Help! Wireless email access

[Guest mattchapman]

OK guys, I'm counting on you to help me (and probably others) out!!

Here's the deal:

-Just bought an SMT5600 phone and can sync to my corporate exchange server when connected to the PC using USB.

- I cannot seem to sync 'wirelessly'. I'm guessing this is because I need to tunnel through a VPN to get into my corporate email.

- Note also: I have a Treo650 with goodlink installed which is connected to my work email. My company set this up but they won't touch my SMT5600 they say.

- I turned off the cert checking but still no work. I'm sure its got something to do with the VPN thingy.

I'm not a huge techie so laymans terms help would be great!

Thanks so much guys.

[Guest martin]

Does the APN (Access Point Name) you are using support VPN ?

[Guest mossywell]

- I cannot seem to sync 'wirelessly'.  I'm guessing this is because I need to tunnel through a VPN to get into my corporate email.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If I understand your predicament correctly (and forgive me if I don't)...

Not quite. ActiveSync connects to your Exchange Server 2003 using HTTPS (i.e. the same port, TCP 443, used by secure web sites). It's a bit like firing up a web browser on your mobile and pointing it to https://myexchangeserver.mycompany.com/blah-blah-blah (I forget what the blah-blah-blah is, but it's not a problem because ActiveSync knows!)

So, your company's email server must accept direct incoming connections on TCP port 443. You might want to check this with the security / network team. (You may have implied this with your comment about Goodlink, but I don't know that software at all. Sorry.)

Also, bear in mind that once connected to the Internet, the server name in the ActiveSync config must be "fully qualified", like: myexchangeserver.mycompany.com and not just the name on its own, like myexchangeserver.

Well, I hope that's a start anyway. ActiveSync over the Internet can be a proverbial can of worms!

[Guest mattchapman]

First, not sure if the APN supports VPN. I know that I have to use VPN to access my email on my desktop from home (ie. first tunnel with VPN, then load Outlook and log in...). If I have to do this on my desktop I presumed that I would also have to use some kind of VPN on my mobile...but perhaps not.

If they have set it up so that Goodlink on the Treo's can access the mailserver then I would think the Port 443 you refer to is activated.

And yes I input the full name (server.domain.com).

Still, when I try to connect, it gives just says 'error' 'not connected'.

[Guest mossywell]

It might be helpful to me if you explained which buttons (starting from the home screen) you're using to try to access your email and where the error occurs. Also, do you have Goodlink installed on your phone?

[Guest mattchapman]

I have inserted my details in the Activesync menu (Server settings/connection). I have username (my outlook username), password (my outlook password), Domain (US), Server name (exchserver.domain.com).

In the Inbox menu I checked sync with a server.

I don't have goodlink installed. I understand if I install that then I need the 30-digit PIN from my Company as well as adding my IMSI number to the Goodlink server.

[Guest mossywell]

OK, so no Goodlink (which, having read about it, is kind of like Blackberry but for any hardware - point to point connection across your firewall).

So, in your case, there's no correlation between what works with your Treo and what isn't working here - two separate methods of getting email completely. Therefore, as I mentinoed before, you'll need to check with your network / security team to ensure that port 443 is allowed from any external IP to your email server - I suspect that it is not. It is possible that there other problems as well, but until this first one is tackled, we're not going to be getting anywhere anyway.

HTH

M