TELEPHONY FUNDAMENTALS

The Fundamentals of Mobile Access to Exchange 2007

 

A responsible Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 deployment begins with a fact-finding mission. Before you deploy, you should learn all that you can about the features of Exchange 2007, especially how those features will affect your users. Although there are many categories of Exchange 2007 features that you should investigate, one that could affect most of your users is mobile access to Exchange 2007.

There are several components to Exchange 2007 mobile access: Exchange ActiveSync, Outlook Anywhere, Office Outlook Web Access, POP3 and IMAP4, and Unified Messaging (UM). In the next few pages, we'll take a detailed look at the fundamentals of mobile access to Exchange 2007.

 Anywhere Access

Exchange 2007 offers anywhere access to mailbox data. Anywhere access means that your users can access their e-mail messages, calendar, contact, and task data anywhere they happen to be. Generally, users can access their Exchange mailbox data whether they are in an airport or at the zoo.
To take full advantage of mobile access to Microsoft Exchange, your users will require the right equipment. This equipment includes mobile devices, portable computers, and desktop computers. It also includes plain old telephones. Yes, that's right. Your users can access data in their Exchange mailbox by using any touchtone telephone. Through Outlook Voice Access and Unified Messaging, they can dial an access number and have Unified Messaging read their e-mail messages, contact data, and calendar data to them over the telephone.

 Exchange ActiveSync

Another feature is Exchange ActiveSync and Direct Push. Direct Push was introduced in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). By default, Direct Push is enabled in Exchange 2007. Mobile devices that support Direct Push issue a long-standing HTTPS request to the Exchange server. The Exchange server monitors activity on the user's mailbox and sends a response to the user's device if there are any changes, such as new or changed e-mail messages, calendar, or contact items. If changes occur within the lifespan of the HTTPS request, the Exchange server issues a response to the device that states that changes have occurred. The server tells the device to initiate synchronization with the Exchange server. The device then issues a synchronization request to the server. When synchronization is complete, a new HTTPS request is generated to start the process over again. This guarantees that e-mail, calendar, contact, and task items are delivered quickly to the mobile device and that the device is always synchronized with the Exchange server.

Figure 1 illustrates Direct Push.

Figure 1   Exchange ActiveSync Direct Push synchronization

For Direct Push to work, your users must have a device that can use Direct Push. These devices include the following:

• Cellular telephones that have Windows Mobile 5.0 and the Messaging & Security Feature Pack (MSFP) and later versions of Windows Mobile software.
  
• Cellular telephones or mobile devices that are produced by Exchange ActiveSync licensees and are designed specifically to be Direct Push compatible.
  

 New Features in Exchange ActiveSync

Exchange ActiveSync has been enhanced in Exchange Server 2007. The following are some of the new and enhanced features:

• Support for HTML messages
  
• Support for follow-up flags
  
• Enhanced Exchange Search
  
• Windows SharePoint Services and Universal Naming Convention (UNC) document access
  
• Password reset
  
• Enhanced device security through password policies
  
• Support for Out of Office configuration
  
• Support for tasks synchronization
  
• Direct Push
  
• Support for enabling and disabling use of the camera
  
• The ability to disable installation of third-party applications
  
• Automatic configuration through the Autodiscover service
  
• The ability to disable Wi-Fi on the mobile phone
  

Many of these features require that you use Windows Mobile 6.0 or a later version.

 Enhancements in Exchange ActiveSync Security

There are several new features in Exchange ActiveSync that you can use to enhance the security of mobile device communications. These features include the following:

• Remote device wipe   If a device is lost, stolen, or otherwise compromised, you can issue a remote device wipe command from the Exchange Server computer or from any Web browser by using Office Outlook Web Access. This command erases all synchronization data from the mobile phone. You can also request that a confirmation e-mail be sent to both the user and the administrator when the remote device wipe has completed.
  
• Device password policies   Exchange ActiveSync lets you configure several options for device passwords. These options include the following:
  
  • Minimum password length (characters)   This option specifies the length of the password for the device. The default length is four characters, but can include as many as 18.
    
  • Require alphanumeric password   This option determines password strength. You can require that a character or symbol is used in the password in addition to numbers.
    
  • Inactivity time (seconds)   This option determines how long the device must be inactive before the user is prompted for a password to unlock the device.
    
  • Wipe device after failed (attempts)   This option lets you specify whether you want the device memory wiped after the user enters an incorrect password multiple times.
  
  
  JOSE LEONARDO MONCADA TORRES 
  C.I 18878408
  CRF
  
  
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266973(EXCHG.80).aspx