For some time I have really loved CWR Mobility’s CWR Mobile CRM client for the Windows Mobile Smartphone. It worked great for me, until I upgraded my network to Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 08). From then (back in April) to today, I have longed to have the CWR client back on my phone. But every time I attempted access the server, I would get an authentication error and it would go no further. The kind folks from CWR were stumped as well. I even spent an hour and a half with Erik van Hoof, chief owner of CWR, in person, trying to figure it out. Then today Jeffry from CWR made a suggestion that started me in the right direction.
I started looking at the authentication methods for the CWR web site on my server. Everything looked as it should be. Then I drilled a bit further. Of the possible authentication methods, only Windows Authentication is enabled. We tried enabling other methods to no avail.
Then I noticed the Advanced Settings button. Trying this for the Windows Authentication method I saw there was a single check box to Enable Kernel-mode authentication. It was unchecked. I looked at a couple of other web sites and it was also unchecked. But the verbiage that went along with it suggested that it might resolve authentication problems and is on by default, except in my system. And I would assume other SBS 2008 servers as well. I simply selected this check box. This resolved my problem. I am now able to access CWR Mobile CRM from my phone and carry a fully functional Microsoft Dynamics CRM client with me anywhere I go.
This weekend I set up a new Small Business Server 2008 for a client and included CRM 4.0 Workgroup Edition. I was able to access CRM fine using the web client from the server but when I attempted to access it from the client workstations, it wouldn’t connect. Short story shorter, the issue turned out to be the Windows Firewall on the server. You have to open up the firewall for the CRM port (5555 by default).
