puters of bromley | it solutions | technical support

Puters can advise on a range of mobiles that enable you to send and receive email and access network resources while away from the office. A SIM card inside the device gives a permanent connection to the Internet. Unlike a traditional voice tariff, you are only charged for data that is transferred between the device and the Internet. We recommend T-Mobile which offers 3Gb of data for a monthly charge of about £25 + VAT on a year’s contract.

For connecting a laptop, we sell a T-Mobile PCMCIA card or USB adapter. These are fitted with a SIM and can operate at speeds of up to 1.8Mb. If you attempt to connect from an area that isn’t yet enabled for high-speed access, then the card will automatically switch to GPRS at 60k. These cards give a high-speed internet connection which can be used for email, web browsing and VPN access for a fixed monthly fee.

If you would like the convenience of a handheld computer (PDA) that can send and receive email, synchronise your Microsoft Outlook folders and carry out some of the basic functions of your PC, then you have a choice of a device that runs a familiar looking operating system in Microsoft Windows Mobile or a Blackberry offering similar functionality but a proprietary operating system.

If your server runs Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or above, it can synchronise with a PDA running Windows Mobile 5 or 6. The server will need to have a security certificate and the PDA will need to be on a data tariff with a mobile telecoms provider. There are two types of device available; either a smartphone - which is a similar size to a mobile phone - or a larger PDA which can also act as phone but is easier to operate due to its size. The Windows Mobile operating system has a familiar look and feel to a PC operating system.

The Blackberry device runs its own operating system that has been specifically designed to for use on a PDA. Blackberrys are very easy to use, well built and attractively styled. Again these use a SIM card to connect to the mobile network and you have a choice of two tariffs. The cheaper Internet Mail tariff is suitable for POP3 based email or for forwarding email from a Microsoft Exchange server. The drawback with this method is that mail isn’t synchronised back. For example, if you were to delete 5 messages from your Blackberry, these messages would still be in Outlook when you returned to the office. For a fully synchronised solution, your device needs to be on the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) tariff and your Exchange server needs to have the BES software loaded.

We can advise you on the most suitable device and tariff for your business and set up your servers to provide a fully functional remote email system.

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