For those of you who don’t know what ActiveSync is, it is a data synchronization program developed by Microsoft for use with its Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.

This will enable our iPhone and other smart phone users to be able to get their email just like our people that have blackberries can.

So, I started off by doing what anyone else would do, turn it on and test.

I did the following from Microsoft Technet

  1. On the Exchange front-end server that is running Exchange ActiveSync, log on with the Exchange administrator account, and then start Exchange System Manager.
  2. Expand Global Settings, right-click Mobile Services, and then click Properties.
  3. On the Mobile Services Properties page, in the Exchange ActiveSync pane, select or clear the check box next to Enable user initiated synchronization.
  4. Click OK

Easy enough, so let’s try and test this out. Well, it didn’t work and I had a error message to work with which was this:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeOMA
Event Category: (1000)
Event ID: 1503
Date: 9/4/2008
Time: 9:54:44 AM
User: N/A
Computer: Exchange Server Name
Description:

An unknown error occurred while processing the current request:
Message: The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.
Source: Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider

Stack trace:
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider.OmaWebRequest.GetRequestStream()
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider.ExchangeServices.GetSpecialFolders()
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider.ExchangeServices..ctor(UserInfo user)

Forbidden – … ok?! Well, after some googling, I came across this workaround for this issue. I guess if you have SSL and forms based authentication in place, this just doesn’t work. So, what you need to do is following method 2 of this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817379/

I would highly suggest you do this workaround during a downtime. I did mine in the middle of the day, and my SMTP Virtual Server didn’t exactly want to start back up automatically and I didn’t catch it right away causing a few people to get messages stuck in their outbox. Yes n00b move on my part, but oh well.

So – we tested the phone again. Still isn’t working. Ok… time to go back to the event viewer. Yup – something there.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Server ActiveSync
Event Category: None
Event ID: 3005
Date: 9/8/2008
Time: 3:31:14 PM
User: Username
Computer: Exchange Server

Description:

Unexpected Exchange mailbox Server error: Server: [Server Name] User: [E-Mail Address] HTTP status code: [400]. Verify that the Exchange mailbox Server is working correctly.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

hmmm – yup, the server is running. What else could it be. *scratches head*

After not finding much on google, I decided to dig into Microsoft’s forums a bit. There was one solution that I found here. And it links to another forums here.

A person by the username twisty168 has figured out a very simple solution to this issue, which is the following:

  1. Open IIS Manager
  2. Navigate to Websites -> right click on “Default web site” and click on properties.
  3. On the web site tab click on advanced
  4. Under “Multiple identities for this website” click on the default entry and click on edit
  5. I made the following changes – IP address: (All Unssigned), TCP port:80, Host Header Value: “Blank”
  6. Click ok and restart IIS Admin Service (warning will disconnect clients) to be sure!

We tested the phone, and it works!

A couple things to watch out for is this error message. After doing some reading on it, it means nothing and you can ignore it.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Server ActiveSync
Event Category: None
Event ID: 3005
Date: 9/9/2008
Time: 9:45:26 AM
User: Username
Computer: Exchange Server
Description:

Unexpected Exchange mailbox Server error: Server: [Server Name] User: [E-Mail Address] HTTP status code: [409]. Verify that the Exchange mailbox Server is working correctly.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I hope this helps out everyone else that may be needing help with this issue!

SaumZ