Vista, Exchange, Pop, Multiple PC's Syncing finally have it sorted out

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Ok I have been syncing my laptop AND work desktop to my current WM phone for years and it's always a struggle and I often lose recent changes when I get a new phone until it's all flowing (primed) again.

So I think I understand now why it was difficult.

I have an Exchange and Pop account at work and I thought my "Personal" contacts were in a local outlook.pst file. I assume this based on how Outlook kept them separate (i.e. "Personal").

Well I had it all wrong. All my personal contacts and POP mail was going into exchange server. I really didn't want all my contacts going into the server or my Pop mail, but it was.

So it's bad enough I was syncing with two computers, but I was syncing an Exchange Profile with a Pop Profile and I think it was giving it fits (understandably, they are completely different beasts).

I have never run exchange on my window mobile phone, because again I didn't want this personal data on the server.

But because Outlook does a nice job keeping "Personal" and public info separate and the "Damage" was done (of putting personal info on the server) I decided I'd switch to exchange.

Part of the reason is I could not get diamond to sync to these accounts even though every phone before including 6.1 WM Touch could (with some sweat). But I was tired of this.

I wanted to see if I could get at least Pop to go to a desktop outlook.pst and I could not. When I tried it started pulling ALL THE EXCHANGE data into the local folder and off the server. THAT WAS BAD. The incoming mail from any source goes to a single global resource with Outlook. The only way to do it is with email filters which I'll probably do.

After getting a SSL Certificate off the server the phone is now running Exchange (Push Email). The phone now SYNCs faster over evdo than it ever did over USB (and I did not even sync the email over USB).

I know this is old news for many of you but it works fantastic. I can update a contact at work and it's nearly instantly on the phone and visa versa. You can also maintain separate Pop and Hotmail (Live) accounts; Unlike the Desktop (Outlook 2003) that wants to munge them together.

The network is established now 24/7. I was worried about this for battery and another reason I hesitated all these years. But I think it’s going to be fine.

One annoying issue is every time I finish a call Active Sync pops up saying it’s reestablished a connection with exchange server. I’d like to figure out how to hide this.

This is pretty terse but they are notes for where I got tripped up. Took the whole day to get everything working. It’s working great. So I can now hard reset, install Certificate CAB (I keep it on Virtual SD Card) setup Exchange and fully sync on the road.

For PPC Certificate:
Install SSLChainServer on your work desktop
Run (in DOS Command Prompt Window)
SSLChainSaver www.<yourdomain>.com
Rename *.wm6.xml _setup.xml
makecab _setup.xml SSLCertVirgin.cab
Install CAB on PPC
Then setup email account for exchange

For PC Certificate:
On Domainserver Start Admin tools->IIS Manager->Expand Web Sites-> Right Click on Default Web Site->Choose Properties->
Choose Directory Security Tab->Click Server Certificate->Choose Export Current

When setting up PC Client:
Use IN HOUSE FULL DOMAIN NAME of Exchange server AS Exchange Server
Use Basic Authentication
Use "Use Proxy for RPC over HTTP" with e.g. www.<Your Public Domain>.com as the host
Use EXCHANGE Server <User Name> for location of email (This option may be missing until you get through authentication issues)
If you don't use Exchange Server it will suck the email off the server and into your folder.