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.
With other phones I can access our corporate exchange email using the named domain Exchange Server. With my SGS2, if I enter the fully compliant domain named server, it only connects with email on our internal corporate wifi. If I turn off the wifi and run data only, I can't access email.
When I change the domain named server to our external IP address, I can access email when using data, but I cannot access email using our internal wi-fi.
We've tested the fully compliant server domain name i.e. server-srvexch.domain.com on iphones and Nokia phones and it works just fine both on data and wi-fi. The SGS2 doesn't seem to want to accept the internal IP address when on wi-fi. Is there a setting or something to flush the DNS or accept multiple addresses in the email settings?
Any suggestions?
Thank you.
So I deleted the email account and reinstalled it using the domain name server and it works fine on data. When I turn on our wifi, it doesn't connect.
Turn the wifi off and the email works. Turn the data off and wifi off and then restart the data and neither works.
Interent works fine on wifi. It's just the Microsoft ActiveSync email that is the problem.
Could be a firewall problem with your WiFi network blocking the ports for Active Sync
Hi,
I am currently trying to find a way to change the DNS settings on my S II. I want to implement the posibillity to set the DNS IP in the settings of my cyanogenmod ROM.
But it seems like its impossible to set a custom DNS for mobile networks on the SII.
I found out that Android stores its DNS settings as properties.
- net.dnsX for the current active DNS
- and also dhcp.wlan0.dnsX when connected to WiFi,
- or net.rmnet0.dnsX when connected to a mobile network.
I was able to change this settings manually with the "setprop" utility and also automatically by modifying "20-dns.conf" from dhcpcd for WiFi and "ConnectivityService.java" for mobile networks.
For WiFi this works without any problems, but for mobile networks these settings seem to be ignored completely. Android still uses the DNS settings from my provider. I was searching through the complete android source to find an indication where the dns settings are stored that are actually used, but I have found nothing.
First I thought my provider is routing all requests to port 53 to their own servers but even if I set the DNS address to 127.0.0.1, all requests are still resolved.
Has anyone tried this before or even sucsessfully changed the DNS settings for mobile networks on the S2?
I belive the DNS settings for mobile networks are handled in some binary blobs (from Samsung?), maybe libsec-ril.so.
Does anyone have what I can do?
While searching through the net I found out that this is working for other devices, so I dont really understand why samsung would ignore the properties in their code.
Siloportem
I could not be able to find the option to setup
IP
Netmask
Gateway
DNS
for the internet connection on android Marshmallow.
There is no ethernet option in setting.
Please help
Hi.
I have Wifi disconnections frequently on my phone (Xiaomi Redmi 5) and my researches lend me to focus on IPv6.
When my phone is connected to my home Wifi, I can see in the connections parameters that there are 2 local IP addresses : one IPv4 and another IPv6.
I disabled in my router settings the IPv6 management but my phone still has an IPv6 address.
What do I need to do (On the router or on the phone) to get rid of it?
Thanks!
Dude, i was just coasting down the information highway, not actually looking for this, but found it nonetheless, and coincidentally i go thru the same rather annoying events. Did you ever solve it? Care to share?
Yep, it appears to me that while using a VPN disconnections didn't occur anymore.
I don't understand why but if works.
I use this workaround since.
I'll give that a try! Thanks
I don't think it's a problem with ipv4 or ipv6. precisely if you don't establish an IP address it can't be connected to WiFi. maybe you can try resetting the Router you are using. CMIIW
@Double Jo
A Local IP address ( to be corect: Private IP address ) is an IP address that's reserved for internal use behind a router or other Network Address Translation (NAT) device, apart from the public. Private IP addresses are in contrast to public IP addresses, which are public and can't be used within a home or business network
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reserves the following IP address blocks for use as private IP addresses:
10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255
As one can see those all are IPv4 addresses.