How to solve "Cannot connect to server" message with wireless app distribution on iPhone iOS 4

Question

I found the pre-release docs for this at https://developer.apple.com/iphone/prerelease/library/featuredarticles/FA_Wireless_Enterprise_App_Distribution/Introduction/Introduction.html (Developer account required)

and some more at: http://jeffreysambells.com/posts/2010/06/22/ios-wireless-app-distribution/

I'm running into issues when I click on the link to the .plist file

<a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://www.server.edu/iphone/calcs.plist"&gt;Install My App over the air</a>

-- the iOS4 device reports back:

Cannot connect to www.server.edu

Server names intentionally obscured

Obviously the device can connect to the server otherwise i wouldn't be able to see the page that has the link...

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I haven't run into this, but the first place I'd look is the web server access logs at www.server.edu, to see if a) the request is getting to the server, and b) it's returning an error. I'd bet that the server doesn't like something about the HTTP request coming from the device. Missing cookie? Authentication required? Expecting a particular "Accept" header?