An Exchange Mail Conundrum

[Resurrected0man]

Hi All,

I am trying to get my head around setting up email from Exchange 2003 SP2 in Android 2.1 (HTC Desire) but have some issues which point to lack of understanding (or faulty wetware). I wondered if anyone could help me out with this?

I can connect to our exchange server while I am in range of our internal WiFi hotspots. But as soon as I turn off WiFi or exit the building the connection fails. I am struggling to understand how this works when you are not near an internal WiFi spot. We use blackberry devices and they can get mail from anywhere in the world so how does the Android equivalent work?

There are a good many suggestions that you point your connection to whatever you use for OWA, but we do not expose our Exchange server to the outside world directly, but rather via a Juniper box. What I don't understand is that is the Blackberry users can connect using an internal BES server - so this has to work.

Sorry for such a banal question but it's better to ask and risk a flaming than to not ask and remain ignorant.

Resurrected0man

 

[bluenova]

I suspect the Blackberry users are using a VPN connection to tunnel into your local network.

Settings > Wireless & networks > VPN settings > Add VPN

 

[runamonk]

Depends on your security. If you are using an internal wifi connection and it works then it's connecting to your internal server address which will not be the same externally when you are connected via 3G or external wifi.

I would suggest talking with your IT department about it. They either have VPN or an external address you can use.

 

[takeshi]

Depends on your security. If you are using an internal wifi connection and it works then it's connecting to your internal server address which will not be the same externally when you are connected via 3G or external wifi.

That's precisely it. The inability to connect to the Exchange server while not on the company network is a pretty clear indicator. External access to an Exchange server is generally not the same as internal access.

What I don't understand is that is the Blackberry users can connect using an internal BES server - so this has to work.

No, it does not have to work for that reason. A BES is designed to give BB's connectivity to an Exchange server. It's completely irrelevant to Android or any non-BB solution for that matter. The BES has external connectivity via RIM's network. Nothing other than a BB can utilize that pipleline.

We use blackberry devices and they can get mail from anywhere in the world so how does the Android equivalent work?

ActiveSync, OWA, IMAP or POP access in extremely rare cases where enabled by the Exchange admin.

I have no idea what a Juniper box is but it really all boils down to needing to contact your IT group. Each environment can be completely different. We could guess all day and not get you the answers you need. It sounds to me like you're out of luck though. Or maybe in luck. I'd prefer to not get work email...