Receiving Roadrunner email on Q using Sprint as Outgoing Server

[TarHeelsRule!]

Okay ya'll, I about pulled on all my hair out trying to get this set up and looking through quite a few different threads to do it. So I figured I would take the directions from the various threads and put them in one place for those follicly challenged who don't have much hair to lose.

These first instructions are from a post Singbar did on 9-6-07

Instructions:

Before this will work, there are some steps that need to be performed from your PC.

On your PC

1) Go to the Sprint website and log in to your account using the Sign In window at the left. If you have not logged into your account online before, you will first need to register using the link provided.

2) On the account overview screen that has just appeared, find the section labeled My Online Tools on the right hand side of the window and click Sprint PCS Mail.

3) On the left hand side of the new window, find and click Settings and Preferences.

4) Along the top of this screen, find and click Setup.

5) Change your password, and remember it or write it down.
*Neat thing you can actually set this up so that when people receive replies from your sprintpcs account it can say whatever you want.. like Joeblow@bellsouth.net

6) On the left hand side of the screen, find and click My Personal Information near the bottom.

7) Scroll to the bottom of the page and find the Passwords section and click the Modify link for your Power Vision Username.

8) DO NOT actually change your Power Vision Username. If you do so, it will take several hours to propagate through Sprint's system. Just make a note of what it is (write it down), then click Cancel at the bottom.


On to the Q. If you are setting up a brand new POP3 account, the following instructions will be clear when you get to the outgoing mail server section. If you have already set up a POP3 account on the Q and need to change the outgoing mail server, open that account on your Q and click Menu -> Options -> Account Options, and click on the account you want to modify. Click Next three times to get to where the outgoing mail server settings are.

Where it got confusing for me was when I went to set it up on my Q, so here is my take on that end.

On the Q


Go to setup new Account
1st page should read Email Setup
Enter your name
email address --- this is your email address for your Roadrunner account.
hit the right softkey next
User name --- is again your email address for your Roadrunner account Password is your password you use to access your Roadrunner account Scroll down page and check the save password box
hit the right softkey next
Server type is POP3
Account name is POP3
hit the right softkey next
Incoming Server is pop-server.sc.rr.com
DO NOT check the SSL connection box
Outgoing Servier is smtp.sprintpcs.com
Check box that says Outgoing server requires authentication
Scroll down page and click on Outgoing Server Settings
Outgoing Server---check box saying Use different user name for outgoing server
User name is the User name that you wrote down from your Sprint account per Singbar's instructions. Without the @sprintpcs.com.
Password is your Sprint password
Scroll down and check the save password box
hit left softkey--done
hit right softkey next
Choose how you want your messages downloaded
Choose how you want your messages checked
hit right softkey next
Then click Finish your setup is complete!!

I feel like I left something out though. I know one of the problems that I had was somewhere in all that I had to use my username for getting onto Sprint which is my mobile phone number but going though the steps again I didn't see that option. So when setting it up for the 1st time beware that when dealing with your Sprint account if it asks for your username to get onto Sprint and it's your number too use that.

Hope this saves someone else searching and going from one thread to another trying to get this set up. But it does work, I am now able to check my Roadrunner messages from my Q and send messages as well!!

By the way Tar Heels do Rule!!!

[rudeboy]

thanks for posting that...

[kz1m9w]

Originally Posted by TarHeelsRule!

Okay ya'll, I about pulled on all my hair out trying to get this set up and looking through quite a few different threads to do it. So I figured I would take the directions from the various threads and put them in one place for those follicly challenged who don't have much hair to lose.



...

Thank you TarHeelsRule. Although I've had my Q for several months now and enjoyed the functions that my work's Microsoft Exchange Server provides, I recently began investigating how to get it setup my wife's Q so that she can interact with her roadrunner e-mail.

And although many forum searches turned up a lot of information, yours is the first that wrapped it altogether and making it understandable enough for me (with the much-needed detail) such that I was able to set it up on my phone and test it successfully prior to trying it on hers.

I sincerely thank you for combining the needed details into one place.

If it helps anyone else going forward that may be struggling to get their Q connected with roadrunner, here are a few things I experienced that I think are worth a mention:

First, for the numbered instructions (per "Singbar")

• When you access the www.sprintpcs.com page from a PC, your login id is your mobile phone number. And your password (according to the Sprint rep I spoke with) is SHARED among any other phone numbers on the account. I was unaware of that.

• If you have any trouble getting logged into your account, you are not alone. About half the time I went there, it allowed me to type in my logon information, only to say "My Sprint is temporarily Unavailable". In fact, its doing it now, so it seems common. Namely, it does not mean your id/pw combo is necessarily wrong (which I had begun to fear).

• The most important part for me of Singbar's numbered instructions was step #5 - to change the password within the PCS Mail Settings / Setup. Nothing worked until I actually did that (I had assumed I didn't need to do so since I was happy with my password - wrong!). Note that the other part of his #5 about replies is not required. From what I could tell, changing this only mattered if you sent e-mail from sprintpcs (which I do not intend to do). But I recommend explicitly changing the password whether you think you need to or not - even if you use the same one (it still will accept it as changed). I did put values into the "Personalization" section to make sure, but which e-mail I specified did not make a functional difference since I'm not sending any e-mail from my sprintpcs e-mail account.

• The other important part is step #8 - to determine what your Power Vision User name is. In my case it was my wife's first initial + last name + 4-digit-number @ sprintpcs.com. I had no idea this was the e-mail address. And in my case, I did choose to go ahead and change it to what I desired. I did so and gave it a few hours before I proceeded.

Now for some clarifications/observations from TarHeelsRules bulleted items in the original post:

• First bullet - If you aren't sure how to get into "New Account": Mail Button / Select an entry (any entry is fine) / Menu / Options. From there, "New Account" lets you add a new e-mail account, and "Account Options" lets you update an existing one.
• For "User name" in the second page of the setup process, what worked for me was not my full roadrunner e-mail account, but ONLY the first part (i.e. prior to the @tx.rr.com part). Seemed like it didn't work until I made that change, but I could be wrong - regardless, worth a try if you're having trouble because I am certain it DOES work without the @tx.rr.com part for me.
• For Account name, you certainly CAN call it "POP3", but I called mine "Roadrunner".
• For incoming server, be sure that you realize her example is for South Carolina. (pop-server.sc.rr.com). Mine was pop-server.tx.rr.com).
• Finally, she mentions that she might have left something out - perhaps some place she had to enter her mobile phone number. The only place I had to enter it was at the www.springpcs.com logon screen. I did NOT have to specify it anywhere else to get this to work.

I hope this helps somebody. It certainly does work in spite of seeming complicated to me - albeit with a few limitations compared to what I'm used to with Exchange server. But at least its free!

Good luck and again, thank you TarHeelsRule (and Singbar)!

kz1m9w

[TarHeelsRule!]

@ kz1m9w

Have you or your wife been experiencing any problems with your Q since setting this up?

When I go and manually check for email 9X out of 10 I get the "unable to make a call" or it simply won't connect. And now my phone is randomly turning itself off. The battery indicator says I have plenty of juice but it just dies on me. Made me late for work this morning as I use my Q as an alarm clock.

Just thought I would ask before I called Sprint and demanded a new phone which I really don't want since I have mine customized and just the way I want it!

[kz1m9w]

Originally Posted by TarHeelsRule!

@ kz1m9w

Have you or your wife been experiencing any problems with your Q since setting this up?

When I go and manually check for email 9X out of 10 I get the "unable to make a call" or it simply won't connect. And now my phone is randomly turning itself off. The battery indicator says I have plenty of juice but it just dies on me. Made me late for work this morning as I use my Q as an alarm clock.

Just thought I would ask before I called Sprint and demanded a new phone which I really don't want since I have mine customized and just the way I want it!

Hi TarHeelsRule,

I'm sorry to hear you are having some issues with your Q.

It might be premature at this point, but the answer is so far, no - we're having no problems at all. Your setup instructions allowed me to successfully connect my Q to my Roadrunner e-mail. Inbound and Outbound e-mails work great for me.

And we also got my wife's Q activated with a new number last night and finally got it setup as well. It seems to work perfectly every time. Although admittedly, I don't think we've tested the outbound e-mail yet on hers. I highly suspect it will work though since it does work so well on my Q.

Your Q just dying sounds likely to be bigger than a roadrunner e-mail setup. The only thing I ever had that was like that was when an SD card went bad on me (gave unpredictable results). Once I realized what it was causing the disruptions, it was easy to correct.

One other thought, as a "Plan-B", you could consider trying your Pocket Internet to access a web-based service to access your e-mail. For example, webmail.tx.rr.com, www.web2mail.com are two that come to mind. Not sure how fully functional it will be on the Q, but it might be worth a try.

Hope that helps. If your Q continues to power down for no reason, I wouldn't hesitate to take it in for them at least have a look at it.