've not tried it long enough to say it works reliably. Nor do I know how it will work on an iPhone.

A lot of IMAP users swear by Fastmail. A 2GB box costs $40/year and it also supports IDLE. They have a free account for you to try.
 
MBHockey said:
Yahoo IMAP - Not accessible via desktop client (WTF?)
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, would you be willing to try MacFreePOPs? That'll get your Yahoo e-mail on the desktop computer. It is a POP client, though, and not IMAP.

Right now, my Mail.app setup is...

Work e-mail = IMAP
School e-mail = POP (actually basically forwarded to Work right now, and could also be IMAP instead)
AOL = IMAP
GMail = POP
Yahoo = POP via MacFreePOPs
NetZero = POP via MacFreePOPs
Hotmail = POP via MacFreePOPs

Now I'm getting a Blackberry this weekend (no iPhone, sigh), but... my plan was to do this on the BB:

Work = IMAP
School = IMAP
AOL = IMAP
GMail = POP w/ "RECENT"
Yahoo = IMAP Push
Netzero = skip
Hotmail = skip (no support for Hotmail because of T-Mobile commercial issue)

That should be fine, since I never receive e-mail via netzero anymore, and rarely via Hotmail. The question mark was how Yahoo being essentially POP (sort of) on the computer and IMAP on the BB will work out?
 
I have ben with Fastmail since 2003, and have never looked back.

I would say to give them a try. You'll be glald you did.

jpl88 said:
I don't think there's a trial period. Purchase is linked to the purchase of the domain and I don't think these are cancelable.
The Push functionality is enabled by the IDLE command that's an optional part of the IMAP protocol.
You can check if an IMAP server supports IDLE by opening Terminal and typing telnet "imap server" 143 and then entering "001 capability"

For example:

Jeremys-Macbook:~ Jeremy$ telnet imap.1and1.com 143
Trying 74.208.5.6...
Connected to imap.1and1.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK IMAP server ready H mius11 42669
001 capability
* CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID STARTTLS CHILDREN QUOTA IDLE NAMESPACE UIDPLUS AUTH=LOGIN AUTH=PLAIN
001 OK CAPABILITY finished.​

1&1's Push works on my E61 but I've not tried it long enough to say it works reliably. Nor do I know how it will work on an iPhone.

A lot of IMAP users swear by Fastmail. A 2GB box costs $40/year and it also supports IDLE. They have a free account for you to try.
Click to expand...
 
Is push really needed?

Many web mail services can query your account every 5 minutes.

If this is acceptable, you might have a few more options available to you.
 
Yahoo Mail is the only mail service available for the iPhone that does Push.

Until this gets better, my solution is to send a COPY of my mail (using GoDaddy) to Yahoo Push Mail. For sending mail (don't do a lot of it on the iPhone) I use Mobile Web Mail from GoDaddy so that I can send with my ReplyTo Address. iPhone Mail Client does not allow you to change the ReplyTo (From) address. Also, if you are using the free Yahoo Mail to send mail it adds an advertising link.

I would be happy to pay Yahoo for Mail if I would get IMAP PUSH within Outlook on my desktop so that my iPhone and Outlook could be in SYNC.

Maybe in the future.
 
if you have to check your email that often then why don't you just keep opening the app on your phone? i mean if 15 mins doesn't work for you then, just check your phone all the time.
 
Radam said:
if you have to check your email that often then why don't you just keep opening the app on your phone? i mean if 15 mins doesn't work for you then, just check your phone all the time.
Click to expand...

I think the trick is that there are people who need to be notified immediately when e-mail arrives, but who actually do have gainful employment and better things to do with their time than to watch paint dry...erm...their inbox. ;)
 
jtrwallace said:
I just got a 1&1 domain because of this thread and I am very happy about it :) I have to say the most exciting thing is this: My original e-mail address is: jtrwallace@mac.com . My 1&1 e-mail is this: mac@jtrwallace.com . I just thought that was really cool to have it backwards haha. For 6 bucks, that was totally worth it.
Click to expand...


So does your 1&1 e-mail using IMAP do push on the iPhone? Do you get instant notification while at the home screen with the phone locked at varying intervals?
 
PhatBoyG said:
So does your 1&1 e-mail using IMAP do push on the iPhone? Do you get instant notification while at the home screen with the phone locked at varying intervals?
Click to expand...

1&1 (and pretty much every email provider that supports push) uses the IMAP IDLE extension to push email which is not supported in tiger or the iPhone (at least not while at the home screen)
 
jpl88 said:
1&1 (and pretty much every email provider that supports push) uses the IMAP IDLE extension to push email which is not supported in tiger or the iPhone (at least not while at the home screen)
Click to expand...

Right now, I'm not too impressed with 1&1. It's not as snappy as I was hoping.
 
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