Blackberry & Exchange

The_KiD

The_KiD

The_KiD

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A company I do some work for has just bought some Blackberry Pearl 8100's and they want to use them to sync email with their exchange servers.

I have had little/no experience in setting up Blackberry's to work with Exchange.

Can anyone give a guide or link me to one if poss? have looked but cant find anything that makes a lot of sense.
 
The_KiD said:
2003 apparently.

What do I do if it doesnt have push then, whats the best way of setting it up?
Click to expand...

Actually, my bad. As long as your Exchange 2003 server is at SP2 level, then you can use the push email features.

Just having more of a look now.

EDIT:

Found this

It does however require server software installed in the operator's premises (this is for the Enterprise Edition). This server software, or middleware, is constantly connected to the company's e-mail servers (Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, and Novell GroupWise) through a secure connection.

This server is also constantly aware of the RIM Blackberry's presence, through an always reserved PDP context (Packet Data Protocol). This means that the connection between the server and the Blackberry device is always-present. When a new message arrives on the server, it can be immediately sent down to the device through this connection, giving the impression of an instant e-mail message on the mobile device.
Click to expand...

Its a doodle with a WM device, doent look so easy with Blackberry.
 
For Blackberry you need a Blackberry Enterprise Server or the Blackberry Internet Service.

The former is installed on a server in your network and then reads/writes mail to the Exchange server, syncing with the Blackberry in the users hand. You need server hardware and Exchange admin experience to set it up and when done correctly it just works like a charm.

The latter is essentially a BES hosted by your airtime carrier which connects to your Exchange server (or other POP mail service). It normally connects to Exchange through Outlook Web Access (so you need this configured on your system) since most Exchange servers don't use POP much.

BIS (the telco hosted version) isn't very good at calendaring (in fact I'm not sure if this works at all).

For the absolute best of the best, go with the BES server.

In both cases your airtime agreement will need to include Blackberry data support and to be honest, I'm suprised you ahve got hold of these phones without a Blackberry enabled SIM, unless they came through a grey channel.

O2, Orange, Vodafone et al will happily sell you either a BES or BIS and some phones and pretty much do everything for you.

If they have come through on the grey market or you can't see yourself going BES/BIS, then sell them and buy some Windows Mobile devices as mentioned previously. Just get some data enabled SIMs and setup the Push Email facility in Exchange - its not a slick as BES in my opinion, but is easier in some cases.
 
There is an Express version of the BES software that allows you to use 1 Blackberry. You can then add additional licenses to it if you have more blackberry's. Install that to play about with and just test everything works.

If you need more users though i would definately look at the full version of BES (looking at around £2500 for the software and 20user licenses).

It'll need its own box (not recommended to be on the same box as exchange) that is ideally as close to exchange as possible.
 
Chances are they just went to CPW or somewhere and bought them, as such it's quite possible they are on consumer contracts and as such are not able to connect to BES (this is locked by RIM and quite a pain to have changed). Best to make sure before you start anything.
 
still you could get another SIM for it, have it put on a Blackberry tariff and you'd be off. We've done this when a couple exec's decided to buy themselves a shiny new pearl from CPW
 
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