Lifted verbatim from the WiFi section of this forum:
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwichura
I think the OP's confusion stems from how Blackberry handles WiFi. The GSM/EDGE indicator will only change to UMA if your mobile operator supports it. In the US, only T-Mobile supports UMA at this time. I am unfamiliar with O2, so don't know if they supports UMA. If they do not, even when you have WiFi available, you will still always see GSM/EDGE displayed in the status bar, as this is what voice and most non-BES/BIS data will use. My suspicion is you only get the 'WiFi Preferred' option when your mobile operator supports UMA, which would suggest that O2 does not since you said you could not find it.
The indicator you want to check is the "WiFi" logo next to the GSM/EDGE indicator. If it is in solid black and white, then your BES/BIS data (meaning E-mail, calendar sync, PIN-to-PIN communications, etc. -- anything that gets routed through the Blackberry server infrastructure) is going over WiFi. If the WiFi indicator is ghosted (e.g., slightly gray) or outright missing (because you turned off WiFi) then your BES/BIS data is going over the cellular network.
The Blackberry attempts to access the BES/BIS infrastructure in the following order of preference:
- (Only applies for BES, not BIS.) If the Blackberry is connected via USB to a PC running BB Device Manager, and that PC has connectivity to your organization's BES Router (e.g., an office computer, or a laptop VPN'd into your office), then BB Device Manager will proxy a connection for the Blackberry to the BES Router on port 4101/TCP. (This applies to all Blackberries, even ones without WiFi. In this case, the WiFi indicator logo is meaningless, as the Blackberry is using the USB connection to the PC to route BES data.)
- (Only applies for BES, not BIS.) If the Blackberry is connected to a WiFi network, and is able to directly open a connection to your organization's BES Router on 4101/TCP, it will talk directly to your BES router. Note that while this typically applies to WiFi networks operated within an organization's office, this can work also on external WiFi networks if your BES administrator has used IT Policy to push VPN connection properties down to your WiFi-enabled Blackberry.
- (Applies to both BES and BIS.) If the Blackberry is connected to a WiFi network, and can open an SSL session on 443/TCP to a server farm hosted by RIM, it will use the SSL session for BES/BIS connectivity. (Typically rcp.us.blackberry.com, rcp.eu.blackberry.com, rcp.ap.blackberry.com, etc., depending on your major geographical region.)
- (Applies to both BES and BIS.) If the Blackberry is connected to a WiFi network and has established a UMA session to your mobile operator (assuming yours supports UMA), it will route data to the Blackberry server farm via your mobile carrier's APN.
- (Applies to both BES and BIS.) Fall back to the cellular network. (In which case, the WiFi indicator logo will be ghosted.)
Again, this applies to BES/BIS data. For other data, the use of WiFi varies. With the native browser, you can select which browser mode to use. "WiFi Browser" does direct connections from the Blackberry over WiFi. The other browser modes will only route web traffic over WiFi if you carrier supports UMA. For all other data (e.g., 3rd party apps, IM programs, etc.) the use of WiFi for data at this time again primarily relies on your mobile operator supporting UMA. The Blackberry API has been extended to allow apps to request a direct WiFi connection, but few third party apps have been updated to take advantage of the new APIs at this time. |
Have yet to test it because the 8120's we are getting in aren't staying on my desk long enough, but if/when i manange to keep one overnight the plan is to activate it via USB and put an ordinary PAYG SIM card in and see if i can get my mail while at home via my WiFi.