technical solutions and commentary

Troubleshooting connections using Exchange 2003 Direct Push to Windows Mobile based phones. Exchnage Driect Push technology piggy backs on the Exchange OMA service which can be access via a web page or through the local Windows Mobile client. When the DirectPush will not make a connection to the local Windows Mobile mail client you may with to try the following in troubleshooting this issue as this has in more than one instance.

1. While not a specific requirement, obtaining a third-party (root trusted) SSL certificate for Exchange OWA/OMA HTTPS connections, greatly simplifies the configuration of the Windows Mobile devices. If a self-signed certificate is used, the certificate will need to be saved and imported onto each of the Windows Mobile devices which will use the Direct Push feature.
2. Follow the procedure in Method 2 of Microsoft KB817379.
3. Verify or configure your internal DNS to with a conditional forwarder to your external DNS server (or in the case both the internal or external DNS domains are the same, add any external DNS addresses/records to the internal DNS servers because requests will not be forwarded outside for the domain name). This will help with using Exchange AnctiveSync internally with the publicly resolvable name and eliminates user prompting during the SSL transaction.

Other helpful resources in troule shooting this issue are:

• PocketPCFAQ Exchange Errors
• Microsoft White Paper: Deploying Windows Mobile 5.0 with Windows Small Business Server 2003