Help Forcing Email App to Not Use WiFi When Sending

[Stuntman]

I've checked the various forums and it appears that others have the same issue as I do. Basically, when I am connected to WiFi, I cannot send emails. When not connected to WiFi, I can send emails. This is a case for my email account with Shaw Cable (my home internet provider). I have no problems sending emails from my Hotmail account on WiFi or not.

The reason appears to be that my wireless carrier, Bell Canada, does not allow me to use my home internet provider's (Shaw Cable) SMTP server to send emails. If I am on WiFi on my home email, I can send emails via Shaw's SMTP server. If I am not on WiFi, I have to use my wireless carrier's (Bell) SMTP server to send emails. However, If I do this, when I use my WiFi at home, Shaw does not allow me to use Bell's SMTP server to send emails.

The way I can always send emails where ever I am is if my email app only uses my wireless carrier to send emails. The email app on my phone, the Desire Z, will always use WiFi if it is available. Only if WiFi is not available will it use my wireless carrier. I cannot seem to find a way to force my email app to only use my wireless carrier. If someone figured out otherwise, please let me know.

I have recently switched to an HTC Desire Z from a Nokia N97. When I had the N97 (which runs Symbian), I have always been able to send and receive email where ever I am. For web browsing, it uses WiFi if it is available and switches to my wireless carrier if not. I am very disappointed that it appears the Desire Z is not able to do the same (unless there is a way and I just haven't figured it out).

I have managed to figure out a workaround to my situation. If I send an email from my home, I will simply turn off WiFi. After sending my email, I'll turn WiFi back on. Although this works, this is just really combersome. Even though I'm at home, I do not always have my PC on to send emails and I am not going to wait several minutes for my PC to turn on so I can send an email. If it is a short email, I would rather reply via my phone rather than turn on my computer. Although manually toggling WiFi for sending emails is not too combersome, my expectation from a smartphone as advanced as the Desire Z is that I do not have to do that.

 

[Slug]

This is standard network security practice, I'm afraid. Very few ISPs nowadays allow mail servers outside their domain to relay mail to prevent their network being used for spamming.

My solution is to use Gmail on the handset, and configure it (via the Gmail web interface) to poll your email accounts and act as an aggregator. It can also be set up to show "From:" the original email when replying, if desired.

 

[Stuntman]

This is standard network security practice, I'm afraid. Very few ISPs nowadays allow mail servers outside their domain to relay mail to prevent their network being used for spamming.

Well, I have no issues with my Hotmail account. Just my Shaw account. Actually, it's Bell over Shaw. Hotmail over Shaw works without any issues. I figured that spamming is more prevalent on Hotmail than on Shaw. At least that is my experience. My Hotmail account was just filled with spam the first day I created it (although lately it's been quite clean).

My solution is to use Gmail on the handset, and configure it (via the Gmail web interface) to poll your email accounts and act as an aggregator. It can also be set up to show "From:" the original email when replying, if desired.

I'll play around with this when I get home tonight. I'm just not thrilled about having to manage a third email account. If this works seamlessly without having to manually toggle WiFi at home, I guess it could be a satisfactory solution. I like having all of my emails in one place though. If this works for my Shaw account, I guess I'll have to set it up for my Hotmail account as well.

My last phone was a Nokia and I did not have so many issues getting my email to work. I believe the email client on the Nokia always uses the carrier's network and does not switch to WiFi. On the Nokia I can set the connectivity on an application level instead of system wide.

 

[Stuntman]

My solution is to use Gmail on the handset, and configure it (via the Gmail web interface) to poll your email accounts and act as an aggregator. It can also be set up to show "From:" the original email when replying, if desired.

Thank you very much. This worked much better than I thought. I can keep my existing email accounts and can send and receive them from my phone.

 

[Slug]

Thank you very much. This worked much better than I thought.

Glad to help.

 

[Stuntman]

Just one thing I notices is that Gmail seems to poll my other email accounts inconsistently. I've had some emails appear in a matter of minutes and others that do not appear for hours. When I first set it up, I was sending emails back and forth to test it and it was fairly responsive. Then after I stopped sending my emails, I notices I had two overnight that did not appear in Gmail. Then this morning I had one appear about 15 minutes after it was sent. There does not appear to be any settings that allow me to control when and how often it polls the emails. I'm going to see how it works over the next few days.

 

[Slug]

Just one thing I notices is that Gmail seems to poll my other email accounts inconsistently.

Correct. It doesn't poll at set intervals, but seems to "learn" how often mail is received at a particular account and base the polling interval on that. No doubt there some super-complicated Google algorithm doing the work behind the scenes.

 

[Stuntman]

If it is able to figure out the best times to poll, that's OK. With the other email client, I set it up to not poll overnight so to not wake me up. I noticed my late night emails did not come through and was confused. It would have been nice to know the polling schedule, so I don't think something is wrong.