NEED HELP - EXCHANGE ACTIVESYNC (EAS) will not connect to Exchange Server

Anonymous
2012-10-28T22:11:06+00:00

We have two Surface RT machines.  Neither will connect to our 2003 Exchange Server with the Exchange ActiveSync setup (EAS) option in Mail.  We have lots of other Smartphones and tablets connected.  After many hours, Microsoft Surface Technical Support has not been able to resolve. 

Errors received:

  1. "Unable to connect. Ensure the information entered is correct"
  2. A brief error message in the upper right corner of the screen that says ******@myOUTSIDEdomain.com is unavailable

Data Entered:

Using: Mail Tile/add your mail accounts/view all in set.../Other Account/Exchange ActiveSync (EAS)/show more details setup screen:

  1. Email address: ******@myOUTSIDEdomain.com
  2. Server address: webmail.myOUTSIDEdomain.com
  3. Domain: myINSIDEdomain
  4. Username: johnsmith
  5. Password: mypassword

Please let me know if you see something wrong with the above data - it works for about 40 other mobile device.

Surface | Other

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Anonymous
2012-11-05T19:50:10+00:00

Wow, there is a lot of misinformation on this board..... Surface does connect to Exchange and has since day 1. The problem is that you are using self signed certificates, and surface does not accept self signed certificates unless you install them yourself. This is done for security, it had nothing to do with joining domains or anything like that, there is no bug. Exchange mail has worked on my surface since October 26th. Make sure you install the cert under 

"Trusted Root Certification Authorities"

http://www.lonecpluspluscoder.com/2012/10/how-to-make-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-work-with-windows-rts-mail-app-on-a-microsoft-surface-rt/

http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/adding-exchange-email-account-windows-rt

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-11-06T20:13:31+00:00

    Agreed, There is a lot of bad information on this thread, but I don't think you have the final solution either.  I suspected certs were a possible reason and installed our self signed certs via Certificate Manager before I ever posted.  Still no luck.

    Regardless, the fact of the matter is the mail app doesn't connect where other devices can without problem.  You could argue that the added security you speak of is a "feature" but to the end user, it's a bug.  Other manufacturer's device and OS products are considered secure by our IT standards and they either do not have this requirement or handle it automatically.  They connect, my surface does not...  And I hope Microsoft does not consider the downloading and installation of certificates as a solution.  At best, it should be a work-around until, like every other device I own, it just works out of the box.

    But like I said, this didn't work for me.  I even used OpenSSL to retrieve the entire certificate chain to be sure I wasn't missing something from IE.  I was by the Microsoft Store last weekend and as a shot in the dark asked if they had heard anything about connecting to mail being an issue.  They told me that they had many users who were experiencing the problem and were quite frustrated.  Some were even connecting to Office 365 mail; Microsoft's own exchange servers!

    I do appreciate you bringing some clarity on domains and compatibility.  Well Done.

    Did you install the cert to the correct location? If you just let the manager install the cert to its default location it will not work.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-11-06T20:21:28+00:00

    Yes, I installed to the Trusted Certificates folder.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-11-07T23:51:20+00:00

    Similar issue with two Surface devices.  I found that setting email=userid@domain  instead of actual email address solved the problem  (Not that solution isn't without it's own problems)

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-11-08T02:13:03+00:00

    Greetings everyone,

    Please see the following post for the steps given by the Windows Team regarding setting up Exchange on the Surface with Windows RT:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfwinrt-surfnetwork/how-can-i-set-up-my-mail-app-to-connect-with/340d34a1-29cf-4f71-bfbc-09e752907813

    Please post on that thread if the issue is not solved for you as we are closing all duplicate Exchange connection threads to centralize information.

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