How to config Activesync for LAN/WAN access with Small Bus 2 - Networking

Background to my problem
At our office, we have Small Bus Server 2003 with the new Exchange SP installed. Our web site domain name is not mapped to our local server, but hosted on a external commercial one.
Our router/firewall has one fixed IP address that is connected to the web, while all the workstations have local address like 192.168.10.xxx, etc.. To configure Activesnc to work from outside our network, all I had to do is enter the fixed IP address into the server settings in Active sync and it connects.
The problem occurs if the Wizard is connected to a PC via USB in the network. At this point, active sync is looking for an external IP address instead of the real address of the server which is 192.168.10.xxx.
So, I configured a custom DNS with our domain hosting provider to have "mail.domain.name" redirected to our fixed IP address. With a little tweaking on the router, this works! In ActiveSync I can enter just "mail.domain.name" instead of the external IP and it works from the outside.
Now, to sync while connected to the network, I have to manually change the server address every time to reflect 192.168.10.100. Ideally, i would like to somehow tell my local server that any request inernally sent to "mail.domain.name" gets redirected to 192.168.10.100 instead of going out on the web. This would solve my problem of changing the server address everytime I'm in the office.
Does anyone know how to do this in Small Business Server 2003? Is there another way to keep the same server settings in/out of our network?
Thanks
Rob

Related

GPRS and Static IP with VPN

HI guys,
Does anyone know how to get a static IP address when using the GPRS connection to the internet. The reason being is because our corporate firewall has to recognise the device through it's IP. Is there any other possible methods for recognising the user?
Also does a VPN work well over GPRS and is there any extra configuration involved on the VPN server
Cheers
Any answers would be great.
Unfortunately there is no simple answer to your question. AFAIK you cant get a fixed ip on gprs, but if your using the right firewall and the right vpn host you dont need to.
I use and supply windows sbs 2003 servers and vpn into them regularly. I have also used citrix to achieve similar results. Might be a bit difficult to persuade your firms it dept to set up something like that for 1 person though.
PM me if youd like any advice.
BillyB said:
HI guys,
Does anyone know how to get a static IP address when using the GPRS connection to the internet. The reason being is because our corporate firewall has to recognise the device through it's IP. Is there any other possible methods for recognising the user?
Also does a VPN work well over GPRS and is there any extra configuration involved on the VPN server
Cheers
Any answers would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello Billy,
You ask a good question, but the answer isn't simple. Most carriers do have two types of APN (Access Point Name) provision for your SIM: "private" APN (which provides a non-routable IP assignment from behind a NAT, for basic browsing and e-mail functionality) and "public" APN (that provides a routable IP assignment, which is the Minimum Requirement for a more sophisticated connection type, such as VPN, etc). However, both of them are assigned by a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Server on a GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) of your particular GPRS network operator. In either case, the end result will obviously be a DYNAMIC IP address on your GPRS terminal (be it a laptop PC, a PDA, or phone)
Some carriers do offer what is called a "dedicated APN" provision, which gives the subscriber their own IP range to choose from (almost like a small subnet), but it is only available to corporate giants like Pepsi (for example).
Now, to sum it up, you must have the proper APN provisioned on your Mobile SIM account (which the provider will normally call something like a "VPN data package" in billing terms). Then, you must obviously establish a GPRS session before you can connect your VPN client (but remember that most basic VPN clients work the best). It is pretty sad to say, but Microsoft Windows-embedded VPN client on Win2k/XP Pro so far has performed the best with no quirks whatsoever. It has to be via PPTP...L2TP has also worked for me..otherwise, the fancier (and more secure) the VPN tunneling protocol, the more its likely to fail. Normally all you need for a basic MS WIndows VPN client config is the Server name (or IP address), the user name, and the password.
Hope this helps,
Let me know how it goes,
Alex
PS. PM me if you have further questions.
VPN and TS Its like pulling teeth
hi all this has got to be the most anoying problem ever. i can connect to O2 vpn access point and hence i can connect to my work vpn server. however as soon as i try to open a TS connection to my desktop (through the vpn) the VPN connection is dropped and i never connect. Can anybody tell me why? if i have a vpn connection to my work server why does TS try to make another connection and bomb out the original. Is there a fix or another way of doing this i.e. does a external IP have to be nat'd to my desktop IP on port 3389? all help greatly appreciated. Ian

Syncing with an Exchange Server

Hi all,
my device (iMate Jasjar 1.13.53 WWE on WM5) syncs without problems through my office-pc with the exchange server standing at the office. This is a wired connection, working through ASync 4.1 (USB).
If I disconnect the USB-Cable, hence force the device to sync through another connection, it will try my GPRS-settings. The GPRS-settings work normal for Internet and eMail. After some time of trying I get the error 0x80072EE2 "The server could not be reached. This can be caused by temperary network conditions"
The server is working normal though.
Does anybody have some advice for a newbie (absolute no network specialist). My exchange server administrator is new to this as well. So if I would be able to read into this somewhere, or get some insider tips it would be very helpful and highly appreciated.
with kind regards,
Ruud Westerhout
how do you have the server name entered in the activesync settings?
are you using ssl?
has it ever syncronized w/o having it connected to pc?
does the exchange server have a public IP address?
thanks for fast reply,
as we are a little apart (time-wise) I am at home already and not able to answer all :
my server is at : mail.al????.ru
I was told to sync like :
Server address : mail
This server requires en encrypted (SSL) connection : NO
User name : the one I am allowed with to enter our network
Password : my usual password to enter our network
Domain : al????.ru
Save Password : YES
If there is a conflict : Keep items on my device
Event logging : Brief
With these settings like this, I was able to sync with the exchange server while connected through USB. ASync was getting a special allowence and the Microsoft Firewall Client was disable for it.
It has never been syncing wireless in any way, only USB, in the office.
I presume we have a public IP address, but I should counter ask my administrator about this.
If You have any ideas after reading this data, please shoot ;-)
The answer on IP I will add (or edit) tomorrow.
regards,
Ruud
yeah. it depends. if it is synching through USB, for me it is hard to tell if you are synching directly to the exchange server or to the workstation. if you have a mail profile setup on your machine and you are synching with activesync. on your desktop with activesync does it specifically show that it is synching with your exchange server? actually better yet if you run activesync the screen will tell you the last syncronizations. you will have an "Exchange Server" section and the last time it synched and probably a "Windows PC" section.
If your Exchange Server section has a synchronized time then your settings are correct. (The time should also be the same as your Windows PC time)
If it has something like Never synchronized or something other than a successful synchronization time, then those settings may not be correct or something is not right on the exchange server or network.
So if you do have a successful timestamp for the "Exchange Server" field, then everything on your device is good. The problem may be that either the exchange server does not have a public ip or a dns issue. (you can try to resolve the latter by putting in the IP of the server instead of the dns name in the server field for AS)
If it still doesn't work then it could be a firewall issue in front of where the exchange server sits.
Hi ccisn,
I actually am syncing with 3 different things. My Home-PC, my Office-PC and also the Exchange Server at the office. I get all synced and a correct time stamp with all, this works.
f.e. My contacts are synced with both Home-PC and Exchange Server (not the Office-PC anymore as this is not possible)
So I understand that the settings in my PDA are then correct and I should be searching for the problem in Server, Firewall, IP / DNS Settings.
I will try this idea of putting the IP though (as soon as I will get it tomorrow)
thanks for now,
Ruud
Update :
I inserted the fixed-IP our Exchange Server has into the address field and with this input the server did not even want to sync whilst I have a USB-ASync connection.
Question for my understanding :
Is the following a technical possible setup ?
-At home I connect through USB giving me access to my Home-PC and the internet. The PDA will sync with the home-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At home I connect through WiFi giving me access to the internet. The PDA will sync with the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At the office I connect through USB giving me access to my Office-PC and the exchange server. The PDA will sync with the Office-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the office network.
-On the road I connect with a GPRS- (or eventually UMTS-) connection which will give me access to the internet. The PDA will sync only with the exchange server which he will find through the GPRS-connection.
regards,
Ruud
I am sure the problem is, that you cannot sync over the public Adress with the Exchange Server, because there is only Port 25 for SMTP from the internet to the server, and this port is not for Outlook Connection and these things
No company ever had a Exchange all-open on the internet! try to sync within your local network and the internal-name of the server!
Well syncing within the Network works. If I connect with USB to the office-pc I can sync to both office-pc as well as exchange server.
Do I understand correctly that I can forget (not realistic) to sync wirelessly (GPRS, UMTS) while on the road ?
I just hoped that this way I could receive contacts / calender items from my secreatary on the road.
Ruud
The Exchange Server is open on your local network, thats why you can sync. But from the internet, there ist only mail access (and maybe a few other ports that the admins opened) to the exchange.
Talk to your admins, and ask if it's possible to connect with a VPN to your office. Over these VPN Connection you can sync with your exchange.
Ruud Westerhout said:
Update :
-At home I connect through USB giving me access to my Home-PC and the internet. The PDA will sync with the home-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At home I connect through WiFi giving me access to the internet. The PDA will sync with the exchange server which he will find through the internet.
-At the office I connect through USB giving me access to my Office-PC and the exchange server. The PDA will sync with the Office-PC and the exchange server which he will find through the office network.
-On the road I connect with a GPRS- (or eventually UMTS-) connection which will give me access to the internet. The PDA will sync only with the exchange server which he will find through the GPRS-connection.
Ruud
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes to all of the above.
The vpn solution should work too if your environment supports PPTP connections. Most don't and only allow IPSec or L2TP connections which is a whole other mess to get to work on handheld devices.
As to the ports. It a little different for synching with Exchange. It only requires HTTP (80) or HTTPS (443).
If you can use Outlook Web Access then you can sync over the air with your phone. (Assuming that all the Mobile Sync settings are correctly set up on the Exchange server) Which in your case sounds like it is.

network share on domain controller

I'm having a problem authenticating to network shares over wifi. I don't have any problems authenticating to regular workgroup computers but in this instance I'm trying to connect to my server which is a domain controller. It appears wm6 is having problems with the authentication when using domain accounts versus regular local computer ones...
I checked the event viewer and as far as the server is concerned the login was successful but wm6 is saying login failed....
does anyone know how I might be able to connect to these shares?
thanks very much

wifi network questions on HTC HD2

Hi,
Using a HTC HD2 I am trying to access my home network via WIFI (WPA2/PSK - AES). Some of it works, some of it doesn't and I was hoping some of you would be able to point me in the right direction:
I can connect to intranet pages (for instance utorrent web interface) via IP, but not via hostname.
I cannot connect to network (smb) shares at all, either via IP or hostname.
A program which requires the hostname to work (since I use it over Hamachi VPN as well as locally and don’t want to change the IP based on how I use it) does work over Hamachi and not over WIFI.
I'm quite confused
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Elco
Sounds like your DNS isn't working. Do you have custom DNS servers configured in the "Name Servers" tab of network card config?
Yhanks for responding!
It should get it from DHCP (though I have tried assigning a static IP and dns, but this gave the same result)
Also, I have another older win mobile device, and with the same setttings it does allow me to access the network shares (by IP and hostname)
I've combed all settings regarding wifi and network, but since they are the same I am guessing it is probably a different at the registry level?
The HTC HD2 does have 2 broadcom wifi adapters mentioned though, a normal one and one with a DHD postfix.
Cheers,
Elco
@Talisman_: same problem here. have you solved it?
Exactly same problem on xperia x2. I just set on manual temporary.
Are you using Hamachi on your phone?
Did you have this problem prior to installing Hamachi?
The reason being is Hamachi installs a network interface which exists whether or not Hamachi is running
You may want to check your Data Connection settings and see if it has applied the "requires a proxy" setting
What are you using as your DNS server though, that is the question.
If it's your broadband router, then chances are it won't be able to serve DNS requests for internal devices (ie computers on your home network).
If that's the case, you'll need a proper DNS server (get an old PC and install Linux) and create a local domain such as home.local, or if you've got a registered domain, you can even set it up the same (domain.com for instance) just tell the DNS server it's the domain master.
It's been yonks since I played around with Linux so I can't tell you how, much easier with Windows Server
Some people advise against using the same public domain name as an internal domain name, but it just means you add A records for any public addressess such as WWW.domain.com or mail.domain.com if it's accessable outside your network as well as inside.
Alternatively, if you're only going to be accessing them via the home network then you could try adding a few hosts to your registry (use the windows calc or similar to convert each IP address number to Hex)
http://windowsmobilepro.blogspot.com/2006/04/etchosts-file-equivalent-in-windows.html
As always, you modify the registry at your own risk.

[Q] Help me access my server over the internet

I want to visit this page on my server
http://192.168.2.53:8080/tma/majBtm/androidToDesktop
Since it's a dynamic IP, the above mentioned IP address keeps changing everytime I reset my connection. I replaced the IP with a DynDNS hostname I created
http://tmagrails.dyndns-ip.com/tma/m...droidToDesktop
However, I'm unable to access this page from a remote machine (any machine outside the server's network)
I was asked to forward the port 80 to 8080. I'm unable to do so as there is no port forwarding option in my router page. I use a UTStarcom UT300R2T modem/router.
Is there any workaround for this?
Please advice.
blueren said:
I want to visit this page on my server
http://192.168.2.53:8080/tma/majBtm/androidToDesktop
Since it's a dynamic IP, the above mentioned IP address keeps changing everytime I reset my connection. I replaced the IP with a DynDNS hostname I created
http://tmagrails.dyndns-ip.com/tma/m...droidToDesktop
However, I'm unable to access this page from a remote machine (any machine outside the server's network)
I was asked to forward the port 80 to 8080. I'm unable to do so as there is no port forwarding option in my router page. I use a UTStarcom UT300R2T modem/router.
Is there any workaround for this?
Please advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This IP Address is a local-only IP address.
IP addresses in the 192.168.x.x ranges cannot be accessed from the internet.
You need to port forward a particular port on your router, and map that to the internal address. Your router has an external facing IP address, and you need a router that supports DynDns in its control panel.
You can find your external IP via www.whatismyipaddress.com but to get this working you need to be able to setup an incoming port forward, so port 8080 is directed by your router to your PC. The DynDns is currently pointing to
tmagrails.dyndns-ip.com (117.192.174.157)
So you just need to somehow forward all incoming connections to port 8080 onto that desired computer, and give that machine a static IP address on the internal network via DHCP pre-allocation.

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