BES/MDS Hosting Advantages even with Blackberry 4.0 TCP/IP
 

After the deployment of the TCP/IP stack on Blackberries, prosumer/individual demand for 3rd party BES/MDS hosting will definitely go down but not dissappear. I have decided I will probably keep my Mailstreet BES/MDS because of the below reasons:

• You typically only get 10megs with BWC. You don't get a big Exchange mailbox, 100+ or 250+ megs or even a gigabyte;
• You can only get wireless over-the-air full-PIM synchronization over BES/MDS. Wirelessly synchronize your entire Microsoft Outlook (Addressbook, Calendar, Tasks, Notes) to Blackberry? Still need BES/MDS.
• Better rules-based mail filter capability (especially with 4.0 infrastructure) with BES/MDS; You want to add a mailfilter that you can't do with BWC? Tough. Still need BES/MDS.
• Your carrier may not allow OTA downloads even if other socket apps work;
• Your carrier may limit OTA downloads. You're trying to download software over 70 kilobytes on TMobile? Tough. You need BES/MDS.
• Make your Blackberry email & Internet work with carriers that don't support Blackberry, such as Fido Canada. (Bring Your Own Access).
• Port blocking on some carriers;
• BWC has configurable restrictions that the carriers might use
• Some carriers may not enable the TCP/IP stack;
• Better performance, due to slow BWC servers;

A few days ago, my @rogers.blackberry.net address took 5 minutes to arrive, while my BES/MDS email arrives in just 3-4 seconds. Usually both are almost identical in speed. It's true -- a slow BWC often doesn't have any impact on the performance of BES/MDS. Web surfing through BES/MDS was also faster too in those times of a heavily loaded BWC. When I reconfigure the browser to download through BWC then BES/MDS, then BWC, then BES/MDS, I can see a very clear peformance improvement by surfing through BES/MDS. Sometimes web requests are delayed by over 30 seconds, while I get a start of a download in a short moment when web browsing through the BES/MDS. Not always, Rogers BWC is usually very fast. (Doesn't RIM operate the blackberry.net servers though? If so, obviously they prioritize BES/MDS traffic then.)

RIM very much intends to keep advantages of having a BES. They're continually adding more and more features to BES, to keep people using BES even when it is no longer necessary for other things.

Another good reason for BES/MDS is to allow using your Blackberry on cellphone networks that do not support the Blackberry. Such as Fido Canada.
Blackberry working on non-Blackberry cell networks

Do you know if it's possible to use a 3rd Party BES/MDS hosting service in conjunction with my own Exchange mailbox? It looks like Mailstreet makes you use their Exchange service.

sorry, i'm new...Mark, are you saying you can browse using either the BES or BWC? I'm with Tmobile. I just got on the company bes today. Is there an option to change which service I use to browse the web? I've heard about others saying there should be a new browser after getting on a BES? I don't have that....please clarify. thanks.

Usually, after you connect to the BES you will have two browsers on the home screen. One will be the red T circle -- the T-Mobile WAP browser. The second will look like a Tower case with a little globe next to it -- this is the BES browser that also supports HTTP. If the Desktop Manager installation was for BES (you'll see the Redirector in the Desktop Manager screen), you should see the new icon for the BES Browser. At least this is how it worked for me.

I have the T and circle for tzones...but I don't have any other icon for the BES browser.

Ask your Tech (that works on your BES server) if MDS is enabled on the server..

Ask and you shall received. I asked, and they're going to enable it for my account!

I am using a BES/MDS provider, quick question about the browser...
While using a BES/MDS provider...
Is there any advantages to paying for a 3rd party browser (reqwireless) or is the stock browser (the icon "Tower case with a little globe next to it ") within my Blackberry just fine?

Now in order to use my Blackberry on the Fido network, do I just need to purchase BES/MDS service, or is there something I have to go through with Fido??

Actually, testing done by some (see this thread) would seem to indicate that the average end-user cannot get a their Blackberry provisioned for data on the Fido network.

Assuming that you could, you would first need an unlocked Blackberry... The ones that Rogers sells are restricted to being used on the Rogers network (with a Rogers SIM card). You would either need to pay to have it unlocked, or find an unlocked one from another source. (Note: you can tell if your BB is unlocked by going into Options->SIM Card and typing MEPD - if "Network" shows "Active" then your BB is locked to one provider).

However, even if you accomplish this, it seems that you wouldn't be able to use it on the Fido network for anything more than voice, since Fido would have to provision your account for Blackberry data, and it is unlikely you would be able to convince them to do this (especially since they're now owned by Rogers).

There's a really good detailed discussion on this subject over in this thread.

Now that directly contradicts what Mark said earlier. Which is right???

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry 7100g: BlackBerry7100/4.0.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

A few questions about MDS...

My 7100g (through Cellular One) seems to be a bit quirky with the tcp/ip feature, I can run most applications that access the internet, but when I do I have to reboot my phone by taking out the battery so I can use the browser again, or even switch to a different app. My phone doesn't like to multi-task I guess.
I was curious if I can fix this problem by getting MDA hosting from somewhere?
And if I do, are there any MDS hosts that don't require you to have a home computer to sync with? Or can the computer not have internet and still work with the MDS and my phone?

Sorry if these sound like stupid questions, but my home computer no longer has internet and I also have to have it fixed (it won't even boot up).
Thanks