Question

Cannot Get Mail The connection to the server failed. iPhone 3G and SBS 2003/Exchange with ActiveSync and Self Signed Certificate.

Asked by: TechAK

I am having a hard time getting an iPhone 3G to connect to SBS 2003 with ActiveSync.  The phone has passed the validation point and has asked if I wanted to sync with Exchange.  I then proceeded to click on the red button and I get Cannot Get Mail The connection to the server failed. I am not sure as to why the connection to the server would fail since it can connect and validate.

I am using SBS 2003 with service pack 2 for Exchange. I have created a self signed certificate and used Safari to connect to the certsrv on SBS http://domain/cersrv and have installed the certificate. I also connected to OWA through Safari. Everything with OWA is working fine. I can get the phone to pass the validation process but I cannot sync the phone. I have checked to make sure OMA is setup in Exchange.  I also tried to connect to the server without SSL and it still failed.

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Asked On
2009-02-20 at 08:44:17ID24162480
Tags

iPhone 3G

,

SBS 2003

,

Exchange

,

ActiveSync

,

Self Signed Certificate

Topics

Web Servers

,

Email Servers

,

Web/Cloud Computing

Participating Experts
1
Points
200
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: MesthaPosted on 2009-02-21 at 15:06:54ID: 23702422

There are so many reasons why this could be failing.
The SSL certificate is an obviously place to start. You don't need to use Certificate Services to generate your own certificate, the Configure Internet and Email wizard will generate one for you. Although a commercial certificate would be the best option.

I would suggest running the configure internet and email wizard again to ensure that everything is configured correctly.

Use a test account to test your server from the MS test site:
https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com
The iPhone is actually a poor device to use to diagnose problems.

-M

 

by: TechAKPosted on 2009-02-22 at 14:29:52ID: 23706875

I used Configure E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard (CEICW) to create the SSL certificate.

I went to https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com and tested the connection.

I received a Connectivity Test Failed while attempting an Activesync session
Here is the error:
Attempting an Activesync session with server
 Errors were encountered while testing the ActiveSync session
 Test Steps
 Attempting to send OPTIONS command to server
 Testing the OPTIONS command failed. See Additional Details for more info
 Additional Details
 A Web Exception occured because an HTTP 401 - Unauthorized response was received from Unknown

The error is so generic that it leaves me with hardly anything to go by.

I performed the resolution from MS KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817379
This did nothing


 
 

 

by: MesthaPosted on 2009-02-22 at 14:35:35ID: 23706901

Is this SBS 2003 RTM or SBS 2003 R2?
If it is R2 then you don't need to do what it says in 817379 as that is done by the wizard.
If ti is RTM then you do need to make the changes, but 817379 as it stands has flaws.

If you browse to https://server/exchange-oma and you get the forms based login page then the problem exists.

http://www.amset.info/exchange/mobile-85010014.asp

-M

 

by: TechAKPosted on 2009-03-09 at 13:48:27ID: 23840694

Not sure what was done to fix the situation but the phone started downloading mail over the weekend. Something helped but I cannot pin point it. Thanks for all your support.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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