DirectPush and WIFI connections
One would think the new DirectPush technology (aka AUTD v2) were supported over a WIFI connection right? But unfortunately it isn’t so, it requires a cellular data connection such as GPRS, EDGE 3G etc. The reason behind this rather serious limitation is to be found at the device end. You see mobile devices with WIFI enabled cannot enter standby mode and receive notifications at the same time. So because DirectPush works by keeping an HTTP(S) connection alive to the Exchange Server 2003 using heartbeat intervals, the WIFI connection would have to be kept alive all the time. As some of you might know WIFI connection are quite battery hungry, so the battery would be drained in no time.
Hopefully this issue will be fixed with later models, as this reduces the usefulness of DirectPush rather drastically.
Richard Swift Says:
May 17th, 2006 at 12:24 am
This limitation is a practical one however, some more thought could have gone in to the “next best thing”… There’s no reason why the warning shouldn’t be more like “emails will not be pushed out whilst device in standby” rather than “i’ve given up all together and you’re now about 10 clicks away from a polled sync”.
Given most trusted WiFi hotspots will either be in users’ homes or offices it’s fairly likely that the device will be on charge so why not let directpush work in that situation? Plus make the device sync when returning from standby without user intervention… would be a more tolerable workaround. No?
Henrik Walther Says:
May 17th, 2006 at 2:54 am
Hi Richard,
As you can judge from my last sentence in the blog post, I’m completely with you here. We can only hope they changed this limitation in Crossbow (aka Windows Mobile 6.0).
TheDayOfCondor Says:
August 7th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Hi,
I am sure this is the official MS position (no Wifi in standby - so no DirectPush). However keeping a WiFi connection active IS possible (as the DirectPush does not use the standby mode at all).
Just to try:
- Activate the DirectPush (with a cellular connection”)
- Connect to wiFi at the same time
- Start pinging your device from your pc through the wireless network
- Turn the device off
You will see that the device keeps answering the ping.
So, not only DirectPush IS theoretically possible through Wifi, but the fact MS claims this is not make me think they get big bucks from the cellular network providers…
The only REAL drawback in using WiFi is that it uses A LOT of power to stay connected… but this is another issue…
Best way to get corporate email - PDAPhoneHome.com Says:
October 13th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
[…] Hey the last thing I want to do is to get into a meaningless semantics discussion however i have quite a bit of experience around this issue. according to Microsoft direct push is supposed to "require" a GPRS or 3G connection to work. I had complained about not getting direct push using a WiFi connection and I was told that the application did NOT support this! Apparently there are ways to get it to work if you start a WiFi connection with a phone conection and you may be getting it to work otherwise but for many with battery management going on with thier wireless connection it may not work as it didn’t for me. This blog offers more info from someone who knows way more than I do. The only reason this has been so dear to me is that I have my own Exchange server and my own GodLink server. Henrik Walther Blog » Blog Archive » DirectPush and WIFI connections […]