Wayne:

Instead of Live HotmaiI, I would be recommending Small Business Server to small business messaging customers. I does what it says on the packet !

1) SBS Exchange ActiveSync Push is bullet proof. I've never had a problem with unreliable Push Email on SBS Exchange.

2) I would not recommend automatically downloading email of more than 30,000 characters automatically. You can receive and view emails of this size and much bigger, but only after you manually download it. With the limited memory on all mobile devices, I recommend setting this to the minimum users can bare. e.g. 200 characters. If you have lots of large emails downloaded automatically the device quickly runs out of space. Having a large initial download will increase support calls.

3) I’ve never had a problem with Windows Mobile calendaring, can you describe the issue ?

Cheers Wayne

<shameless plug>

I am a Small business specialist so if you wanted info about setting up SBS, drop me a message on here

</shameless plug>

Hi Wayne,  Thanks for the feedback.

1) I agree that WM+Exchange(or SBS) = rock solid Push email.  But what about the Windows Live app for users that want push Hotmail(or Office Live SB email).  I don't know if I am alone, but I have found it far from bullet proof.  I have had consistent problems with emails being pushed on both an At&t Tilt, Verizon 6800, and Verizon 6900.  Sometimes emails come as push, but other times they do not.  I find myself forcing send and receive several times throughout the day in order to get emails that came in hours ago.  Has anyone else experienced this?

2) A year ago I would have agreed about device memory, but not anymore.  I can't think of a current WM device that has less than 128mb and many of the new phones come with 256+.  30,000 characters is less than 4kb.  The standard POP/IMAP client supports for entire message delivery and this makes a big difference for HTML email (especially for newsletter type messages, with lots of formatting and pics).  I would guess that this is Microsoft getting pushed around by carriers to cut down on network traffic.  Might be way off, but my guess.

3) Try viewing a Calendar Invite sent from Outlook to your Hotmail using the Windows Live app.  All you get is a blank message.  Luckily there is a work around if you have a premium Live Hotmail account, as you can also setup a standard pop account on your WM device.

 Great to be here Laura!  Awesome to find an active community for selling WinMo.

Me neither, I think the decision you need to make is whether this is business critical ! Windows Live Hotmail is a great service but it is not marketed a mission critical. If you are a retail user or small business and you need mission critical, I recommend signing up for a managed Exchange account with an ISP. Exchange has additional benefits,  such as managing battery life much better, and is defiantly aimed at mission critical customer.

davidc:

<shameless plug>

I am a Small business specialist so if you wanted info about setting up SBS, drop me a message on here

</shameless plug>

Thanks David, I might just take you up on that.

Wayne:

Thanks David, I might just take you up on that.

Certifications cost so much,  we might as well put it to good use!

Exchange vs BIS = Exchange hands down
Windows Live vs BIS = ehhhhh  I would say BIS if we are just talking Push Email

If Windows Live push email would start working just a little bit better, it would blow the BIS setup away.  OTA contact sync is awesome, and I am excited at the potential of a new Live Calendar sync.  I love that Windows Live allows me to get all of my personal contacts and keep them seperate from my Exchange work contacts. 

Just out of curiosity, am I alone in my Hotmail push problems?  I remember it used to work perfect a little over a year ago, and want to make sure that it isn't maybe something with my Hotmail account?

Mine has never pushed.. I have to manually send and recieve always have. My gmail, Yhaoo, and pop 3 accounts I have set to send and recieve every so often.

Have you got Windows Live for Windows Mobile installed?

I've been using Windows Live for a while, and on every device I've tried the client on, the "As items arrive" setting gets turned off.

Maybe I'm just having bad luck.

I'm not sure why this would be - I've used it on at least 3 devices now, and the sync schedule 'As Items Arrive' worked on all of them.

There is another setting to specify the Times during which this should happen - is this set to 'Always' ?

Thanks for your post, njmarchetti, and welcome. Others have responded to some of your issues, but I wanted to refer to the Windows Live for Windows Mobile release notes in case there's anything that might help you there. There are a few known issues with Hotmail sync on WM, and are currently being addressed. Below I've copied some of the known issues with sync:

Time to sync e-mail and contact takes a long time:
During setup for Windows Live for Windows Mobile or when you Switch Windows Live ID, syncing contacts with setup options enabled for "Store Windows Live contacts in your mobile phone's contact list" and "Merge duplicate contacts" can require more than 20 minutes to complete when there are 400 or more contacts.
Corrective action:
Unselect 'Merge duplicate contacts' during setup to improve performance. Do not cancel setup until the process is complete.

Sync fails for large inbox and 400 or more contacts:
During setup for Windows Live for Windows Mobile or when you Switch Windows Live ID, syncing mail with a large inbox or more than 400 contacts with setup options enabled for "Store Windows Live contacts in your mobile phone's contact list" and "Merge duplicate contacts" can appear to fail with the message "Synchronization Fails". No contacts will be available in the contacts application, but the sync process is running in the background and will eventually complete. Until the sync process completes, the device may operate slowly and some functionality will appear to be disabled.
Corrective action:
Do not cancel setup and allow the process to complete. Once the process is complete, contacts will be available in the contacts application.

Synchronization fails when creating and using a new Windows Live ID during setup:
If a new Windows Live ID is created during setup step '2/5' using "Get a Windows Live ID", synchronization will fail at '5/5' and after setup. When synchronization fails during setup, view errors will indicate "Personal settings: Failed to synchronize. E-mail: Windows Live Hotmail is temporarily unavailable. Please try again." After setup the sync status will indicate "Result: Windows Live Hotmail is temporarily unavailable. Please try again." Microsoft has identified this issue and is currently working to correct this temporary problem. The following corrective action is required until the issue is resolved.
Corrective action:
Sign in to Windows Live or Hotmail from a desktop computer and then sign out. Following attempts to synchronize or send/receive mail will be successful with Windows Live for Windows Mobile.

Synchronization fails with message "There is a problem with the server. Please try again later.":
During setup for Windows Live for Windows Mobile or when synchronizing e-mail, synchronization may fail with the message "There is a problem with the server. Please try again later." If this issue persists, it is likely to be a known problem where at least one e-mail in the inbox prevents the completion of the synchronization. Microsoft has identified this issue and is currently working to correct this temporary problem.
Corrective action:
From a desktop computer using Windows Live/Hotmail, move e-mail from your inbox to another folder and then trying synchronizing e-mail on your device again. If the synchronization is successful, one or more of the e-mail messages that you moved to another folder prevented the completion of the synchronization. If you wish to move your e-mail back to your inbox, you must determine the specific messages preventing synchronization and move each message to a non-sync folder or delete it.

It sounds as if we have a minor consensus on a Push issue with Live Hotmail. I'd like to forward this to our internal technical contacts and see if they have any additional information to share on troubleshooting or working around. I'd like your help with gathering some additional information, however.

So far, I've got AT&T and VZW noted as operators where this problem occurs, and I've got the Tilt and the Verizon 6800 and 6900 noted as devices with the issue. Are there any others we can add to either list? Also, is the sync issue occurring with WM 6 or 6.1?

Thanks - any additional info you can provide will definitely help our support contacts give as specific help as possible.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for taking the lead on this issue.  Here is some information from my experience with the problem:

Networks: At&t and VZW
Devices experienced on:  xv6800, xv6900, Att Tilt, 8525
OS versions:  WM 6 and 6.1

WL Versions: 
10.6.32.2100
10.6.33.0600
10.6.34.0800
10.6.0042.1900 (NO IM version)

I am currently using the xv6800 (MR1 official 6.1 ROM) with WL 10.6.0042.1900 (NO IM version) and having this problem.

 *Note:  I have used the same Live ID for all of my testing and am wondering if it could maybe be related to some issue with my Live ID.   I currently pay for the Premium Live Hotmail ($19.95/yr) and wonder if this in any way effects it.  Just thinking out loud.  It would be awesome if we can get this fixed!

Laura Rooke:

I'm not sure why this would be - I've used it on at least 3 devices now, and the sync schedule 'As Items Arrive' worked on all of them.

There is another setting to specify the Times during which this should happen - is this set to 'Always' ?

Ok I am about as sharp as a rubber ball. I just found the settings on widows live and BOOM!!! it is now pushing just fine. What would I do without you folks?

That's great - that was a simple one ! I like the simple ones !