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sglee

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iPhone/iPad to SBS2003

Hi Experts,

 I have Exchagne 2003 SP2 as a part of SBS2003.
 I can log into RWW via https://remote.myDomain.com/Remote and run Email and connet to PCs from RWW menu and run https://remote.MyDomain.com/Exchange from Safari on my iPAD.
 But I can't seem to make my exchange email account connect to my Exchange Server on my iPAD2.
 I managed to create an exchage account on iPad after several warnings/error messages.
 Finally it let me save the account information, but when I click "MAIL", it says "Cannot Get Mail  - The connection to the server failed".
  Can you help?
Avatar of giladhecht
giladhecht
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Try to import the SSL Certificate from you SBS (the root certificate from the Certificate Autority) to your IPAD device,and then try to connect again.
I had this problem with my IPHONE as well.
Good Luck!
To make active sync work you will need to connect the devices directly to the firewall instea of going via the portal. This might involve registering a public DNS record that points clients to your firewall, the access rule on the firewall that directs traffic on 443 is fine and doesn't need to be modified.

The certificate is not such an issue as you can configure the iPhone or pad to ignore invalid certificates.
Avatar of Alan Hardisty
Please work your way through my Exchange 03 / Activesync article and shout if you get stuck anywhere:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/Email_Servers/Exchange/A_1798-Exchange-2003-Activesync-Connection-Problems-FAQ.html
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sglee

ASKER

Thanks for all of your suggestions.
I don't have the iPAD with me right now to try, but I will this evening and keep you posted.
Just out of curiosity, i like to know which one of you have actually ran into the same situation and found the solution?
The reason for my question is that I have searched Google and this board ti find answers and there are a ton of different answers and I can't possibly follow or try all of them because I won't remember what I did to the server.
 
When I installed SBS2011, all worked just fine (with respect to sync between iPhone/iPAD and SBS2011/EXCH 2010) with some windows update after going thru basic SBS setup process.
Exchange 2003 can be a tricky customer to get right and my article is (I believe), the only single article that combines the most settings and troubeshooting steps that need to be taken to get Exchange 2003 working 100% with Activesync.

A lot of issues can be down to slightly incorrect IIS settings which my article covers in detail.

SBS 2011 and SBS 2008 work straight out of the box (once a SAN / UCC cert is installed - with the correct names) but not SBS 2003!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Robert_Turner
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ASKER

Exchange 2003 already has sp2 applied.
Have you gone through my article yet?
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ASKER

alanhardisty:
I read them. That article has too many areas and fixes...I am afraid of making these many changes on the file server that is working just fine except sync with iPhone/iPAD.
There has to be a simpler solution to this when RWW is working...
If you want the iPads / iPhones to start working - then my article is the place to start and the solution for the vast majority of problems.

OWA uses different technology to connect, so that can happily work whilst Activesync may not.

The article points you to check things out - not necessarily make changes.  Hopefully there are not that many changes to make anyway - it could be a couple of simple little tweaks that fixes the problem, but if you are not prepared to work your way through my article, then you won't find another way to resolve your issue.

Alan
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ASKER

To all,

  I finally got it working. I setup a SBS2003 from the scratch on a brand new server box using a domain name that I won. Nothing facny, I simply did the following after finishing SBS install from the CD.
1. I ran thru "Connect to the Internet" from Server Management.
2. Applied Service Packs - Both SBS2003 SP2, EXCH 2003 SP2
3. Opened the following ports from the firewall: STMP 25, OWA 443, RWW 4125, HTTPS 444, RDP 3389

After doing the above, I was able to sync iPad to EXCH2003.
My experience tells me as Robert_Turner: indicated above, you don't need import certificates.
I also saw a lot of articles mentioning Active Sync, but I did not have to do any of that.
It was the same setup as SBS2011, no difference what-so-ever.
So if anyone out there having the same issue, just erase OS and re-install SBS2003 and apply Service Packs.
Or you could simply follow my article.
Avatar of sglee

ASKER

alanhardisty:
Your article, though it provides general guidelines for trouble-shooting, it did not provide the direct solution. But thank  you for your effort.
How is build it from scratch a solution?  It is a complete workaround.  It doesn't fix the problem - it ignores the problem.

Sure - you are working, which is great, but rebuilding a server to fix one small element that isn't working is the equivalent of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
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ASKER

alanhardisty:
I agree with you and I like that analogy.
In this case, I wanted to setup a new SBS2003 and make it work so that I can compare against non-working SBS2003 with respect to iPhone sync. down the road.

Thanks for your help.
Sure - totally understand.  It should work happily on a new server (and it should work on a long-standing server), but sometimes these things don't.

The best bit is that you have a solution.  How you got there is immaterial :)

Enjoy syncing over the air.

Best wishes

Alan