[Q] Accessing my workplace's exchange server via Android. - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello.
My workplace currently does not support the Android platform, and thus I cannot access the Microsoft Exchange server/Activesync from my phone.
Have any apps been developed that would possibly disguise my phone as an iPhone, or something similar, so I can receive e-mail via mobile? iOS is currently the only mobile platform they support, so that'd most likely be the easiest work-around.
I know someone who works in the data center, and he showed me the script they run every week to check if anything other than iPhones have accessed the server, which they then have the option to boot/wipe memory as needed.
Any suggestions are welcome!

You might try Touchdown. There is a 30 day trial.

@ejsholly: Which Android release are you running?
@Anthodk: Touchdown worked as a charm with 2.3.3 on my Desire. Native ICS Exchange works fine here.

The main thing with Touchdown, is that you can choose exchange server 2003/2007 as protocol, instead of active sync, if this for some reason (IT management decision) had been disabled.

Related

E-mail Redirector

One thing that I didn't like about Sprint is that it didn't offer a desktop redirector software for e-mail. In my case, my company uses MS Exchange, but doesn't have OWA setup for my phone to be able to sync. Alltel and ATT I know for sure have desktop redirector software, not sure what ATT calls it but Alltel calls it "Office Sync". It basically just redirects your Exchange features (email, calander, tasks, ect) to your phone.
I have no idea how long Seven has had their beta program open, but I recently found it and it works great. So if anyone else was in my boat, have fun with this. Here is the link.
http://community.seven.com/main.php
cforster said:
One thing that I didn't like about Sprint is that it didn't offer a desktop redirector software for e-mail. In my case, my company uses MS Exchange, but doesn't have OWA setup for my phone to be able to sync. Alltel and ATT I know for sure have desktop redirector software, not sure what ATT calls it but Alltel calls it "Office Sync". It basically just redirects your Exchange features (email, calander, tasks, ect) to your phone.
I have no idea how long Seven has had their beta program open, but I recently found it and it works great. So if anyone else was in my boat, have fun with this. Here is the link.
http://community.seven.com/main.php
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the same boat as you, I came from Verizon Wireless where I was using their Wireless Sync program on my desktop since my company does not allow me to go directly to our Exchange servers. I thought when I went over to Sprint they would have a comparable application - I didn't do my homework very well. I was not so worried about losing wireless sync for calendar, tasks, and notes, ActiveSync when I get the chance is fine. Email was another thing. My solution, which was not so elagant, was to setup a server based rule to redirect all email out to my personal pop3 email account which I setup especially for this purpose using the same name as work, just a different @ address. This insures that my email responses contain a from address as close as possible to my work address.
That having been said, you are the first person who has proposed anything similar to VZ Wireless Sync. I am anxious to try this out but am sceptical about using beta software. I will investigate the company you provided with caution. Any additional insights would greatly be appreciated. Thanks again for a least giving hope....
Try mail2web.com.
Just forward your mail there.
They are a free exchange service.
trwm said:
I was in the same boat as you, I came from Verizon Wireless where I was using their Wireless Sync program on my desktop since my company does not allow me to go directly to our Exchange servers. I thought when I went over to Sprint they would have a comparable application - I didn't do my homework very well. I was not so worried about losing wireless sync for calendar, tasks, and notes, ActiveSync when I get the chance is fine. Email was another thing. My solution, which was not so elagant, was to setup a server based rule to redirect all email out to my personal pop3 email account which I setup especially for this purpose using the same name as work, just a different @ address. This insures that my email responses contain a from address as close as possible to my work address.
That having been said, you are the first person who has proposed anything similar to VZ Wireless Sync. I am anxious to try this out but am sceptical about using beta software. I will investigate the company you provided with caution. Any additional insights would greatly be appreciated. Thanks again for a least giving hope....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me know what you think. This solution was perfect for me, no problems at all, works great all the time.

[Q] Help with Exchange email

Hey guys-
I had been using TouchDown Exchange to access my work email. When I first got android I asked my IT department if they could set it up for me but they replied that they "don't support Android, and because there are so many different android phones, they probably wouldn't ever support". Anyways, I found I could use the web-exchange server (http://xxx.xxxxxxxx.com/exchange/) as my domain on the android app and it would end up sync'ing my email to my phone.
I guess they eventually found out I was doing this somehow and they blocked it. They do support the iPhone, though, and through a coworker I was able to get the server and domain that they use.
Is there anyway I can trick the server into thinking I'm using an iPhone so it will allow me to connect and sync? I tried using the "ActiveSync Device String" and setting it to "iPhone" before connecting to the server, but that didn't work. I don't know much about exchange servers if you couldn't tell, but is there a way they can authorize only certain users to connect? Could I potentially borrow my girlfriends iphone, have them set it up on her device, and then once I get the login permissions, switch the info over to my fascinate?
Sorry to any IT administrators out there, I bet this post will annoy you haha. I just want to have email on my phone because I hate walking into work in the morning and getting blindsided by an email that was sent to me at 2am.
Thanks in advance for your help guys.
Our IT department also has a "no android" policy but I figured out that if I left the Domain blank and used the Webmail url as the Exchange server address everything would sync perfectly. I started out using Touchdown but dropped it for the stock email client.
They specifically denied your phone from syncing via ActiveSync? Even with Touchdown, which more fully supports the ActiveSync protocol than even the iPhone? Sounds like your IT guys are morons. I can fully understand not wanting to support Android phones because of all the variances. I know, because I work for an ASP hosting company that does just that. But really, if they wont support Touchdown, they're just shooting themselves in the foot, because that app will work the sane no matter what Android phone it's installed on, meaning you will have a standardized mail platform for Android that supports any and all necessary security features, including full encryption of the local mail database and any data it stores on the SD card.
I don't know if you'll get anywhere with it, but I would recommend showing the the feature list for Touchdown, including the security features, and ask them to support that one app. If you make the case that they only need to support one app for any Android phone, they should be willing to work with you on that.
Besides, every serious corporate user should be using Touchdown anyway. The stock mail client, no matter what Android phone you have, is lacking some of the most basic features, is buggy,and is essentially useless. And if days encryption is required, you're out of luck with the stock clients. Exchange syncing is really an afterthought by Google, and until they make enterprise features and data security a primary focus, things wont get any better.
Sent from XDA Premium on my Super Clean Fascinate
Oh, and btw, I'm not an expert on the matter, but I know that mobile device syncing can be disabled on a per-user basis. What I'm not sure about is if it can actually allow only certain devices to connect or not.
Sent from XDA Premium on my Super Clean Fascinate

Why does my email crash once per day?

So ive tried a bunch of different email clients and they all experience the same issue when connecting to a corporate exchange server. About once a day, at random times, they will crash and i have to force stop them and reopen the app to get it to receive exchange push email updates.
Clients I have tried are: Improved Email, Enhanced Email, K-9 and the Moxie trial. I cant find any common link as to why they all end up non-responsive. At first i thought it happened when i lose signal (such as when im in the subway) but I havent taken the subway the past few days and it still happens.
Is there something included with the atrix that kills these processes after a certain amount of time?
I manage our corporate exchange servers (2003 and 2010) and have had really good success with the built in Corporate Sync app for the atrix.
Is there something you are syncing that it can't hanfle? The calendar and contacts work great. I haven't tried tasks as I don't use them.
Aside from that, make sure on task manager that the mail clients aren't set to auto kill.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
I wish I could get email from our exchange server, but unfortunately my company isn't going to allow that until Android becomes more secure.
beatphreek said:
I manage our corporate exchange servers (2003 and 2010) and have had really good success with the built in Corporate Sync app for the atrix.
Is there something you are syncing that it can't hanfle? The calendar and contacts work great. I haven't tried tasks as I don't use them.
Aside from that, make sure on task manager that the mail clients aren't set to auto kill.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didnt think i had corporate sync, but i just took a look now and it seems like I do. I didnt think about trying to set it up as a new "account" in the phone.
On the bright side, enhanced email hasnt crashed in a while. I think one of the other email apps processes was killing it. I have uninstalled them all. If it crashes again, I will try the built in Corporate Sync.
Caelan, what doesnt your company like about android? All the exchange clients ive tried allow remote management which i know was a sticking point for a lot of companies when android was newer. Though I'll admit im not really up on the security issues of android... Im kind of lucky because my company lets us bring any device onto the network, and we get to admin our own computers. The benefits of working at a tech company staffed completely with geeks
albinojoe said:
Caelan, what doesnt your company like about android? All the exchange clients ive tried allow remote management which i know was a sticking point for a lot of companies when android was newer. Though I'll admit im not really up on the security issues of android... Im kind of lucky because my company lets us bring any device onto the network, and we get to admin our own computers. The benefits of working at a tech company staffed completely with geeks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure exactly what it is that is a security problem, but I work for a big R&D company. All our laptops, thumb drives, etc. are encrypted, and we use RSA secure tokens to connect to our network externally when OOO. As an example, if you want email access on your iPhone, the company installs security software requiring a lengthy password to even get past the lock screen, and also remote wipe ability so they can wipe your iPhone if you lose it. We have a lot of proprietary R&D documentation which they do not want to lose.
Apparently there are some security holes which should be fixed with 2.3.4, and they may already be testing this at corporate IT.
We also have full admin rights to our laptops, but they are also very secure with full HDD encryption.
Android does meet all the security requirements that Microsoft has in place for Activesync licensing, it forces a passcode to unlock, it encrypts the exchange data, and it does remote wipe.
The only thing I can think would be that due to the ability to easily root the device there are programs that get around the lock screen requirements. They may have other reasons though.

Did anyone get Exchange emails working yet? [CM 7.1.0]

SGH-i777 running CM 7.1.0 on Android 2.3.7. Carrier is obviously AT&T.
I can't for the life of me figure out how to add my Exchange account to the stock e-mail program. I've tried:
* Countless variations of server, domain, and username settings. I've followed this guide **can't post link** and several other guides. I do have access to my company's server information, and while I'm not sure which server is actually being used, I've tried them *all*, several times, and gotten nowhere. With a WiFI connection (no firewall) and just 3G data, signed in or signed out of Outlook Anywhere. No luck, just "Unable to open connection to server".
* K-9 connected to my account, but I was unable to see any e-mails - none would load, even when I had it force check. So I uninstalled it (would rather use the stock app anyway).
Is this a problem with my signal? I read that someone got help from their carrier - they made a custom APN, but that was in another country so I'm a bit skeptical. Can't call Samsung (it's Sunday) and their website offers no help. It's possible my IT doesn't allow phones to read mail, but that's highly unlikely - we've got lots of employees in the field, so this seems like common sense.
I did a lot of digging and this might be an old issue, but it gets pretty technical and I'm obviously a n00b.
What am I missing here???? PLEASE fill me in - I've put hours into this!!
It's quite possible that your IT group who manages your Exchange environment isn't allowing non-approved devices to connect. Typically these are security-certificate based and/or mandatory VPN requirements. I would suggest asking your Exchange administrator in your IT department about this policy.
Under Domain/username, did you try putting the "\" in front of your username? To configure mine I did this and had to use the host name as the Exchange server. Some things to try anyway if you haven't already.
Also ran into issues setting up under a public wifi at work, had to use the ATT network to make it connect for some reason.
I have my work exchange account set up.
Are you making sure to connect to the external exchange server (sometimes different from internal)?
Have you asked your administrator for exchange login details (my IT dept sent out a company-wide email once with those details)?
You might have to type the server name in manually if it doesn't auto-detect (the case with my work email).
Now, my work isn't as strict, but as the previous poster said; you're exchange server might not allow unauthorized devices to connect. In which case you'll have to contact your IT dept.
They may have simply blocked all android devices (until recently didn't support hardware encryption, and spoofed exchange permissions). If that's true, educate them.
The server name may be a link rather than a server name. Ours is mibile.XXXXX.com for example.
probably related to your company's settings. I run my own exchange server and got it sync'd fine with the current cyanogen nightly
I had problems with the stock email and our ms exchange server. I could set it up, but after a while it stopped syncing and I could never really get it back to work. I switched to Touchdown, and after a little trial and error with setup, it's working fine for me. There is a trial version for 30 days or so that you could give a shot. Happy to give you some pointers.
AtlanM87 said:
I had problems with the stock email and our ms exchange server. I could set it up, but after a while it stopped syncing and I could never really get it back to work. I switched to Touchdown, and after a little trial and error with setup, it's working fine for me. There is a trial version for 30 days or so that you could give a shot. Happy to give you some pointers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for touchdown. I've been using it for about a year. It's far superior to any exchange solution the Google offers. I only wish it would populate Google calendar as it does the Google contacts. The UI is getting dated as well. I wish they would come out with a cosmetic update or theme capability.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium

Inconsistent Email (Exchange Server)

I have searched endlessly for an answer to my question and maybe I am missing something, but my exchange email service is very flaky. I carry two phones (iPhone 4s - work ATT and the Note - personal ATT) and the Note will just stop getting my exchange emails throughout the day. I have tried everything. Currently I am Dag Overclocked Kernel and Saurom RC4a but I went back to stock rom, I exchanged for a new note, and every thing I do the system still fails to deliver mail consistently.
I dont have Juice Defender running, I have no peak scheduling set up, and all power savings are turned off. Does anybody have any ideas? Can it be an exchange server configuration? My iPhone always works, and this is driving me nuts.
Jason
I was going to post this exact same thing. I have my email on my iPhone and my Note, both from the same exchange server. My iPhone consistently gets email long before my Note does.
Are you using office 365/exchange online by any chance?
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note
We are using Exchange 2007, and we are in the process of migrating to the latest version. In the meantime, I installed Touchdown for Activesync on my Note, and it seems to be very consistent, in so much that it gets all my emails before any of my other devices, including my desktop at work!
I guess i will license a copy if it makes it through the week with no hiccups. Stupid that it cost 20 bucks to get my mail working correctly. I cant believe the default app on the Note cannot handle my work email needs.
Sounds like you are running an in-house mail server. I didn't ask which version of Exchange you were connecting to but specifically if you were using Microsoft-hosted Exchange as part of the Office 365 or Exchange Online program. They have a server redirection setup that some versions of the Android mail client do not understand, so when they change servers on you on the back end (which happens with alarming frequency) the Samsung mail client is unable to connect to the mail server. iOS devices know how to handle the internal redirection as do some versions of Android mail. But not the version on the AT&T Galaxy Note. ICS is rumored to fix this. Anyway, that's probably not your issue, but it is mine and my symptoms are identical.
I have Touchdown as well; it has a lot of features but I don't love the interface, and there's a lot to be said for having a single email client for multiple accounts. Default Android mail is woeful and has always been so IMHO. Have you looked at Enhanced Email? I would use that except it is very hard to deal with if you have many folders and you try to move messages from your inbox to your nested folders (I've submitted a feature request for them to handle that the way Touchdown does, but I don't think it's a high priority item for them because it's been missing for a long time).
Maybe you can troubleshoot with your Exchange admin when you fail to receive messages and they can look into debug logs.

Categories

Resources