Accessing emails using "RPC over HTTP" service on your mobile device
Aim: configure a
free pushmail service on my mobile, Nokia E71, to access
Outlook Exchange 2007 on a completely secured link. Accomplished using
Emoze pushmail with some tweaks.
What is Pushmail?
Pushmail conceptually utilizes an email delivery system or a connector to actually pull emails from the server where your mail box is situated and push it to your mobile device. This saves you the trouble of being connected to your PC and have your email client connected to the server for refresh. Pushmail facility actually makes you independent of the company network and allows you to receive emails on the move and repond to them.Blackberry leads the show in this arena and they normally tie up with local ISP to bring you the EBS (Enterprise Blackberry services) that provide you a group of functionality, apart from pushmail. Many other companies now provide pushmail services, some also of free and open source options.
The good part is that you can now stay connected to office or personal account, take timely decisions and respond on the go. The bane is that if you do not control it, it will control your life.
Pushmail is actually an addiction that will keep diverting your attention to the small device in your palm. So it is important that you understand this and take necessary measures in your life to not become a slave of your device.
What is IMAP/4, POP3 and "RPC over HTTP?
All these protocols are used by a client to retrieve emails from a remote email server that is hosting your mailbox.POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol and is the oldest email access mechanism for downloading your emails from a server.
IMAP/4 stands for Internet Message Access Protocol and is a more recent protocol and is considered to be more capable than POP3.
RPC stands for Remote Procedure Call and HTTP is Hypertext Transport Protocol. RPC over HTTP actually makes use of internet link to create a secured connection for safe passage of emails. Microsoft is popularizing this service as "Outlook anywhere".Check Wikipedia if you want more elaboration on this.
My Quest
This was tough and a long 2-months RnD to identify how to tame MS Exchange server 2007 RPC over HTTP/S service. MS Exchange 2003 behaved like any other Email service and was easier to configure with a mobile email client, just like configuring access to Google's GMail.
Enter MS exchange 2007 and the popularization of RPC over HTTP
by microsoft. RPC over HTTP service was actually introduced in Exchange
2003 but did not gain so much ground that time. I realized few
things that are set as default or configured by Administrators on MS
Exchange 2007 for security reasons -
- The auto-forwarding rule
option is disabled to prevent misuse of emails and spread Virus.
- POP/3 and IMAP protocols are disabled, this is
basically to promote "RPC over HTTP/S" service from Microsoft.
- Microsoft provides its on Outlook On Web (OWA)
interface client to access emails using "RPC over HTTP/S" service and
read emails on web.
The above settings actually cause issues in use of
non-Microsoft clients. Most open source pros hate this change as it
blocks usage of other clients. As of this time, I have tried some of
the available Linux email clients and none actually supported this new
service promoted by Microsoft. I personally use Mozilla Thunderbird on
Fedora Linux and haven't been able to make it compatible to Exchange
2007 as of this writing (well I don't intend to as long as my cell
functions in place of this).
This note will focus on Mobile access only. However, few words in favor
of "RPC over HTTP/S". Though my emails got blocked after upgrade from
2003 to 2007, I personally feel that this is a good feature from
Microsoft. The reason being that this service makes your outlook client
independent of the required network. For instance, you could use
Outlook client on your office network to access your email box. Now, if
you are out of office, then the only way to sync outlook client would
be to establish a VPN connection to office (or alternatively, just use
web access). With "RPC over HTTP/S" service, you do not need to bother
about your access point. Outlook client will work on both your office
network and any other public network to sync emails.
Besides it is configured for SSL access that most systems have started
using for OWA access (yes you can configure POP/IMAP over SSL also but
I haven't seen that being done at lot of sites I know of). Now the bad
part, most email clients are not geared to support this service.
Back to my RnD, I had to give away my favorite Blackberry Curve 8310
device as it was locked with the local ISP. Yes I know what you are
thinking, unlocking the device couldn't have helped either as most free
and open source available options that I wanted to try catered to
primarily Symbian and Linux Mobiles. So I get myself the next best
device, Nokia E71. The free interface "Mail for Exchange" works well
with POP/IMAP options, but unfortunately not geared up for "RPC over
HTTP/s" calls. So the next option is to try out the open world and
start tweaking here and there to get it to work. There are many players
such as Seven, Emoze, Lepushmail
etc. that are worth looking at for
free and commercial pushmail facilities.
I got glued to Emoze
Pushmail as it gave some unique options. I could deploy a
pushmail connector on my PC that would pull emails from my office
accounts and pass it on to my mobile, thus creating my own personal
pushmail service. Alternatively, I can configure the Emoze client to
directly get emails from my office account, all this using "RPC over
HTTP/S" option. Yes it required some tweaking here and there, most
probably because I already had lot of things configured on my device
that could have interfered with this. So google for Emoze ( and follow
the instructions if you want to configure this option for yourself. You
can use the provided Forum to raise any queries or issues you have. You
can also email me if you want to check on something.
One key difference between Blackberry EBS and other pushmail services
is the ISP Data package cost. Your EBS would cover the cost of the GPRS
access and no additional charges are levied. Most free clients support
WLAN also. I configured my device to sync on WLAN as first preference,
followed by GPRS. I have access to WLAN at most of my places of visit
and I do not find this an issue. Just FYI.
Security? I see no difference between EBS and other clients that
actually support data encryption for transfers. Clients like Emoze
actually support 128-bit encryption. Yes I know my claim is debatable,
you can give it a thought and form your own opinion.
Having said that, EBS is actually a clean service that has elevated
emailing experience and smart users have actually taken advantage of it
(smart users are those who have control of their devices, and not the
other way round). It is just that I don't relish the charges that are
levied for such services. Again, this will come down for sure in due
course.
This page was created on 12-Mar-09. Last updated on 13-Mar-09.
please forward all queries to amar@amar-padhi.com