Exchange Push Email when ActiveSync is not an option - General Questions and Answers

I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations for what I can install on my Tilt to allow me to connect to Exchange. Unfortunately, my company uses BES, and therefore can't be bothered to make the little changes necessary to the Exchange server to support ActiveSync. They just say, "Get a Blackberry", but won't expense the cost of getting one. I installed the Blackberry Connect on the Tilt for awhile, but it's so inconsistent that it's virtually unusable. Any time a data connection is requested for anything other than Blackberry, it disconnects Blackberry, forcing me to close every data connection, then restart Blackberry Connect. It's insane.
I've done a bit of research, but everything that comes up stupidly seems to require connecting the phone to a computer, or leaving the computer on and having a service running while I'm away. Neither of those are workable options for me, since when I'm on the road, I probably won't have my laptop on, otherwise I wouldn't need my smartphone at all.
So in the absence of those options, is there any other way at all to connect to Exchange? It doesn't have to be Push, but I don't want more than about 15 minutes of lag time.
Any ideas?

If you have OWA access to your Excahnge server then Seven beta may fit your bill.

I do have OWA access. I'll try it out, thanks!

Related

ActiveSync Exchange Policy Causing Hard Reset?

I'm wondering if you very smart folks can help me out. I had to hard reset my phone three times today!
On Friday, I established a relationship on my touch dual with my work's exchange server for me to sync wirelessly to work for emails, tasks, calendar, etc. In order to do this, exchange forces a policy onto my phone to enforce password on the device (at least every 15 min).
What I found today is that the phone will freeze on the password screen and nothing will unfreeze it. A soft reset sometimes prompted me to see if i wanted to boot in safe mode but it never responded when i tried to do it.
It SEEMED to happen when I was connected to my laptop via USB when the phone tried to sync with the exchange server at work. I wonder if the Vista's WM device center was interfering with the wireless ActiveSync sync with exchange??
Very frustrating and if anyone can tell me how to avoid this, I would appreciate it. Has anyone else encountered this?

Preventing Windows Mobile Device Center Popup

Does anyone know how to keep Windows Mobile Device Center from popping up everytime? I do not use USB sync, as I'm using DirectPush for Exchange mail. I also rarely have to do anything to the device other than charge it, or use MyMobile to send/receive texts.
I had this same problem with ActiveSync, only that actually brought up the synchronization wizard every time. This is a little better, but I don't want to see that window at all. In my office, I leave the phone on USB so I can use MyMobiler, but I frequently pull it off the cable when I leave the office for something. As an IT guy, I don't get to sit around for too long...
I was able to fix this. First, I stopped and disabled both WMDC services under Computer Management > Services. Then, I found mobsync.exe in the Windows/System32 folder, went into "Permissions" for it, took ownership, then removed all the accounts except the "Everyone" permissions. For Everyone, I set it to "Deny All".
I now have no WMDC or sync stuff popping up. It's great. I can still browse the phone from My Computer > TYTN II. I can also still use MyMobiler to control the phone from Windows, so this doesn't kill the USB connection at all.
Hope this helps someone.

Using Blackberry Connect on Fuze could be ...

I think there is a need for deeper discussion on Blackberry connect on Fuze. I have used BB for corporate emails for past 2 years and have thoroughly enjoyed the ease and reliability of BB for this purpose. When my contract was up for renewal, I decided to go with Fuze since it supports BB and has a much cooler look. And then the problems started.
Facts-
I am using the "unbloated" version of Fuze
I have attempted all performance and battery life updates available on xda
I have used this phone for over a month
I have BB Connect installed via sems.org and have BES plan for it
Problems-
Battery life - I am ready to return this phone for this sole reason. I am out of battery by mid-day (no exageration). I think BB connect has something to do with it since I have not seen as much frustration on the battery life as I would imagine with half a day of battery life.
Phone locking - sometimes the phone just locks up. I cannot do anything. I believe BB Connect has something to do with it since it is constantly syncing emails
BB functionality - there are certain functions that were easily doable in BB are not so easy or not feasible in Fuze. e.g. 'Reply to all' is 2 steps instead of one, search functionality is virtually non existant, email lookup on corporate directory is 2 to 3 steps.
I use my phone via my left hand (especially when I am driving, I know I am not supposed to do that but lets be real, we all do it). This makes it extremely difficult to hit the 'x' button on the top right hand corner and invariably causes 2 to 3 misses before getting it right.
Power button not functioning on occasssions. I have had instances where I cannot turn my screen off at all (needed to save battery life). I have to restart in those instances which is annoying if you want to make a quick phone call. This has happened to some other folks in my company as well.
I think would be beneficial to hear others experience and concerns and hence a new thread for BB Connect users for Fuze.
I had a similar battery issue until I flashed to the ROMeOS rom and flashed the .28 radio rom. Now I get 2 days use with push email (using exchange admittedly) enabled. This really does make a difference.
As for the close button, using something like AEButton you can set the back button to close and the home button to jump back to the today screen etc. This really does make the phone 1 hand friendly.
I have not used Blackberry connect before and so sadly cant help with the reply to all etc
I would seriously recommend flashing to one of the cooked ROMs of which in my experience the ROMeOS is a seriously stable, no nonsense and fast ROM. Make sure you do the radio as well and I think you will find yourself a happy punter!
Yours aye,
Angus
Few more issues
thx for the suggestion. i was trying to stay away from flashing my phone but if there is no other alternative, i might have to do that.
Couple of other BB related issues that i forgot earlier and would like suggestions on are-
I cannot install BB messenger on it. It gives an error on all browsers I tried i.e. Opera, Skyfire, IE, BB Browser
Earlier (in physical BB) if I filed my emails in folders or deleted them from BB, it did that on the server and thereby on the client/ laptop. But with Fuze, it does not do that or I have not configured it correctly.
any help is appreciated.
thanks
There is no blackberry messenger in blackberry connect.
Check your settings in the CMIME service, Synchronication tab when you click the Blackberry icon.
I am running BB Connect on the Fuze and do not seem to have your battery issues. It does not seem to drain any faster than it did before I installed BB Connect. I have run into both the phone locking issue and the power button issues you note. I have no solution, but can just confirm that I have had similar issues.
I have also found these three issues with BB Connect on the Fuze (I checked with my company's tech folks on 1 and 2, who say these can't be fixed, but I am not so sure):
1. I cannot open attachments that come through BB Connect in anything other than the BB Viewer. So I don't get the benefit of Word Mobile, etc... I also cannot save the attachment to the phone and then open in the right application. If I need to get to the attachment, I have to forward the e-mail to my Gmail account, and then I can open it in the right application, but that is a hassle.
2. I can't view html e-mails. Again, if I want to see them in html format I have to forward them to my Gmail account and view them there.
3. Sometimes the Blackberry e-mails just stop coming, even though the Gmail account is still working fine. If I soft reset, they start coming again. No explanation.
I wonder if others have these same issues, or if anyone has resolved them. By the way, I am still happy that I have the Fuze instead of a Blackberry.
I too am unable to download attachments.
I am able to see that the email has an attachment in the "inbox" window. When I open the email, there is no attachment to download or view.
attachments
I just posted on another thread, but it appears that this is a more appropriate thread (didn't search long enough...) Anyway, I just noticed this week about the email attachment problem. I was on travel and a buddy sent me some files that i wanted to save to by device (Fuze) but was unable. I also have a problem attaching files from my phone. any ideas or work arounds?
thanks

Changing Activesync port

Hi all,
I'm trying to set up Activesync to connect OTA to my company's exchange server so I can get my mail pushed to me.
I got the connection deets from IT, but they included a non-standard port, 8993, as part of the URI. I thought, no biggie, I'll just stick them into Activesyc, MS's well-established Exchange connectivity bridge.
But no luck. It sits there for ages then times out. I can access this URI fine from my PC. I can rule out the ISP (O2) as I can access it via telnet from the device. Which leaves Activesync itself. This is backed up by the occasional comment on obscure web posts.
Does anyone know how I can set Activesync to use a non-standard port for its Exchange connections? I don't mind going into the reg but I imagine there must be an easier way to do this. Lots of businesses with draconian IT policies must have this problem?
Kinda important as I just ordered a Touch Pro, and I'll have to cancel that posthaste if I can't get Exchange syncing going on..
thanks!

[INFO] Exchange Activesync and Quick-Draining Batteries

I was having an issue with my SR battery draining about 25% every hour, the battery getting very warm, etc. I seem to have found the issue...
One thing I noticed with the problem was that "email" was eating nearly as much battery as the display.. Then I remembered an old issue I had with an iphone using exchange activesync. In that case, if the iPhone was connected to an AP on the same internal LAN as an Exchange server, and activesync was configured on that phone while in that state, the phone would have email issues whenever you were no longer connected to that AP...
The reason is/was that the exchange server has a different (private) IP number for internal LAN users as opposed to external LAN users. So, for example, when you are on your internal LAN, the exchange server might be addressed as "192.168.1.1", but as soon as you lose your wifi signal and switch to the carrier data, that IP number is meaningless... instead, the exchange server must be addressed with a public facing IP number (which will NEVER begin with 192.168.) In the meantime, activesync is trying DESPERATELY to sync with that internal IP address even though its completely invalid. All those retries take CPU power, which will drain your battery VERY quickly.
To test if this is the case for you, first delete the exchange activesync account from your phone. Then turn off wifi, and finally reboot (completely turn off and turn back on) your mobile phone. When it comes back up, make sure that wifi is still disabled.
Now reconfigure your exchange server activesync account. This time, the phone will get the EXTERNAL public facing IP address for the exchange server, and not the internal (private) one. After your contacts, email and whatever else has sync'd, you can turn wifi back on. (or leave it off - it shouldn't matter.) See if this helps... for me, it made a HUGE difference.
If this helps, please understand its not a perm solution. When you are back on your internal wifi, eventually your phone is going to get that internal IP address back in its cache and it'll get messed up again. The only solution to this would be to talk to your system administrator and arrange things so that your DHCP assignment gives you an external DNS server all the time, or never gives an internal address for the exchange server, etc. (There are a couple ways to deal with this, but they are beyond the scope of this message.)
I admin my own windows server (domain, exchange, etc) so I'm able to control how DHCP assigns DNS server addresses. Most people don't have that much control...

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