bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Danyll Wills

I have recently been intensively using GPRS to download e-mails. I have a Sony/Ericsson P800 and subscribe to Sunday. My e-mail account is with Netvigator. Receiving e-mail works fine, but sending it is a big problem.

When I am abroad and send e-mail through Netvigator's direct dial-up, I have to log on to an e-mail roaming site. Using my PC, this is a bit tedious, but it takes only a couple of seconds. Now with a mobile phone, this has really become a nuisance.

I have complained to both Sunday and Netvigator, but have not received a response I consider satisfactory.

I think Sunday should provide me with an simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) account for sending (as I pay HK$50 a month for the GPRS), but it does not and is unsure if it will in the future.

Netvigator said it had to keep the present log-in procedure or its SMTP server would be abused by non-customers. Why doesn't normal SMTP authentication suffice for Netvigator?

Is this all typical lack of consumer rights in Hong Kong (as was the case with SMS until a year or so ago), or is there a real technical reason for this? It strikes me as very odd indeed. Under such circumstances, what use is GPRS?

Joachim Isler
Central

After spam and Internet connection problems, most complaints Tech Talk receives concerns mobile services.

I contacted Mr Isler by phone and discovered that the problem had been solved. His company is small, with about 25 employees, and has its own mail server. Mr Isler asked his head of information technology (IT) if anything could be done. A system was set up that allowed Mr Isler and anybody else in the company to send and receive e-mail via a mobile phone.

The solution is not for everyone because it requires your own SMTP server. Mr Isler did mention that a friend of his solved a similar problem by joining Yahoo and accessing his e-mail through its service.

Another possible solution would be to check out the following site from Netvigator: imsroam01.netvigator. com:11111/login.html.

Netvigator prefers its customers to use a different SMTP mail server when sending e-mail from abroad. Normally, customers use 'mail.netvigator.com', but travellers must sign up for access to the following site, 'mail01.netvigator.com'.

In light of Mr Isler's problem, I checked out most major mobile-phone service providers and I was quite appalled at how bad their sites were. Many of them insist on Internet Explorer, they have far too much Flash and not enough information. I spoke to people who have been in the IT business for more than 20 years and they all said: 'The sites are rubbish. I cannot understand what they are trying to do.'

The reason is put down to laziness. It is simply easier to implement a bad Microsoft solution than to think through a standards-based, information-rich one.

It is time to fix things, I think.
Questions to Tech Talk will not be answered personally. 
E-mail Danyll Wills at techtalk@scmp.com




Accessing e-mail by mobile phone needs improving