Email on Mobile Devices

There are several options for connecting wirelessly to your KU email account from a mobile device (PDA with WiFi capability, smartphone, etc.). Here is a list of the most commonly used, with general instructions for configuration.

Device:

Outlook Mobile Access (OMA)

What devices can use this:

Any mobile device that has a functional web browser, including cell phones.

What’s available:

Email, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and other folders in your KU email account

Using OMA on mobile devices:

  1. Open the web browser on your mobile device.
  2. Go to https://owa.ku.edu/oma  (It’s important to type the entire web address, including https://)
  3. You will be prompted for your email username and password.

There is no way to log off; OMA times out after 20 minutes of inactivity.  Clear the cache on your mobile device’s browser after using OMA if you are worried about others accessing your account on the device.

IMAP or POP (aka IMAP4 and POP3)

What devices can use this:

Any device that has Internet access and allows IMAP or POP connections to email servers, including Windows Mobile, Palm, iPhone, Blackberry and some cell phones.

What’s available:

Email only

IMAP vs. POP:

If you have a choice, IMAP is the way to go.  It doesn’t remove items from your KU account and allows you access to all the folders in your account that you’ve used to organize your 1 GB mailbox.

POP by default downloads email onto your mobile devices and removes it from the Exchange server. This can be a problem if you don’t have a lot of storage space on your device.  If you want to use POP3 and still access your account from more than one location, you will need to find the setting in your email program that keeps a copy of all email on the server.

Setting up IMAP or POP on mobile devices:

Each device is different; consult the device manual for instructions on setting up IMAP or POP connections and enter the following:

  1. Incoming mail server = imap.ku.edu  (or pop.ku.edu for POP connections)
  2. Outgoing (SMTP) mail server = authsmtp.ku.edu
  3. Turn on SSL for both incoming and outgoing mail servers.
  4. Turn on password authentication for the outgoing mail server
  5. Do not turn on Secure Password Authentication (SPA).

Exchange ActiveSync


What devices can use this:

  • Any Windows Mobile device, version 5.0 or greater that can access the Internet (WiFi or smartphone)
  • Any Palm device, version 5.0 or greater that can access the Internet (WiFi or smartphone)
  • The Apple iPhone 3G, iPhone Touch, or any other iPhone with the latest firmware upgrade from Apple

What’s available:

Email, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks (Tasks available on Windows Mobile devices only)

Setting up Exchange ActiveSync on iPhones devices (firmware v.2.02 and greater):

  1. Open Settings from the program menu.
  2. From the resulting menu, choose Mail, Contacts, Calendars
  3. On the next screen, choose Add Account…
  4. Choose Microsoft Exchange from the list.
  5. Fill in the information below on the resulting screens and click Save:
    1. Email:  youraccount@ku.edu
    2. Server:  owa.ku.edu
    3. Username: (the part of the email address before @ku.edu)
    4. Email password
    5. Domain: home.ku.edu
    6. Use SSL:  ON

Setting up Exchange ActiveSync on Windows Mobile devices:

  1. Open ActiveSync from the program menu.
  2. Use the menus in ActiveSync to create a New server source or a New server connection, depending on which version of Windows Mobile you’re using.
  3. Fill in the information below on the resulting screens:
    1. Server:  owa.ku.edu
    2. Domain:  home.ku.edu (if prompted)
    3. SSL turned ON
    4. Email username (the part before @ku.edu)
    5. Email password
    6. Email address (youraccount@ku.edu)
  4. If you get a "certificate expired" error when trying to retrieve email after configuring Exchange ActiveSync, follow the instructions in this KU IT Knowledgebase article to update the certificate on your device.

Setting up Exchange ActiveSync on Palm devices:

  1. Open the Email program on the Palm device.  This is sometimes called VersaMail.
  2. Go to the Accounts pull-down menu at the top of the screen and select Account Setup.
  3. Click New to create a new connection to Exchange
  4. Give the email connection a name so you can tell it apart from any other email account on the device (i.e.. KU Email)
  5. Fill in the information below on the resulting screens:
    1. Mail Service:  Exchange ActiveSync
    2. Mail Server:  owa.ku.edu
    3. Email username (the part before @ku.edu)
    4. Email password
    5. Email address (youraccount@ku.edu)
  6. After entering all the information above, click on the Advanced button:
    1. Incoming Server Settings:  Use Secure Connection (SSL) should be checked ON
    2. No proxy server