We’ve just changed our SMS gateway for delivery to non-US/Canada numbers. The intent is that this will provide faster, more reliable, and eventually cheaper SMS delivery.
For more information see this forum post.
Looking for help: iPhone and push email
July 11, 2007 — Rob MuellerOne of the great things about the original reports of the iPhone is that it was supposed to support push email. Even better was when they said that it would support push via Yahoo using IMAP. People assumed this would be done via the IMAP IDLE extension, so any IMAP server supporting IDLE would allow push email. Since our IMAP server supports IDLE, we thought that this would work great with FastMail.
Since the iPhone has been released however, there been some confusion. Users trying the iPhone with a standard IMAP server with IDLE support haven’t been getting the instant notifications unless the Mail application is actually running and active on the screen. There’s been some reports that they’re actually using P-IMAP, a bunch of extensions to IMAP designed to help mobile phones.
To try and work out what’s actually going on, we’re trying to get our hands on an actual TCP level protocol dump to compare a standard IMAP connection with a Yahoo IMAP connection. To do this, we need the help of someone who:
- Has an iPhone
- Has both a FastMail and paid Yahoo Mail account
- Has access to a linux based WiFi router (e.g. Linksys WRT54G) that they can run tcpdump on to get a packet dump from
If you’ve got the above, a reasonable technical knowledge of linux, and some time to help out, please contact me at robm@fastmail.fm
New folders screen on beta server
July 11, 2007 — Rob MuellerWe’re currently trialing a new folder screen on the beta server. To try it out, just login at http://www.fastmail.fm/beta/, and click on the (Edit/Refresh) link at the top of the folder list on the left hand side of the mailbox screen.
The new folder screen is designed to solve a number of issues.
- Creating a new folder is now quick, easy and intuitive with the section at the top of the screen
- Creating sub-folders is also much easier, rather than having to use a name like parentfolder.subfolder1.newfolder to create a nested folder, you just select the folder name you want the folder to be a subfolder of
- The folder list is now sorted and displayed in exactly the same order as the folder list on the mailbox screen, making finding folders much easier
- Moving folders and renaming folders is now much clearer and straight forward
In an effort to allow more options on folders in the future as well (eg. we’d like to add the ability to set folders to auto-delete messages older than a certain time), we’ve moved the setting of options on folders to a separate screen, rather than having one big grid. When setting the options on multiple folders, we’ve tried to follow the iTunes approach which uses checkboxes to control exactly options you want to set.
For more details and feedback, please check out this forum thread
Easy access to FTP with Vista
July 10, 2007 — fastmailblogIn the past, uploading files to the Internet in order to create a website, or to share them with others, required you to sign up with a Web host that supported FTP, and to use a special FTP program. However, if you use FastMail.FM and Windows Vista, you already have everything you need to copy files from your PC to your web site or photo album! Just follow these steps (although Windows XP also provides FTP functionality, we have found it to be buggy, and do not recommend it. In that case, we suggest downloading a dedicated FTP program, or use DAV instead of FTP).
In Windows Vista, click Start, and type ‘Windows Explorer’, then press Enter
Right click on “Computer” on the left of the window, and choose “Add a network location”.
Click Next twice, and then when prompted for the “Internet or network address” type: ftp://ftp.messagingengine.com, and click the Next button
Deselect “logon anonymously”, and then enter your username as follows: username=domain (i.e. replace the ‘@’ with a ‘=’. For instance, if your username is someuser@fastmail.fm, then you would enter: someuser=fastmail.fm. Then click Next
Type any name you like, such as “FastMail FTP” and click Next
Finally, click Finish
Your FTP site will now appear in a new window. Double-click on the folder that contains your username (there will generally only be one folder), and then on the “files” icon to see your files and folders, if you have any.
You can copy and paste files and folders from your hard disk, to your FTP site, in exactly the same way as you would copy them to any other location on your computer, or a network. Once they are on your FTP site, you can use the “Files” link in FastMail.FM to turn your new folder into a website, photo album, password protected file sharing area, or any other of the many applications that FastMail.FM provides.
