Tips & Tricks

PushEffect: Can't use @ symbol as signal pattern or text messages split

Sometimes messages sent through your cellular carrier's SMS gateway are stripped of any unique signal patterns (like your mail server's account name) or they are split into two separate text messages. You can get around this by using the fastmail email service as a "notification" server for your original email account. Fastmail allows you to choose which format is used to forward a message to another email address.

First, go to www.fastmail.fm, setup and purchase a "Member" account (one time fee). From your new fastmail account choose Options from the menu at the top of the screen, then choose Define Rules, then choose Forwarding. Scroll down to the entry form and enter or choose these options in the following fields:

Message with:
From

That:
Contains

The text:
@

Forward to:
5153349876@txt.att.net (enter your phone's unique SMS email address)

Forward type:
Forward notifiction only

Del:
(check the box)

(click the Update button)

Next, log in to your original email account and forward a copy of all messages to your new fastmail account. When fastmail receives a message from your original email account, it should now forward a consistantly formatted notification text message to your phone. Send a test email message to your original email account and look at the notification text message (sent by fastmail) received on your phone to find a unique signal pattern (you should usually see your fastmail account name in either the sender or body area). Enter this unique signal pattern in the appropriate field (sender area or body area) on the account settings screen for your ORIGINAL email account in PushEffect. Now whenever PushEffect sees this notification text message from fastmail, it should cause Messaging to download messages from your ORIGINAL email account.

Using PushEffect with AOL & AIM or Email Servers which Can't Forward:

Please Note: This procedure can be used for AOL and AIM email servers as well as most other email servers which have no automatic forwarding feature.

Although AOL email servers cannot automatically forward all new mail received to another email address (yourcellnumber@yourcellprovider.com) or send SMS notifications, it is still possible to use PushEffect with AOL & AIM email accounts for automatic message retrieval using the following workaround procedure. Using this workaround, new email messages may take slightly longer to reach your device compared to using other non-AOL mail servers.

Since PushEffect already works great with Gmail, you can use Gmail's automatic "fetch" feature to first grab a copy of new messages from your AOL account at periodic intervals, then send an SMS signal to PushEffect to trigger the bult in Messaging application on your device to download new messages directly from the AOL server. This guide assumes PushEffect is already installed on your device and you are able to manually download messages from your existing AOL account using the built in Messaging application.

First, setup a free email account at gmail.com. Login to your new Gmail account and go to Settings then the Accounts tab. Choose the 3rd option from the top to "Get Mail from Other Accounts". Here, you will setup Gmail to "fetch" new mail from your AOL account. You will need to know your AOL login name (which is the part before the @ symbol in your AOL address), your AOL email password, as well as the AOL email server address which is:

imap.aol.com

Choose the option to keep mail on the AOL server. More detailed Gmail mail fetching information can be found here.

After your new Gmail account is setup to "fetch" a copy of new mail from your AOL account, follow the standard SMS forwarding procedure for Gmail or any other email server found in the PushEffect User Guide.

Next, on your device and in the PushEffect application, choose your AOL email account and enter a unique signal pattern found in the SMS notification message SENT FROM YOUR GMAIL ACCOUNT (typically your gmail account name, etc.).

Gmail fetches mail from external accounts like AOL at periodic intervals. The interval is determined automatically by Gmail depending on how often new mail is received at your AOL account. The more often you receive mail at AOL, the more often it will be fetched by Gmail and retrieved using PushEffect.

If everything is setup correctly, the Gmail fetching and notification operation should happen in the background and new messages from AOL should be retrieved by your device automatically using PushEffect (within a several minutes of them arriving at AOL), without the need for a scheduled or manual Send/Receive from the Messaging application.

Using PushEffect with basic Yahoo, MSN, and Hotmail accounts:

It may be possible to use PushEffect with basic (free) Yahoo, MSN, Windows Live, and Hotmail accounts. Some of these webmail services, in their basic free forms, have the ability to send text message notifications to devices when a new message arrives on the server. However, without upgrading a free account to a premium (paid) account, messages cannot be retrieved using POP3 or IMAP access with the built in Messaging application.

We discovered a web-based service called IzyMail which provides standard POP3 access (with a nominal fee) for free Yahoo, MSN, Windows Live, and Hotmail accounts from a Windows Mobile device. We tested PushEffect using this service with a free Hotmail account (text message notification turned on) and it seemed to work. Check it out by visiting the link below. Please note: QoreFunctions, PushEffect and our affiliates are not associated in any way with IzyMail.

http://v3.izymail.com

Place a Copy of Outgoing Messages in the Sent Folder on the Mail Server:

Please note, this technique applies to the SmartPhone version of Messaging only. If you want to keep a copy of outgoing messages in the Messaging Sent mail folder AND the Sent mail folder on your mail server, first make sure the option is checked to Save copies of sent items on the Sending options screen in the Messaging application. Next, display the inbox of the account in Messaging. Press the Menu button and choose Folders. When in the folder list press Menu again and choose Manage Folders. Move the cursor down to the Sent mail folder then press the right Sync button. Press Done, then select your inbox again. Now, whenever you send a message from your device, a copy of the message will also be placed in the Sent mail folder of your email server.