Address encoding for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync devices

ActiveSync devices, such as Windows Phone and Tablet, BlackBerry 10, and Apple iOs, cannot support the full range of acceptable Domino® mail addresses. To allow the device to properly handle non-standard internet address formats, IBM Traveler has a feature that encodes them into internet addresses supported by these devices.

When an address is sent to an ActiveSync device in a format that is not supported, the device complains about the invalid address. In addition, instances of mail delivery failure, incorrect calendar and contact entries, and even device application crashes are possible. Using this feature, addresses containing spaces, special characters, national language characters and DBCS characters can be encoded. The encoding applies to individual addresses as well as group names. For example, the following addresses will be converted:
  • John Doe/City/Company
  • John's_address@company.com
  • ABC Group (Test)

The following is an example of an encoded address on the device: "John Doe/City/Company" <Sm9obiBEb2UvQ2l0eS9Db21wYW55@Int.noninternet.sub>.

In most cases, the ActiveSync device only shows the display name (John Doe/City/Company), but there are some cases where the internet address (Sm9obiBEb2UvQ2l0eS9Db21wYW55@Int.noninternet.sub) will actually be visible on the device or in the reply history.

Whenever the device sends mail, calendar updates, invitations responses, contact updates, and so on to the IBM Traveler server, the server decodes the address and replaces it with the original value. IBM Traveler does not inspect or alter the body of mail messages sent from the ActiveSync device. As a result, if the encoded address is contained in the body of the mail message, it will not be replaced and will be visible in the body of the mail by the recipient.

Settings

Address encoding is on by default, but it can be turned off by an administrator if desired. To disable this behavior, add the following key and value to notes.ini and restart the IBM Traveler server:
NTS_ADDRESSCACHE_ENCODING_ENABLED_AS=false