How can I remotely detect handheld versions?
 

We are planning an upgrade from BES 3.7 to 4 and I'm worried about remote devices needing to come back to the office to generate keys. I understand that any handhelds that are already at version 4 will be able generate the security keys remotely.

We have a range of devices with different verions of firmware, how can I tell which are of which version without phoning the guys and asking them??

BES 4.0 lists the OS version of the handheld.

Thanks for the reply.

But is there anyway of getting this info out before I go to BES4?
I don't suppose there are any 3rd party apps that might help?

don't think so on 3rd party apps. Not sure about 3.6, but I don't think so.

You don't have to worry about the handheld software version when you upgrade the BES. As long as your BES maintains the same SRP information after the upgrade, then your handheld clients can still connect using whatever software version they have installed.

I didn't know any of this until I went to upgrade our BES from 3.6 to 4.0. We subscribed to TSupport from RIM and they informed me of this. I did the upgrade about 3 weeks ago now and have slowly been upgrading our handhelds as the various users came into the office. I've finished upgrading about half of the devices at this point. The other devices are still happily running 3.6 and didn't have to generate a new encryption key.

I have also heard about the dependecny on SRP but due to a poorly installed 3.7 we do want to create a new SQL DB on a seperate server and then migrate users to it. Hence we will have a new SRP, and there in my concern for the hand held versions.
I'm guessing that there is no way to get this version info remotely before I go to BES4.
Thanks for all your views.

There is no way. Pre 4.0 Handheld OS doesn't report it OTA.

you could do it the old fashion way and just email everyone and ask them to look and report. :-)

To make it simple on the end users you could have them all respond to the message from there blackberry and type in "myver" and it will tell you the model and version of the OS on the handheld.

explain please
 

Where do the users type "myver"? in an email text body or subject line? somewhere else? I would be very interested in a way to get that info without trying to get all my users to go through the steps to find out their model and os version! Thanks!

Yes; myver is a shortcut to display the version information. TYpe it in the body of an e-mail.

mynumber and mypin are also shortcuts.

I am testing this right now and all I see when my user sends the email is the actual word "myver". Could the fact that the user has an autosignature be stopping this shortcut from working?

nevermind...just realized you have to type in the quotation marks on either side

ok, i have a user that has a nextel 6750. all of the other shortcuts (mypin, mynumber, etc.) work but the myver does not. any ideas why that one shortcut will not work? does it need a certain OS?