Push Hotmail

[sitlet]

I know this has been discussed before, but I am looking to get an Android phone soon, coming from windows mobile, and have a few questions about getting email. With WinMO, there's an app to make hotmail push to my phone instantly, even though hotmail doesnt natively support push. From what I've read on here, the standard email app doesnt work with push from hotmail. But I really need to get this to work. I use my hotmail for my work, since my work server sucks. Frequently thoughout the day, everyone at work will get emails about upcoming work, and basically whoever responds first gets the job. So having the phone check every 5 minutes wont do for me, since the job will probably already be taken.

I have read about having gmail check the hotmail, but from what I can see, it will only poll every 5 minutes or so as well. I also heard about the K9 app, but from what I have read, it has some problems with hotmail. So, since I dont have an android to play with yet, for those of you who use K9 to push hotmail, how does it work?

Are there any other options to get this to work? I've heard about setting up hotmail as an exchange server instead of an email server, but I'm not sure how that will work. So any advice would be appreciated. And btw, I've been lurking here and found a ton of information, and this is what made me decide to go android with my next phone, so thanks to everyone here.

 

[Little Darwin]

Why not switch your email to gmail? I'm sure it will take some transition time where you need to check both, but if you buy into the google/gmail and ensure each phone you get uses it, you should be good for a long time.

I'll admit I hate the "discussions" grouping, but I love the push.

I had 4 different email accounts, and I have been eliminating or minimizing all except gmail.

 

[jimdroid]

Yes, I too would switch to gMail.

You can also forward HotMail to gMail; in my experience, forward time is pretty good, but since it's to critical for you, you might want to test it thoroughly before switching over to it.

.02

 

[gruss]

Yeah forwarding is your best option as that would ave very little lag. Then set up the pop on the phone too so you can respond with that email. Only other option would be a blackberry.

 

[brykins]

Don't think it's possible for forward a free Hotmail account. And I *think* that polling the Hotmail POP3 servers is limited to every fifteen minutes (I get errors in my K-9 Mail log if I poll more frequently than that).

For real instant Hotmail, WinMo or Blackberry is the only way.

 

[jimdroid]

Don't think it's possible for forward a free Hotmail account. And I *think* that polling the Hotmail POP3 servers is limited to every fifteen minutes (I get errors in my K-9 Mail log if I poll more frequently than that).

For real instant Hotmail, WinMo or Blackberry is the only way.

I forward my free Hotmail account.

.02

 

[brykins]

jimdroid - how do you forward your free Hotmail account? Is it *real* forwarding done at the Hotmail end (so instant forward) or is it being pulled by your Google account (so actually polling)?

 

[sitlet]

Thanks for all the replies. I did figure out how to forward everything from hotmail. There is a setting in the More Options box. It worked fairly well, only took a few more seconds to get from hotmail to gmail, so I think that will work good enough for now. The only problem is, there is no way to know what emails cam from hotmail, and what ones were sent directly to gmail.

 

[brykins]

Help! I just went into the forwarding option and Hotmail won't allow me to forward to an @gmail.com or an @googlemail.com address. I get an error saying: "You're only able to forward mail to a custom domain or an e-mail address that ends in hotmail.com, msn.com, or live.com. Please try again."

 

[sitlet]

hmm, I went to Options - More Options, then Forward Mail To Another E-mail Account. There was two options, Forward and Don't forward, then an email box. I didn't have a problem with it going to my gmail. Is your account an @hotmail.com or an @live.com? Also, I have had my hotmail account for probably 12 years now, so I may be "grandfathered" in to any rules they may have just made.

 

[brykins]

Hmmm....mine is a hotmail.co.uk address so that *may* be the issue. Had it about six years or so I think.

 

[jimdroid]

brykins, yes, could be a .uk issue, as it's readily apparent in my version (US).

 

[jimdroid]

Thanks for all the replies. I did figure out how to forward everything from hotmail. There is a setting in the More Options box. It worked fairly well, only took a few more seconds to get from hotmail to gmail, so I think that will work good enough for now. The only problem is, there is no way to know what emails cam from hotmail, and what ones were sent directly to gmail.

Use a filter in Gmail to label the messages that came from hotmail: match those gMails that came from <youraccount>@hotmail.com and apply a label "Hotmail." Works really well.