how to have MobileMe without MobileMe?

[shecky]

MobileMe sounds great except for a few shortcomings, the biggest being the seeming inability to use my own domain (@myname.com) instead of @me.com for email. in most of the whining posts on here over the past couple of days, a lot of people say "well you can do all that without mobileme anyway."

so my question is exactly how? what services can i use to do this? in other words, how i can i have all the functionality of MobileMe without going thru MobileMe? i am defining this as:

1. push calendars wirelessly synced between iPhone and multiple macs.
2. push address book/contacts wirelessly synced between iphone and multiple macs.
3. push email wirelessly synched between iphone and multiple macs using my OWN domain (myname.com).
4. push notes/todos/bookmarks wirelessly synced between iphone and multiple macs.

#3 and #4 being the big ones it looks like MobileMe cannot do (other than bookmarks). i want to note the wireless sync is important, a tethered sync solution is not what i am looking for. the big plus with MobileMe is its seamlessness - i use iCal, Mail.app, Address Book, etc, already so this extends them in a way i find very appealing. another thing is that i love the idea of having the content in the cloud but (i assume it is) also in my computer(s) and iPhone so its still accessible even if there is no internet around (plane, in a cave, bomb shelter, etc..). strictly web-based solutions are not what i am looking for.

so, what are the options? i should note i do not have a problem paying for this functionality, but setting up my own Exchange server is not gonna happen 🙂

 

[Me1000]

Someone please correct me if I am wrong...

You would be required to run an exchange server on your web server. Then you could use your own domain.

I dont think there is any other way around it unless you can write your own apache extension (is that the right word?) and that would probably cost less (depending on what your time is worth to you)
😕

 

[vandozza]

you can hire/rent/subscribe to a shared exchange host.

http://www.intermedia.net/exchange-hosting/exchange-hosting.asp
http://www.lanlogic.net/exchange/2003-shared.asp

* I have no experience with either of the above companies, they are just the top search results from google, to illustrate what i'm talking about 🙂

basically your hosting is on an exchange server with several (maybe many) other businesses. i'm not sure if this is virtualised or how it is acheved, someone with experience using these services could probably tell us more. of course you can rent an entire server for your needs if your business/volume warrants this (but this is several hundred dollars per month!)

obvously the more users that require access, the more expensive it will be.

but if you google "hosted exchange server" you will find many options.

for a single user -
in Australia, it looks like it will cost $15-30/month

in the US it looks like around $10

 

[genew]

hosted exchange is one way to go

Hey there,

Full disclosure, I work at Lanlogic.

Hosted exchange is one option you could use. With the 2.0 software update or a brand new phone, ActiveSync technology is included. This allows you to use your iPhone to use push for email, contacts and calendar as well as some other stuff like Global Address List support and remote wipe in case your device is lost or stolen.

For your questions about syncing multiple Macs, we include full support for Entourage 2008 and mac mail and you can try it out free for 30 days with support by phone and email. If you have questions, call us!

Gene
www.lanlogic.net