Mobile Exchange Setup - Blackberry

Setting up a blackberry to use an Exchange server requires either Blackberry Enterprise services loaded onto the server or to utilise your phone providers blackberry services.

Blackberry Enterprise services requires additional resources as well as additional licenses from Blackberry, for small businesses with a limited number of users, Blackberry offer an express version of their software.  For help in setting this software up please contact us for a quote.

Setting up to use the (UK) mobile phone providers Blackberry infrastructure and run it in conjunction with your Exchange system is fairly simple but has the limitation of only being able to sync emails and not contacts or calendar.

The main advantages of the following set-up compared to just setting up standard POP3 collection are:-

• immediate (push) delivery of messages (rather than waiting for the Blackberry service to poll the POP3 provider)
• No need to open POP3 ports through your firewall
• Items sent via your Blackberry are kept in your Sent Items in Outlook/Exchange.

This is attained with a little bit of tweaking and performs very well, although (obviously) the calendar, notes and tasks are not synchronised over the Internet as with the full blown server. In a small company this is not an issue and the synchronisation can occur easily using the cradle.

What this method does in a nutshell - when an email is received, it is forwarded immediately to a mobile providers blackberry address. When a new mail or reply is sent from the Blackberry, it is sent masquerading as the Exchange email, and a copy is BCC'd to the Exchange email address. This email is the sorted into the Sent Items folder using a server side rule.

The steps to attain this are thus:-

Find out the PIN & IMEI

To find your PIN & IMEI perform one of the following actions:

• In the BlackBerry device options or settings, click Status.
• Turn the BlackBerry device off and remove the battery. Look for the sticker on the BlackBerry device with the PIN information where the battery is usually located, usually placed above the SIM card.

Setup via the mobile providers web interface

There are two methods. You either set-up on your blackberry directly or using the Blackberry Internet Service web interface. Just ask your provider for the address of the web interface.

Common ones include:-

• O2 - http://o2email.co.uk/
• Vodafone - http://www.mobileemail.vodafone.net/
• T-mobile - http://www.instantemail.t-mobile.co.uk/
• Orange - http://www.blackberry.orange.co.uk/
• 3 - http://3uk.blackberry.com/
• Virgin Mobile - https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=virginmobile

(You can also try to do a Google search for "blackberry internet service" nameofprovider if your provider is not listed here)

Sign up the Blackberry via the web interface using the PIN and IMEI that you have on your Blackberry. In the web interface set up the following (the following settings have largely been removed from most providers):-

• Autoaging - 1 day (to keep your mailbox clean, sometimes only 10Mb available)
• Change the "Sent From Address" to the address you wish to use.
• Set a filter on the account to "not send" on receiving emails from the email address you will be masquerading as.
• and of course any other Filters or Signatures that you wish to have and use.
• If one hasn't been created by your provider, click on the button for creating a blackberry email address
• For sent items retrieval set Auto BCC: to your own email address.

When you add an account using the interfaces initially the server will attempt to connect using pop3 or imap.  once it fails you will be promoted for the option to change account type.  Select exchange and you will need the external ip address or url of your owa exchange server, server username and password.

Tips..

If you change your password on the server or if the internet is out for a short while you will receive a message from the blackberry services informing you that they cannot reconnect your email account. You will need to login again to the blackberry portal and re-enter the password.  if this still fails and the urls have not changes then remove the account completely and recreate.  (you cannot create two of the same email address on the portal so deleting the account is the only way.)

Connectivity - if you're not receiving emails then firstly check if your phone has the blackberry pips logo on the top line of the screen, ie next to 3g connection strength.