Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Westfall
On a related note,
Why is it I can sync my Zune over wi-fi but can't sync my Windows Phone?
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You kinda can. But first some history.
At one point in time you could, but this wasn't by design. Microsoft had added the ability for earlier Windows CE devices to be able to sync over IP. This was meant to allow devices that had IP over serial cable to sync. Eventuall Windows CE devices started to get all types of network connections. Because of the nature of IP based pprotocols syncing over these new connections. Microsoft went back and disabled this feature because the sync process had been designed originally assuming you had a wired connection directly to the target computer and thus low risk of data interception.
I know there are those that would say "Just make sure you use wireless encryption." But the problem isn't based in WiFi. Even if you encrypted your connection once your data gets to the router it is in it's unencrypted form and some one else on the network could decrypt it. Worst there are those that would try to sync over the Internet and those people would be subject to a much larger interception surface.
Another common argument against syncing being disable is "Why didn't Microsoft just disable it by default and allow power users to enable it." That's paramount to arguing why one wasn't given a loaded gun to shoot wones self. Also if a security breach occurred under such a condition it is Microsoft that would be given the bad press, not the user.
The solution to this would be to add some type of encryption to the data. At present there are a few syncing services available for Windows Mobile phones that will provide this encryption. Exchange syncing is encrypted, as are Mesh syncint and MyPhone syncing. While these technologies may not cover all the use cases that one may have for wanting ActiveSync syncing over IP they do address many of the use cases. Given the above mentioned technologies there wouldn't be much to gain from re-enabling syncing over IP for ActiveSync.