Many messaging apps on S60 (and other platforms as well, but this little tip is written with S60 in mind,) use ‘heartbeats’ to check e-mail. The way it works is sort of like this:

  • Phone: Hey, server, any mail for me?
  • Server: Nope.
  • Phone: OK, well, holler when there is, alright? I’ll check back in 10 minutes.
  • Server: Yup.


This idea works out fine, because now no more data needs to be sent unless a message actually arrives, which means your data connection can go idle, which means better battery life. The problem is what happens if some gremlins come along and break your network connectivity. You see, if you lose network connectivity one minute after that exchange above, if you get new mail, the server keeps trying to push it to you for 9 minutes, not knowing that your phone isn’t getting it.

Your phone doesn’t realize it’s lost network connectivity (because it’s expecting the server to push it the message) and so sits there, most likely with a dumb grin on its face, waiting for the 10 minutes to elapse. Then, it asks the server for mail, the server basically responds with “finally!” and sends the messages along and you’re back in sync.

Until the connection is broken again, of course. I finally discovered what’s breaking the connection so often for subscribers on the (cheap) t-zones plan on T-Mobile. The proxy server! You see, you don’t actually NEED the proxy server to just access e-mail ports on t-zones. So, specifying an Internet Access Point with a proxy server set up just adds instability to the connection. Our theory here at SP is that the proxy server kills off idle connections after a very short interval (so as to keep the resources free on it,) which also kills push email.

The solution to these woes is to specify the MMS internet access point when creating your account as the one for Messaging or Mail For Exchange to use. It is the same as the t-zones access point but without the proxy. I can’t guarantee this will fix the problems, but it has made MFE much more stable for my use. Does this work for you? Let us know in comments!