Doing e-mail via GPRS

by Volker Weber

trafficstat.png

While I was at CeBIT I checked my e-mail with VersaMail on the Treo 650. I did not fall for one of the WAP flat rates, since I heard that they are all but unusable on the Treo. I also did not want to try GPRS without knowing how much traffic I was using. At 9 ct per 10 kByte this can get out of hand rather quickly. It turns out that I did not need more than roughly one Euro a day.

The Treo does not have a traffic monitor (GPRS seems to be unmetered in the US) so I had to use TrafficStat:

TrafficStat should work with any PalmOS based device (version 3.5 and up) and with any connection type. This includes Handspring Treo 270, 180, 300, 600, 650 with wireless connection, Palm V with PPP over infrared or serial, Kyocera QCP smartphone, etc.

It turns out that I needed about 100 kByte a day. Since my provider has a 10 MByte data plan for 10 Euro (or 5 for 8), I could get mobile email for that amount and still have some volume left. Your mileage may vary considerably. I am successfully filtering all spam messages and I am only downloading messages up to 4k via IMAP. The full message and the attachment remain on the server.

I still think that 10 Euro for 10 meg is outrageous. But at least it works a whole lot better than checking mail in a 5 Euro WAP flat.

Comments

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

vowe

Paypal vowe