Guest Paul [MVP] Posted October 20, 2005 Report Posted October 20, 2005 Following on from the Community Technology Preview of Exchange 2003 SP2... the final release is now available on the Microsoft site! The download can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/download...2/download.mspx What's in SP2? Here's Microsoft's pitch (from http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/download...2/overview.mspx)... SP2 is a cumulative update that enhances your Exchange Server 2003 messaging environment with: • Mobile e-mail improvements • Better protection against spam • Mailbox advancements Mobile E-Mail Improvements SP2 offers a huge leap forward in mobility capabilities. With SP2, Exchange Server 2003 can offer a significantly improved Microsoft Outlook experience on mobile devices as well as additional security and device control. As always, the Exchange ActiveSync protocol does not require expensive software or outsourcing fees to access data on your server running Exchange Server. The mobility enhancements in SP2 give you: • New seamless Direct Push Technology e-mail experience. No longer is there a reliance on short message service (SMS) to notify and ensure that your device automatically retrieves new e-mail from your Exchange server. SP2 uses an HTTP connection, maintained by the device, to push new e-mail messages, calendar, contact, and task notifications to the device. • Additional data compression translating to a faster experience when sending and receiving messages and reduced sync times. • Additional Outlook properties, including support for task synchronization and pictures in your list of contacts. In addition, you can now look up people by using the Global Address List (GAL) over the air. • Greater control over device security, including: • Policy setting. Unlock a device with a password. • Local wipe. Decide how many incorrect logon attempts are permitted before your data might be at risk. • Remote wipe. Lost, stolen, or misplaced devices are never out of reach. You decide when it’s prudent to reset devices remotely over the Web. Such policies help to ensure corporate data or applications are not compromised when devices are lost or get into the wrong hands. • New optional support for certificate-based authentication to eliminate the need to store corporate credentials on a device. • Added support for Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) to sign and encrypt messages coming to and from mobile devices. Most of the Mobile Device features (particularly Direct Push Technology), require a forthcoming version of Windows Mobile 5 known as the 'Messaging & Security Feature Pack' (MSFP). Despite this, there are still some great features in SP2 that are well worth having. I installed the update yesterday, and am really enjoying FINALLY having Tasks sync to my (Windows Mobile 5) Smartphone, and am also liking Photo Contact picture sync to my server. Enjoy! ;) P PS If you have any issues Server Activesync'ing after the update, check integrated auth is enabled on your IIS directory used for SA... the update seems to change that setting :D
Guest dazza12 Posted October 20, 2005 Report Posted October 20, 2005 Paul, Do you know if this is suitable for Small Business Server 2003? When they released SP1, it came with a warning not to install it on SBS, and a couple of months later they incorporated it into a separate SBS service pack. However, I note there is no warning for this one. Ideally I'd like to have this installed ready for my M5000, but if it's going to break my server I'm happy to wait. There's a link for the download from the SBS page but following that it only states it's for Exchange 2003.
Guest Will Posted October 20, 2005 Report Posted October 20, 2005 Its apparently safe for sbs, std and premium, i'm updating my server over the weekend, (whilst being physically near it - in on a different continent *nudge Paul_MVP) Will report back ;) Will
Guest Zone-MR Posted October 21, 2005 Report Posted October 21, 2005 • New seamless Direct Push Technology e-mail experience. No longer is there a reliance on short message service (SMS) to notify and ensure that your device automatically retrieves new e-mail from your Exchange server. SP2 uses an HTTP connection, maintained by the device, to push new e-mail messages, calendar, contact, and task notifications to the device. That feature is something I would die for ;) There's a problem - unless something changes, it's not going to work on Orange UK, and it probably won't work on other UK networks either. The theory is very nice - the phone opens an HTTP connection to the exchange server, and sends a request. However unlike normal HTTP requests, the server doesn't reply immediatly. It waits until there is data which needs to be synchronised, and only sends the reply then - keeping the connection open and the phone waiting for a reply in the meantime. The problem is that Orange (and O2 afaik) disconnect TCP connections whenever data isn't exchanged for over 30 seconds (something which has been making me go insane lately as it's a big problem for an app I'm working on). That means the whole concept of holding a connection open and waiting for data won't work on the two largest UK networks. It means that the phone would need to keep sending data to the server every 30 seconds to keep the connection open - which would result in crappy battery usage, and huge GPRS data usage charges. Correct me if I'm missing something, but for the forseeable future us UKers are screwed.
Guest steve_smith Posted October 21, 2005 Report Posted October 21, 2005 (edited) That feature is something I would die for ;) There's a problem - unless something changes, it's not going to work on Orange UK, and it probably won't work on other UK networks either. Added to the problem you've identified, we would also need to wait not only for Orange and friends to come out with some WM2005 phones, but also for them to issue the necessary future ROM upgrade for the push email side to work. Our company have given up waiting and decided to buy Blackberry and Blackberry Enterprise Server instead (yeuch to both the handsets and the fact it means you need to have a separate server with 1.5Gb of RAM for it to work). Actually, thinking about it, since I guess Blackberry must do something similar with regards to setting up a TCP/IP session, wouldn't that also suffer from the same disconnect problem? Steve. Edited October 21, 2005 by steve_smith
Guest dazza12 Posted October 21, 2005 Report Posted October 21, 2005 steve_smith, as far as I'm aware, the Blackberry server sends out a message to the client, possibly a text similar to AUTD, which then triggers a sync from the handset. The problem is there's about 5 messages involved for every email, and the Blackberry server isn't very scalable. For instance, my largest client uses Blackberry, and they are looking at purchasing their 4th Blackberry server to cope with the load. They are shortly (on my recommendation) looking to move to WM5 devices. This will mean one extra Exchange server to replace the Blackberry servers for the same number of clients.
Guest steve_smith Posted October 21, 2005 Report Posted October 21, 2005 steve_smith, as far as I'm aware, the Blackberry server sends out a message to the client, possibly a text similar to AUTD, which then triggers a sync from the handset. The guy that came to install our trial did explain it to me (but it was some months ago now and my memory is hazy). I believe the internal BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) uses TCP/IP to communicate with a intermediary server run by Blackberry (on the internet) which then uses the GSM network to communicate with the handheld. However, I did think it used GPRS and not SMS. I did recommend that our company waited for WM5 (we were alarmed by the fact that to support our initial quota of 5 users, a maching running Windows Server and packing 1.5Gb of physical RAM was required). Providing you don't mind occasionally hitting send/receive (or set the phone up to do it every x minutes during working hours) then there's not much wrong with the way Exchange Server Activesync works in WM2003. We have 3 or 4 users successfully using it on their PDAs or smartphones. There are some security issues (password stored on device), but we make sure our users have their devices set up to lock if not used for more than 5 minutes. Why power managers want to automagically receive their emails in the middle of the night is beyond me... Steve.
Guest Will Posted October 22, 2005 Report Posted October 22, 2005 installed fine on sbs2003 (std) - simply selected tasks to sync.. and away we go!
Guest Dr_StrangeTrick Posted October 23, 2005 Report Posted October 23, 2005 Why power managers want to automagically receive their emails in the middle of the night is beyond me... Also if like most companies there is loads of internal 'junk' email I.E. jokes, people CC'ing you on emails that don't concern you and emails like "its my birthday, cakes in the fridge" or coming down to the pub etc which when you are working from home or out of the office is a complete waste of time. Whats worse is when someone decides to drag you into an email argument the device is going mental as the 'children' having the argument keep replying to each other causing the email to get bigger and bigger until the device in on line constantly trying to catch up. Don't get me wrong I have setup the WM2003 AUTD/SMS system at work and it works great but with so much junk being sent to the device our 'mobile' users have decided to let the device sync itself every 30 mins during peak hours (headers only) and only read whats important or what is actually meant for them. So while AUTD/Push is fantastic it can be a right pain in the a$&*se
Guest cytrax Posted October 25, 2005 Report Posted October 25, 2005 Also if like most companies there is loads of internal 'junk' email I.E. jokes, people CC'ing you on emails that don't concern you and emails like "its my birthday, cakes in the fridge" or coming down to the pub etc which when you are working from home or out of the office is a complete waste of time. Whats worse is when someone decides to drag you into an email argument the device is going mental as the 'children' having the argument keep replying to each other causing the email to get bigger and bigger until the device in on line constantly trying to catch up. Don't get me wrong I have setup the WM2003 AUTD/SMS system at work and it works great but with so much junk being sent to the device our 'mobile' users have decided to let the device sync itself every 30 mins during peak hours (headers only) and only read whats important or what is actually meant for them. So while AUTD/Push is fantastic it can be a right pain in the a$&*se <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I've upgraded my SBS Server to Exchange SP2. However, I'm having a problem configuring the device to pickup mails. It works without SSL but when SSL is enabled, the server fails to connect. I'm not sure what's going on here because SSL is enable for other services i.e. Webmail and it works absolutely fine. Is there anyone else out there having similar problem?
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted October 25, 2005 Report Posted October 25, 2005 Did it work previously? Does your device trust the cert? P
Guest cytrax Posted October 25, 2005 Report Posted October 25, 2005 Did it work previously? Does your device trust the cert? P <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, it's never worked when I use SSL and all works fine without SSL option.
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted October 25, 2005 Report Posted October 25, 2005 Well there you go then, your device probably doesn't trust the cert. Either disable cert checking using this tool: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&displaylang=en or install the cert on your device, or get a cert your device trusts! P
Guest cytrax Posted October 25, 2005 Report Posted October 25, 2005 (edited) ,Oct 25 2005, 13:42]Well there you go then, your device probably doesn't trust the cert. Either disable cert checking using this tool: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&displaylang=en or install the cert on your device, or get a cert your device trusts! P <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi Paul, I've tried running this tool on my PDA but to no avail. I then tried to run it on my PC from command line prompt and I get "registry error" I feel retarded! Edited October 25, 2005 by cytrax
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