Need help setting up ActiveSync between our mobile devices and Exchange server.

I am not using an SSL cert, at the moment at least.  I'm not really sure on the OWA or the Forms Based front end, can you explain these a little more?

If you you just want to sync over cable it should be very easy make sure you install this
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/help/synchronize/activesync45.mspx
and plug in the windows mobile device and you should be set. As long as you set up partnership between the device and the computer.

But if you have data connection through your mobile devices...you may want to sync over the air.  To do that look at these step by step:
http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid43_gci1249394,00.html

And purchase a third party SSL certificate and it will work better than the self-signed certificate. Godaddy.com has a cheap certificate for 19.99 I think.  That should work out better for you

OWA = Outlook Web Access. Internally, you can type in http://<exchange server name>/owa to get a web interface for your email. Externally, you can type in http://exchange.<external domain name>.com, or whatever DNS name you want. For some clients, we use webmail.domain name.com. It depends on their preference. Get an SSL cert (3 year cert means less maintenance time) and forward port 443 from ISA server to Exchange.

and by the way, the second link in edmund7s contains dated information - Active Sync is now up-to-date with Exchange SP 2 (essential to have), and actually, I get the email on my phone before I get it in Outlook... so don't use those steps for Active Sync. Configure Active Sync directly.

Oh, OWA, not sure why that didn't register with me.  Yes we do have OWA working.  I'll take a look at that link.

And we do want to sync over the air.

does OWA work externally for when you are out of the office? If so, you should have most of the infrastructure in place to do Active Sync. Do you have Exchange SP 2 installed on the server?

Yes to OWA working outside the office, and yes to Exchange SP2 as well.

When I try to sync the phone I get an error message, and when I check the logging under IIS this is what I get, this is from a few weeks ago b/c I've been at this for awhile.

2008-10-30 00:25:26 10.1.1.2 PROPFIND /exchange/username@domainname.com/NON_IPM_SUBTREE/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/PocketPC/2K0Y12F34840B31DAA0004E2F84EMN12 - 80 - 10.1.1.2 Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/6.5.7638.1 401 2 5

At the point where it specifies the port and IP address, shouldn't it also send the logon credentials?

are you doing this over http or https? can you verify that active sync is enabled for the user? (should be by default) how are you activating on the phone?

It's being done over HTTP.  And yes ActiveSync is enabled for the user as far as I can tell.  Here are each of the steps.

For the domain I put "domain.com" and do not require an SSL, then the username, password, and domain and I set it to save the password, then set it to synchrozine everything.

Just tried again, and the error I get from my phone is "ActiveSync encountered a problem on the server.  The support code is 0x85010014.

Ok, just found this in the Application Log of our Exchange Server.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Server ActiveSync
Event Category: None
Event ID: 3031
Description: The mailbox server [%1] does not allow "Negotiate" authentication to its [%2] virtual directory. Exchange ActiveSync can only access the server using this authentication scheme.

Then when I checked this link it had a couple fixes, at this time we don't have a front-end exchange server we can put in, but does method two make sense to do?

It sounds like you have require SSL set. Can you confirm that both Forms Based Authentication is turned off:

http://www.petri.co.il/problems_with_forms_based_authentication_and_ssl_in_activesync.htm

use that link to turn off SSL and Forms Based

this shows you how to turn on (and consequently off) Forms Based:

http://www.petri.co.il/configuring_forms_based_authentication_in_exchange_2003.htm

Petri's articles are great. Read those for fun and you'll find them quite helpful.

Forms based is turned off, as well as SSL, we don't require it for our OWA as it's just http.  Any thoughts on the 2nd virtual directory?

no, no need, that's only for SSL on one, and HTTP OWA on the other.

Like I said, we access our OWA using http, but is there a setting that could still be in place that's affecting things?  Is there a definitive setting I could check in regards to SSL?

I did notice in that petri article, that this can occur when SSL is required, or if integrated windows authentication is not required, which it is not, we only require basic authentication.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Email_Groupware/Exchange_Server/Q_21879930.html

But I see at the bottom of that link someone fixed this problem using treo 700wx smart phones which is what I have, using the same Microsoft article I was referring to.  I'm not sure I follow how the original author fixed his own problem.

Any updates on this one? How did you make out? Are you still stuck?

To be perfectly honest it's been put on the backburner for now, but I didn't want to close the question w/o awarding any points.  We may be replacing the Exchange server soon, so I might wait until that's been done.