Our network runs Exchange 2003 with SP2, the application-level firewall ISA 2000, and now Windows Mobile 5 devices (which I’m not happy about) trying to connect via the new TCP/IP Activesync 4. The ISA server passes Activesync 4 traffic to those shiny, new Windows Mobile 5 devices (I could see the traffic), but it filters the content and is keeping Exchange SP2 policies from being applied. I understand ISA 2004 doesn’t have this problem, but an upgrade to ISA 2004 isn’t in the budget.

There is a fix in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base, but it references only ISA 2000 and not Exchange SP2, Windows Mobile 5, or Activesync 4. I found it via Neil Chapman’s article Exchange SP2 and feature pack issue with ISA 2000, which says:

If you use ISA 2000 to reverse proxy your Activesync requests, I’ve come across an issue where the Exchange server cannot apply the new policies to a WM5 MSFP device.

Basically, the ISA 2002 firewall server filters the Activesync headers and doesn’t forward all necessary data to the mobile device. The fix for ISA 2000 requires BOTH the latest ISA service pack and a registry change to allow all the communcations options to be passed via Activesync:

Once the ISA 2000 Service Pack is installed, set the registry key DWORD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3Proxy\Parameters\PassOPTIONSToPublishedServer - Data value to 1, and reboot the ISA server.

Then all those nice Exchange SP2 policies for mobile devices will be applied correctly.

Article tagged: Exchange, server, 2003, SP2, bug, fix, Windows, Mobile, ISA, 2000, activesync, headers, forward, firewall

Comment on this post below

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.