Cannot connect to exchange in work over wifi

cram1971

Can anyone help me with this one. Basically I can't connect to exchange over my wifi while in work but can from any other network outside the building or if I switch off the Wifi I get the connection over 3G / 2G No problem.

I know the problem is due to may server address being mail.xxx.com on my iphone and my iphone can't see that address while I am on the local wifi network, if I change my server address to the ip of the server while I am in the building I get my mail working (10.0.0.254)

Is there anyway to resolve this issue?

Wossack

tbh, it sounds like the wifi owners are actively blocking the mail.xxx.com address, or not resolving it correctly.

can you connect up a laptop to the wifi? be interesting to see what a 'nslookup 10.0.0.254' / 'whois 10.0.0.254' would return

cram1971

Scenario


You have a bunch of iPhone users that all successfully synchronise with your exchange server from outside of your network using the mobile telephone network. However, when you try to do the same using your internal wireless network synchronisation fails.

The reason for this is because your iPhones are configured to use the externally published exchange servers, for example owa.domainname.com which in turn is configured to use the external IP address of your router/firewall.

Most, if not all business class firewalls/routers are designed to block this type of looping from internal devices.


Resolution


The way to resolve this is to configure your internal network to allow access to owa.domainname.com using an internal IP address.

The easiest way to do this is using your internal DNS servers by creating a forward lookup zone called owa.domainname.com and then creating a blank A record that is configured to use your Exchange servers internal IP address.

Using the DNS Console (Start> Administrative Tools> DNS) navigate to the Forward Lookup Zones, right click and select New Zone. You will then be presented with the New Zone wizard.

Using the wizard select the following options:

• Primary Zone

• Store the zone in Active Directory

• To all DNS Servers in the domain

• Zone Name: owa.domainname.com

• Allow only secure dynamic updates

Once the new zone has been created right click the zone and select New Host (A or AAAA). In the dialogue box leave the name blank and in the IP Address section enter the internal IP address of the Exchange server.

If you are using multiple Exchange Servers then this IP address must be the Front End Server (if using Exchange 2003) or the Client Access Server (if using Exchange 2007 or 2010)


Conclusion


We can easily save the inclusive minutes of our data plans and save money by using our internal wireless networks to allow mobile devices to use our internal exchange servers (or any other service) without the need to reconfigure the mobile device.

This guide provides a simple solution to what can be an annoyance for your end users

freeze4real

Is there a way to bypass this maybe an app from Cydia might do the trick. Any ideas ?

cram1971

freeze4real wrote: »

Is there a way to bypass this maybe an app from Cydia might do the trick. Any ideas ?

Some smartphones I believe can use the gsm network along with wifi at the same time, in the iphones case this requires a jailbreak.

The above solution of course works for all smartphones and even laptops using outlook exchange connections over http rttp

freeze4real

My iPhone is jailbroken so what do I need to do?

cram1971

freeze4real wrote: »

My iPhone is jailbroken so what do I need to do?

Cant remember the app came across the dicussion while I was looking for a solution yesterday and knew it was not the one for me try a search for 'data over 3G and wifi iphone jailbroken'

Wossack

good to hear you came across a solution OP

re how to bypass yourself, you can edit the /etc/hosts file on the (jb'd) iphone either

google should come back with some details of how to do so

I imagine a config, somthing like

[internal ip]        exchange_mail_address
[external ip]        exchange_mail_address

then in your exchange mail details on the phone, just put 'exchange_mail_address' as the mail server, and it will try to resolve to one or the other (second IP will only be attempted, if first one fails. So if you're 'external' more then you're 'internal', might be an idea to swap the entries above)

This is all theory, never tried it before, so your mileage will definately vary