iPhones and Exchange

It only took a few days to find what I needed to know about Exchange and the iPhone. I guess in all fairness, I was not looking super hard, but still it seems like it was hard to find information about this.

Anyway, it seems that ActiveSync will not be available until June for the iPhone. That is not a big deal to me, I have a Blackberry. But, for our graphics guy here who just got his cool new iPhone, it is a bit disappointing to have to wait so long just to check his work email account.

According to a blog by Peter Cohen over at Macworld ActiveSync, which is software that is used by Exchange to push email to mobile devices, will be released in June during a major software update. We are already using ActiveSync here to push e-mail content to our Treo users, so I know this will work, but JUNE? Wow. I wish I would have known this when my user first came to me asking about whether or not he should get an iPhone. Again, sure they are cool and all, but come on, if I am paying that much for a "smartphone" it darn well better be smart enough to deliver my mail.

Ah well, June it is.

It Begins - I am supporting an Iphone

What a week. I have my first Iphone inhouse, and it has been a pain trying to setup the little buggar to access our Exchange E-Mail.

According to an article I found on Apple's site, you need to do the following:

Open port 993
Installl a digital certificate
Open port 587, 465, or 25

No problem, sounds easy, right? WRONG. Our network guys refuse to do the first one, assuring me that I should be able to use ActiveSync. Of course, ActiveSync isn't available yet for the Iphone really, but when it is, this should all work quite nicely.

What a pain!! I am still searching to make sure I haven't missed something. . .but for now. . .I have told my user he is out of luck, but I just hate that answer.