WM 6.1 ActiveSync Exchange Sync over PPTP VPN WORKING ON FIXED SCHEDULE

[nttdemented]

I'm an IT guy and I just got into smartphone PPCs for the first time after a long-time hiatus from PDAs when I used to be a Palm owner. After my last palm, a LifeDrive, got stolen I moved to a Moto Q wich was a big dissapointment OS wise, and I never really got into modding it or anything, just set my POP3 e-mail server and used it like that for 2 years (draw back was that I didn't have contact sync nore internal e-mail sync that got handled by my exchange server). My contract with that Q expired and I made the move to a Sprint Mogul with WM 6.1 Pro and I'm NEVER LOOKING BACK!!! :D

Anyways, enough about me, this is my first contribution so I wanted to do the little intro.

I had searched around a bit about how to get ActiveSync to sync my company's Exchange server through PPTP VPN (we don't have it published with a certificate for an actual push config) but all I found was info on how to setup the VPN itself, being an IT guy that was like pointing out the obvious to me as I had already got that running and connecting but couldn't get anything but the OWA site opening in IE and Opera.

Basically what I figured out was that I had to program a work URL exception in the Connections control panel under the Advanced tab. There I added my exchange server's IP address as a URL and used that IP to program the server under ActiveSync with all the usual credentials. I can't configure it to receive as items arrive, instead I had to let the configuration run on a 10 minute schedule. Every time the schedule is up I see the VPN connecting pop up and it syncs PERFECTLY and disconnects the VPN. (It doesn't turn on my screen each time, it just pops up if I'm using it; but that pop up can be turned off if it gets to annoying).

I don't know if anyone else knew about this but I though I'd share this info as I searched for a few days and found nothing, ended up figuring this out myself. If this is new info I'll post more detailed configuration information for those who desire it.

[nttdemented]

BTW, this is working over the Data Plan and WiFi as well.

[JonRushton]

Wow. your a god... :)

I been trying to figure why it kept disconnecting the vpn when it synced up.

Adding the work url exception works perfect...

(Im using WM6.1 on a Samsung Omnia)


Many Many thanks!

[nttdemented]

No problem dude! I'm surprised no one else has really found this helpful. Glad I could help! ;)

BTW, those exceptions work very well for internal web sites as well. I use it to log in to web-based management consoles such as Symantec's Mail Security for Exchange, Symantec Endpoint, basically if you got an internal website of some sort you can access it through VPN using a Work URL Exception.

[roland hendriks]

I was looking for this info too, i would like more detailed configuration information about this.

Thanx in advance...

Roland hendriks

[nttdemented]

What part of the configuration are you having trouble with? Configuring the VPN, the Exchange Server or the URL Exception?

[shankscomp]

I personally am thankful for your information. Even if none of the other 1000s of readers out there say anything...

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Tim

[nttdemented]

Glad I could help! I know I broke my head over this one during the first week of me having a WM phone. I figured it out thanks to the Fdc Soft Task Manager using the Netstat utility. It let me know exactly what the network stack of the phone was trying to do and the URL exclussion I just stumbled upon and reading what the page said it lead me to believe that it might be a routing table for configured "WORK" connections. And it worked. :)

During the past month or two of using my exchange like this and switching around ROMs and cooking my own ones now I've noticed that having TCP Data Reconnect and Transmission Retry settings in your registry set to high will cause Active Sync to take a long ass time for it to actually route communications through the VPN connection. I noticed this after using custom ROMs wich some have these settings increased to ensure communications go through but they raise connection timeouts way to much. On my own custom ROM I've set these to defaults (2 and 4 respectively) and Active Sync only takes about 1 minute to start syncing onces you hit sync while you wait for it to dial the cellular line and the VPN.

[amkaos]

you talk about the vpn..
i think you are in the very small percentage of ppl who can get that to work.

i have the activesync set to manual and have tried the vpn type to both IPSec/L2TP and PPTP
w/o success..i always get a UN PW error which i know cant be so..
i set the host ip to what was shown from "whatsmyip"..

searching for quite awhile, i see thousands of ppl who cant get it to work and have
never found a reliable method that works for anyone but the person who posted it.

if you could back track a little and post how to do it, there are probly
thousands of ppl who would find it very useful and really appreciate it.

thanx

[nttdemented]

Well one thing is how to setup a WM device's VPN client to connect to your VPN server and another is actually configuring your VPN server. Do you have a working VPN setup in your corporate network already? This usually is setup by having a static IP assigned to your corporate internet connection and a firewall configured to allow VPN access with all the necessary traffic and authentication routes.

If you don't have a static IP in your office and use a lower cost DSL or Cable connection you aren't SOL, for these types of connections you can use a service like dyndns.org to dynamically upadate your dynamic IP into a static dns name like: mycompany.dyndns.org for example. This requires you to setup your firewall or ISP modem to communicate with dyndns.org to report the changes. Most firewalls come with this funcionality already built-in, but most of them also call them by different names so you'd have to look up your equipment's documentation on how to report a dynamic dns service.

I would be happy to help you setup your VPN correctly but its more practicall for me to help you setup a checklist on which type of VPN you want to setup (IPSec or PPTP) and what your corporate network's infrastructure looks like and let you know what to look for in google; there is PLENTY of very helpful information on the web on how to setup VPN but first you have to know what you need and how you are going to achieve it and then you'll know what to look for.

Each setup is very particular to the customer's needs and the network infrastructure that is setup and how much security you want to use (IPSec is a naturally secured VPN tunnel protocol while PPTP is not secured by nature but can be secured with a Radius server in your DMZ validating authentication in an encruypted manner to your Active Directory service).

What I posted above will work for an already existing and working PPTP VPN connection wich I already had running for years in my office and I regularly use with my laptop to connect to my exchange server while on the road or at home. What I posted above is what is need to get your WM device to connect to an already functioning PPTP VPN server.

Hope this helps. And if I'm to help you make a checklist I need a lot of information:

Type of ISP (static IP or dynamic IP)
Type/Brand of firewall device
How the devices are connected together (dumb modem or internet router from your ISP to your firewall's WAN port or a full blown router provided by your ISP wich is patched into your firewall's WAN port)
Internal network configuration (both AD and Exchange on same server (SBS) or separated)
What amount of security you are looking for.

Send me some PMs and maybe I could at least point you in the right direction.

[gdhgdh]

nttdemented: I'm doing the PPTP shuffle at the moment, and wanted to pick your brains..

The basic connection is running fine - e.g. when I add 192.168.0.1 as an Exception and go to http://192.168.0.1 in Pocket IE the VPN fires up and I see the page just fine.

I've also added '10.6.1.8' as an exception, but if I go to that address in PIE, I don't see any network activity (using ethereal/tcpdump) on the 'ppp0' server interface (I use Ubuntu server's pptpd) ...

Can I assume that your Exchange server is hosted on the same machine as your PPTP server? Some MS SBS or similar?

Even if I configure an http proxy (on the 192.168.0.1 IP) I see no activity when I try the 10.6.1.8 address. :/

[Matk89]

thanks so much!!

that i didn't find/read about the "exceptions" option in WM before...

Somehow, when i got my phone, i got it to work without this workaround, it just worked, out of the box, no exception setting required. (VPN settings + exchange server location were enough)

But yesterday, from the one moment to the next, it suddenly stopped working.
In my efforts to get it to work again i deleted the exchange settings, but doing that, I deleted all my contacts and my agenda! I was in big trouble because I really needed those , but after reading your post, i got it working again! my phone is synching "as we speak" and i'm very happy!


don't know how it worked before, don't know why it stopped working, all I know is, it's working now!

you made my day ;)

[nttdemented]

Good to know!

Cheers!

I've since stopped using this method as we got around to publishing our Exchange server with an SSL certificate so I'm actually using SSL enabled ActiveSync push on my phone now. :)

[cbasualdo]

Excuse me but perhaps you can help me too.
My problem is that I can get/sync my mails using WIFI.

If I connect thru GPRS, y go to send/receive and I get all the mails. If I'm on my office and connect thru WIFI to the work net I also get all the mails from the exchange server.

The problem is when I'm outside my office and connect to other wifi net and try to sync my mails. I have an HTC TOUCH CRUISE with WM 6.1 original from HTC without any flash.

Thanks in advance.

[DarrenUtd]

I have had ActiveSync working with an Exchange server over a PPTP VPN connection for years now, but there has been one nagging issue I can't figure out. For the most part it works, but sometimes when ActiveSync tries to sync it will not make the VPN connection. There is only one connection listed when I tap on the icon on the notification bar - the phone's data connection. So in activesync, the icon with the arrows spins for a while but nothing synchronizes. I think it ends up saying "waiting for network" or something like that. It seems to always work when I manually hit "sync", but sometimes it fails on scheduled synchronizations.

Any idea why this happens sometimes?

[dz0rpw]

The exceptions rule has almost fixed mine now. I'm getting mail but not through Activesync (just sits waiting for network).