Exchange E-mail on your Blackberry

[john]

I got an email tonight from one of our SLT, who is on maternity leave, but is still busy beavering away at home.....

 

Anyway they are all excited as they have a shiny new Blackberry which they were told would be fine for working with work email they have which got them excited..... (My preference WP7 or Android but never mind.....)

 

So I know its been discussed before about BES Express etc and that the should just auto-setup if you follow the wizards, however it seems on Exchange 2010 they don't auto setup (or this one didn't anyway - don't ask me what model its a Blackberry that's all I know!)

 

Whilst Googling around to see what I could find to help this colleague I found this great link on the RIM KB - KB03133-How to integrate a Microsoft Outlook Web Access email address with a BlackBerry Internet Service account its a simple step by step guide with images for setting up your Blackberry with an Exchange server which I thought was great so by sending that link and the answers to the questions it asks in that KB I now have a very happy member of the SLT with email on the new and shiny BlackBerry and one less job on my list.

 

One point to go with that KB where it asks for the mailbox name the screenshots they show are from OWA 2003, in 2010 you can get the mailbox name by looking at the mailbox alias in the ECP on the server or just appending what you think it maybe after the url so https://webmail.yourdomain.domain/owa/aliasguess and if you get into your mailbox then job done

[TheScarfedOne]

Good shout @john. Useful for me as at the moment I have some selective rules to forward to my BB (and no mocking from the regulars please!)

 

One note though which Ive found... on 2007 and 2010 - make sure that the EWS website is accessible. You can check this by trying servername/EWS/exchange.asmx and you should get an XML page. Particularly relevant if you are using ISA/TMG to publish your OWA. Look out for the auth method too - your OWA may be on basic, but what is EWS using :-p

 

It caught me out...

[Iain.Faulkner]

Thanks for the link on that, that could prove very useful.

 

I don't suppose anyone has a guide to setting up exchange for allowing mobile devices to pick up email? I would love to be able to offer this facility to our staff (as the majority of them have smart phones), but am not sure where to start with regards setting up activesync?

[IKWeb]

As far as I know you have 2 options, install the Blackbury plugin for exchange, costs money etc ect, or what I did with one school who had 3 handsets on Orange, is call orange tech support, they give you a login and password to a portal on the orange website, for your handsets, you then setup the exchange mail box via this portal, and NOT via the phone, and then the portal pushes some settings out to the phone, and there you go, Exchange email on phone.

 

This was with Orange tho!!

[sukh]

Thanks for the link on that, that could prove very useful.

 

I don't suppose anyone has a guide to setting up exchange for allowing mobile devices to pick up email? I would love to be able to offer this facility to our staff (as the majority of them have smart phones), but am not sure where to start with regards setting up activesync?

 

1. Depends on what versio nof exch youre using

2. High leve; - Publish OWA namespace externally, sort out certificates, open firewalls for HTTPS and youre done

[rbance]

If you have Exchange and OWA enabled externally, the Blackberry will connect no problems.....no need for any BES at all.....it will take all of a minute to connect the blackberry...

 

My BB Torch is connected this way....

[rbance]

same approach works for android and iphone as well....

[joe90bass]

Just be aware that the Blackberry is not a provisionable device so doesn't comply with any activesync settings you have