hi, my dear friends
I am a freshman to XDA dev, I am using ms vs2003 to develop an application on XDA II.
The application is about dispatching a job to a driver's XDA, the senario likes the following: (1) The dispatch server sends a job to driver's XDA thru GPRS. (2) The driver then view the job on the XDA application and Accept it.
The question is how to send a job from the server side to an XDA application, what need I to do with the server programs and what need I to do with the XDA applications? Do we need some develop toolkit from the SP?
Thanks in advance, your suggestion and help are very appreciated!!!
If your network gives you an ip that others can see from outside then you just need to write a small server on your xda using sockets to accept the messages over gprs. Unfortunately, most phone networks do not do this. I think the easiest thing for you would be to make it sms based.
Otherwise you could make a page on your (pc) server and have your xda check it at regular intervals to see if any new jobs are there. The down side of this is the cost of all that checking.
Thanks ORD for you help.
Re: If your network gives you an ip that others can see from outside then you just need to write a small server on your xda using sockets to accept the messages over gprs. Hi ORD, do you mean the Public IP for each XDA phone? Do you know if the SP O2 in British provides this kind of service?
Thanks again!
I don't know what you mean public address? The phone network will have a server address and your phone will get assigned a client address. I can't tell about o2 as I only have tried vodafone in Australia. I think that most IP's given are only useful from within the private network of the provider. I am no expert with the internet, but I think if the ip starts with 10.XXX.XXX.XXX its no good. Perhaps if you post the first half of your IP some of the other network wizez here can tell you if its accessible from outside.
Even if your ip is good, it probably would not be static so I think its not worth the effort. Still... if you go that way, the implementation of sockets on ppc works 100%. In fact I have cut and pasted code straight from ppc apps to desktop apps and had no problems!
Why not just have your phones connect as clients to a small custom coded server on your pc periodically. You could streamline the transmition to only transfer as few bytes as possible each time. The only time a large transfer would be needed is when a job is accepted and the details are needed. my network charges by the kilobyte and when i transfer in only the tens of bytes it dose not even register it on my bill (i don't know how big the handshake is).
Thanks, ORD, yes, we can check the server every XX seconds, the only thing I am worrying about is if I have more than 1 thousand XDA units to connect and check the server, if the server can afford to this load?
This sound like a real world problem you have (like taxis?). If you want the best solutuion (ie sending jobs to xda's) start checking the service providers. 1000 units is a lot. I think there must be a carrier out there willing to provide
usefull addresses. Also try connecting two devices from within the same network. If all your devices are within the same private network they may be able to communicate. You PC server could be connected to the internet via a gprs card and send out jobs to all the xda's within service provided by the same carrier. I have been wanting to try this for a while but I do not have two gprs connections with the same provider.
I have a couple of small apps that may help you test this if you have multiple gprs connections with the same provider.
The following is a ppc program to attempt to connect to another one of itself over a network using sockets:
http://odeean.veritel.com.au/serv/testSocketServer.exe
the next program is for the PC so you can show that the program at least works in the direction of ppc to pc via gprs then internet:
http://odeean.veritel.com.au/serv/ORDsocketUserPC.exe
Do the following:
-Turn on your internet connection and gprs
-On your pc run the ORDsocketUserPC.exe
-to simplify things just turn off any firewalls etc (my app dose nothing bad, but sometimes even if you open a port, firewalls cause it to fail)
-On you xda run testSocketServer.exe
-On the pc server function side enter the desired port details. Because you are first testing if it works at all change the ip to 0 as this causes it to listen for all incoming ip's in my app.
-On the pc server side press listen
-On the xda set the port on the client side to the same as on your pc. Enter the pc's ip (ie from your connection status).
-On the xda press connect
-Now the xda should attempt to connect. It says waiting to read when connected at first
-Now on the pc it should say blocking-listening with some code.
-Two way data transfer is now possible. The desktop version is self explanitory. The ppc version has a lack of screen space so to elliminate some buttons I replaced the get button with ..... make data edit box clear, press send, this generates a dialog with the read data so far.
-This is only a very raw app some things malfunction but I get reliable two way communication. If something goes wrong just close the program and start again.
If all that works you are ready to test the ppc to ppc connection. Make sure you get gprs on each from the same provider run the testSocketServer.exe on both xda's at once. One with server side only and one with client side only. In the client enter the ip of the server (my app dose not find this for you - you may need some third party program for this), make sure the server ip was set to 0 before you press listen.
Please post to tell if it works within the same network as I am very interested. If it dose your problem is solved, otherwise I see no way to help because of the volume of units to communicate to.
Thanks ORD, it is too complicated for me, frankly. Can I push an email to the XDA then let the driver knows that he has a job? He can click an button to request the job. The question is how to push an email to the XDA unit.
Sorry, I can't help with emails.
Its a pitty you could not try it. If anyone else cares to try gprs device to device communication with both ends within the same phone network I am still interested in the result. I just do not want to get yet another sim. vodafone sales people in Australia do not seem to understand their own network and I have wasted enough money buying products from them that do not do what they claim.
Sending of string message over O2
Hi ORD!
Im interested in this and I am using a VPN approach to get both of the devices talking!
I am using your programs but I also wish to view the source code on how u coded this, as when I click connect I recieve an error stating the socket is not writable??? I think it doesnt even start the 3G/GPRS service on the XDA? Could you send me the code?
If it does start GPRS in the background i do apologise!!! But Im uncertain that this is the case!
Thanks!
AJ.
possible solution
All pockets pcs are using private internet addresses, i.e. they can access other external sites, but no one can directly access them as no external connections are allowed to access them without the XDAs initiating the connection.
So all of your 1000 xdas initiate the connection and connect to a central server (on server use asyncrhonous sockets for scaleability).server should be able to handle this easily.
when a job is ready for dispatch the server simply sends it to the appropriate XDA(possible because that XDA initiated the connection, so the phone operator will allow it through their firewall).
No polling needed on the XDA, just the need to monitor the connection and keep it open to the server.
XDA to XDA commmunication. Easy. The server acts as an intermediary.
Imagine XDA1 (vodaphone) wants to talk to XDA2(02) and both are on different networks. They cannot talk directly to each other.
XDA1 sends it message to the server already connected. The server (with a connection already set up) forwards it on to XDA2.
XDA2 replies back to the server, which then forwards it to XDA1.
The server acts as a gateway between the two networks and is able to do so because it is XDA1 and XDA2 initiateed the connection to the server.
For a more technical explanation of how private IP address are assigned by phone operators read up on NAT (Network Address Translation).
This solution would also work if both XDA1 and XDA2 had public IP addresses. All logic can be kept on the server and there is no need for XDA1 to find XDA2s public IP address, which with a 1000 XDAs could become messy very quickly.
cheers
Steve Jubb
I posted a response to this thread that ended up in its own thread.
Please read this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=55255
Related
I connect to 4 or 5 different wireless lans in the various places I work and also to GPRS.
For each one the connection to the internet will be with a different provider and therefore the SMTP server I need to use for sending mail will be different, or may even be a POP service running on a local Exchange server.
This is a pain. I have written a utility that solves this problem by allowing you to switch smtp server for all your mail acccounts in any mail client quickly on the fly.
Basically you configure any mail clients to use an smtp server called virtualsmtp and then you set up all the different smtp servers you use by IP address in the utility.
The utility sets a host record in the registry for virtualsmtp pointing to whichever smtp server you want to run.
It's called SMTPSwitcher (very imaginatively) and runs from a notification icon in the system tray.
It's a bit flaky at the moment (mainly windowing problems and issues with the NotifyIcon) and I also can't delete the server entries because RegDeleteKey always returns error 5 : Access Denied.
If anyone wants to test it or has any ideas or comments please post here.
I'd be happy to test it for you
nice software. I was wishing for it last thursday when I had to send mails from the wifi access point of a friend.
I would be glad to test it (qtek 2020, windows mobile 2003), once my phone decide to work (it did a quick 3 seconds journey in my wc today. oops)
OK. I can post the app here.
1) There is no install program at the moment, just an exe file.
The best way to install is to just copy to your PPC.
You can run by clicking on exe or create a shortcut in your startup folder.
2) It is written in c# for the .NET compact framework so you must have the .net CF installed which you probably have anyway.
3) The biggest problem at the moment is that the Remove button does not work properly.
If you need to delete entries from the list you will need to use a registry editor. The entries are stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SMTPSwitcher.
4) Sometimes the app stops responding and wont display its form when you click on the icon. If this happens you can try to terminate it using the Settings->System->Memory->RunningPrograms option or do a soft reset.
I will be trying to fix the Remove button and unless I can find a fix for some of the problems that cause the app to stop responding I will probably remove the feature that lets you run it as an icon.
I had this problem ages ago where i would go to a friends house or a wifi hot spot but of corse could not send email.
To get round this i purchased a domain name and email account with easyspace. this works well for me, as it done not matter how i am connected either GPRS, or WiFi i can still send emails from just the one account.
The only problem just noticed the other day is if i use orange UK it works fine on GPRS connection but not if its a 3g connection, Orange are looking into this.
Please dont take this as critisisum your program is a excellent idea, I just like the idea of not having to take any notice of how i am connected and email working
John
Subscribing to a roaming smtp service is another way round the problem as is using webmail.
My problem is that I have 5 or 6 mail accounts in different domains and a lot of roaming smtp services will not relay for any domains other than the ones you have with them.
I have uploaded a new version which has a DNS resolver built in.
Instead of typing in the IP address of any smtp server you want tp use you can enter the name and it will look up the ip address assuming you are connected to a network.
Yet another way that your device can be protected is whenever it's able to hit the internet. It would update a dynamic DNS entry on your account at DynDNS.org with hopefully a public IP address it gets and from there, if you have a program like SOTI Pocket Controller Professional, you can instantly gain remote access to the device. That's just one program of many that could benefit from this.
Is there any program for the Pocket PC that updates a dynamic DNS name there?
Any news on programs like this?
Would be very much appreciated!
If you look up posts by OdeeanRDeathshead you will find a discussion somewhere (sorry, don't remember the exact link) that you can't get a public IP over GPRS connection, so unless the phone it self initiates a connection you can not reach it.
This means that unless you device is connected via WIFI a program like this would be useless.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
OK, I understand that.
I found an IP using www.whatsmyip.org. For example 123.123.123.123
I'm using my phone to connect to an Exchange Server. But I only want my phone to reach te server, so I have set up my firewall to forward (NAT) certain ports from source 123.123.123.123 to the Exchange Server. The rest of the IP's are going somewhere else.
But the IP changes of course, guess T-Mobile has more gateways in use. Maybe to another everytime you connect.
Is there a program that sends a query to whatsmyip.org (or another site like this) and then updates the IP address in a DNS record (like dyndns.org). Any help would be appreciated.
I can connect my device to the in-house Wlan and I get assigned an IP address like it should. I am able to browse the net (IE) using the Wlan and I can even go to the HTTP webmail site but when I set up a POP3 e-mail account I get the error message that I cannot connect with the current settings. Suggestions?
The other strange thing is that I am able to login on a local server using Terminal Services, but I can only connect to the IP address, not the hostname.
Perhaps I should mention that I have an own domain so the mailbox I'm trying to connect is a completely seperate mailbox and should work 'native' with POP3 port 25 settings. This shouldn't be a problem as far as I can see, but it still doesn't work...
I did some more testing, the weird thing is that I can send e-mails using the WLAN connection, but cannot receive them. The connection towards the server seems to be good (I didn't use seperate settings for SMTP) so DNS seems to be correct as well.
Right, I'm not under the impression a terribly large population of users are dying just to solve my problem, but since I located the source of the problem I thought I'd post it here for other users to find.
The problem I was faced with had actually nothing to do with the WiFi at all, it was the POP3 server that was the problem. The connection was fine, sending the mails was fine it's just that the POP3 daemon of the Direct Admin hosting control panel (vmpop3d-e) is unable to work with Windows Mobile 5 due to some kind of problem I don't even begin to understand (nor would I want to).
If you have your own domain and your hoster is running the Direct Admin control panel you won't be able to use the e-mail POP3 function. Instead, use the IMAP4 function which does work.
DA Forum PDA topic
when you set up your mailbox (menu - tools - options) go to the 3rd screen and click options. There you tell it what connection you want. I'd be willing to bet thats where your problem is.
E-mail client doesnt work on my wizard eather. I can receive mail, but sending it is impossibl. I think I tried everything.
If anyone have any suggestions what can I do please tell me.
THX
@primossz, you're pretty active on this forum :wink:
You need to first install the client software provided by your're ISP. So if you use T-mobile you can let T-mobile send the parameters via SMS to yor're cellphone. Just login to your're ISP provider for that on the WWW.
Greetz ET
any detailed how to guide?, i can do it, i'm fairly tech savvy, so i just need to kneed out a few things. maybe if you caould start from the beginning and i can see where i went wrong.
logmein.com works, but i want something more personal, just bewtween the computer and my phone. somerthing that looks good and scales full screen preferably.
please guys?, point me in the right direction.. all the posts just keep saying to search and there's lots of info, but there's no step by step guide.
thanks guys!
ok i got it going.
first go to the computer you want to connect to and go to control panel / system
click on remote, enable remote users
go to start menu, run. type cmd
in command write "ipconfig /all"
take note of your ip address
on your phone go to remote desktop,
computer = your ip address
username = (go to startmenu, control panel, user accounts) use one of those names.
password = blank unless you have a password.
domain = i left blank.
connect full color unless it doesnt work for you
if you can connect and you get a password error
type the error you get inot google and you should get a fix as your first link.
try that.
blam, remote desktop, it's awesome.
Nice how-to...
this is the most succinct tutorial on how to do this that I've seen. I'm still having trouble, though. I get the "Cannot connect. Likely reason are: 1 the remote comupter is not set up for this. 2. Reached the maximum number of connections. 3. A network error occurred while connecting."
I have set up the XP PC, & taken down all firewalls. I only have one user account and it has a password. I've even tried using Hamachi with one of their VPN ip addresses (awesome and free for pc2pc). I 've combed trhough my router settings too, and tried to clear everything there, too. I can RD from an XP laptop, so ti seems to be something on the unit, to me. I've also setup file sharing w/ Total Commander (it's served my purposes amply).
I really have googled & googled & googled. If anyone has any idea what is going on, I'd be grateful for some ideas.
Have you enabled the RDP on the host computer?
Right click my computer
Properties
Remote
Then enable allow user to connect remotely.
Will only work on XP Pro, or Vista if you choose to allow older clients which they scaremonger you against by saying it's less secure.
Danke!
I've been scared away from Vista for the usual "new" OS reasons, but perhaps it's getting to be time for me to haul my old conservative back-end into the modern world.
Thanks so much for taking the time!
(and to Biohead: yes, I followed the instructions I lauded so vehemently.... ???)
you're running vista?
and you haven't been able to connect still, right?
sorry i could walk you through xp, but man vista sucks, i wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
i'm setting up remote desktop on my iphone
hahaha totally referred to this guide
and it sucks, so i'm sticking with vnc
man, i miss my exec/universal
dutchschultz said:
any detailed how to guide?, i can do it, i'm fairly tech savvy, so i just need to kneed out a few things. maybe if you caould start from the beginning and i can see where i went wrong.
logmein.com works, but i want something more personal, just bewtween the computer and my phone. somerthing that looks good and scales full screen preferably.
please guys?, point me in the right direction.. all the posts just keep saying to search and there's lots of info, but there's no step by step guide.
thanks guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hope this helps
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=366312
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=294524
orb3000 said:
Hope this helps
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=366312
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=294524
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you, my friend, are awesome
A possible solution for those of us on T-Mobile's standard web n walk
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I thought I'd post my experiences here in case anyone else (like me) searches for a solution to enabling RDP on T-Mobile (UK at least).
I was having the same problem with remote desktop, it saying that the server was not available. I phoned up T-Mobile's helpdesk as recommended here and after getting past first line support (who didn't know what remote desktop was, and tried sending new connection settings to my phone to resolve the issue) I got through to someone who knew what they were talking about. Turns out that I'm on T-Mobile's "basic" or "handset-only" web-n-walk package, and it's not possible to use RDP on this. I assume they block the relevant ports. They told me that I could pay an extra fiver a month to upgrade to a version of web-n-walk which can handle RDP.
Well I told them I would think about it, but instead tried to find a way around it as the one or two times I need to use RDP are certainly not worth a fiver a month. My solution is probably only suitable for the more techy of us, but without much work and with no prior experience I managed to set up a SSH tunnel using FreeSSHd as a server running on my windows server (although a normal windows box should work fine - http://www.freesshd.com/) and zaTunnel as a client on my phone (http://www.zatelnet.com/zatunnel/main.php). Both programs are free.
Basically my phone takes all RDP connections and tunnels them over SSH to my windows server, which then turns them back into RDP connections. T-Mobile have no idea I'm using RDP, and if they block the SSH port in the future I can always change FreeSSHd to run on port 80 (for web). This will also work for other protocols T-Mobile might be blocking (FTP springs to mind).
Just thought I'd post this in case anyone was in my situation of needing RDP on their standard web'n'walk.
Edit Sorry posted this in the wrong thread! Will leave this post up however just in case someone finds it useful
echolock
Many thanks for the above have been searching everywhere for a fix to this. I am the same as you T Mobile (UK) and can't connect.
Could you give some additional advice as how you got the RDP to work.
For the record I can connect by Wi-Fi and by using a PAYG sim from a different carrier. However, I am on a contract with T Mobile and don't want to carry a different sim just to use the RDP.
I have installed both apps. I can make a connection from zaTunnel on Port SSH:24 to the freeSSHD server (SSH - listening on port 24). Other than adding a User and changing the default port to 24 there are no other changes I have made in freeSSHD.
Under the connections tab in zaTunnel I have left Network: Automatic with the other settings relevant to make a connection.
Under the ports tab of zaTunnel I have
LP> 3389,
IP/URL . IP of the desktop I want to connect to of 192.168.1.10
>RP 3389
When I the start the Remote Desktop app under my Windows Mobile 6.1 it indicates connecting the fails as before.
Also forgot to mention freeSSHD is running on the desktop I want to connect to.
Sure thing.
When you run Remote Desktop under Windows Mobile, make sure you connect to "localhost" NOT to the IP of the desktop you want to connect to.
Your other settings seem correct to me.
To attempt to explain a little, basically what happens is as follows. For simplicity's sake I will have three machines, your phone, your SSH server and your RDP server (although the latter two can be the same).
On your phone:
1) Remote Desktop connects to localhost on port 3389.
2) zaTunnel is listening on localhost on port 3389. It echos all commands sent to this port out on port 22 over your cellular connection to your SSH server, also providing details of your RDP server and port.
On your SSH server:
3) FreeSSHd receives the commands sent over port 22 and is told by zaTunnel to convert them to commands sent to your RDP server using port 3389.
On your RDP server:
4) Remote Desktop receives a normal RDP request over the normal port from your SSH server.
5) Responses are sent to your SSH server.
On your SSH server:
6) FreeSSHd receives the RDP responses, and sends them back to your phone over port 22.
On your phone:
7) zaTunnel converts the commands sent over port 22 back into RDP commands sent over port 3389.
8) Remote desktop receives a response from zaTunnel and thinks it's connected directly to an RDP server on localhost. In actuality it's connected to your RDP server using an SSH tunnel provided by zaTunnel and FreeSSHd.
Hope this makes sense, I'm not very good at explaining this!
Ah found another problem. The IP of your desktop you say is 192.168.1.10 - this is a local IP address so will only work on your local network.
Go to a website like http://whatismyipaddress.com/ from the machine you run SSHd on to find out what your current "external" IP address is. Bear in mind that most home broadband connections have a "dynamic" address which is allocated to you and might change from time to time - you can always use something like http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/ to set yourself up with a static hostname, and run a program on your machine which updates your hostname with the correct IP address every time it changes. Some routers have this functionality built in.
Thanks for the quick response and explanation.
Between posting and reading your reply I had worked out the RDP app needs the localhost or the IP 127.0.0.1.
I had come back here to post, so others would know in future.
Your other point you raised about the desktop IP. I have used this only in the ports tab on zaTunnel. The connection tab has a proper mydomainname.com address. (Provides email and a webmail interface).
Anyway, can connect now and thank you again in solving this for me. (If your in Leeds I will buy you a beer).
Ah yeah the 192.* address would work on the ports tab, fair enough. Might be worth pointing out if others read this that this is only the case if the machine you're trying to RDP to is on the same local network (or the same machine) as the machine you have FreeSSHd running on.
But good to hear you got it working Now hopefully T-Mobile won't cotton-on and decide to block port 22 too...
I'm an IT guy and I just got into smartphone PPCs for the first time after a long-time hiatus from PDAs when I used to be a Palm owner. After my last palm, a LifeDrive, got stolen I moved to a Moto Q wich was a big dissapointment OS wise, and I never really got into modding it or anything, just set my POP3 e-mail server and used it like that for 2 years (draw back was that I didn't have contact sync nore internal e-mail sync that got handled by my exchange server). My contract with that Q expired and I made the move to a Sprint Mogul with WM 6.1 Pro and I'm NEVER LOOKING BACK!!!
Anyways, enough about me, this is my first contribution so I wanted to do the little intro.
I had searched around a bit about how to get ActiveSync to sync my company's Exchange server through PPTP VPN (we don't have it published with a certificate for an actual push config) but all I found was info on how to setup the VPN itself, being an IT guy that was like pointing out the obvious to me as I had already got that running and connecting but couldn't get anything but the OWA site opening in IE and Opera.
Basically what I figured out was that I had to program a work URL exception in the Connections control panel under the Advanced tab. There I added my exchange server's IP address as a URL and used that IP to program the server under ActiveSync with all the usual credentials. I can't configure it to receive as items arrive, instead I had to let the configuration run on a 10 minute schedule. Every time the schedule is up I see the VPN connecting pop up and it syncs PERFECTLY and disconnects the VPN. (It doesn't turn on my screen each time, it just pops up if I'm using it; but that pop up can be turned off if it gets to annoying).
I don't know if anyone else knew about this but I though I'd share this info as I searched for a few days and found nothing, ended up figuring this out myself. If this is new info I'll post more detailed configuration information for those who desire it.
BTW, this is working over the Data Plan and WiFi as well.
Wow. your a god...
I been trying to figure why it kept disconnecting the vpn when it synced up.
Adding the work url exception works perfect...
(Im using WM6.1 on a Samsung Omnia)
Many Many thanks!
No problem dude! I'm surprised no one else has really found this helpful. Glad I could help!
BTW, those exceptions work very well for internal web sites as well. I use it to log in to web-based management consoles such as Symantec's Mail Security for Exchange, Symantec Endpoint, basically if you got an internal website of some sort you can access it through VPN using a Work URL Exception.
I was looking for this info too, i would like more detailed configuration information about this.
Thanx in advance...
Roland hendriks
What part of the configuration are you having trouble with? Configuring the VPN, the Exchange Server or the URL Exception?
Thanks
I personally am thankful for your information. Even if none of the other 1000s of readers out there say anything...
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Tim
Glad I could help! I know I broke my head over this one during the first week of me having a WM phone. I figured it out thanks to the Fdc Soft Task Manager using the Netstat utility. It let me know exactly what the network stack of the phone was trying to do and the URL exclussion I just stumbled upon and reading what the page said it lead me to believe that it might be a routing table for configured "WORK" connections. And it worked.
During the past month or two of using my exchange like this and switching around ROMs and cooking my own ones now I've noticed that having TCP Data Reconnect and Transmission Retry settings in your registry set to high will cause Active Sync to take a long ass time for it to actually route communications through the VPN connection. I noticed this after using custom ROMs wich some have these settings increased to ensure communications go through but they raise connection timeouts way to much. On my own custom ROM I've set these to defaults (2 and 4 respectively) and Active Sync only takes about 1 minute to start syncing onces you hit sync while you wait for it to dial the cellular line and the VPN.
you talk about the vpn..
i think you are in the very small percentage of ppl who can get that to work.
i have the activesync set to manual and have tried the vpn type to both IPSec/L2TP and PPTP
w/o success..i always get a UN PW error which i know cant be so..
i set the host ip to what was shown from "whatsmyip"..
searching for quite awhile, i see thousands of ppl who cant get it to work and have
never found a reliable method that works for anyone but the person who posted it.
if you could back track a little and post how to do it, there are probly
thousands of ppl who would find it very useful and really appreciate it.
thanx
Well one thing is how to setup a WM device's VPN client to connect to your VPN server and another is actually configuring your VPN server. Do you have a working VPN setup in your corporate network already? This usually is setup by having a static IP assigned to your corporate internet connection and a firewall configured to allow VPN access with all the necessary traffic and authentication routes.
If you don't have a static IP in your office and use a lower cost DSL or Cable connection you aren't SOL, for these types of connections you can use a service like dyndns.org to dynamically upadate your dynamic IP into a static dns name like: mycompany.dyndns.org for example. This requires you to setup your firewall or ISP modem to communicate with dyndns.org to report the changes. Most firewalls come with this funcionality already built-in, but most of them also call them by different names so you'd have to look up your equipment's documentation on how to report a dynamic dns service.
I would be happy to help you setup your VPN correctly but its more practicall for me to help you setup a checklist on which type of VPN you want to setup (IPSec or PPTP) and what your corporate network's infrastructure looks like and let you know what to look for in google; there is PLENTY of very helpful information on the web on how to setup VPN but first you have to know what you need and how you are going to achieve it and then you'll know what to look for.
Each setup is very particular to the customer's needs and the network infrastructure that is setup and how much security you want to use (IPSec is a naturally secured VPN tunnel protocol while PPTP is not secured by nature but can be secured with a Radius server in your DMZ validating authentication in an encruypted manner to your Active Directory service).
What I posted above will work for an already existing and working PPTP VPN connection wich I already had running for years in my office and I regularly use with my laptop to connect to my exchange server while on the road or at home. What I posted above is what is need to get your WM device to connect to an already functioning PPTP VPN server.
Hope this helps. And if I'm to help you make a checklist I need a lot of information:
Type of ISP (static IP or dynamic IP)
Type/Brand of firewall device
How the devices are connected together (dumb modem or internet router from your ISP to your firewall's WAN port or a full blown router provided by your ISP wich is patched into your firewall's WAN port)
Internal network configuration (both AD and Exchange on same server (SBS) or separated)
What amount of security you are looking for.
Send me some PMs and maybe I could at least point you in the right direction.
nttdemented: I'm doing the PPTP shuffle at the moment, and wanted to pick your brains..
The basic connection is running fine - e.g. when I add 192.168.0.1 as an Exception and go to http://192.168.0.1 in Pocket IE the VPN fires up and I see the page just fine.
I've also added '10.6.1.8' as an exception, but if I go to that address in PIE, I don't see any network activity (using ethereal/tcpdump) on the 'ppp0' server interface (I use Ubuntu server's pptpd) ...
Can I assume that your Exchange server is hosted on the same machine as your PPTP server? Some MS SBS or similar?
Even if I configure an http proxy (on the 192.168.0.1 IP) I see no activity when I try the 10.6.1.8 address. :/
thanks so much!!
that i didn't find/read about the "exceptions" option in WM before...
Somehow, when i got my phone, i got it to work without this workaround, it just worked, out of the box, no exception setting required. (VPN settings + exchange server location were enough)
But yesterday, from the one moment to the next, it suddenly stopped working.
In my efforts to get it to work again i deleted the exchange settings, but doing that, I deleted all my contacts and my agenda! I was in big trouble because I really needed those , but after reading your post, i got it working again! my phone is synching "as we speak" and i'm very happy!
don't know how it worked before, don't know why it stopped working, all I know is, it's working now!
you made my day
Good to know!
Cheers!
I've since stopped using this method as we got around to publishing our Exchange server with an SSL certificate so I'm actually using SSL enabled ActiveSync push on my phone now.
Excuse me but perhaps you can help me too.
My problem is that I can get/sync my mails using WIFI.
If I connect thru GPRS, y go to send/receive and I get all the mails. If I'm on my office and connect thru WIFI to the work net I also get all the mails from the exchange server.
The problem is when I'm outside my office and connect to other wifi net and try to sync my mails. I have an HTC TOUCH CRUISE with WM 6.1 original from HTC without any flash.
Thanks in advance.
VPN connection doesn't always connect for ActiveSync synchronization?
I have had ActiveSync working with an Exchange server over a PPTP VPN connection for years now, but there has been one nagging issue I can't figure out. For the most part it works, but sometimes when ActiveSync tries to sync it will not make the VPN connection. There is only one connection listed when I tap on the icon on the notification bar - the phone's data connection. So in activesync, the icon with the arrows spins for a while but nothing synchronizes. I think it ends up saying "waiting for network" or something like that. It seems to always work when I manually hit "sync", but sometimes it fails on scheduled synchronizations.
Any idea why this happens sometimes?
oh...cheers...got my brain back...
The exceptions rule has almost fixed mine now. I'm getting mail but not through Activesync (just sits waiting for network).