Friday 1 August 2008

Conundrums unite

Using in-house certificates with HTC Tytan II & Exchange 2003

I had problems when our OWA certificate expired, and being the cheapskate that I am, I tried generating the certificate myself.

The house of MS has decreed that you can have your own certificate server, which seemed a little like overkill to me, but after a few abortive attempts of trying to create certificates without the CertServ, I then loaded the darn thing. The problem had to do with root certificates and the WM5 couldn't load them or my half baked attempts were not producing REAL root certs (the more likely scenario).

The upshot of all this was - no contacts on my phone, no emails and me feeling a bit lost without my security blanket - read HTC phone.

Bite the bullet time - load Certificate server, generate root certificate, all done in the phone booth - or was it a Tardis?

So, with the new improved root cert in my hot sticky little paws, I enlisted the support of my mobile phone (cell if you live outside the UK) company - it helps that I pay a monthly support charge!

They were very helpful, despite the fact we were both entering new territory. I followed their further instructions which are found below.

Upgrade the HTC to MW6.1 by registering on the HTC website and downloading the update.

http://europe.htc.com (register your device at the E-Club).

My support chappie said I should do this as:

"Whilst much of this relies upon having exchange 2007 SP1 and Windows Device Manager – it would be worthwhile doing this now as the general improvements to the push email client may resolve this."

Next set of instructions:

http://modernnomads.info/wiki/index.php?page=Copying+certificates+from+your+laptop+to+your+mobile+device

I now had a root certificate on my HTC phone and could once again synchronise my phone - I had contacts again! And emails!

Triumph for technology but of course on reflection, foot and shoot come to mind in terms of availability to the enterprise at large...


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the blogosphere!

I wish I had something more constructive to say than just a welcome, but about the only part of your post I understood was the Tardis reference. :)

Anonymous said...

John: I regularly read another blog you're familiar with, and followed the invitation there to view yours.

Unfortunately my level of technical knowledge is such that while I recognized phrases here and there, i didn't really follow till I got to "mobile phone." (This is a problem for me, not you.)

I do predict, however, that if you stick with your blog, figuring as you go along what you write about and why, you'll reap unexpected and often well-informed connections.

Of course, on my own blog,the helpful subtitle reads, "Interests, ideas, notions, tangents" --- so now you see just how helpful some other connections are.

Best wishes,
Dave

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the blogosphere! Since I am not to tech savvy, I can't contribute but I must congratulate you. You have a most wonderful human being as your wife. Keep blogging!