How-to: Connect your Windows Mobile device to an Exchange server (WM5)
Microsoft Exchange servers offer a lot of a features that regular POP3 and IMAP email servers do not. It was even a consideration when I was deciding which company I wanted to work for.
Exchange servers have a number of features such as Outlook Web Access and Push Email, that help us have greater access to our email. Push Email helps us get email to our devices as soon as it hits the server.
If you have access to both an Exchange server and a recent Windows Mobile device (post WM5), you can get email to and from your device better than what is possible with any other method.
This article will show you how to connect your Windows Mobile 5 device to an Exchange server. It is not very hard to get up and running, but there are a few terms which are a little confusing.
This article is written for Windows Mobile 5, but I hope it will assist people with Windows Mobile 6 devices also.
Test Setup:
- I will be using an Ipaq rw6828 running Windows Mobile 5.
- I will be connecting to an Exchange Server 2003.
- No additional software is required to make this work.
While Exchange servers can probably be set up in various ways, I can only go from the experience I have had. A few years back, when our new Exchange administrator said that he couldn’t figure out how to connect his Windows Mobile device to the server, I had already been on it for a week. I passed on my documentation then and it has been used around the company ever since.
Find out your server information:
The amount of times friends have asked me to setup their email connections without them knowing server names, usernames and passwords is numerous, making my job just about impossible. Before you start attempting this, collect the following information.
- Your username
- Your password
- Your domain (often your company name)
- Outlook Web Access address (not the Exchange Server)
If you are unsure, I am sorry to say… you will need to contact your help desk or server administrator.
Setting it up:
Exchange and Windows Mobile devices were designed to work together and there are 3 ways that I know of to get the two to talk to each other.
- Setting up the connection using ActiveSync
- Setting up the connection using WMDC
- Setting up the connection using your device
No matter which of the options you use, the settings will filter across to the other two during a sync. All you need to do is find the setup you feel most comfortable with. Each option is fairly straightforward and the results are identical.
If you are on an expensive data plan, you are probably best to take a WMDC or ActiveSync option as the initial data costs will be much lower than syncing directly through a GPRS link.
All the images below can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Setting up the connection using your device:
Ensure you have a wireless Internet connection of some type on your device, and make sure it is active.
Open up ActiveSync on your device
Tap “Menu”
Tap “Add Server Source…”
Enter in your Outlook Web Access address as your server name. There is no need to put the http:// or https://
Leave the SSL box ticked – you may want to toggle this if you have problems.
Tap “Next”
Enter your username, password and domain.
Tick “Save Password”
Tap “Next”
In this window, you get to choose what you want to sync. By default, all the boxes are ticked. If you want to play with these settings, press settings. You can’t do any damage here so have a play.
The only thing I would be careful about is syncing all your email. There probably won’t be enough space on your device and you are unlikely to ever look at it. Take a minimalistic stance.
Tap “Finish”
Now all the settings are done.
Open up ActiveSync and select “Sync”. You should not be connected to WMDC or ActiveSync for this step.
When the sync is completed successfully, disconnect your device.
Scroll down to the testing area.
Setting up the connection using ActiveSync:
Start off by connecting your device to ActiveSync. If you have not done this yet, read this Inspect My Gadget article which shows you how to connect your device to ActiveSync via Bluetooth. If you are using USB, install ActiveSync and plug in your device.
Go into tools and select “Add Server Source…”
Enter in your Outlook Web Access address as your server name. There is no need to put the http:// or https://
Leave the SSL box ticked – you may want to toggle this if you have problems.
Enter your username, password and domain.
Tick “Save Password”
Click “OK”
In this window, you get to choose what you want to sync. By default, all the boxes are ticked. If you want to play with these settings, press settings. You can’t do any damage here so have a play.
The only thing I would be careful about is syncing all your email. There probably won’t be enough space on your device and you are unlikely to ever look at it. Take a minimalistic stance.
Click ”OK”
Now all the settings are done.
Get the sync rolling while you are still connected. This will be quicker (and probably cheaper) than using a GPRS connection.
Open ActiveSync on your device and tap “Sync”. You should see that all the data is being transferred to your device. When the sync is completed successfully, disconnect your device.
Scroll down to the testing area.
Setting up the connection using WMDC:
Start off by connecting your device to WMDC. If you have not done this yet, read this Inspect My Gadget article which shows you how to connect your device to WMDC via Bluetooth. If you are using USB, install WMDC and plug in your device.
Under Mobile Device Settings, Select “Sync wirelessly with Exchange Server”
Enter in your Outlook Web Access address as your server name. There is no need to put the http:// or https://
Leave the SSL box ticked – you may want to toggle this if you have problems.
Enter your username, password and domain.
Tick “Save Password”
Click “Set Up”
The final step is to configure what we want to sync. In the main window of WMDC, under Mobile Device Settings, select “more>>”
Select “Change content sync settings”
In here tick what you want to sync. Most importantly your contacts and email.
Click “Save”
Now all the settings are done.
Get the sync rolling while you are still connected. This will be quicker (and probably cheaper) than using a GPRS connection.
Open ActiveSync on your device and tap “Sync”. You should see that all the data is being transferred to your device. When the sync is completed successfully, disconnect your device.
Testing:
To test that everything is working correctly, try deleting a few emails and/or sending yourself an email from your desktop computer.
Enable your Wifi, GPRS or similar connection on your device.
Open up ActiveSync on your device and select sync.
You should see that the messages have been deleted and that you have received a new email. It may take a minute or two for the email to come in, but as I tested this out, the message arrived on my device around 10 seconds before it reached my desktop.
Conclusion:
I hope that you have had success in connecting to your Exchange server from your Windows Mobile device. You are now experiencing some of the latest technology available, and making the most out of your device.
I would love to hear what any Windows Mobile 6 users have to say about this article.
Please stick around and check some other articles at Inspect My Gadget.
Hi, I followed all the steps for setup, yet I’m not receiving new emails via GPRS or Wi-Fi. I’m using WM6 T-Mobile Wing. Everything is sync’d correctly, email and contacts. If I sync while connected via USB works fine. When I attempt to sync via wi-fi or GRPS, I don’t receive any new email, even though I sent myself a test email after I unplugged from USB and let the GRPS connect after 10 minutes. There are no errors, just no new email. Any suggestions?
Dan, is RNDIS mode selected over USB? This is where I would first look. Are other exchange users in your company able to get their email via devices? Some server administrators don’t enable this function. There may also be certificate issues.
Try accessing the web access website through your mobile browser and see if that shows up. It should give you a fair few clues as to where things are going wrong. Feel free to email me so that we can work on it more together if you would like.
Hello
I have tried this and keep getting either server not found or waiting for network. I can access the web interface in the mobile browser though. My companies exchange server is not on standard port 80 but on port 8089. i have tried the server address both with and without :8089. Is this a normal problem? perhaps others have had problems with alternative ports.
Thank you for any help anyone can offer.
My company is currntly using OWA n their intranet and cannot access OWA externally. The instructions mentioned entering your Outlook Web Access address as your server name. The mobile XPA is currently on o2 network. IS there any other way of doing this?
Please help
Nick, I don’t know much about the backend of Exchange. I think companies can turn off the availablility to access mail through desktop/mobile clients.
Rule on the other hand, should run if you have your window open or closed. With this, I would consider creating a rule to forward mail to a gmail account and accessing that from your phone. You could then use software to sync it all together when you are back int he office. I haven’t tried this, but it should work. This may mean you will have duplicate email.
Alternatively, you could create a VPN so that your device will act as if it is part of the companies network. I am not sure on how to do this though. Can the server admin help you? It seems odd that you can’t get your email while you are not on the intranet. What a great workplace.
I have only just started work at my company. The company’s IT infrastructure is quite bad to work with. I am the IT administrator and having problems working around the intranet to access owa. I would like to somehow make it accessable to access through the internet. I believe this will solve my problem.
Any ideas with this guys?
Hi Nick, I don’t know much about the backend of Exchange. I am surprised that it is only available on the intranet. Makes your life hard. Do any staff receive their mail from home? Are there certificates that need to be installed on a laptop for this to work or are they connecting through a VPN? The administrator should be helping you
Hi Chris Duckworth, Mobile user can access the server from home via the mobile VPN which i installed on to their laptop. I can’t really do this on the XPA can i? If its that easy than i wouldn’t have a problem.
Do you know a way to set up exchange so i can set it up so staffs can access their email through the internet instead of the intranet.
Hey Nick, Server side stuff really isn’t my strong point. I don’t know of any decent VPN options for PPC’s. I might be heading right down the wrong track and I am not sure if it is possible but…What about putting the OWA on another port, allowing it to bypass the VPN. This may be able to be setup serverside so nobody needs to change anything at their end. This way, anyone can gain access to the web frontend, internal or external. They then access using their usual username and password, and that is their security.
Alternatively, you may want to try using certificates. Both IE and pocket IE work with them. Saying that, I don’t understand how these work either.
Hi, having one problem with this, our OWA site consists of a / IE my.company.org/owa for the OWA site.. but when i put it in my WM device, it kills the /OWA .. any clue how to stop this?
Hi Joe, I haven’t come across this. I don’t think it is anything the device will be doing. Maybe try a / after OWA. Your Exchange administrator may have some tips for you on this.
I am the IT Admin.. but it was setup before i got here.. oh well.. guess i’ll have to dive in and hope i dont break nothing
wish me luck.. lol
Good luck Joe. It’s probably just a tickbox somewhere in the least obvious spot. It is possible that the server address is different to the OWA address. It might be a standard practice to call them the same thing. Is there another server address to access Exchange from the full outlook client? Rhetorical
If you are unable to connect after following these instructions, you may want to check out chronobis. It is a nice workaround. It is still in development as of 4/6/08, but it looks like it will help a sync occur as it evolves.
I used to work for “Company A” which had an OWA server and I sync’ed up fine to the Company A server. However, I now work for “Company B” and I want to sync up my Outlook to the Company B server. WM6 will allow me to change my server name, but the username and domain fields on the next screen are protected. Surely there is someway to change server/username/domain short of a phone reset when folks leave one company and move to another, but I’m not seeing it. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks !
Jeff
Hi Jeff, I think you would be best to use Activesync or WMDC to do this. Even if some mail looks the same, if it is coming in from another server, the phone will see it as a completely different email. This makes syncing impossible. I am fairly sure you will need to delete the old account and create a new one. Both WMDC or Activesync should make your life easier. I would be surprised if a full reset was required.
Keep in mind that downloading all the mail from the new server could take soem time and possibly cost a fair bit in data costs. Using a computer should speed it up significantly.
Works great!
Thanks much. Instructions were very clear. I was able to get it up and working through ActiveSync (WM 6.1)
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