Patent ID: 8572185

Claim:
A communications system, comprising: a network engine comprising a processor configured to communicate with a plurality of user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices via a communications network for sending and receiving emails therefrom; and a direct access server comprising: an internal SMTP server that is configured for outgoing email, and a database storing configuration information for possible external SMTP servers, a processor configured to: operate with the network engine to poll electronic mailboxes of the user belonging to an email source hosted by an email provider, obtain email from the electronic mailboxes and push any email through the network engine to selected user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices; and access said database to retrieve stored configuration information, provision access to one of the electronic mailboxes, using an email address, password and the configuration information for an external SMTP server specified for the email source of the one of the electronic mailboxes such that the internal SMTP server of the direct access server is not used, wherein said database is updated with current configuration information after successful provisioning.