Database Users

Syncing with an Exchange Server

Hi all,
my device (iMate Jasjar 1.13.53 WWE on WM5) syncs without problems through my office-pc with the exchange server standing at the office. This is a wired connection, working through ASync 4.1 (USB).
If I disconnect the USB-Cable, hence force the device to sync through another connection, it will try my GPRS-settings. The GPRS-settings work normal for Internet and eMail. After some time of trying I get the error 0x80072EE2 "The server could not be reached. This can be caused by temperary network conditions"
The server is working normal though.
Does anybody have some advice for a newbie (absolute no network specialist). My exchange server administrator is new to this as well. So if I would be able to read into this somewhere, or get some insider tips it would be very helpful and highly appreciated.
with kind regards,
Ruud Westerhout

how do you have the server name entered in the activesync settings?
are you using ssl?
has it ever syncronized w/o having it connected to pc?
does the exchange server have a public IP address?

thanks for fast reply,
as we are a little apart (time-wise) I am at home already and not able to answer all :
my server is at : mail.al????.ru
I was told to sync like :
Server address : mail
This server requires en encrypted (SSL) connection : NO
User name : the one I am allowed with to enter our network
Password : my usual password to enter our network
Domain : al????.ru
Save Password : YES
If there is a conflict : Keep items on my device
Event logging : Brief
With these settings like this, I was able to sync with the exchange server while connected through USB. ASync was getting a special allowence and the Microsoft Firewall Client was disable for it.
It has never been syncing wireless in any way, only USB, in the office.
I presume we have a public IP address, but I should counter ask my administrator about this.
If You have any ideas after reading this data, please shoot ;-)
The answer on IP I will add (or edit) tomorrow.
regards,
Ruud

yeah. it depends. if it is synching through USB, for me it is hard to tell if you are synching directly to the exchange server or to the workstation. if you have a mail profile setup on your machine and you are synching with activesync. on your desktop with activesync does it specifically show that it is synching with your exchange server? actually better yet if you run activesync the screen will tell you the last syncronizations. you will have an "Exchange Server" section and the last time it synched and probably a "Windows PC" section.
If your Exchange Server section has a synchronized time then your settings are correct. (The time should also be the same as your Windows PC time)
If it has something like Never synchronized or something other than a successful synchronization time, then those settings may not be correct or something is not right on the exchange server or network.
So if you do have a successful timestamp for the "Exchange Server" field, then everything on your device is good. The problem may be that either the exchange server does not have a public ip or a dns issue. (you can try to resolve the latter by putting in the IP of the server instead of the dns name in the server field for AS)
If it still doesn't work then it could be a firewall issue in front of where the exchange server sits.

Hi ccisn,
I actually am syncing with 3 different things. My Home-PC, my Office-PC and also the Exchange Server at the office. I get all synced and a correct time stamp with all, this works.
f.e. My contacts are synced with both Home-PC and Exchange Server (not the Office-PC anymore as this is not possible)
So I understand that the settings in my PDA are then correct and I should be searching for the problem in Server, Firewall, IP / DNS Settings.
I will try this idea of putting the IP though (as soon as I will get it tomorrow)
thanks for now,
Ruud

Update :
I inserted the fixed-IP our Exchange Server has into the address field and with this input the server did not even want to sync whilst I have a USB-ASync connection.
Question for my understanding :
Is the following a technical possible setup ?
-At home I connect through USB giving me access to my Home-PC and the internet. The PDA will sync with the home-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At home I connect through WiFi giving me access to the internet. The PDA will sync with the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At the office I connect through USB giving me access to my Office-PC and the exchange server. The PDA will sync with the Office-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the office network.
-On the road I connect with a GPRS- (or eventually UMTS-) connection which will give me access to the internet. The PDA will sync only with the exchange server which he will find through the GPRS-connection.
regards,
Ruud

I am sure the problem is, that you cannot sync over the public Adress with the Exchange Server, because there is only Port 25 for SMTP from the internet to the server, and this port is not for Outlook Connection and these things
No company ever had a Exchange all-open on the internet! try to sync within your local network and the internal-name of the server!

Well syncing within the Network works. If I connect with USB to the office-pc I can sync to both office-pc as well as exchange server.
Do I understand correctly that I can forget (not realistic) to sync wirelessly (GPRS, UMTS) while on the road ?
I just hoped that this way I could receive contacts / calender items from my secreatary on the road.
Ruud

The Exchange Server is open on your local network, thats why you can sync. But from the internet, there ist only mail access (and maybe a few other ports that the admins opened) to the exchange.
Talk to your admins, and ask if it's possible to connect with a VPN to your office. Over these VPN Connection you can sync with your exchange.

Ruud Westerhout said:
Update :
-At home I connect through USB giving me access to my Home-PC and the internet. The PDA will sync with the home-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At home I connect through WiFi giving me access to the internet. The PDA will sync with the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At the office I connect through USB giving me access to my Office-PC and the exchange server. The PDA will sync with the Office-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the office network.
-On the road I connect with a GPRS- (or eventually UMTS-) connection which will give me access to the internet. The PDA will sync only with the exchange server which he will find through the GPRS-connection.
Ruud
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes to all of the above.
The vpn solution should work too if your environment supports PPTP connections. Most don't and only allow IPSec or L2TP connections which is a whole other mess to get to work on handheld devices.
As to the ports. It a little different for synching with Exchange. It only requires HTTP (80) or HTTPS (443).
If you can use Outlook Web Access then you can sync over the air with your phone. (Assuming that all the Mobile Sync settings are correctly set up on the Exchange server) Which in your case sounds like it is.

Odd Proxy Server Question

Hi
Got an odd one. at work we have a domain (active directories and all the rest of it). as a result only domain computers can access the internet via the proxy server.
so my desktop works just fine being on the domain, but when i active sync my wizard, active sync effectively puts my phone on the network and nicks the proxy settings from my desktop. but the proxy rejects my phone as its not a domain machine. sure others have this issue.
does anyone know of some errr mini proxy server or something like that, that can run on my desktop to act as a server for my networked phone, meaning the proxy will not even see my phone and therefore not reject it.
i have messed with windows network sharing etc... and i don't think its the way to go.
anyone have any ideas?

How to get into my company E Mail thru VPN using 8125

I can get into my company e mail thru my laptop using Cisco VPN (soft token) Is there an easy way (step by step) to set up my 8125 to access my company e mail ?

Is your company running on Microsoft Exchange? If so, there may be no reason to sync across a firewall. It seems to be standard in recent versions of Exchange to expose a PDA sync interface outside the firewall. Let me know if you are in this situation and I tell you how I did it.

Yes Microsoft exchange

I have my 8125 sync'ing directly with exchange. Here's how.
Install ActiveSync 4.2 and follow the instructions for sync'ing. Cisco VPN interacts badly with ActiveSync, so disable the VPN if you have trouble sync'ing. The problem shows up as things hanging while trying to connect.
Once you are connected, add an Exchange server to ActiveSync. Put in the info for your company's server. If you have more than one, use the one that has an https interface that can be accessed from outside the firewall.
ActiveSync will try to start Outlook, which may fail if you are not connected to your VPN. Just click "work offline". You will also get an "unable to connect" message on both ActiveSync and the 8125. Ignore it.
Once you have changed the settings and a sync has been completed, disconnect the phone from the computer. It should sync directly via the GPRS network to an external interface on your Exchange server. Let me know if you run into problems.

vpn compatible apps

the remote desktop client on my vario ii connects to my work desktop perfectly using our office vpn but it is rubbish! the screen doesn't scale well at all or provide any kind of zoom out function.
I have a vnc client which performs much better but it won't connect over the vpn it only works when connected directly to the office network.
forwarding ports is out of the question. so my question is this.
is there a vnc client for pocket pc which will work over vpn or is there a way to make the remote desktop client less rubbish
also are there any apps out there that will let me browse my work network over the vpn. resco doesn't seem to be able to do it even the ftp client won't work.
am I missing something about vpn connections as it seems the only two apps that work over one are activesync and the remote desktop client.

Did you tried to acces domain controler throught the VPN? If yes it is normal that it doesn't work; Domain controler require security enhancement in auth that pocket devices cannot deliver yet. The only way I know is to reduce the security enhancement by using the GPO on the concerned servers; but this is far of being a clean fix.

Just trying to use connect to a vnc server on my workstation. btw our domain controller is the exchange server and active sync works fine

Active sync & exchange do not use the integrate authentification & kerberos; it uses a plain text auth (crypted with the SSL certs), that's why it works. Even if you are on the LAN you will not be able to access your domain's controller shares because of security enhancement.
This is far from solving your issue; but I just wanted to make it clear. Concerning your issue I can't help you at the moment, I still didnt tried the VPN & advanced networking.
btw, good luck

I have set up a vpn on my home computer, no domain, and can't access shares or a vnc server on that either.

Hi Stemill, I seen your other post about the vpn issues with Resco also, I have heard in the past about vpn issues using the [email protected], are you using [email protected] or [email protected]?
I use the terminal/remote client on a daily basis, and it does blow, vj on the board here has made an app that allows fullscreen with the terminal client, and theres a Mocha remote desktop client that supports scaling but no fullscreen, both of which have their own quirks. The scaling makes the text impossible to read when its even at 25%
I have been working on connecting to the remote desktop on mac with vnc, and I've gotten as far as an error on authentification, so I know its possible outside of a home network, but I don't have a clue about buisness situations..exchange or vpn's.
I not even 100% positive about the wap issue, I just seem to remember reading something about it in the past.
Sorry I wasn't of much help, also I kind of have a question for you, I see you mention activesync, you're not activesyncing over an internet connection are you?, I'm working on installing apps that I don't have a .cab for over an internet connection, but the best route I had figured out was to install to a ftp share and then grab the .cab from there with Resco.
Best of luck to you.

Hi there.
I'm on t-mob in the uk. They have a 3g network with full internet access so i'm not using wap at all.
Thanks for the tips about the remote client tweaks. Do you have a link?
I'm using activesync to connect to my works exchange server to sync email and calendar. Pretty sure its not possible to sync over the air to a pc without using exchange. You certainly won't be able to grab remote files via activesync.
If we could figure out how to get apps to work over vpn you could set one up on your pc and (theoretically at least) browse its contents using resco without having to bother with ftp.
If it's not possible to get stuff working over the vpn then you've probably found the best solution already. use ftp or setup a webserver on your pc and host the cab files on that. pocket ie seems to let you install cab files directly from a link.
btw which vnc client are you using on your phone?

Hi, I forget a lot of the time that people here have so many different carriers, sorry.
Here's the link to vj's terminal addon app
http://www.vijay555.com/?Releases:VJFullscreenTSC
And here's the link to the Mocha remote client app
http://www.mochasoft.dk/rd.htm
I used .Net vnc when I was able to get the authentification error
http://www.freewareppc.com/docs/netvncviewer.shtml
I think my problem on the authentification was with the apple remote desktop itself, I read about somethin in the authentification being non standard and sometimes the free vnc viewers don't work..but that was also pc to pc related, the same makers of the Mocha remote desktop also make a vnc client..that was gonna be my next try, I just haven't gotten there yet.
I inistally set up my pc to be able to remote to it from my phone and access aol chatrooms..well mainly one I have hung out in for years, then realized if I set up a server, I could install apps that I couldn't find in .cab form over the net with it, I used to have windows server 2003 set up with IIS(webserver) and the streaming media services, I'm wondering now if the windows streaming media really works with the pocket windows media, and if I could even use it with my gprs/edge connection, I'm still waiting on 3G, suprisingly the remote desktop isn't too bad on gprs/edge.
I'm currently waiting to get a new hard drive before I can really get to work, I'm testing on an old messed up xp install, and half the time I can't even access "my computer" or open folders without it crashin explorer.

WM 6.1 ActiveSync Exchange Sync over PPTP VPN WORKING ON FIXED SCHEDULE

I'm an IT guy and I just got into smartphone PPCs for the first time after a long-time hiatus from PDAs when I used to be a Palm owner. After my last palm, a LifeDrive, got stolen I moved to a Moto Q wich was a big dissapointment OS wise, and I never really got into modding it or anything, just set my POP3 e-mail server and used it like that for 2 years (draw back was that I didn't have contact sync nore internal e-mail sync that got handled by my exchange server). My contract with that Q expired and I made the move to a Sprint Mogul with WM 6.1 Pro and I'm NEVER LOOKING BACK!!!
Anyways, enough about me, this is my first contribution so I wanted to do the little intro.
I had searched around a bit about how to get ActiveSync to sync my company's Exchange server through PPTP VPN (we don't have it published with a certificate for an actual push config) but all I found was info on how to setup the VPN itself, being an IT guy that was like pointing out the obvious to me as I had already got that running and connecting but couldn't get anything but the OWA site opening in IE and Opera.
Basically what I figured out was that I had to program a work URL exception in the Connections control panel under the Advanced tab. There I added my exchange server's IP address as a URL and used that IP to program the server under ActiveSync with all the usual credentials. I can't configure it to receive as items arrive, instead I had to let the configuration run on a 10 minute schedule. Every time the schedule is up I see the VPN connecting pop up and it syncs PERFECTLY and disconnects the VPN. (It doesn't turn on my screen each time, it just pops up if I'm using it; but that pop up can be turned off if it gets to annoying).
I don't know if anyone else knew about this but I though I'd share this info as I searched for a few days and found nothing, ended up figuring this out myself. If this is new info I'll post more detailed configuration information for those who desire it.

BTW, this is working over the Data Plan and WiFi as well.

Wow. your a god...
I been trying to figure why it kept disconnecting the vpn when it synced up.
Adding the work url exception works perfect...
(Im using WM6.1 on a Samsung Omnia)
Many Many thanks!

No problem dude! I'm surprised no one else has really found this helpful. Glad I could help!
BTW, those exceptions work very well for internal web sites as well. I use it to log in to web-based management consoles such as Symantec's Mail Security for Exchange, Symantec Endpoint, basically if you got an internal website of some sort you can access it through VPN using a Work URL Exception.

I was looking for this info too, i would like more detailed configuration information about this.
Thanx in advance...
Roland hendriks

What part of the configuration are you having trouble with? Configuring the VPN, the Exchange Server or the URL Exception?

Thanks
I personally am thankful for your information. Even if none of the other 1000s of readers out there say anything...
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Tim

Glad I could help! I know I broke my head over this one during the first week of me having a WM phone. I figured it out thanks to the Fdc Soft Task Manager using the Netstat utility. It let me know exactly what the network stack of the phone was trying to do and the URL exclussion I just stumbled upon and reading what the page said it lead me to believe that it might be a routing table for configured "WORK" connections. And it worked.
During the past month or two of using my exchange like this and switching around ROMs and cooking my own ones now I've noticed that having TCP Data Reconnect and Transmission Retry settings in your registry set to high will cause Active Sync to take a long ass time for it to actually route communications through the VPN connection. I noticed this after using custom ROMs wich some have these settings increased to ensure communications go through but they raise connection timeouts way to much. On my own custom ROM I've set these to defaults (2 and 4 respectively) and Active Sync only takes about 1 minute to start syncing onces you hit sync while you wait for it to dial the cellular line and the VPN.

you talk about the vpn..
i think you are in the very small percentage of ppl who can get that to work.
i have the activesync set to manual and have tried the vpn type to both IPSec/L2TP and PPTP
w/o success..i always get a UN PW error which i know cant be so..
i set the host ip to what was shown from "whatsmyip"..
searching for quite awhile, i see thousands of ppl who cant get it to work and have
never found a reliable method that works for anyone but the person who posted it.
if you could back track a little and post how to do it, there are probly
thousands of ppl who would find it very useful and really appreciate it.
thanx

Well one thing is how to setup a WM device's VPN client to connect to your VPN server and another is actually configuring your VPN server. Do you have a working VPN setup in your corporate network already? This usually is setup by having a static IP assigned to your corporate internet connection and a firewall configured to allow VPN access with all the necessary traffic and authentication routes.
If you don't have a static IP in your office and use a lower cost DSL or Cable connection you aren't SOL, for these types of connections you can use a service like dyndns.org to dynamically upadate your dynamic IP into a static dns name like: mycompany.dyndns.org for example. This requires you to setup your firewall or ISP modem to communicate with dyndns.org to report the changes. Most firewalls come with this funcionality already built-in, but most of them also call them by different names so you'd have to look up your equipment's documentation on how to report a dynamic dns service.
I would be happy to help you setup your VPN correctly but its more practicall for me to help you setup a checklist on which type of VPN you want to setup (IPSec or PPTP) and what your corporate network's infrastructure looks like and let you know what to look for in google; there is PLENTY of very helpful information on the web on how to setup VPN but first you have to know what you need and how you are going to achieve it and then you'll know what to look for.
Each setup is very particular to the customer's needs and the network infrastructure that is setup and how much security you want to use (IPSec is a naturally secured VPN tunnel protocol while PPTP is not secured by nature but can be secured with a Radius server in your DMZ validating authentication in an encruypted manner to your Active Directory service).
What I posted above will work for an already existing and working PPTP VPN connection wich I already had running for years in my office and I regularly use with my laptop to connect to my exchange server while on the road or at home. What I posted above is what is need to get your WM device to connect to an already functioning PPTP VPN server.
Hope this helps. And if I'm to help you make a checklist I need a lot of information:
Type of ISP (static IP or dynamic IP)
Type/Brand of firewall device
How the devices are connected together (dumb modem or internet router from your ISP to your firewall's WAN port or a full blown router provided by your ISP wich is patched into your firewall's WAN port)
Internal network configuration (both AD and Exchange on same server (SBS) or separated)
What amount of security you are looking for.
Send me some PMs and maybe I could at least point you in the right direction.

nttdemented: I'm doing the PPTP shuffle at the moment, and wanted to pick your brains..
The basic connection is running fine - e.g. when I add 192.168.0.1 as an Exception and go to http://192.168.0.1 in Pocket IE the VPN fires up and I see the page just fine.
I've also added '10.6.1.8' as an exception, but if I go to that address in PIE, I don't see any network activity (using ethereal/tcpdump) on the 'ppp0' server interface (I use Ubuntu server's pptpd) ...
Can I assume that your Exchange server is hosted on the same machine as your PPTP server? Some MS SBS or similar?
Even if I configure an http proxy (on the 192.168.0.1 IP) I see no activity when I try the 10.6.1.8 address. :/

thanks so much!!
that i didn't find/read about the "exceptions" option in WM before...
Somehow, when i got my phone, i got it to work without this workaround, it just worked, out of the box, no exception setting required. (VPN settings + exchange server location were enough)
But yesterday, from the one moment to the next, it suddenly stopped working.
In my efforts to get it to work again i deleted the exchange settings, but doing that, I deleted all my contacts and my agenda! I was in big trouble because I really needed those , but after reading your post, i got it working again! my phone is synching "as we speak" and i'm very happy!
don't know how it worked before, don't know why it stopped working, all I know is, it's working now!
you made my day

Good to know!
Cheers!
I've since stopped using this method as we got around to publishing our Exchange server with an SSL certificate so I'm actually using SSL enabled ActiveSync push on my phone now.

Excuse me but perhaps you can help me too.
My problem is that I can get/sync my mails using WIFI.
If I connect thru GPRS, y go to send/receive and I get all the mails. If I'm on my office and connect thru WIFI to the work net I also get all the mails from the exchange server.
The problem is when I'm outside my office and connect to other wifi net and try to sync my mails. I have an HTC TOUCH CRUISE with WM 6.1 original from HTC without any flash.
Thanks in advance.

VPN connection doesn't always connect for ActiveSync synchronization?
I have had ActiveSync working with an Exchange server over a PPTP VPN connection for years now, but there has been one nagging issue I can't figure out. For the most part it works, but sometimes when ActiveSync tries to sync it will not make the VPN connection. There is only one connection listed when I tap on the icon on the notification bar - the phone's data connection. So in activesync, the icon with the arrows spins for a while but nothing synchronizes. I think it ends up saying "waiting for network" or something like that. It seems to always work when I manually hit "sync", but sometimes it fails on scheduled synchronizations.
Any idea why this happens sometimes?

oh...cheers...got my brain back...
The exceptions rule has almost fixed mine now. I'm getting mail but not through Activesync (just sits waiting for network).