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Setting up Exchange Server for iPhone - need help

W

wellsws

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 26, 2006
47
0
Seattle, Washington
Forgive me if this has been discussed to death, but I've been trying to find a reliable way to get Exchange Server to work on my iPhone. Right now, it kind of works. Let me describe:

I was able to set up exchange on my iPhone (meaning I saw some things), however it did not recognize the certificate (because I never installed one and can't figure out how to do so or what certificate should be installed). I get email only if my outlook is open on my desktop. I get some, but not all of my calendar events (mostly only repeating events), and none of my contacts show up.

It's very strange and I'm not the IT person in my office, so I have limited knowledge to know how things are set up on the server. They're not breaking their backs to help me either because most people in the office use a Blackberry. What I do know is that the exchange server address is not the same as what I type in to access outlook web access on the internet. For some reason on the iPhone, I have to leave off /exchange or it doesn't work at all.

I've searched for a method that works and have not come up with any positive outcomes. Does anyone know how to get this to work? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I had originally posted this on another forum, but the entire forum on iPhone disappeared. That was weird too.

Thanks in advance!
 
Thanks for the reply. I took a look at the links provided, however I'm not sure it helps me. Can you explain more why you think it's an OMA issue? We aren't using OMA to my knowledge. I think we used to, but when I type that into Safari on my iPhone it doesn't work. I can use /exchange on my iPhone to read mail. As it is, I'm able to see some information, just not all of it. Could it be a certificate issue? I tried installing a couple that some other websites suggested, but no luck.
 
The only certificate you need is the one provided by your company. If you have installed other certificates you have potentially created a very serious security issue as you cannot be sure what you have installed. As an IT guy myself, I would offer you this piece of advice (and I really do mean this in a friendly way), never install something that you don't know anything about. Do not blindly trust items you that are available to download from a website unless you are confident that what you are downloading and installing is safe, if in doubt, just don't do it.

If you are getting anything from your exchange server then you are connecting and something else is wrong.

I would recommend doing a restore as new on your phone to get rid of the certificates you have installed. Then, install the certificate from your company and setup your exchange information again. If you are still having problems I would go see one of your IT people.
 
I'm going to assume you have not setup Exchange on your phone before, so here's a list of directions (just in case).

-------------------

Setting up your Company Exchange account on the iPhone:

1. Settings - Mail, Contacts, Calendars - Add Account - Microsoft Exchange

a.) Email: Username@Company.com
b.) User name: Username (it's the login you use for your desktop or also try Company\username)
c.) Password: ********
d.) Description: Anything you want
e.) Hit Next
f.) Server: mail.company.com
g.) Hit Next

----------

1. For item (f), is your company's OWA mail.company.com/exchange or mail.company.com/owa?

2. Are you sure u guys have certificate? SSL setting correct?

Take a look at this too: http://computerrepairservice.net/bl...ma-active-sync-encryption-non-encryption-ssl/
 
Have a look at this q&a

---------------------------

(Q) I just recently purchased an iPhone 3G and I'm working to get it sync'd with Exchange, but I'm having problems figuring out how to install the certificate.

On a normal PC, what I have to do is navigate to our OWA (owa.xxxxx.com) and then it will tell me the certificate is untrusted. It then gives me the option to Accept/Decline/View Certificate. I then click View Certificate, navigate through the next menu and select "Install Certificate". I'm then able connect to our mail server using Outlook.

Unfortunately, on the iPhone it only gives you the option to Accept/Decline. So how do I install this certificate on the iPhone?

I'm the IT guy for our company, so I have full access to the Exchange server, but I've only been here for 4 months so I don't know how the exchange server was setup originally.

Thanks and if any further information on my end would be helpful, just let me know!

(A) The problem with self signed certificates is that browsers do not trust them. Certificates from VeriSign for instance are trusted because a CA Root Certificate of VeriSign is preinstalled in the Browser.
If you have your own Certificate Server then you have to install your Server's CA Root Certificate in the browser's Trusted Root Certification Authorities Certificate Store (not sure this is the correct name since I've only a german Windows installation here).
After the CA Root Certificate is installed, all certificates issued by your certificate server (like your OWA SSL certificate) are trusted.
If you used Microsoft Certificate Services to create the SSL certificate then you can get the CA Certificate through its web interface (http://<certificate server>/certsrv).
 
StoneColdSober,

Point taken. I was able to delete the certificate. I got it from my own Internet Explorer caller IPS.cer. It did not work, so I deleted it. Given the choices, I thought that was safer than installing something I got from another website. Anyway, any thoughts on how to fix it since I am getting some info?
 
The other option, which I used to setup exchange for 12 iphones for my company, is to use the iPhone Configuration Utility. Unfortunately this really isn't practical if you are just setting up one phone but the utility allows you to create a profile that includes all of the exchange settings and certificates you need (it also will configure VPN's, APN's, other email accounts and some other stuff).

As for the certificate and whether it is a self signed certificate, I know that is what we are using and we have not had a problem. The only thing I can think is that maybe using the iPhone Configuration Utility makes this fact a non-issue as all 12 of our iPhones are all up and functioning.
 
wellsws said:
StoneColdSober,

Point taken. I was able to delete the certificate. I got it from my own Internet Explorer caller IPS.cer. It did not work, so I deleted it. Given the choices, I thought that was safer than installing something I got from another website. Anyway, any thoughts on how to fix it since I am getting some info?
Click to expand...

Again, if you are getting something then it suggests some settings are incorrect. Without being able to actually be hands on with your iPhone and go through everything, all I can recommend is that if you are tech savvy you can try the iPhone Configuration Utility. It isn't hard to use and on a PC it does require that your computer have the IIS service running (it is web based for the PC) and then you have to install the web utility and then go from there. It takes a little bit of time which is why I said it isn't practical for 1 phone. You can get the utility here.
 
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