Blackberry

[ittech]

Anyone got blackberry here?

A member of staff has bought herself a blackberry mobile phone and asked me to setup it up with "email".

How do I set it up to work with school email and calendar.

We have a normal exchange 2003 server.

Cheers.

[Neville]

First you will need a Blackberry Enterprise Server also known as BES Server.

Failing that if you use web outlook you can configure the device to use webmail but you will need to install the CD and software on the PC.

You also need to find out what kind of tarrif they are on, and if they have unlimited internet access because it will cost them a arm and a leg what network are they on and what blackberry model is it.

[riedquat]

Having just done this myself you have 3 options:

Option 1:
Configure the blackberry itself to access your exchange server via pop3 or imap.

Option 2:
Install the blackberry desktop manager software on the persons machine and allow it to sync their copy of outlook with the blackberry.

Option 3:
Install a copy of Blackberry Enterprise Server on a windows server and use that to deliver push-email etc.

Option 3 would be the preferred method as it allows centralised policy control and remote administration of assigned blackberry devices. Enterprise server is an additional paid for product and requires a blackberry cal for each attached device. However, a free 'express' version including 1 free cal is available for download from here. This is in fact the full version apart from being restricted to a total of 15 connected blackberrys.

[srochford]

Originally Posted by Neville

First you will need a Blackberry Enterprise Server also known as BES Server.

:-)

Most things that start "first you need ..." start with the easy bits. BES is not what I'd call easy!!!

[Domino]

slightly off topic, but has anyone seen the new group policy options within windows mobile 6.1 yet?

[Joanne]

reading this has just put me off blackberries!! Windows Mobile all the way :P

[GrumbleDook]

Option 1 for me ... so much easier, but I do have to sync my calendar by other means.

[gaz350]

tell her to take it back and buy an iphone and it will take you 5 mins to set it up!

:P

[Scotmk]

If the school did not purchase it, it should not go on the system, thats our policy anyways!

[SYNACK]

I just had to set up three of these devices on one of the networks that I run. We ended up using Blackberry Professional Server, in comparison to Windows Mobile which I have also set up it was a complete nightmare.

You can't just install it you have to go through all of their stupid pre and post installation checks to even make it work. There are stupid issues like the fact that you cannot enable push email via blackberry to a network administrator without ripping windows security to shreds.

That and since everything is piped through RIMs main servers if they go down it takes out your email. Blackberry Professional server requires a restart and relys on the java runtime and a separate DB just to manage the clients.

Windows Mobile did not require me to restart the server, and took all of 10 minutes to set up. The device communicates directly with your server so no reliance on a pack of Canadians to keep their servers running and it pushes system administrator accounts emails flawlessly.

Admittedly Blackberry's have a better battery life and are able to compress attachments on the fly but for what its worth my conclusion is:

Win: Windows Mobile

[john]

Take it back and get a Windows Mobile device, faaaaaar easier

[ittech]

Thanks for the advice, I got it going by installing the desktop software. First attempt failed saying "no outlook account found" but I checked google and loads of people have the same problem. The fix was to install the 4.2 version where you can select the actual outlook mail box you want to sync rather than the software trying to guess it.

Works great now with calendar and emails.