[zinspace]

I just bought a 7130e through Verizon. No luck getting OWA (Outlook Web Access) to work, although the documentation clearly says that it's supported. After reading OWA-related posts here, I'm wondering if it's necessary for my company to have BES setup in order to get this working. I thought not because if you have BES, why would you need to use OWA, right? But I'm a newbie so pardon the dumb question.

[takeshi]

For clairification, your email account is your Exchange mailbox. OWA is simply a web interface to access your Exchange mailbox (i.e. there's no way to get "OWA to work with the Blackberry").

BES is the preferred way to integrate your Blackberry. Otherwise, you can use the Desktop Redirector or forward mail to your BWC/BIS account.

[zinspace]

I understand that BES is the preferred way to link with an exchange server, but BES is not an option for me.

There must be a way to get OWA to work with a BB because OWA is mentioned in the brochure for the phone, and I am given the option to choose "I can access my mailbox using a Web browser(Outlook Web Access) " when setting up an account through BB Web Client. If none of the above indicates that the phone will work with OWA, then I am truly lost.. unless your was to make a technical distinction bewteen BES and Web Client.

[pharma1]

We do not have a BES at my work. I set my 7100t up with TMobiles BIS using my OWA information (https://mail.Domain.com/exchange, my username and password). This worked great and did not need any changes to the firewall or domain. Email deleted on the handheld gets deleted on my Business email, but it does take up to 15 minutes to get delivered. Not a big problem for me. I don't know how much functionality the Cingular BIS gives you.

[jhferry]

I have a BES and I cannot get OWA to work.

[shadowlesss]

You can tweak your IIS settings for the OWA so you do not have to type the /exchange at the end....most users appreciate this tweak

Originally Posted by pharma1

https://mail.Domain.com/exchange

[takeshi]

Originally Posted by zinspace

I understand that BES is the preferred way to link with an exchange server, but BES is not an option for me.

There must be a way to get OWA to work with a BB because OWA is mentioned in the brochure for the phone, and I am given the option to choose "I can access my mailbox using a Web browser(Outlook Web Access) " when setting up an account through BB Web Client. If none of the above indicates that the phone will work with OWA, then I am truly lost.. unless your was to make a technical distinction bewteen BES and Web Client.

OWA is mentioned in the brochure, but if you read several paragraphs before OWA is mentioned, you'll also see "Note : Depending on you Internet service provider (ISP) or system administrator, you might not be able to add some types of accounts."

Looking at Verizon's BWC, it appears to be the same as Cingular's and the same as what T-Molbile used to have. That version of BWC doesn't have the same flexibility in adding email accounts as the new BIS that T-Mobile is using. I believe that you're stuck with either having your exchange admin forward mail to your BWC address or setting up a rule to forward mail yourself...

[zinspace]

Thanks. That's alot of helpful info. I'm still within my 2 week return period.. Maybe it's time to switch to T-mobile.

[zinspace]

Hmmm. The plot thickens. Just got off the phone with a Verizon CSR who said that OWA should work without a problem. He put me on hold to check with some kind of uber-csr who told him that OWA has been working on VZ for years.

[codyman]

I can confirm it works. I have it set up for my bis 7130 account with vzw. It sucks about the delay but if there was no delay they would never sell any BES licenses!

Pretty cool - is there a way to turn it on and off so it doesn't keep sending the mail copies to my berry while I'm at my desk?

[takeshi]

Ack. Sorry for the misinformation! Good to know that you can set up email that way even with the older BWC.

[xombi]

As mentioned above you can integrate OWA on the BIS, however at the moment OWA 2003 is not supported although I'm sure that will change. I had mine integrated for a while but found out our company does not allow it so had to take it off. It's simple to integrate when you go through the add an email account process on the BIS just select I can access my mailbox using a Web browser(Outlook Web Access) option and it will ask for you OWA url and mailbox (as well as email address, user id and password which you would have already entered). You can also integrate inotes (although I haven't encountered anyone yet who has)

[codyman]

I have this working so if anybody wants to know how I did it let me know and I'll try to get the steps listed.

PM me if you want me to do this and I'll put a post in this thread on how to set it up.

[zinspace]

xombi, info for the 7130 says it can integrate email accounts through Outlook Web Access v5.5 2000 and 2003 - is this not the case?

codyman, was there some trick to setting up OWA, or did you just follow the steps? I've gone through the vz bberry setup page 50 times - it's pretty clear. I'm guessing my next step will be to contact my IT dept (reluctantly).

[codyman]

zinspace,

When you say you are going to contact your IT folks, are you running BES? If so, you don't need this. If not, then this is an option.

First of all, can you connect to your mailbox using owa?
If so, then you will need to do the following:
(btw - all of this is described in the blackberry help screen - click help and select add e-mail account)
sign in to your BIS account
go to profiles
select e-mail accounts (other email accounts)
select add account
enter your email address (the full address for your exchange address)
(example )
enter the name you put into the log on field
(this is your user name)
enter your exchange password
repeat enter your exchange password
click submit
At this point I think (I did this last night and it won't let me do it again as my mailbox already exists) it asks you to select what type of mailbox it is - select the mailbox type that allows owa
You will probably be asked to download the mail connector - this is downloaded and runs in the system tray - do this, I did and I think it is needed)

Once you have done this, and the mail connector is running in the system tray then send an e-mail to your exchance account and wait to see if it gets to your berry. It may take up to 15 mins.

I have mine set up on a spare laptop - one that runs some services on my home network - so it is always on and running. I f you are doing this from a laptop that you want to travel with - then you are better off just using re-director.

LEt me know how you get on and if it works for you. PM or post if you need more help.

Steve

[zinspace]

EPILOGUE: Found out today that the organization I work for supplies BB's to the muckety-mucks and blocks Outlook Web Access on BB's for the rest of us. My workaround, for the moment, is as follows:
-made a rule in my Outlook to fwd messages to another email account that can be setup with my BB.
-set my "sent from" reply address as my normal work email so I dont confuse ppl
-set all outgoing messages from me to be cc'd to work so I'll have a record when I get there
-leave computer running with Outlook open
-cross fingers

I realize this is too convoluted a solution for most people on this forum, but I don't get a tremendous number of emails, so it's not such a hassle. I'm still wondering if I should switch to cingular and get a smartphone with good email capabilities (one that could handle multiple accounts and be scheduled to check them automatically). My search for the magic, all-in-one device continues...

[dkmadrid]

Originally Posted by takeshi

Looking at Verizon's BWC, it appears to be the same as Cingular's and the same as what T-Molbile used to have. That version of BWC doesn't have the same flexibility in adding email accounts as the new BIS that T-Mobile is using.

Respectfully, I have no idea where you got the information that Verizon's BWC does not have the flexibility necessary to add new email accounts or to handle them as well as another carrier's BWC. I have been using the 7250 with Verizon since February of this year and have never had a problem integrating any email account using the BWC. This includes my work email addresses (all of which use OWA), Gmail, Hotmail, etc. If you are a VZW customer who has access to an OWA for a corporate email address, you will be able to use the BWC. I'd be interested in learning about some of the additional features that make the current T-Mobile BWC (BIS) more capable of managing email accounts.

[dkmadrid]

Sorry, duplicate post...

[tpatch]

I just got a Verizon BB 7130e. For those accessing SBS2003 via OWA (Outlook Web Access), is that all you're using to access calendar, contacts, email, etc?

I do not think I'll be using BES. Is the desktop software a decent solution. What are advantages and drawbacks of the desktop software vs BES vs OWA?

This newbie appreciates some help... and/or some good links to read up on.

[mayor111]

Maybe Im missing something here, but Im running BES and I can go to my BB Web Browser and hit my OWA site and it works fine...

Sorry if I am mis-reading the post.