Smartphones or PDAs based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.x, or later, operating system have a built-in system, called ActiveSync for synchronizing email, contacts, calendar and other data from your Microsoft Exchange-based IceMAIL account.   These instructions will walk you through configuring ActiveSync on the PDA to synchronize with your IceMAIL account.

ActiveSync
It should be noted that you have ActiveSync software pre-installed on your Windows Mobile device that can synchronize to IceMAIL without the need to use the ActiveSync software that you may have on your Windows XP desktop computer.  This desktop ActiveSync is only necessary to load if you wish to synchronize data (notes, files, Internet Explorer favorites) or install third-party programs from your local desktop PC to your PDA.  ActiveSync is available as a free download from Microsoft or may be included on a CD-ROM that came with your new Smartphone.  Microsoft Windows Vista doesn’t have ActiveSync but instead has a program called Sync Center that functions similar to the old ActiveSync desktop software.

Note on Data/Network Connectivity
Before you begin the steps below to configure ActiveSync, ensure that your Smartphone can browse the Internet wireless through your cellular carrier (requires that you have a data service plan in addition to your voice plan with your cellular provider).  If you cannot browse web pages on the Internet using the Internet Explorer browser on the Smartphone, you will not be able to synchronize your PDA with IceMAIL.  Contact your cellular carrier to for assistance.  Note that you may also be able to “network connectivity” to the Internet if your Smartphone is cradled to an Internet-enabled desktop PC or if you have Wi-Fi capability on your Smartphone; however, this type of connectivity will not allow you to travel freely and wirelessly across town or the country like you can with a cellular data service.

Pocket Outlook
Windows Mobile devices are pre-installed with “Pocket Outlook” which consists of email, contact, and calendar applications available from the Start menu.   You can utilize the email program with several different email providers at the same time but full synchronization with IceMAIL utilizes ActiveSync and provides far more than just email capabilities (e.g. calendar sync, contact sync, task sync, configurable sync of folders within your inbox). 

To change from one email account to another, click the down arrow next to the Inbox link at the top left of the Inbox application (the Inbox link with change to say Show).  This list included Outlook E-mail and Text Messages (i.e. SMS messaging) by default but you can have numerous email accounts, each with their own inbox, outbox, sent items, etc.  These other, non-IceMAIL, accounts will not be synchronized to your IceMAIL mailbox—only the Outlook E-mail is used to synchronize to IceMAIL.

Configure ActiveSync on your Smartphone:

1) Power up your Smartphone and go to the main Today screen.

2) Click Start on your SmartPhone’s main/today screen and then select ActiveSync from the Programs list. 

3) If this is the first time you’ve run ActiveSync on this device, you should see a screen similar to below indicating you can synchronize with your desktop or an Exchange Server.   Select or tap your stylus on the “set up your device to sync with it” link and skip to step 5. 

If you have already used or configured ActiveSync, you will not see this screen and should go to step 4.

4) If you had previously used or configured ActiveSync on your Smartphone, you will not see the screen as shown in step 3 but will see something similar to this ActiveSync screen.

Select or tap your stylus on Menu at the bottom right of your screen to display the menu. Select Configure Server…

5) From this Edit Server Settings page, enter mail.icemail.com under Server address as shown in this example.  Also ensure that the check box is showing next to the “This server requires an encrypted (SSL) connection”

6) Next, enter your user name and password along with ICEMAIL for the Domain.  Your user name and password can be found within the IceWEB Control Panel (cp.iceweb.com) under your Exchange mailbox.  Use the name as shown under the Mailbox Name field that is not necessarily the same as the Display Name or Email Address.

CRITICAL:  Entering an incorrect user name or password is the most common reason for difficulties in configuring ActiveSync to work with IceMAIL.  Ask your administrator/technical support person for this information if you did not initially set up your own mailbox within the IceWEB Control Panel.  Contact IceWEB Customer Service if you need assistance locating this

7) Ensure the check box is showing next to “Save password” then select Next from the bottom right of your screen.

8) On this Edit Server Settings page, choose the data you wish to have synchronized from your IceMAIL account onto your Smartphone.  Ensure that the check boxes appear next to each item that you want synchronized.  Normally, all items are already checked by default. 

IMPORTANT: once the synchronization begins, all existing data in each of these checked areas within Pocket Outlook (Inbox Messaging, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks) on your Smartphone will be erased and replaced with all of the data that is synchronized from your IceMAIL account.

9) Select Finish from the bottom right of the screen.

10) You will not see a screen similar to this with ActiveSync starting the synchronization process for the first time.  You will see a progress bar across the bottom of the screen as your data is being synchronized.  If you have a large amount of data in your calendar, contacts, tasks, or email inbox, this could take several minutes up to one hour.  You must also have a good cellular data signal and maintain a strong signal during this process.

Note: You do not have to wait at this screen since ActiveSync will run in the background.  You may close out of this screen by pressing OK or selecting the X in the top right corner of the screen.

Data Synchronization via ActiveSync
As data is synchronized, you will see it appear within the Messaging (Inbox), Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks programs on your Smartphone.  Wireless (over the cellular network) ActiveSync does not synchronize the Notes, Journal, or Public Folder sections of Exchange/Outlook on to your Smartphone--you can synchronize Notes and also Files and Internet Explorer Favorites using the desktop version of ActiveSync.  All Smartphone have only a fraction of the memory that a full desktop computer has so ALL of your data will not be synchronized to your Smartphone.  ActiveSync will only synchronize the most recent 3 days of email by default and only the last 2 weeks of your Calendar but will synchronize all of your Contacts and Tasks. 

Configure How Much Email Will Be Stored (default is only 3 days)
To change the defaults so that ActiveSync will hold emails older than the default 3 days, follow these steps:

1) Select Options under the Menu within ActiveSync.

2) Highlight the E-Mail option and then select the Settings button

3) Under the E-mail Sync Options screen, you can change the setting for “include the previous” number of days to store email from 3 days to a maximum of “all”.    You can also limit emails so that only a portion (the top) of emails is stored for the situations where you have very large emails.  Finally, you can indicate whether ActiveSync should automatically download file attachments.  Normally file attachments are only downloaded once you specifically click on them within an email.

IMPORTANT: Due to the memory limitations of your Smartphone, the “all” option might be deceiving because even a relatively small IceMAIL/Exchange mailbox is still too much for your PDA to hold everything.  ActiveSync will store as many emails on the Smartphone as it can safely fit into memory while still allowing for other programs to function.  Depending on how many emails you keep in your Inbox, you may get anywhere from days to months of email stored on your Smartphone.  IceWEB recommends that you keep your Inbox fairly clean (i.e. delete messaging you no longer need or store them in sub-folders) so that you don’t waste precious Smartphone Inbox space on emails that are just cluttering your Inbox—remember, you can still get back your emails after deleting by going to your Deleted Items folder.  The newest messages always get priority and ActiveSync will save older messages as far back as it can within the memory limitations of your Smartphone.

Configure How Much Calendar Data Will Be Stored (default is 2 weeks)
To change the defaults so that ActiveSync saves more than 2 weeks of older Calendar data:

1) Select Options under the Menu within ActiveSync.

2) Highlight the Calendar option and then select the Settings button

3) Change the default from 2 weeks to as much as 6 months (again, within the limitations of memory on the Smartphone)

File Attachments
Files that are attached to emails are not normally downloaded until you instruct the Messaging/Inbox program to do so.  When viewing an email with an attachment, select the attachment and a message will display indicating that ActiveSync will download that attachment upon the next synchronization process.  You do not have to “stay” on this message and can close the email and work elsewhere on your PDA.  After the next synchronization process, go back to the email and the attachment will be there.  To force a synchronization immediately, select Send/Receive from the Menu button on the bottom right of your Messaging/Inbox application.

How Often Does ActiveSync Synchronize
First, it is important to understand email sending and receiving versus full synchronization. 

• When you send an email from the Smartphone, it is sent our immediately as long as you have cellular data service/signal.  If you do not have a signal (such as when you are out of coverage area or on an airplane), messaging will remain in your Outbox until you have a cellular data signal again in which case the Smartphone will send all queued email and also retrieve any emails waiting for you in your IceMAIL Exchange mailbox.
• Full synchronization is when ActiveSync updates all folders, sub-folders, Contacts, Calendar, and Task information in addition to sending/receiving email.  If, for example, you delete an email on your Smartphone, it will not be reflected immediately on your IceMAIL Exchange account until the next full synchronization.  Only that data that has changed is transmitted during a synchronization since it is unnecessary to transmit data to the Smartphone (or back to Exchange) that has not changed since the last synchronization—this keeps the use of the network bandwidth to a minimum and speeds the synchronization process drastically.

While earlier versions (prior to Windows Mobile 5.0) performed a full synchronization of all data between the Smartphone and Exchange on a timed basis, the newest Windows Mobile and ActiveSync systems perform a full synchronization on three occasions (by default—this is configurable). 

• When you manually select Send/Receive from the Menu within the Messaging/Inbox application or when you select Sync from the ActiveSync program.
• Whenever a new email enters the IceMAIL Exchange server for you—this email is “pushed” to your Smartphone as long as it has a cellular data signal.  ActiveSync assumes that since it needs to establish a connection from Exchange to your Smartphone to transmit the newly received email, it might as well update all of the other folders and data that has changed.  This effectively makes ActiveSync perform a full synchronization more often to the point where a manual Send/Receive is normally unnecessary.
• Every 15 minutes.  If no emails are received for a period of 15 minutes, ActiveSync performs a full synchronization to keep your Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and email folders up to date.

Changing the Synchronization Schedule
You may change how often ActiveSync performs a full synchronization or when it sends/receives new emails.   To change the schedule, select Schedule… from the Menu within ActiveSync as shown here.

You will see the Schedule screen where you can configure ActiveSync to only synchronize on a timed based (every 10 minutes for example). 

You can have ActiveSync synchronize less often during Off-peak times (i.e. evenings and weekends).

Finally, you can configure whether ActiveSync should sent your outbound emails, created on the Smartphone, should be sent immediately or queued until the next synchronization process. 

The primary reason you might wish to adjust these settings is to conserve battery power on your Smartphone.

Configure Always Up-To-Date
The latest ActiveSync released on Microsoft Mobile 5.x and higher Smartphones has a feature called DirectPush.  This feature is what causes new emails received on your IceMAIL account to be automatically and immediately pushed to the Smartphone (as long as you have a cellular data signal).  This feature is enabled by default.  If it was previously disabled for any reason, simply select “As items arrive” for both Peak and Off-Peak times as shown in the example screen here.

Configure Email Folders to Synchronize
All subfolders within your IceMAIL Inbox will appear under the Inbox on your Smartphone; however, email within these folders will not be synchronized to your Smartphone unless you specifically configure it. 

To configure a folder (besides the main Inbox) to synchronize with your Smartphone, follow these steps:

1) From the Messaging/Inbox application, ensure you are viewing the Outlook E-mail account and not another, non-IceMAIL account.

Change between email accounts by selecting it from the Inbox/Show drop down on the top left of the screen or by selecting Menu, then Switch Accounts.
 

2) Select Menu on the bottom right of the screen and then select Tools

3) Select Manage Folders

4) Place a check mark next to all folders that you wish to synchronize data for.  If folders are contained within the Inbox or other folders, you can expand the folder list and select sub-folders.  You can also decide to synchronize the Sent Items folder to that emails you send via your Smartphone also appear in the Sent Items folder on your desktop Outlook software. 

Note:  Selecting extra folders to be synchronized causes less overall emails to be saved in your Inbox and other folders as ActiveSync always attempts to keep as many messages at it can within the memory limitations of your Smartphone.  It is very possible that you will only see very recent emails in your Inbox or folders as ActiveSync stores only the most recent messages—then saving older messages across your Inbox and all folders until memory is “full”.

Also refer to the section above about the default 3-days of previous emails setting in ActiveSync and how to update it.  Unless you change this default setting, you may not see some of your messages even after you select a folder to synchronize.