Issues setting up Activesync with a Windows Mobile

Came across a post on Susan's blog http://www.sbsdiva.com where she was setting up Activesync with a Windows Mobile so instead of cluttering up her blog with my experiences thought I would throw the information here.


I agree it should be easier to setup Activesync with a Windows Smartphone. I had similar problems with my phone last year. Although it's an Imate it's the same family of phone as the Audiovoxx.

Anyway as you guessed you need to sort out your internet explorer on the phone first as this will prove whether your phone is correctly connect to it's web access point using GPRS (2 / 2.5G)

From the Start menu it's 8 for Settings, 9 for More, 2 for Data Connections, You need to then have an Internet Connection setup, this may already be pre-created on the phone.
You then need to choose Menu and choose edit connections and then 4 for GPRS connection.

Settings would be as follows
Connects to
The Internet
Access Point
proxy (Should work for cingular but you might need to check their support forum)

Often this set incorrectly is the problem as most of the auto configuration scripts set
this to a WAP access point which will cause Pocket IE to fail as well as Activesync.

Set the remainder to automatic and you should be up and running.

ACTIVESYNC -
The FQDN as daniel mentioned is your external facing host name, so as per the Microsoft rules I set my internal domain to domain.local and whether I am using dynamic dns or not I purchase a .com for a couple of bucks and create a host record to point to it so my http://domain.tzo.remote now points to say access.domain.com.

The fact that I am using com instead of local doesn't cause a problem and the fact my server is called sbs01 and not access doesn't matter either.

Anyway instead of taking too much of your blog space I pull together all my notes and put it on my blog if anyone is interested.

Late night musings

Up late and feeling guilty for not posting for nearly two weeks.

REMOTE ACCESS
Anyway couple of things come to mind. Susan B on her blog http://msmvps.com/bradley/archive/2005/07/15/57416.aspx mentioned http://www.logmein.com remote control service. Well like the ad says " it does exactly what it say on tin" in this case allows you to login to any windows pc or server from any internet location using almost any webrowser. I hear you say but Mark we have RWW (Remote Web Workplace) ahh but how many times do you have control over port 4125 to allow you to establish an RWW connections or what if your customer has 1 or 2 pc's and doesn't have SBS.

Trust me this is very cool software, even the free version works well enough to manage a couple of client pc's. Susan refers to a good security article on the strenghts and weaknesses of the product well worth a read tiny url link here http://tinyurl.com/8xzt5

Skype
Playing with the best father's day pressie I have ever got, a skype usb phone handset manufactured by a company called yamamoto http://www.yamamoto-group.com/silver.htm
This phone works like a treat, I made a skype out call to a landline in California from my broadband connection in Ireland and the quality was excellent and the handset performed as if it was a standard phone.

So you still think you need to bring your laptop with you or at least a pocket pc with wifi and skype on it think again. Skype have promised to support the U3 smart drive platform as soon as it's available, basically it allows you to run Skype or any other U3 supported application like Zonealarm directly from your usb pendrive and your usb skype phone, imagine plug in your pendrive, plug in your headset and double click, your preconfigured copy of Skype software which will not need to be installed on the host pc but simply run directly from the pen drive.

Take a look at http://www.skype.com/company/news/2005/u3_smartdrive.html
for more details this really could open up a lot of possibilites to extend the functionality of pendrives from mere file storage devices.

Back soon Mark

Links worth a look for Windows 2003 MCSE Study

Guys,
Thought I would note a couple of links that are worth a look. Firstly on understanding the
Microsoft exam philosophy.
http://www.cramsession.com/articles/files/inside-the-microsoft-exam-9102003-1225.asp

Also I reckon it's worth subscribing to the cramsession question of the day, link is here and they will email you a question everyday, questions are not that tough however it might highlight a concept or area for you worth studying that you hadn't thought off.
Take a look at the general MCSE link on cramsession and then choose the exam you are interested in and you will find on the right hand side a link to free questions which will allow you to subcribe.
http://www.cramsession.com/certifications/microsoft/mcse-2003.asp