[masraum]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

Wouldn't it have to go thru a T-mobile server before going to an @gmail.com sever?

Nope, your app should know what the Gmail sending and receiving servers are (imap or smtp and pop3) and will send and receive directly through those.

T-mobile is more like a state highway system, your mail is just another car on the road.

Your mail will travel the t-mobile state highways until it gets to the interstate, then it'll travel interstate until it gets to the gmail state highway where it will travel until it gets to the gmail servers.

The closest thing to something that would be like a T-mobile server is your phone on the t-Mobile network.

the traffic (email) will roughly follow the path below from phone to PC. the only servers are the 2 Gmail servers, then there are the end points, your phone and home PC.

phone ----t-mobile network----|---internet---|---gmail network----gmail sending server---gmail receiving server---gmail network---|---internet---|---your isp---your home PC