How do I get Outlook Email from Exchange Server configured on iPhone?

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How do I get Outlook Email from Exchange Server configured on iPhone?

My business email is hosted on MS Exchange Server via Outlook and is distributed to my networked PC and VPN home PC and laptop. My IT manager has enabled IMAP on the Exchange Server. I am unable to get my email account on the iPhone to receive or send mail through my Server. My domain names have been entered in the format "exchange.[domainname].com, and my user ID and password has been input for both incoming and outgoing email. The iPhone cannot seem to talk to the server and retrieve or send mail. Does anyone know what to do on the iPhone to be able to communicate with the server? (I am aware of the various limitations of the iPhone vs. Windows Smart Phones in terms of being able to use Microsoft Push Email and to be able to synch calendars, contacts etc. with a corporate server and/or multiple computers. Hopefully Apple will license ActiveSync for the iPhone to provide for this functionality, as recently rumored on a few blogs.)

iPhone

Posted on Jul 3, 2007 9:16 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 4, 2007 12:08 AM in response to rmknyc161

You are not able to access the exchange server because the exchange server lies within the business network. The reason you can access email from out of the business location, is because the VPN connection brings you within the business network. The iPhone resides outside of the business network, on ATT network. I'm not sure what people have developed or if anything has been developed for the iPhone, that creates a "connector". Connectors exist for blackberries and other email devices, as where a software called a connector resides on a computer at work, and then this computer pushes your emails to your email device. That's something to look into. I do not believe that apple has made one. Though i don't have the phone yet, so couldn't confirm/the itunes help doesn't say if it does.

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Answer 2

rmknyc161 Author

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Jul 4, 2007 6:42 AM in response to mservidio

I've read some documentation which indicates that I should be able to receive and send email through my Exchange Server, provided I enable IMAP on the Exchange Server. I have seen nothing more, however, which indicates clearly how to implement this and how to set up the account on the iPhone. (Exchange Server provides email access both within and without a VPN - in fact, there is a completely web-based portal which can access all server-based email from any internet browser through an https domain name.

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Answer 3

Jul 4, 2007 7:08 AM in response to rmknyc161

My company also uses MS Exchange Server. It is my understanding that they use a tool called Ceryx when syncing those god awful blackberries. One of the IT guys had not researched this problem with iPhones yet and said he would look into it.

So, for a "quick fix" I decided to go it alone. I setup a new email address on gmail(I wanted to keep this seperate from my other emails and also more closely tied to the corporate email when it comes to things like the signature...).

In my outlook on the computer I sync with the iPhone, I use a tool called "Rules and Alerts". I setup a rule that forwards my email to my gmail account. Voila.. a workable way to get my corporate email.

My return email tells those I am replying to that I am replying from iPhone and that I have far fewer typos than those sending emails from blackberries...hehehe..

good luck

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Answer 4

cbpraigg

Level 1

10 points

Jul 4, 2007 7:15 AM in response to scooter101

I am on an Exchange server and have been able to setup an IMAP e-mail account on the iPhone which does bring in my e-mail. The iPhone is set to check every 15 min. since IMAP does not push e-mail. The downside is that when I delete an e-mail on the iPhone, it does not delete it on the Exchange server. Keep in mind that this only brings your e-mail to iPhone, not calendar, contacts or notes. This would require a ActiveSync to accomplish that. I have heard rumors that Apple will be licensing ActiveSync from Microsoft which will give you full sync and push. Get'er done Steve and Bill!

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Answer 5

rmknyc161 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 4, 2007 7:38 AM in response to cbpraigg

Sounds very encouraging. Can you let me know exactly how you set up the IMAP account on the iPhone? I set up an account with my corporate email address. Used the incoming and outgoing server addresses in the format "exchange.[domainname].com". Wasn't sure what to put in for the IMAP Path Prefix. Any nuts and bolts on how to implement this would be much appreciated!

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Answer 6

cbpraigg

Level 1

10 points

Jul 5, 2007 5:09 AM in response to rmknyc161

The actual configuration depends on how your Exchange server is configured and what the server path is named. I would look through your Outlook or Entourage account settings to obtain the path and server name.

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Answer 7

rmknyc161 Author

Level 1

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Jul 7, 2007 9:05 AM in response to cbpraigg

Thanks for your response. I've used the path that I had successfully used for years with my Windows Smartphone to no success. Neither advanced Apple telephone support nor my IT guy could get this to work. I have implemented a workaround to have my server automatically forward my emails to a new Yahoo account which then pushes to my iPhone. Definitely an unsatisfactory and incomplete solution, however.

Editorial comments for Apple: Windows ActiveSync was so much more sophisticated in terms of being able to deal with server-based email, contacts, calendar and for users with multiple computers - i.e. office, home and laptop. I would have expected Apple to introduce something at least as functional and sophisticated or to licence ActiveSync. My user capabilities are substantially downgraded in these areas with my new iPhone and absent a quick software upgrade or licence of ActiveSync I will be unable to function productively with my iPhone. While we're at it, Apple, with my multiple email accounts set up on the iPhone, which is a great feature, I have no easy way to tell in which account to find a new email. I am forced to update the inbox in every single account to try to find where my new mail is going - some new mail indicator next to the account name (as opposed to showing how many unread emails exist with each account) needs to be implemented. The phone hardware, other than the batter - which doesn't even last me for the full course of a workday - is great, but software has only gotten to about 75% of where it needs to be.

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Answer 8

Jul 7, 2007 10:45 AM in response to rmknyc161

I have a similar setup for receiving my Exchange mail on my iPhone, only I use a GMail account.

The problems I had with using the Yahoo accounts were 1) all of the marketing messages being added to the bottom of each and every email, and 2) mail being sent from me@yahoo.com instead of me@companyname.com.

To get around this, I have the following set up:

1) Had my IT department setup my Exchange mail delivery so mail is delivered to both my Exchange box and my Gmail account. (First, set up the new address in AD. Then, in your Exchange account's Delivery Options, choose to forward mail to this address. Also check the box to Deliver Mail To Both Forwarding Address And Mailbox)

2) Configured my Gmail account to be able to send emails using my work email address. Also set Gmail to use this address as my Reply-To address (Located in Settings-->Accounts within Gmail)

3) Confiured Gmail access on my iPhone. I believe I ended up setting this up manually for some reason. I vaugely recall it having something to do with configuring Outbound SSL correctly.

So now I can receive and send emails from my iPhone and have it appear as if they're coming from Outlook, without any marketing messages.

My next challenge was to set up syncing of contacts/calendars between the iPhone, iCal and Outlook. For this, I use Plaxo ( http://www.plaxo.com). It installs a service on both my PowerMac and my laptop. Works like a champ.

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Answer 9

Nathan C

Level 5

6,260 points

Jul 7, 2007 12:02 PM in response to rmknyc161

rmknyc161,

As discussed in this article and in some of the posts in this thread, you need IMAP on the server:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305883

Some users have reported that IMAP needed to be enabled on the server in up to 3 places. IMAP Virtual Server, on front and back end exchange servers, and for each account. That user report is in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1024252

You also need to be able to access the server. If your IT guy has enabled IMAP, has he also allowed IMAP through the company firewall?

If not you may need to set up VPN on your iPhone to be able to access the Exchange server.

This article discusses the VPN protocols supported by the iPhone:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305723

This article discusses setting up VPN on the iPhone:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305827

Hope this helps,

Nathan C.

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Answer 10

BuddyBoo

Level 1

4 points

Jul 7, 2007 2:50 PM in response to rmknyc161

Since I am the administrator of my company Exchange 2003 server (located in my laundry room), I had a STRONG desire to make my iPhone email work and was finally able to beat it into submission.

My setup is a simple SBS 2003 Premium R2 Exchange server with an ISA2004 firewall. The same things may not work on more complicated exchange setups.

In short, these are the steps that I took:

1. Set up IMAP4 on exchange.
2. Open IMAP ports in firewall to allow both regular and SSL IMAP access.
3. Modify virtual SMTP server to allow relaying with authentication and verify authentication settings.
4. Reboot server to be safe and sure changes are applied.

I then checked the setup from a windows laptop using Outlook Express by setting up an IMAP account. This keeps everything Microsoft and makes troubleshooting easier. Once it all worked on Outlook Express, I moved on to the phone.

On iPhone set up mail account as an IMAP4 account NOT Exchange. For some reason, I could not see my mail and public folders when I set it to exchange but everything was there when set up as IMAP.

Also, I have seen some discussion about certificates on Exchange. My server uses a self certificate and the IMAP setup on iPhone seems to accept it since SSL is shown as on.

I Hope this helps. If you need more specifics about my setup, please let me know

Dell 9200 Windows Vista

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