Hotmail via GPRS

wheresmybeaver

Hey lads

Just wondering how well Hotmail works on new camera phones that have always-connected GPRS. I have a Nokia 8310 and I use it every now and again to connect (temp connection) to mobile.msn.com and check my hotmail. But it takes a while because you have to login to Passport each time you make a connection. I've seen somewhere that Hotmail uses cookies, so would I be right in thinking that with a permanent GPRS connection on a camera phone, you shouldn't have to login to Passport every time you wanna check your email, just every time you disconnect then reconnect to GPRS?

By the way, if you're interested, I found a way of getting Hotmail text alerts sent to my O2 bill phone. In mobile.msn.com (on a PC), select your phone as Other (with "texting capabilities": those americans are miles behind europe in mobilephone technology) And give your Phone Number/email address as your @o2.ie address. Set up hotmail alerts (in my case, it sends an alert to the o2 email address every time I get an email from one particular contact.. :-) ) Then you go to Email Alerts for your o2.ie address at www.o2.ie and set it up so that you receive a text notification if your O2 account receives a mail from "MSN [alert@mobile.msn.com]" (without quotes). It has to be this exactly or it won't work. So, every time you get an email from your chosen contact(s) in Hotmail, you get a text alert giving you the subject line and everything. Tada!

While I think of it, does a permanent GPRS connection drain the battery noticably.

Hope everyones having a nice Bank Holiday. The traffic from my front garden looks like its slow going.

seamus

Originally posted by wheresmybeaver
Hey lads

Just wondering how well Hotmail works on new camera phones that have always-connected GPRS. I have a Nokia 8310 and I use it every now and again to connect (temp connection) to mobile.msn.com and check my hotmail. But it takes a while because you have to login to Passport each time you make a connection. I've seen somewhere that Hotmail uses cookies, so would I be right in thinking that with a permanent GPRS connection on a camera phone, you shouldn't have to login to Passport every time you wanna check your email, just every time you disconnect then reconnect to GPRS?

Hotmail cookies expire, and afaik, there's nothing you can do about it. Try logging into hotmail from a PC, closing the window, and going back to it an hour later, it'll ask you to login again.

While I think of it, does a permanent GPRS connection drain the battery noticably.

Nope, it has no effect. You can't really think of an always on connection as one that always on like a phone line. GPRS is packet based, so when it wants to send data, it just fires it off. Aside from maybe checking periodically if it's in GPRS range, any extra drain on the battery should be minimal.

I've actually found that the time it takes the GX10 to establish the connection, is only marginally shorter than the time it takes to dialup for WAP.

wheresmybeaver

Yeah I forgot that Hotmail expire their cookies fairly quickly on the PC, I presume that applies to wap too. Cheers for that.

Also, I found this post at http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=18848&forum=14 that has settings for accessing Hotmail using your email client on your phone. (its the third post) Apparently its a middleman-server based in the UK. Anyone wanna check this out and see if it works? Looks like it could be more convenient. It was posted by someone based in ireland. Would there be any security issues using a "gateway" server to access your email?

My 8310 really takes its time establishing a GPRS connection, when I finally get one of the new generation of phones it'll be handier leaving it connected all the time. I don't trust myself to change the 8310's settings for a permanent connection, it sometimes does some odd things.

MiCr0

nokia phone's are renound for being very slow to connect over gprs