Exchange AS questions

[Underwater Mike]

Hi all,

New job, and my company supports only Crackberries and Palm OS devices. I have the option of getting a Berry for mobile email, but I'd really rather stick with my PPC. Doing so, of course, means blazing trails without IT support.

Is there any way for me to sync with our Exchange server simply by hitting a specific IP and port, assuming that I am an authenticated user? Or would the IT guys have to enable something special on the server side, which clearly will not happen? I know that the BB Connect solution still is not shipping with any WM5 devices from either Cingular or Sprint, and as far as I can tell, the Cingular Express Mail thing requires my work lappy to be connected to the network and running someplace.

I'm not permitted to forward to a third-party account like Gmail.

TIA

[Underwater Mike]

Anybody?

[Janak Parekh]

Is there any way for me to sync with our Exchange server simply by hitting a specific IP and port, assuming that I am an authenticated user?
Sorry, didn't see this before. Given your constraints, there may be two options:

1. IMAP or IMAP+SSL. Both are possible on Exchange, but they do need to be enabled by the sysadmin. IMAP runs on port 143, IMAPS on 993. Pocket PC supports Exchange IMAP quite well if you have it available, although it's not push.

2. Exchange ActiveSync. This actually runs over HTTP (HTTP+SSL strongly preferred, though). It's enabled by default on Exchange 2003, but can be disabled by the sysadmins. Previous versions of Exchange did not have it built in; a special add-on was available for Exchange 2000 but was a comparative pain. If it's enabled, you just configure ActiveSync on the device and sync.

The third option, as you already implied, is a client-side redirector, but it sounds like you've already crossed that off the list.

--janak