vB Easy Archive - New to Blackberry

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New to Blackberry - Thinking of Buying
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Posted by: akmovieman

All,

I am thinking of getting a blackberry (either Pearl or another model) but I don't know much about how the email functionality works so I have a few questions.

1) I know you can setup pretty much any account you want through the phone (POP, IMAP, Exchange, etc). My question is, do all of these accounts immediately become push? I.E. I will get my POP email almost instantly?

2) I know my company has a blackberry server, but what is the difference between using that and just using our exchange web access link. Do they have to pay for a user license for me to use it? Is that server the only thing that will sync my calendar and contacts as well?

If there is a good explainer online i could read, certainly point me to that.

Thanks so much for the help!

Adam

Posted by: thatchman1

I'm definitely not an expert, but on my second blackberry and not looking back. I'm an IT manager, so if that gives any credibility.............

Blackberry, depending on how your company has it enabled, can both allow you to use blackberry through their exchange server, and to pop your email addresses.

For the pop type stuff, you will become a member of a website of your carrier, hosted by blackberry. At that site, you log in and provide your pop account information. That web service actually polls your pop account and pushes it to your handheld. I'm not sure about the turnaround time but sometimes it's almost instant.

For the exchange, I personally do not have an exchange blackberry server at my workplace. Because of this, I use a tool that comes with the phone called "desktop redirector". It is a rogue workaround that in a way, if allowed, you install on your work computer and leave that computer on all the time. The application acts as a redirector, receiving incoming mail to your work email account, and redirecting it to your phone.

Part of setting that up is sharing some encryption between the phone and the application so your outgoing mail to the phone is encrypted. Its all very simple to set up, no need for knowledge about encryption, security, etc.

I'd recommend trying to use the real blackberry server at your work and the web service for pop redirection, unless blackberry server can also support that from the inside of your company. I'm not sure about that part. I didn't realize there was a per client charge for blackberry server, so I can't comment on that part.

Outlook web access, I don't think, would have a particular use on your blackberry unless you wanted to manually open the web browser and visit your email. I don't know of any kind of push with outlook web access unless the phone has some kind of push client. For example, Cingular has an app called xpress mail that can forward your email out to phones in a similar end result as a blackberry.

I have been incredibly happy with having a blackberry. I used to be a person to get a new phone about every 6 months. Now that I have a blackberry, I have *found the right one*, per se.

I can go without having a computer much longer than I typically would without checking email. Not yet to the "crackberry" status. I sometimes forward all calls to my razr and go lite.......

I enjoy the nitty gritty details and haven't yet learned them for blackberry but hopefully this non-techy reply has been useful.

Posted by: briareus

Quote:

Originally Posted by akmovieman

1) I know you can setup pretty much any account you want through the phone (POP, IMAP, Exchange, etc). My question is, do all of these accounts immediately become push? I.E. I will get my POP email almost instantly?

A Blackberry won't magically turn your POP accounts into push email accounts. All email received on Blackberries is push. However when you're integrating email accounts with BIS the link between BIS and your existing accounts may not be push. That's where you'll run into polling delays of up to 15 minutes. However, BIS should decrease the polling intervals if your email account seems to be very active.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akmovieman

2) I know my company has a blackberry server, but what is the difference between using that and just using our exchange web access link. Do they have to pay for a user license for me to use it? Is that server the only thing that will sync my calendar and contacts as well?

If there is a good explainer online i could read, certainly point me to that.

A BES and OWA are entirely separate things. BES actually does a very good job of integrating the Blackberry into your Exchange account. Not only do you get push mail but the BES enables intranet access, device management (including remote kill, lockdown of features, push of updates etc), meeting requests, GAL lookup, and a lot more. You also get wireless sync of contacts, calendar, tasks and notes with BES 4.0 or better.

OWA's pretty much the Exchange version of webmail.

Note that you can supposedly integrate Exchange accounts with BIS using the OWA URL and credentials. I've never been able to get this to work.

Try the FAQ's at Blackberry Forums. They contain a ton of information.

Posted by: superfire

Quote:

Originally Posted by akmovieman

If there is a good explainer online i could read, certainly point me to that.

http://www.blackberryforums.com