New to Android, Phone on Pre-Order, Top Priority: Work E-mail!

[redpill2016]

Hi all,

I'm anxiously awaiting arrival of my Galaxy Note 3. First thing I need to do when I get it, however, is get it set up to access my work e-mail.

Our corporate e-mail is based on a corporate-hosted Microsoft Exchange server and I access it on my desktop through Outlook, and it's one of those deals that when accessing it on a phone it passes down the security and forces me to have a password on my iPhone currently. I've been told that security package does some various encryption stuff as well that I don't fully understand.

So I'm trying to find out what my first steps should be ahead of time so that I'm not scrambling around when I finally get the new phone. Ideally I would have an interface that can do the following:

1) Allow easy access to incoming e-mail, and allow me to send out e-mails.

2) Allow for syncing e-mail, contacts, and calendar items.

3) Support for e-mail signatures.

4) Preferably an app that doesn't force my entire phone to be encrypted, but if that's not possible I can live with it.

5) I don't have a g-mail account and would prefer not to have to get one.

It may be possible that I can use whatever the stock capability is for e-mail, but I don't mind downloading an app if it will work better.

Many thanks for any suggestions!

 

[drowe]

Since you aren't familiar with android or exchange security, and we aren't familiar with your corporate security and mail policies, the easiest thing to do is take the phone to your IT department and have them configure it or let them tell you what they support.

 

[redpill2016]

Yeah unfortunately our IT dept can be hit and miss so I was hoping to figure it out ahead of time as I'd like to avoid downtime.

As far as exchange security, I know the Use SSL option is toggled to On (well, "green" now in iOS7, I guess those pesky word things are no longer cool), S/MIME is Off, and once corporate ramped up their security levels a few months back I haven't been able to select the "Turn Passcode Off" option anymore. Not sure what else I can do through the phone itself to figure out exactly what the protocols are.

 

[funkylogik]

I have no idea about all this corporate stuff so i wont even try and offer anything there but i do know that the new samsungs are like the most secure androids for enterprise. Good luck with the N3 man. Id love one :beer:

 

[redpill2016]

Trippy part is this is my personal phone, and then suddenly one day boom, "please create a password." Wasn't super thrilled but oh well!

 

[drowe]

Trippy part is this is my personal phone, and then suddenly one day boom, "please create a password." Wasn't super thrilled but oh well!

Having been one of the corp. IT people, any device that IT can't control or lock down is a security risk to the entire enterprise. Pretty much if you want to bring your own equipment, you have to abide by the same security rules as corporate owned equipment. The hardest thing to convince people of is that just because you don't think "my shopping toolbar" is hurting your computer/phone doesn't mean it is benign when given access to a companies network. I finally decided that if the company wanted me to have access to work stuff 24/7, THEY would provide me with the hardware I wasn't going to allow them to dictate what I could do with a device I paid for and therefore I wouldn't try to put it on their network. Hmmm, that seemed kind of ranty....

 

[redpill2016]

Don't get me wrong I understand the concern, I was just surprised they could push that kind of security down without any type of consent or notification.

Really I was just hoping to find out whether stock Android email would work for me or if I was better served with a particular app.

 

[redpill2016]

Not asking for a holy grail answer but does anyone have a preference for corporate email apps?

 

[Xxmen]

Not asking for a holy grail answer but does anyone have a preference for corporate email apps?

Aquamail will work for you with outlook.

 

[redpill2016]

Aquamail will work for you with outlook.

Thanks Xxmen. I assume that you think it's better than the stock email interface?