When setting up an Microsoft Exchange mail account on the iPhone you will need to take at least one error message with a pinch of salt. I was running around for days with the settings for an Exchange account.

First let me say that if the Microsoft Exchange mail set-up doesn’t work and the emails don’t instantly flood in there are indicators as to progress.

1. If the iPhone asks whether to accept a certificate, it at least means contact with the server has been made. Fed up with this error? Ask the server admin to send you the certificate in an email. Send it to your iPhone unzipped, open the email, tap the attachment and install it.
2. If the iPhone says the password is incorrect, and it doesn’t accept the password you know is right. Always the thing with the iPhone keyboard –  the nagging doubt that you haven’t typed it in right – the problem might be nothing to do with the password:

Look again at what you have entered in “Domain”. If you are like me and you followed what works in Entourage, you might feel confident that you have it right. But double check. I found it was this “optional” entry that was the cause of my problems. It wasn’t until I used the company domain name that the emails started to arrive (rather than the name of any internal domain, or web email server, or anything else I was given or had even worked in Microsoft Entourage). And no password errors.

What I don’t understand is why the iPhone didn’t just say “Unknown Domain” instead of “Incorrect Password”. It would have saved me a day’s messing about.

A good guide to Microsoft Exchange setup here:

http://support.apple.com/manuals/en_US/Enterprise_Deployment_Guide.pdf