I decided this morning to test the Exchange ActiveSync connection on
my HTC Hero. I went through the account settings and authenticated with
the server successfully, specified the data I wanted to sync, and then,
when it came to finalising the settings on the phone, it failed -

Error

Failed
to create the account. Please try again later.

Great. Well, it definitely authenticated fine, so what’s the
problem? A little further digging and I discovered that this was down
to a security setting I use on my Exchange server which forces mobile
ActiveSync users to specify a PIN number on their phone to add an
additional layer of security. It seems the HTC Hero can’t deal with
sending back your encrypted password. So, if you use SSL with your
web-facing Exchange server, you won’t be able to connect without either
turning off the mobile phone users password policy requirement, or, I
assume, using a certified web certificate. Neither turning off SSL or
turning off the password policy is a particularly good idea, and I
daresay if you ask your IT department to do it they’ll laugh you out of
their office (I know I would), so the best option would be to ask your
IT admins to arrange for a web certificate. In the interests of
covering all the options for this guide though, I’ll detail the method
of excluding specific users from the password policy-

• Open Exchange System Manager
• Expand Global Settings and then right click on Mobile
  Services and choose Properties
• Click the Device Security button
• The “Enforce password on device” tick box is the culprit
  here, but it’s better to turn it off for one specific user rather than
  the whole domain, so push the Exceptions button
• Push Add and select the user you want added to the exception
  list
• Push OK three times to get back to Exchange System Manager
  and you’re done

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, the following guide details the
method for setting up Exchange ActiveSync on Android. It’s based on my
HTC Hero phone, but it should be a similar process for other Android
smartphones.

• Tap the Mail icon then tap “Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync“
• Enter your email address in the top field and your Active Directory
  password in the second field
• Tap “Manual Setup“
• Enter the full Exchange server gateway URL (or IP address) in to the
  “Server address” field (eg: mail.yourdomain.com)
• Enter your Active Directory domain, you’ll probably need to use the
  full domain name (eg: yourdomain.local). Your domain admin will be able
  to provide you with these details
• Enter your Active Directory username and password in the relevant
  boxes
• If your domain uses SSL (again, your domain admins will be able to
  tell you), make sure you tick the “This server requires an encrypted
  SSL connection“
• Click Next and the phone will say “Verifying account
  information…“
• If the connection succeeds, you’ll be asked to specify what you
  would like to synchronize from Mail, Contacts and Calendar. If it
  doesn’t succeed, you’ll probably have entered in some information
  incorrectly, go back and re-enter everything. If it still doesn’t work,
  contact your IT department
• Hit Finish Setup and the phone should begin to sync your mail

Hopefully, the Exchange SSL issue will be fixed in future updates,
but I wouldn’t hold your breath on that.

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