Exchange 2003 SP2 & ActiveSync OMA issue

[bulldog5046]

i know there are a few knowlegable admins on here so thought i would see if anyone has got this working in a similar enviroment.

progression with company mobiles has moved on to iPhones which i have been backing myself. This means we need to setup OMA ActiveSync.

i have setup System Manager as per instructions available on many sites across the net but always get a HTTP 500 error when i test the connection with AccessMyLAN ActiveSync test software.

we are not using a front-end exchange, just a Back-end.

i found this article on the net and followed it on to the microsoft KB resolution but it has made no difference.

http://andyparkes.co.uk/blog/index....r-using-exchange-activesync-on-exchange-2003/

i setup an SBS2003 test enviroment and sure enough it works instantly but i'm having real issues with the production enviroment.

has anyone had success outside of SBS? and tips/tricks?

Thanks,
Ry

 

[jenks69]

We've got it working, but we used an exchange front end, we also had to faff with certificates / ISA and adding certificates to the phones. That was with HTX Smartphones.

We got round it intiially by seting up a VPN on the phone then just point the mail client to the exchange box. a bit clunky to setup but the user experience was no differant.

 

[ChrisUK]

iPhone "Should" work without cert's

Check IIS Directory authentication methods & permissions (both IP and user) on activesync folder and compare them with your working SBS test box. I'd also be looking at RPC over HTTP (renamed "Outlook Anywhere" in 2008) config / setup as thats a common point at where this breaks.

Unfortuntatly it's quite hard to diagnose these sort of things unless your on the system in question.

All i'll say is haha for pusing iPhones for business

 

[ChrisUK]

Have you had any luck on this?

 

[306maxi]

All i'll say is haha for pusing iPhones for business

There's a reason why big business uses Blackberrys.....

Same reason almost all large corporations don't use Linux or OSX on a large scale.

 

[ChrisUK]

Actually your're wrong.

Well not about blackberry's. They do seem to be common in business (but I don't know why). To look after blackberry's properly in a corporate environment you need to invest in a BlackBerry Enterprise server which the software alone costs thousands.

Windows Mobile's however work out the box with a standard exchange install and require very little maintenance to look after providing you have a third party trusted root certificate for your SSL.

And from my experience it IS the large company's and organisation that are using Linux based servers. HSBC for example have a huge global network of Linux servers / VPN's etc.

 

[306maxi]

Actually your're wrong.

Well not about blackberry's. They do seem to be common in business (but I don't know why). To look after blackberry's properly in a corporate environment you need to invest in a BlackBerry Enterprise server which the software alone costs thousands.

Windows Mobile's however work out the box with a standard exchange install and require very little maintenance to look after providing you have a third party trusted root certificate for your SSL.

And from my experience it IS the large company's and organisation that are using Linux based servers. HSBC for example have a huge global network of Linux servers / VPN's etc.

Sorry should have been clear. I meant in terms of desktop PC's. Linux is good in a server environment and plenty of big companies back in Australia used them., but in terms of people sitting down at a Linux or OSX desktop in an office it's a rare thing.

What I meant about the blackberrys in a corporate environment is that the corporate environment is their bread and butter so they do it well, with Apple the support is never going to be as good.

 

[ChrisUK]

Fair enough

as far as blackberry's go once you see what goes on in the back end (i,e BES) you wouldn't be saying that.

 

[306maxi]

Fair enough

as far as blackberry's go once you see what goes on in the back end (i,e BES) you wouldn't be saying that.

I bet most people would rather be dealing with blackberrys than iPhones though in terms of support

 

[ChrisUK]

You got me there . Usually because companies can support their own blackberrys if their IT support is knowledgeable enough

 

[306maxi]

You got me there . Usually because companies can support their own blackberrys if their IT support is knowledgeable enough

I wonder how many IT people have had the satisfaction of telling some smug iPhone using suit to get bent when they try and get their iPhone setup for push email I know I would. Come back when you've got a real phone

 

[bulldog5046]

i managed to get this working eventually in our test enviroment, the HTTP 500 error is very non specific, you need to examin the exchange logs to see whats really going on, in my car it was permission failure (HTTP 401 5) and was caused by intergrated windows logon not being enabled for one of the IIS sites.

service should be going live over this weekend.

as for BES/VES, we are moving away from it, its too limiting and i'm fed up of spending hours on the phone to vodafone to get them to correct issues on their NOC.

deleting emails from the device and them only going to the deleted items folder on exchange has been an issue for sales reps who done otherwise have access to the systems.

yes, we could of set a global deleted items retention but directors wouldnt of been happy and the chairman uses it as an organisational folder

additionally, all of the board members wanted iphones anyway.

Ry

 

[bulldog5046]

There's a reason why big business uses Blackberrys.....

Same reason almost all large corporations don't use Linux or OSX on a large scale.

the name Sun Microsystems pops in to my head at the linus comment (i assume you mean unix aswell?).

£750,000 server might disagree with it being used on 'large scale'

 

[306maxi]

the name Sun Microsystems pops in to my head at the linus comment (i assume you mean unix aswell?).

£750,000 server might disagree with it being used on 'large scale'

Congratulations for not reading my clarification

 

[bulldog5046]

Congratulations for not reading my clarification

 

[306maxi]

Fair play to you

 

[bulldog5046]

this proved to be a real pain to configure.

after our supplier remotely setup the ISA for us over the weekend i was hoping to walk in this morning with everything working, i should be so lucky.

logged a call with the supplier to tell them it wasnt working and reporting HTTP 403 errors (HTTP 401 2 errors in the IIS log).

didnt hear from them pretty much all day so spent some time looking at it myself, finally discovered that the ISA had been configured wrong! want wasnt allowing access to '/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/*'. once added, everything sprung into life and i've had my iphone connected since.

its really impressive the amount of features on the iphone for this setup and everything works seamlessly so far, really quite impressed.

given the test of time i will have to see how it fairs but for now i think its much better than any of the other mobile devices i've tried, and a million times better than the crappy VBE/BES setup we had before.

hope this may offer some advice for people searching the net in vein for solutions to their activesync problems.

Ry

 

[ChrisUK]

I totally agree. Iphone ActiveSync support nowadays pee's over blackberry's. Still not as good as an HTC Hero / Android device or Windows Mobile though . I do hate using Windows Mobile's though too slow sluggish.

I did another iPhone yesterday at a different customers site and was getting almost exactly the same problem as you and it turned out to be IP/Network permissions on Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync Only 127.0.0.1 & The servers internal LAN Ip was Granted access.

Also for reference you NEED to have Exchange SP2 or iPhone's don't work but I take it you know that from the title of the thread lol.