We have a set of WinMo (5.0) devices running a .NET CF application that talks to an ASP.Net web service running on a server. The devices connect to the network either via ActiveSync through a networked PC or directly to the network via an Ethernet dongle.

In our development environment, the communication between devices and web service is 100% reliable. In our production environment, the communications are failing erratically and unpredictably. Sometimes calls to the web service (even to a simple test call that just returns a boolean) begin failing every time on a particular device, with the error message "Could not establish connection to network." This is usually fixed by flip-flopping the selected combo box values on the SETTINGS | NETWORKS screen. Sometimes calls on a particular device begin failing with a generic "WebException" message. The fix for this problem (so far) is either to reset the device (i.e. reinstall the OS) or else it just can't be fixed on some devices.

To the best of our knowledge, everything about the DEV and PROD systems are the same (same server and device specs). The most obvious difference to us is that the PROD devices are all controlled by SOTI's MobiControl (which is server-side software that communicates with a SOTI client application installed on each device), whereas our DEV environment does not have SOTI installed anywhere (obviously we should have it there as well - long story).

Does anybody have any experience with SOTI MobiControl and/or know of any documented problems where SOTI interferes with other communication mechanisms on a device?