NHSmail and mobile devices overview Version: V.7 Date: May 2011 THIS INFORMATION IS FOR NHS STAFF AND IS NOT TO BE DISTRIBUTED OR COPIED OUTSIDE OF THE NHS Version 7 Crown Copyright, May 2011
Contents 1. NHSmail and mobile devices... 3 2. NHSmail mobile device policy... 4 3. How to set up your mobile device to access NHSmail... 4 4. Frequently asked questions... 5 2
1. NHSmail and mobile devices The NHSmail service provides features for mobile users such as wireless synchronisation of the calendar and always on email. Key features at a glance: You will receive any new or updated item as soon as it arrives on the NHSmail server no need to set up a synchronisation schedule Email, calendar items, contacts, and tasks can be synchronised over the air with the device no need to synchronise the calendar or contacts on your mobile with your PC Security features are automatically applied to devices that are able to support security policies such as an automatic screen lock after the device has been inactive for 20 minutes, self-service device password reset and remote wipe facility if the handset is lost or stolen The service is available on different devices including Windows Mobile, Nokia, Blackberry, Android, Apple iphone 3GS / 4 and ipad Supports flags enabling you to manage your email and flag items for later action Rich HTML mail for mobile devices renders tables, fonts, formatting and images on the mobile device. You can control whether you want to view HTML or plain text e-mail Many bandwidth saving features help reduce airtime costs and the time taken to deliver data over slow wireless networks Forward, reply, or reply all to a meeting request If you forget to set your out of office message you can do so on your mobile device Easy setup with Outlook s AutoDiscover all you need to know is your email address and password. It is important to remember that receiving data on your device may incur a financial cost to you or your organisation. You may wish to set your device to manually update. Check with your organisation for more information regarding data plans and tariffs. Important: should you wish to use either a personal device to connect to NHSmail, or a mobile device that cannot be encrypted, please ensure you have approval from your own organisation to ensure compliance with local information governance policies. 3
2. NHSmail mobile device policy Once you have setup your device to work with NHSmail, you must adhere to the NHSmail mobile device policy: A password is required to unlock the device The inactivity timeout should be set to 20 minutes. After this time, or if the device goes into standby mode, the password has to be entered to unlock the device If an incorrect password is entered eight times in succession, the phone will be automatically wiped of ALL data and restored to its default factory settings The maximum message size is 500KB. You can receive messages over this size in your NHSmail mailbox but not on your phone Only one month s worth of email will be synchronised to the device to reduce the risk of data loss as well as improve synchronisation times / reduce cost You are required to change the device password every 90 days Encryption at rest will be enabled on devices with the built-in capability to support it. Once the policy has been applied to the device it can only be removed by performing a factory reset (format) of the device. 3. How to set up your mobile device to access NHSmail The features listed in section 1 are delivered by a technology known as Exchange ActiveSync To ensure all NHSmail users benefit from the performance, functionality and security features of the service on a mobile device, it is not possible to connect mobile devices using the IMAP/POP method The service uses an encrypted link between the device and the NHSmail service enabling the secure exchange of email between NHSmail recipients. A summary of the configuration options by device type are listed below: Windows Mobile 6.0 Windows Mobile 6.1 Nokia mobile devices Apple iphone 3GS, 4 and ipad Blackberry Manual settings. Uses the 'Autodiscover' feature so the user will only have to type in their email address and password. Use the Autodiscover feature so the user will only have to type in their email address and password (version 2.7 or higher). Nokia Mail for Exchange must be downloaded and installed on the device. Uses the 'Autodiscover' feature so the user will only have to type in their email address and password. Manual settings. The NotifySync or Astrasync client must be purchased and installed. Android Other mobile devices The Touchdown client from Nitrodesk must be purchased and installed. The native Android mail client does not have encryption capabilities. Autodiscover used. Only mobile devices that support the Exchange ActiveSync protocol can be used however only devices that support encryption should be set up to connect to NHSmail. See manufacturer websites for further 4
information. For those devices that do not support Autodiscover the following manual settings are required: Configuration ActiveSync Server URL ActiveSync Domain Name Username Password Set as: eas.nhs.net <leave blank> <your NHSmail email address> <your NHSmail password> For full guidance on each device type please see the NHSmail Training and Guidance pages in the mobile devices section: https://web.nhs.net/portal/informationguidanceservices/defaultpage.aspx 4. Frequently asked questions Q. What types of data can be synchronised by using Exchange ActiveSync? A. Exchange ActiveSync enables you to synchronise your email messages, calendar and contacts lists with your NHSmail account. Q. Can I synchronise other folders in addition to the Inbox? A. After you synchronise your Inbox for the first time, you can select other folders in your mailbox for synchronisation, dependant on the features available on your mobile (most allow this). Q. Can I schedule synchronisation? A. Yes synchronisation can be scheduled. Mobile devices provide many scheduling options. You can configure different synchronisation schedules whether or not you are connected to your computer, peak and off peak synchronisation etc. Q. What is Direct Push? A. Direct Push is a notification feature in Exchange Server enables instantaneous delivery of email. Q. In ActiveSync, if I clear the check box for a folder that has been synchronised to the mobile-based device, does that action delete the items from my NHSmail account? A. No. When you disable synchronisation for any folder on your mobile device, only the data that is stored on the device is deleted. Data on the NHSmail server remains intact. If you disable the synchronisation of a folder on your mobile device, ActiveSync prompts you with the following message: All e-mail synchronised to your device using ActiveSync must be removed to proceed. Select OK to continue. You can then confirm that you want to disable the synchronisation of the folder. Q. When I synchronise my email, can I only synchronise the email header information? A. If you want to conserve storage space on your device, you can synchronise only the e- mail header information. Exchange ActiveSync enables you to modify several Inbox synchronisation settings. For more information about how to configure your Inbox synchronisation settings, see the Exchange ActiveSync Help. 5
Q. If I only want to synchronise header information the first time synchronisation occurs, can I change this option later to synchronise the message body for existing and new messages? A. Yes. After you synchronise the header information the first time, you can clear the Inbox option, synchronise your device, and then select Inbox again. This deletes existing messages on your device. When you synchronise again, messages will include the message body. For more information about how to configure synchronisation settings, see the Exchange ActiveSync Help. Q. What security policies will be enforced on the device? A. The following polices will be automatically applied to mobile devices that connect to NHSmail and that can support security policies: Device password required with up to eight logon attempts before the device is locked out Minimum password length four characters Password expiration 90 days A device inactivity timeout after 20 minutes (when locked the device can still receive phone calls or make 999 calls without needing to be unlocked) Maximum email age 1 month Refresh policy 1 hour (time in hours that the NHSmail policies will be refreshed) Enforce encryption True Maximum downloadable attachment size of 500kb Only one month s worth of email will be synchronised to the device to reduce the risk of data loss as well as improve synchronisation times / reduce cost You are required to change the device password every 90 days Encryption at rest will be enabled on devices with the built-in capability to support it. Q. What do I do if I lose my mobile device? A. Use the NHSmail device wipe functionality to clear the data from the device. Go to www.nhs.net and click in the top left of the screen then click Options, Mobile devices, Select your device from the list and click Wipe data from device. If you aren t able to access your account your local organisation administrator can request that the national NHSmail helpdesk wipes the data from the device for you. You can usually contact them by getting in touch with the IT helpdesk at your local organisation. 6