Mobile ActiveSync and Microsoft Exchange 2007

Trying to install certificates on mobile devices to support ActiveSync over Exchange 2007 is proving to be a hit and miss affair. We obtained a UCC certificate from GoDaddy and eventually, with some help from Microsoft Support Services, installed it on our Exchange 2007 Server. Now, at least, Outlook Web Access works great and no longer shows the certificate error.

Mobile devices, on the other hand, are not as straightforward. Installing the GoDaddy certificates on a Nokia e61i mobile device got ActiveSync fired up and syncing correctly. However, trying to install the same certificates on a Sony Ericsson p1i is proving extremely troublesome. The certificates install but each time a sync is made the device reports:

“Security Information

The certificate could not be verified.

Select ‘certificate details’ to get more information about the user certificate. Do you want to accept the certificate and proceed?”

Viewing the certificate certainly shows the correct thumbprint that matches the one on the server but the problem persists.”

This message can be overridden every time and the device will happily sync but this can be quite frustrating and kind of defeats the object of the device using push technology. We have tried updating the Dataviz ActiveSync software on the p1i to the latest version v2.15 (342) but that hasn’t fixed the problem. The other interesting thing is that simply browsing to the /owa site on the mobile device brings up the same certificate warning – although the Nokia works fine.