how does Microsoft Exchange work?

abhiroopb · January 6th, 2010, 06:55 AM

I'm not a newb to phones, etc. But, I just started my first job where I have been given an e-mail ID and my e-mail gets delivered to Microsoft Outlook on my desktop. I'm not sure how it works (although I guess I can ask) but I would like this e-mail to be delievered to my phone.

Also I would like my calendar on my Outlook synced with my phone.

I have a HTC Magic with Sense UI which has a section that says "Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync". I have tried a few times but each time I put in the information it says username/password is incorrect.

Any suggestions on what I ma need to do?

AGiLiT · January 6th, 2010, 09:00 AM

You have two options here.

The first requires that your company supports wireless ActiveSync. If they do, they should be able to provide you the instructions you need, which will include the server name and domain that you need to supply to the ActiveSync setup on your Android phone. Don't worry if they tell you that they only support MS Mobile or iPhones; the instructions that they can provide you should be pretty self-explanatory for the Android and everything should work properly. Once you have ActiveSync set up, you can sync your email, contacts, and calendar with your Outlook data.

(A caveat here: if you're syncing contacts, and you have another contact list that you are also syncing, like gmail, you may get duplicates. Each entry on the phone will identify the source of the data.)

The second option is if your company email supports IMAP. You can set up your Outlook email as an IMAP through the mail application on your phone. You won't get all of your exchange folders, you won't get your calendar and contacts, and it gets tricky keeping your sent items synced, but it's doable. If you go this route, you can set up a gmail account for yourself and use Google sync to keep your calendars aligned. You can search for instructions on how to do this in other posts or other forums.

abhiroopb · January 8th, 2010, 07:40 PM

Hi there. Thanks for the response. I'm using google calendar sync to sync my calendars. I need the calendars synced more importantly on google than I do in outlook so this is perfect (as it syncs whenever my work computer is running).

I tried everything to get mail to work. I think that there are special steps I need to take. Since it's only my first few days and I'm not that high up in the food chain I don't want to make unneccesary demands. Any way to do it without asking them for settings/etc?

I'm thinking my login and password may be wrong.

I use xyz.abc@uwv.com as e-mail address but my login (to windows xp) is: xyz and password is something else.

What should username and password be in this case? How do i set it up? Simplest way? In fact all I really need is the messages to show up on my phone and possibly a way to reply, don't need any fancy syncing.

AGiLiT · January 13th, 2010, 02:55 PM

If you don't want to ask your company to set you up on ActiveSync, then you can try to figure out how to set up an IMAP account, presuming your company allows IMAP connections.

If you can get to your email via. Office Outlook WebAccess, you may be in luck. Again, depending on the version in use, look for something like Options...About... This should show you how your web mail is configured. On your phone, try to set up an IMAP account using the server listed as "Outlook Web Access host" as the IMAP server and the server listed as "Client Access server" as the SMTP server. You will have to play around with the security settings to see what works; TLS works for me. Your user name and password and email address should be the same as what you use everywhere else.

Good luck!

lekky · January 13th, 2010, 06:04 PM

Just ask the IT department if you they have activesync, or ask "can I get my works emails sent to my phone". Its not an unnecessary demand, its not even a demand, just a question.

Johnny Cakes · January 17th, 2010, 03:48 PM

Even though you have Outlook at work, your company may not support push email MS Exchange (ActiveSync). MS Exchange is a more complex/expensive way to handle email. You really do need to ask because you will not be able to figure out the settings on your own (it is not standardized, but rather depends on how it was set up).

Bottom line, if your company does not support Exchange, you are SOL. OTOH, if your company has it, you will really like it because it keeps everything in sync in real time.