This is a common question from corporate users, and the answer can be difficult because of the various ways that your network and server(s) may be configured. In this brief article I will try to touch upon the basic principles and give you enough information to at least understand what your specific configuration is and what needs to be changed.
First off, let's clarify some terminology:
Sync: To synchronize data, typically meaning mail/calendar/tasks. Outlook and Exchange have a special proprietary connection which keeps data synchronized between client and server. There is no true Exchange client for the Pocket PC.
POP3 & IMAP4: These are industry standard mail protocols. IMAP is a sync protocol.
Firewall: A device that blocks specific TCP ports (think of them as specific internet services like mail, web, FTP) from being accessed on your internal servers from the internet. A firewall is configurable for specific needs and access.
VPN: Virtual Private Network; a software layer that is established between two points on the internet and provides for secure data transfer. This is typically between a laptop/home user and a firewall device at a company. This basically "punches a hole" in the firewall for the authenticated VPN client user.
Active Directory: This is an authentication protocol used in 2000 Server, Exchange 2000, and newer. It can also run in "mixed mode" if you have older servers (IE, NT).
MIS: Mobile Information Server; this is software from Microsoft which allows you to do a full remote sync with Exchange. It will sync mail/calendar/tasks, but it takes much more time and data. This is generally impractical unless you have a large data transfer budget or have very little data to sync. MIS can NOT be run on a mixed-mode Active Directory installation nor on the old NT authentication scheme. You need to use it with native mode Active Directory only.
Now the absolute easiest way to sync your PPC e-mail is via IMAP directly to the Exchange server. To do this, your firewall needs to have the IMAP ports open between the server and at least the subnet of your wireless carrier. The ports are 143, 220, and 993. You can find out your carrier's subnet range by calling them, or by running vxUtil on your device while you have a connection and getting your IP configuration. Your Exchange server needs to have IMAP enabled, which literally takes just a few clicks. Any Exchange admin can do this in a few minutes.
On the Pocket PC, open the Inbox, tap the Services menu, New Service... Enter your e-mail address in the box, and press Next. Skip the automatic testing. In the next dialog enter your user info such as your real name (as you want it to be in the "from" field), your login name (typically [email protected], same as your e-mail address), and password. Hit Next, and select IMAP4 service type, then enter a name for this account (any name you want, this is for you to remember which account this is), hit Next. Here you will enter your mail server names. Typically this is mail.domain.com, but ask your IT department. Tap the options buttons and select "Outgoing mail requires authentication" then hit Next. Set your preferences here, hit Next twice, and you're done.
The only drawback to this method is a very slight security risk which can be averted by keeping the latest service packs on your Exchange server. This is the methodology I use and recommend, and that all of my clients use. I do not know of any specific security risks with IMAP, and find that most objections to it are based merely on FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Unfortunately, FUD plays a big role in many IT decisions. The other factor is the nerds; they want to do lock things down just because they can or think they should. IMAP is a proven, secure, industry-standard protocol that is well-implemented on Exchange server 5.5 and above.
You can also use POP to get your mail. The drawback is that POP is not a sync protocol like IMAP. People using POP tend to run into issues with not knowing whether an e-mail is on the server or has been removed to a client. This makes it undesirable for the non-technical business user. The ONLY caveat for IMAP is that you should sync again after you've done anything with your e-mail to make that change to the server. IE, if you delete an e-mail on the client, it will not be deleted on the server until you sync again.
Now if your IT department refuses to allow outside access directly to the Exchange server, you may need to establish a VPN to the firewall. To do this you will need client software, and this is more complicated than what I'd like to discuss here. The best starting point is to ask the manufacturer of your firewall for a recommendation on a Pocket PC VPN client. Once you connect the VPN, then you can use IMAP as outlined above to get your mail. With a VPN, it will work just as if you were in the office.
Speaking of which, you can test these things using the pass-through function of ActiveSync while the device is in the cradle at the office. This will help you determine the source of a problem, for example. If you can connect in the office but not wirelessly, then you have a proper e-mail configuration but you have a network/firewall issue.
Please feel free to shoot any specific questions my way. However, this is meant as information you can use to guide your Exchange and firewall admins and not a complete how-to for the novice. If you do not have admins on site, someone will need to configure this. You can contact any qualified Exchange and/or firewall admin to help you with this, and I'm also available for implementation, design, and consulting work. My background is in wide area communications, security, and internet services.
Can anyone help me in the steps involved to remotely connect to my
microsoft exchange server 2003 remotely with GPRS T-mobile?
This is what I have working so far and each one has been incredibly
painful to set up, but working.
I have windows 2003 server running exchange 2003 server on a DC, and an
I-mate Jam running windows mobile 2003 2nd edition.
Working:
1) My ISP is T-mobile and running GPRS perfectly.
2) OWA (Outlook Web Access) is working perfectly from my lan computer.
ex. http://mail.manster.com:81/exhange
3) OMA is working perfectly from my phone.
4) I set up activesync 3.8 to be standard and connect to my exchange
server and that works perfectly if I put the netbios name
manster-4qgshpl.manster.local in the server name. Everything syncs fine
and it works. The passthrough on my activesync says to connect to
"internet" and I have pda connected to lan comp.
Not working:
1) I put my exchange server smtp name mail.manster.com in my activesync
and it no longer works.
What am I missing, I'm so close. Do I need to create a vpn or
something. How come I don't need vpn for owa and oma?
Note: When I change the exchange server to mail.manster.com and put
"work" in the passthrough it works but only when I have it connected to
computer. I also have to put for some reason mail.manster.com in the
proxy server and port 81. Even though I don't have proxy server. I need
to be able to do this remotely from anywhere with GPRS.
Thanks, I greatly appreciate any help.
We have a number of Pocket PCs some sold as “Siemens SX56 from ATT” and some as “Pocket PC Phone edition from T-Mobile”.
We were using them on the internet to read E-mail from Novell GroupWise Web access E-mail.
All was fine until we added 40 bit Encryption to our Web access E-mail at which time all of the Pocket PC’s stopped receiving E-mail. They will try to go to the login screen but just sit there with the little earth icon spinning and then stop with the error ”The page you are looking for cannot be found“.
The GroupWise Web site still works for the people that are using an iPaq or a PC on the internet.
Is there anyone out there that has an idea of what I need to do to get my Pocket PCs working again?
bapglnet said:
]Novell GroupWise Web access E-mail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi bapglnet,
GW Web-email system uses standard encryption protocol SSL over http. So, you need to use your company's webmail address to login to your mailbox!
If you were using traditional WinMobile email client, then check for SSL connection check box in Accounts->Accounts...->[pop3]->...Next...->Options...
OR compare your email settings with those guys who have iPAQs
FINALLY,
ask your system administrator for webmail login address OR pop3 settings
I know this may seem like a corner case, but I thought I'd see if anyone might have a recommendation on how to automate it. I have the default Mail app from CM7 working great overall against our corporate Exchange server. However, when I change networks from corporate wifi to home wifi or vice-versa, it stops syncing until I kill/restart the application. My guess is that this is happening because the IP address associated with the mail server hostname differs between the private and public networks and perhaps the running process caches the IP address? That's the only thing that makes sense to me given that it can restore the connection just fine if it loses and regains wifi, but if you change networks you have to cycle the process.
Any thoughts?
I wanted to know if the data that my apps are using on a wifi network are saved anywhere. The reason I ask is I have been using an open wifi network to connect to recently and wanted to know if the data that I'am using is being saved anywhere on the network, or the router. And what I mean by data is, login details to hotmail, banking, conversations over ebuddy, kik etc.
Also what about secure networks, where I would need a wifi login, can the data be accessed by admins if they wanted to access it at a later date, or is it only accessable by sniffing packets as they are being transmitted?
I use the mail application K9Mail. The problem seems to happened when I updated to Marshmallow.
When I use the application to fetch email by IMAP it will work OK when I use 3G data. My IMAP server resolv OK as it use an DNS server in the internet.
I change the phone using WiFi: It should be a new DNSServer but it seems to use the oldfashioned internet DNS server and because of that will the application get internet address of my IMAPserver. This is not the same as the local address of my IMAPSERVER (192.168.1.1).
If I look at the file /etc/resolv.conf it will have the same value both with or without wifi
nameserver 8.8.4.4
nameserver 8.8.8.8
As a linux user I have learned that this should be changed with information from the dhcp communication but it will not change
Maybe Google want us to always use their DNS server so they can log everything.
So my question is how to get different DNSserver with K9 Mail when I using Wifi or not ??
I think it was working under Android 5.1.1
Environment:
K9 Mail: 5.006
Phone: Nexus 5
OS: Android 6.0