Device ID's

[Nepherim]

I'm using Touchdown to access a corporate Exchange server. Our corporate group inform me that they report two devices accessing the network under my user ID (I only have a single device). One device has a 28 character numeric ID, and the other has an ID Moto followed by 12 numbers. An admin mentioned that Droid send more than one device ID.

Is the device ID submitted by TD, or by lower level processes? Does the Droid send more than one ID? Does the ID remain constant for a given Droid, even through re-boots? Is there a way for me to determine the ID for my Droid?

 

[vikingisson]

Have done a ROM update? My Magic was showing 3 devices and the dates correspond to the major updates I did. You can safely remove the devices at the server and then sync to create the current device ID. You'll get an error about a missing ID asking if you want to create one. Then you'll have just one at the server.

 

[Nepherim]

I haven't done a manual ROM update -- only the OTA 2.0.1.

 

[Inphosys]

This is normal. We have 10 Droids on our Exchange server now ... 2 run Touchdown, everyone else is using the stock Exchange integration in 2.0.1.

One partnership is from your E-Mail and Contacts. The other partnership is from your Calendar. There's no reason to be alarmed.

Best regards,
Brad

 

[Nepherim]

@Inphosys: So even though I use a single program (Touchdown) for contacts, email, and calendar, I'll still see two 'partnerships' for email/contacts and calendar -- is that correct?

Unfortunately, there's about a zero percent chance I'll be able to convince the security group of that. Is there any reason *why* two ID's are needed? It doesn't seem to happen with other phones that connect to Exchange (like the iPhone).

 

[Inphosys]

Yeah ... even with a single app, it's still two different partnerships.

Your security group shouldn't really care ... both partnerships are connected to your phone. If you would like me to screenshot one of my Droids and send you a JPG file, i'd be happy to. Just PM me your e-mail address.

The reason iPhone doesn't have this problem is because they have actually licensed the Exchange ActiveSync rights from Microsoft (They pay Microsoft a license fee for every iPhone sold). So they've been given the entire documentation on how Webdav (The ActiveSync protocol) works. Everyone else out there has just watched the interaction between webdav and end user devices and reverse engineered how to talk to it. That's why Touchdown and the stock Droid Email app don't know how to do everything that Exchange is capable of doing. Credit to Touchdown ... they have done a much better job than everyone else, but it's still not 100% compliant.

Good luck!
Brad

 

[Nepherim]

Your security group shouldn't really care ... both partnerships are connected to your phone.

Well, I expect they are trying to ensure no-one is using my credentials across multiple devices. Your point is that they should be able to determine that both partnerships are associated with a single phone. Is there actually a phone ID that links the two partnerships?

Thanks very much for the info -- really useful.

 

[Inphosys]

There was talk on another forum about how you could discern a particular phone's GUID without connecting it to an Exchange Server. I honestly can't remember where I saw it.

As a test. Tell you admin's to delete one partnership and show them how you lose calendar functionality. Then delete the other partnership and show them how you lose e-mail functionality. We've just seen the exact same thing with all of our Droids here, so we just accept the fact that is how it's going to be for our Droid users.

If your security guys really want something to worry about, tell them there is no device level encryption of the message storage. THAT will get their panties in a twist!

 

[Nepherim]

The thought of twisted admin panties is not one I wish to envision

Thanks for all the info, it's been very useful.