Monthly Archives: July 2008

Which Mobile for Exchange Mailbox Synchronization?

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Activesync icon

At present we only officially support the use of Windows Mobile devices when communicating with the Exchange servers. This decision was made on the basis of the consistent standard of Windows Mobile and having devices ourselves that we can test and check problems out on. Now, a number of the big mobile manufacturers are licensing Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology and introducing the Enterprise level functionality into their devices. We don’t prohibit their use, but can’t offer any in depth support.

I hope this post gives some information on our findings.

Windows Mobile:
All versions of Windows Mobile should be compatible with Exchange. Obviously with each new iteration of the operating system (We are now up to 6.1) new functionality is introduced. Push e-mail was introduced in Windows Mobile 5.0. Motorola, Samsung, Palm, HTC are among manufacturers that produce Windows Mobile devices. Many of the UK mobile providers (Orange, O2, T-Mobile) re-badge HTC devices as their own.

Nokia:
As James documented in an earlier post, Nokia were one of the first manufacturers to licence Activesync which they called ‘Mail for Exchange’. It seems to only be available for some of their ‘E’ and ‘N’ series devices.

Sony Ericsson:
We have only been able to take a look at one Sony Ericsson device and unfortunately their version of Activesync on that particular device doesn’t seem to be compatible with Forms Based Authentication. (The type of authentication that we use!)

Blackberry:
As Blackberry have their own version of Activesync, it doesn’t look like they will license Microsoft’s version. Unfortunately to get the Blackberry to offer push e-mail with an Exchange server, a separate server (Blackberry Enterprise Server) and client access licenses need to be purchased. As we can offer Microsoft Activesync for no extra cost, we have no plans to offering push e-mail support to Blackberries.

Apple iPhone:
Apple incorporate Microsoft’s Activesync into their software on July 11th. The software will be made available for existing iPhones, IPod Touch and the soon to be released 3G iPhone. We haven’t yet been able to test this.

Some useful resources:

Modaco : Thorough news and forums
MSMobiles : News
CoolSmartphone : News
Expansys : Online Retailer

Connecting to Exchange with your Nokia Phone and ‘Mail for Exchange’

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I wanted to try this out and it turned out to be much easier that I thought it would be!

Here is how I went about it.

1. Download ‘Mail for Exchange’ and install it.
2. You will then need to configure your profile.

Connection

Exchange Server: owa.ncl.ac.uk
Secure connection: Yes
AP: Choose
Sync while roaming: Up to you.
Use default port: Yes

Credentials

Your Username: nXXXXXX
Password: *******
Domain: CAMPUS

The other options allow you to choose what, when and how to sync. The application also warns you not to Sync with any other mail apps (such as your own local copy of Outlook) so there may be a trade off.

To see if your phone is compatible read the release notes here.

MFE

Please note that ISS can not help you with any problems as MFE is not currently supported.

http://www.businesssoftwa…e_downloads.php

EduCoMS Community Site

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EduCoMS

EduServ, UCISA and Microsoft have recently launched a new community website for IT professionals using Microsoft technologies in higher and further education.

The site has a collection of forums, wikis and document libraries which are somewhat sparse at the moment, but will be more useful the more members of the community start to contribute. In an attempt to persuade people to build the site up at the beginning, they’re offering book tokens to people posting content.

You don’t need to sign up in order to browse the site, so I’d recommend you at least take a look at www.educoms.net and see if you think you’d want to get involved.

Welcome to the WIT Blog

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The Windows Infrastructure Team in ISS at Newcastle University, as the name suggests, is responsible for the Windows Infrastructure of the University, meaning that we’re the ones who look after, among other things:

  • Active Directory, which is the management framework for user accounts, managed Windows PCs and servers and the policies that manage settings and software. We delegate control of various aspects of the Active Directory to the appropriate people in ISS and around the campus.
  • Exchange, which is the home of the email mailboxes and calendars of most computer users in the institution.
  • Central File Store, which most of our users will see as their personal H: drive, and shared storage for a number of schools/services.
  • IIS and SQL Servers, offering centrally managed hosting of ASP.NET web sites and SQL databases.
  • And various other services which run on Windows Server.

The purpose of this blog is to keep people using our services up to date with developments, share handy tips and more general tech news that we think may be of interest. On that basis, you’re going to get the most out of this if you have a keen or vested interest in the systems at Newcastle University, but if even if you’re nothing to do with the University, but have an interest in technology in general, or enterprise computing using Microsoft technologies in particular, we hope you’ll find something of interest here…