Well if you were like me you were thrilled about the idea of Apples new Snow Leopard Server feature Mobile Access server. So great what is it, what does it do? Well it keeps your private web, ical and mail data secure without the use of a VPN and its really easy to setup. Great I was sold, and I started down the path of figuring out the Mobile Access Server. The more I got down into the nitty gritty of the setup the more I realized just what a 1.0 feature this really is. After some trial and error I decided to share my experience with others in the hopes of fully Understanding the Mobile Access Server.

Alright first thing you have to understand put aside any notion of running mobile access server on any other server you may already have. Mobile access server is meant to run on a gateway server. A gateway server is a server that routes traffic to multiple destinations. Meaning its a stand alone server whose primary function is to keep your private data private.It translates public requests and serves up private content. You must run mobile access server on a separate server from the servers which contain your private data.

The second mental hurdle to get over is that yes, the gateway server or your mobile access server must be on the same subnet as the other private servers for which public requests will be relayed. The server has to have some sort of direct line of communication to the private server or servers in question. The next hurdle is DNS, yes DNS can be a huge headache but here are a few things to understand. Read more..