How to sync Cingular Mpx220 with exchange 2003?

[chiptransisto]

I'm new to Smartphone Thoughts and to Cingular and to Mpx220. I bought my phone at BestBuy. I can sync with my desktop but have not figured out how to sync with my exchange server (I use sbs2003). I can contact my exchange server with the smartphone over the internet by the address http://myserver/oma. I don't have to change any settings to do that, it works "out of the box." However, I want to auto sync with the server rather than trying to check mail and the calendar through the http://myserver/oma link. Can someone help me?
I've found some information on Cingular settings and have tried to create new Dial-up connections, new proxy connections and new GPRS conections. That doesn't seem to be necessary since I can connect to the internet "out of the box." However, when I try to create the new connections, the instructions have entries that I don't have on my phone or my phone has entries that are not listed in the settings.
If someone has conncedted their Mpx220 to their exchange server using Cingular, I would really appreciate instructions on how it was done. Did you have to add new data connections? IF so, which ones and what entries? Thanks.

[mboone]

Hi,

I sync my MPx220 with SBS2003 through Cingular. I think you want to drop the "oma" on your server address. Just make it "myserver" and that's it. Then try to sync. You may also need to disable certificate checking to get things to work - but I'd try it first and see what error code you get. Where it says "Errors" in ActiveSync on the phone, select that and see what it says. If you need the certificate check turned off, try http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D88753B8-8B3A-4F1D-8E94-530A67614DF1&displaylang=en. Once you get it set up, synchronizing with an Exchange server is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Mike B.

[Jerry Raia]

I have it working over cingular just fine with the standard internet package. Whoever administers your exchange server should have all the settings you need. Its a pretty straight forward setup.

[chiptransisto]

Still no Luck for me. tried on two different servers

[Jerry Raia]

Are you getting errors? This may fall under the category of "have you checked to see if its plugged in?" so forgive me but have you set up the folders on the phone that you want synced? I hadn't done this the first time myself.

Also the exhange admin (I used to be one) has to turn on the mobile sync feature on the server.

Just a couple thoughts here, I'm sure we can figure out whats not working.

[mboone]

Still no Luck for me. tried on two different servers

Do you get an error, and if so, what is the error code? It should say "Errors" in blue, and if you select that you should get more information.

Mike B.

[chiptransisto]

I believe that I have everything on the server set up properly. I have checked all the settings, I think, and all allow mobile access. When I log on using the itnernet at http://myserver/oma, I can access the account. When I plug in my Mpx220 and tell it to sync. it appears that everything is set up properly but when I am not physically hooked up to the server and tell the phone to sync, it is unable to sync. I have checked my errors but I don't remember exactly what they were although I do remember an HTTP_401 error.
I appreaciate you guys trying to help. I don't have my usb cable but tomorrow I will set it up again and then report my errors. With your help, I may get this thing working.
Thanks.

[chiptransisto]

Lasher, you said that the administrator has to turn on the mobile sync feature. Is that something in addition to setting the computer for mobile access? I have never seen anything about turing on the mobile sync feature. I did set up active sync and even ran sbsmobcfg.exe, all to no availe. Could you give me more info on turning on the sync feature? (By the way, I am the admin person on my SBS2003 so I can't "go ask the admin.")

[Jerry Raia]

I was talking about an Exchange 2003 server. I think we might be talking about 2 different things. My mistake. but if its is the same in anyway to a pure exchange 2003 server then there was a place to turn on that feature where you set up options for the individuals Mailbox. I'm not too familiar with the Small Business Server.

[ehartle]

I have it working with SBS03. If you can get to OMA then you should be set to go with Server Activesync. Just to check, open Exchange System Manager, expand Global Settings, right-click Mobile Services and goto Properties - there are all the checkboxes to enable/disable stuff. On mine, all are checked. Now open a web browser on the SBS box and go to http://localhost/microsoft-server-activesync you will get a 501/505 error and this is normal and means that IIS is setup right.

The rest of it is configured from the phone. When you set up the Activesync partnership with your computer you are given the option to sync just with computer or sync with computer + Exchange. Select the Exchange option. Then it will ask you the name of the Exchange server, you can either use the public IP or the fully qualified domain name (mail.company.com, etc.). Select the option, "this server uses SSL". SSL is required - however, the smartphone won't recognize the SSL certificate that SBS uses, so if you have not purchased an SSL certificate and configured IIS to use it, then you will need to run the Microsoft tool that disables certificate checking on the smartphone (somebody linked to it earlier in the thread).

You don't have to create any extra connections for this to work. if your phone can already browse to OMA then you should be good to go. It sounds like probably your activesync partnership with your computer is not setup right.

Note: once you get activesync working to exchange, then you can go into the server activesync settings on the phone and there is a field called Text Message Address. in here put in
[email protected] then on the activesync Mobile Schedule settings you can change the schedule to When new messages arrive. This is supposed to trigger an activesync whenever the server receives a new message, kinda like a blackberry. Mileage may vary on that one. I've found it to be hit or miss - mostly miss - so I set mine to sync every 10 minutes and that's good enough.

Once this is all setup right, you will sync all mail, contacts and calendar items directly with the server and only your tasks will sync with your computer.

[chiptransisto]

Thanks, ehartle. Everything is setup like you suggested on the server. I get the 501/505 error like you said. I can access oma over the internet. That means it must be my phone settings. Do I understand you correctly that you did not need to change the settings on the phone for dial-up and proxy?
When I set up my phone to sync with the server, it asks me for the server name, username, password and domain name. Can I use the ip address in both the server name and the domain name? My server is like myserver2.myserver.com. I have been putting myserver2 in the server name field and myserver.com in the domain name. Should I just use the ip address instead?
Thanks for all the help!

[dsleeper]

I went through the same sequence you describe and upgraded myself from a 40x error to a 50x error and I finally dug up a reference through google to some virtual directory setting on Exchange03 I had to have our sys admin mess with. I'm sorry that I don't still have that link but a) google MPx220 smartphone 2003 Exchange [your current error #] and you may find it or b) I just asked my sys admin to send me the link to the KB that got me rockin'. Re: earlier post = sliced bread...it's WAY beyond that! I'm in real-time heaven. btw I have also found the notify when new mail arrives to be sloppy and go with every 5 minutes. I've forgotten to turn my phone off on a flight and pulled it out of my pocket on landing to find it fully synched. Good stuff.

[ehartle]

well, for servername it will be the external name of your server that you put into a web browser to get to OMA. So if you use https://myserver2.myserver.com/oma for oma, then for activesync the server name would be myserver2.myserver.com. Most sbs servers will have an internal name which may or may not be the same as the external name so for domain name, it will be the NETBIOS name of your internal domain - so if your internal name of your server is sbs1.company.com, then in smartphone activesync settings the domain name would be "company".

For dialup and proxy settings, I have not modified those from the factory defaults so I don't have any dialup connections and my proxy setting is "wireless.cingular.com:80". I have read that the proxy setting can be removed, but for me, if it ain't broke.....

Also, don't forget to get the SSL certificate disable utility if you don't have a "real" certificate from Verisign or Thawte or the like installed on the SBS server. It won't sync unless you disable certificate checking on the phone.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D88753B8-8B3A-4F1D-8E94-530A67614DF1&displaylang=en

For the record, Exchange 2003 requires quite a bit of fiddling with IIS to get all this stuff to work - but SBS2003 is kinda special and it does all the Exchange and IIS configuration automatically when you run the internet connection wizard so really there shouldn't be anything else required at the server with SBS if it's a default setup.

[ehartle]

8O just re-read the original posting in this thread and I noticed that you get to oma with just http:// and not https://.... If you're not running SSL on the Default Web Site in IIS then activesync won't ever work.

[chiptransisto]

It works! It works! Thanks, guys for all your help. I think that there were two problems that I was having.
1. I'm not sure that I was running disableCertChk.exe then turning off the phone/turning it back on when I was trying to set it up.
2. ehertle set me straight on server name and domain. I had myserver2 in the server name instead of myserver2.myserver.com and I had myserver.com in the domain field instead of myserver.
About every 10 minutes, I see the phone come on and sync with the server. It's great.

[ehartle]

good deal. I'm curious to know what happens if you set your sync schedule to "when new messages arrive". For me, it worked great for a few days, then it stopped working and now it only works every now and then. I've given up on it and just sync every 10 minutes.

[chiptransisto]

OK guys, I have two SBS2003's. A and B. I used B to work on getting my mxp220 working and confirming that I could connect to my exchange server. Thanks to your help, I suceeded.
However, all my info that I need to sync with is on server A, the main working server. I can access oma on server A using the phone but when I set up a connection (the same one that worked on server B) it doesn't work on server A.
When I try to sync with A, it connects, it looks for changes, then it ask me for my password. I have entered the correct password and no matter how many times I reenter the correct password, it 'connects', 'looks for changes' then ask me for my password again.
You guys were so helpful getting me going on server B. Does anyone have any idea why server A keeps asking for my password?
I do have mobile access enabled and all that stuff.

[HalM]

I have been using OMA and XpressMail on my MPx220 for 6 months with no problem but I thought it was time to take advantage of Active Sync. I ended up Googling and trying things for about 5 hours and now have it working perfect. It was obvious that I was not alone in this quest, so here is what I did to get it working.

First I went through the standard stuff one would expect setting up a partnership via the supplied USB cable. I also disabled Certificate checking as outlined earlier in this thread. Things would sync fine between the two as long as I DID NOT check the box to sync with Exchange. That is the first thing to keep in mind. You are sync'ing with Exchange, not the partner PC. That is why when you use the PC settings from the Partnership you will get CONNMGR_35 errors when connected via cable or wireless Internet. The second thing I had to do was substitute the public IP address for the server name as found on the phone under ActiveSync / Menu / Options / Server Settings / Server Name. This was mentioned on the 1st page of this thread, but I also found it on another forum. When I substitutes the IP for name, the Connmgr_36 error went away but I got HTTP_500.

When you get this error, it is almost always a Exchange server issue, not the phone. Again, I spent hours looking into this error. Q886346 gives a registry hack that may or may not be necessary, but I did anyway. Didn't help. I kept digging and eventually found a thread that mentioned a permissions issue. In IIS, on the Exchange virtual directory, you must have Intergrated Windows Authentication enabled. For reasons long forgotten, we had disabled them. I readded them and the MPx came alive. Worked like a champ since.

So, in summary, here is what I did:
1.) Disabled Certificate checking on the phone.
2.) On the phone's Active Sync, I changed the server name to its IP address.
3.) On the Exchange server I made the registry hack as found in Q 886346.
4.) Made sure that the IIS Exchange virtual directory had Intergtated Windows Authentication.

So, the products rock and I am a happy camper.

[skibee]

I'm glad that this solved your problem. Sometimes it just takes a bit of research to get things going.