Syncing Your Windows Mobile Agenda with Google over Wifi
This is a very short howto on configuring a windows mobile device to synchronize agenda and contacts with a Google agenda account. Although this might work with other setups as well, these are the details of what I am using:
- HP IPAQ rx1950
- Windows Mobile 2005
- ActiveSync 4.2
Note that although activesync is installed on the PC as well, nothing we talk about here changes anything on the PC.
The problem
Now the basic problem is that Microsoft discontinued support for synchronizing via Wifi in Activesync versions 4.x Whatever the reasons they might have had, it sure is a great disadvantage for people who like to sync over Wifi, either to an exchange server or to Google agenda, especially now almost any ADSL or cable router comes equiped with a wireless accesspoint built in. Luckily some clever chaps at Google and elsewhere found out how to make it work anyway but they did create a hard puzzle for me since they failed to stress to stress the single most important fact: you have to fill in a domainname and that domainname has to be google. (and they mention only mobile phones but my HP IPAQ PDA runs windows mobile 2005 and works just as well)
The solution
Keeping the above in mind follow the these steps to synchronize your PDA with Google Agenda:
- Backup your PDA (or at least your agenda and contacts)
- Verify you can connect to the internet via Wifi
- Open activesync (on your PDA)
- Add a server
Menu->Configure Server... - server address:
m.google.com - enable SSL
- username: your google or gmail account
- password: your google or gmail acoount password
- domain (this must be
google) - advanced: whatever you prefer (making yout PDA leading might be a sensible precaution)
- data to synchronize (presently agenda and contacts work, tasks might work but not mail)
- finish
- Test the connection: tap
sync. Note that your relation with google is listed as Exchange Server although it isn't. - Select a syncing interval:
Menu->Schedule
Some remarks about security
Some people rumour that Microsoft discontinued its support for synchronizing over IP because their security was so sodden they couldn't fix it. However, the communication to Google is over SSL but I did not verify that it actually uses encryption (yes, that is possible although unlikely but a weak encryption is likely. I will check in the near future.). What I also didn't find out is whether Googles site certificates are checked, but testing it on a local dummy https server with a self signed certificate did not ring any alarm bells on the PDA. This might mean that although it might be difficult to eavesdrop on a connection, it is theoretically possible for someone to highjack the google domain (e,g, by DNS poisoning) and use a different but valid site certificate without you noticing it.
In the end I think it's more important for you to decide whether you trust Google with your agenda in the first place: Never trust a third party with sensitive data if you can avoid it. If you really care and still want to have a mobile and secure agenda a Blackberry Enterprise solution or similar might be worth considering.