*** Based on the feedback I've received (see below), most people think that this is a bad idea because it potentially compromises email security. Continue at your peril ....
If your using outlook/exchange, but your company won't enable activesync, here's the best workaround. It requires an application (Mailshadow for Google Apps, free to try $30 for a one year license) and the free www.nuevasync.com. Both are beta, so use at your own risk.
FYI - I have no affiliation at all with either company. I'm a lawyer at a firm in Boston. AFAIK, my law firm has no connection with these companies either.
STEPS:
1. On your work computer, download Mailshadow for Google Apps from Cemephore (http://www.cemaphore.com/mailshadow_g.php). It's 60 days to try and $30 for a one year license. Once configured, it keeps your outlook calendar, contacts, email, and email folders completely synced with a gmail account. It doesn't work completely as advertised, but it's supposed to sync emails, read/unread marks, foldering, deletions, etc.
2. Sign up for an account at nuevasync.com and set it up to push your gmail contacts and calendar. Then set up nuevasync as an exchange account on your iphone -- calendar and contacts from outlook should now push to your iphone.
3. Set up your work account as an imap on your iphone. Use gmail for the incoming imap server, and use an outgoing smtp server that allows you to send from your work address. I use comcast as Gmail does not really allow this. Set this to fetch every 15 minutes, or jailbreak and set it to fetch more frequently. [Nuevasync's website says there going to add imap email support soon, which would make this a true push solution]. Also set up your iphone to bcc you when you send an email and then set up an outlook rule to move emails from you to the sent email folder.
TIPS:
1. I recommend setting up a virgin gmail account for this solely to be used for your work account.
2. Mailshadow runs in the background, so it requires you to have outlook running at all times. I borrowed a switch and an old pc from the IT folks, and have the pc under my desk, running outlook 24/7. I access the pc via windows RDC. Mailshadow was causing outlook to crash every so often, but I disabled all of the add-ins that my company installs in outlook and now it works much better. I also set the computer to reboot every morning at 1 am, and I use TweakUI (free from microsoft) to automatically log me in. I also downloaded the freeware windaeomon (http://www.webexcavator.com/WindowsDaemon.php), which monitors outlook and restarts it if it crashes.
3. Mailshadow gives you the option to set how many days of your emails are synced to the gmail account. I would start out small and test it out. I have it set to do only 3 days and it works pretty well. I have no idea how it would work if you tried 30 days or longer.
MY RESULTS:
Contacts & Calendar. With a few bugs, my contacts and calendar get pushed from outlook/exchange to my iphone and from my iphone to my outlook/exchange almost instantly. I've had a few issues with duplicated events, but it works pretty well. There have been times when nuevasync was down, so calendar and contacts pushed from outlook to gmail, but not to the iphone. Also gmail had some issues yesterday that caused some delays. But nothing major.
Email. Works ok. Most of the deletes and foldering from my iphone are synced back to outlook/exchange. Some don't. Folder and deletes from outlook aren't always synced back to gmail.
Mailshadow creates labels in gmail to match your outlook folders, but be careful with this. Deleting a label in gmail simply removes the label, but deleting a fodler in outlook deletes the folder and all of the emails in it. I;ve had some issues with changing the name of a folder in outlook and then having both the old and new folder show up in gmail.
WARNINGS:
1. This is probably against your company's policies and could get you in trouble/fired. If they disable activesync, it's probably for a reason (maybe not a good one, but a reason). I ran this by my local IT approval to let them know what I was doing. You may want to do the same if you think they'll be cool with it.
2. Backup your outlook pst file first, in case something goes horribly wrong.
3. It's not foolproof, so if you really rely on emails, make sure you have a backup plan. I have two: first, I keep my old blackberry in my bag, in case I need it. Second, I set up a server side rule in outlook that forwards my mail to a yahoo account. I keep this account turned off on my iphone, but it's there if I need it.
Post any questions -- I've been tweaking this setup since I came across Mailshadow on Saturday night.
If your using outlook/exchange, but your company won't enable activesync, here's the best workaround. It requires an application (Mailshadow for Google Apps, free to try $30 for a one year license) and the free www.nuevasync.com. Both are beta, so use at your own risk.
FYI - I have no affiliation at all with either company. I'm a lawyer at a firm in Boston. AFAIK, my law firm has no connection with these companies either.
STEPS:
1. On your work computer, download Mailshadow for Google Apps from Cemephore (http://www.cemaphore.com/mailshadow_g.php). It's 60 days to try and $30 for a one year license. Once configured, it keeps your outlook calendar, contacts, email, and email folders completely synced with a gmail account. It doesn't work completely as advertised, but it's supposed to sync emails, read/unread marks, foldering, deletions, etc.
2. Sign up for an account at nuevasync.com and set it up to push your gmail contacts and calendar. Then set up nuevasync as an exchange account on your iphone -- calendar and contacts from outlook should now push to your iphone.
3. Set up your work account as an imap on your iphone. Use gmail for the incoming imap server, and use an outgoing smtp server that allows you to send from your work address. I use comcast as Gmail does not really allow this. Set this to fetch every 15 minutes, or jailbreak and set it to fetch more frequently. [Nuevasync's website says there going to add imap email support soon, which would make this a true push solution]. Also set up your iphone to bcc you when you send an email and then set up an outlook rule to move emails from you to the sent email folder.
TIPS:
1. I recommend setting up a virgin gmail account for this solely to be used for your work account.
2. Mailshadow runs in the background, so it requires you to have outlook running at all times. I borrowed a switch and an old pc from the IT folks, and have the pc under my desk, running outlook 24/7. I access the pc via windows RDC. Mailshadow was causing outlook to crash every so often, but I disabled all of the add-ins that my company installs in outlook and now it works much better. I also set the computer to reboot every morning at 1 am, and I use TweakUI (free from microsoft) to automatically log me in. I also downloaded the freeware windaeomon (http://www.webexcavator.com/WindowsDaemon.php), which monitors outlook and restarts it if it crashes.
3. Mailshadow gives you the option to set how many days of your emails are synced to the gmail account. I would start out small and test it out. I have it set to do only 3 days and it works pretty well. I have no idea how it would work if you tried 30 days or longer.
MY RESULTS:
Contacts & Calendar. With a few bugs, my contacts and calendar get pushed from outlook/exchange to my iphone and from my iphone to my outlook/exchange almost instantly. I've had a few issues with duplicated events, but it works pretty well. There have been times when nuevasync was down, so calendar and contacts pushed from outlook to gmail, but not to the iphone. Also gmail had some issues yesterday that caused some delays. But nothing major.
Email. Works ok. Most of the deletes and foldering from my iphone are synced back to outlook/exchange. Some don't. Folder and deletes from outlook aren't always synced back to gmail.
Mailshadow creates labels in gmail to match your outlook folders, but be careful with this. Deleting a label in gmail simply removes the label, but deleting a fodler in outlook deletes the folder and all of the emails in it. I;ve had some issues with changing the name of a folder in outlook and then having both the old and new folder show up in gmail.
WARNINGS:
1. This is probably against your company's policies and could get you in trouble/fired. If they disable activesync, it's probably for a reason (maybe not a good one, but a reason). I ran this by my local IT approval to let them know what I was doing. You may want to do the same if you think they'll be cool with it.
2. Backup your outlook pst file first, in case something goes horribly wrong.
3. It's not foolproof, so if you really rely on emails, make sure you have a backup plan. I have two: first, I keep my old blackberry in my bag, in case I need it. Second, I set up a server side rule in outlook that forwards my mail to a yahoo account. I keep this account turned off on my iphone, but it's there if I need it.
Post any questions -- I've been tweaking this setup since I came across Mailshadow on Saturday night.
