OK - I tried that using the N95.
The result is the same as when I use the 5230 (a handset which I in fact own): "Invalid mobile phone number."

I think the problem here is this: I am the first - and so far only - person to have a telephone number in the 226-600 group ( I think).
It is a new number group for a new cell phone company which started in Canada very recently.

Guess I'll have to try and contact Nokia to add that number group to their data base.

Thanks for your help, and for guiding me in the right direction.

I have a similar issue in Bulgaria. I'm able to setup my Nokia E52 with Nokia Messaging (gmail account). Push there is working fine, but on my N900 although succefully setup, NM push does not work, although the account somehow differ from IMAP only setup. I think I read somewhere that one sign to know you are workig with NM is ability to see pictures and html in mails. I'm able to see pictures and I suppose it is NM but without push.
I still hope I will understand one day how to do the proper setting, till then 30min check interval is working flowlessly.

Hi all,
after my previous post I've decided to start over with Nokia Messaging. This time I start with my yahoo mail. The hole setup pass differently. Now it is first time I actually see how NM is setup. After that I successfully add 2 more accounts, gmail and mail.bg. Everything works as expected.

I'm unsure where exactly the problem resides, but I suspect that my gmail account was already setup on my E52 or Nokia fix something meantime.

When you log in from on website add which ever emails you want to add. I have added gmail and hotmal and then when configuring messaging on phone when it asks for id and password use the password of the first email id you added. eg i added first gmail then hotmail so when the phone asked for passwrd i used the one which i gave for gmail. It might fail a couple of times but for me it eventually worked. Keep trying. Good Luck !

email support as it comes out of the box just sucks, Forget about it.

It does not do imap idle,
Nokia messaging does not work from many places and costs money in others and cannot be configured properly.

Easy debian provides you with a simple unix machine with great email clients like

Thunderbird (called icedove) which supports imap idle but is a bit heavy on the n900.

The configuration i'm using is

gnubiff on top of easy debian does imap idle and can run any command when you get an email.
The command I use is sylpheed --retrieve.

Sylpheed is a great small and lightweight email client.

I have my gmail account setup under the N900 Mail for exchange and also in Nokia messaging...what's the use of Nokia messaging or this push email when I could just access gmail directly?

Soon or later you should discover that google mail4exchange does not work so stable. And it is Google implementaion fault, as I have very stable mail4exchange setup against my comany's exchange server.

I have tried several things, and have had no good results so far.
I have been in touch (email) with Nokia Tech Support.
I'm going to give this thing a rest till next year - then I'll take it up again.
I'll post the eventual outcome here.

In the meantime: Thanks to all who contributed to this matter, and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011 to all!