[nobody7290]

When I did setup the BES10 server (the Blackberry portion), and then, try to activate a user I found 2 problems. One, i cannot solve, and the other, I do not really understand.

I first tried a Z10, the sending of an activation message failed, but I could set an actionvation password. The activation failed, because the server could not be contacted. Then I started to read the manual.
You need to enable the sending of the activation message in the server. It is disabled by default. Enabled it, and to make sending work, you have to setup an smtp profile. I choosed my exchange server, port 587, username besadmin, the matching password, and tried with and without TLS. Still a testmessage fails. I can sucessful telnet to port 587 of the server. Dont know why this fails. I am currently search where to find a logfile for this problem.

For a second test, I tried to activate a Playbook. I disregarded the sending of the activation mail, and only created a user with a password.
The actual activation does work different from the classic Blackberry activation. You may just type in you email adress, but actually, the server name is the SRP id of the BES10.
Activation then was sucessful after entering the SRP ID for the server name, but I was told I had no email accounts setup.

There is a an email profile setup in the profiles section of the BES10. I created a profile, the only choice is "Active Sync". Then, i added this profile to the user. I hoped, that now the email account would appear on the playbook, but it did not.
I now again activated the Playbook, and about 15 minutes later email arrives.

Things I do not understand:
Why do I have to add an "email profile" ? The manual did not explicitly tell that this is needed. From the reading it looks, this is an optional step.
I also was asked for the Active directory password of the user during the setup on the Handheld, and finally asked to accept the self signed certificate my personal Exchange uses.
During the setup of the email profile, I had to specfiy the name of my Exchange server. For testing purposes I tried the internal and the external name - but, the internal name should be sufficent I guess ?

When I activated the Playbook and had the internal dns name of the Exchang server in the email profile, the playbook was able to send and receive mail, when inside the same network as the Exchange server. However, not, when in some foreign network.

After I activated the Z10, it was able to send and receive emails, even, if the email profile server entry is set only to the internal name of the exchange server.

I cannot use the Browser on the Z10 to connect to a server inside the network where the BES is located if the Z10 is in a foreign network - is it possible, that this very handy feature does not exist any more ?

My questions, in a short form:
Why does the playbook cannot connect to the BES10 service if outside the home network, but the Z10 is able to?
What could I do to make the smtp connection from the BES10 to my exchange work ?

Otherwise, it more or less works the same as the BES5, but for me, rather less then the same, because the enduser who previously only had to enter an email adress and the activation password now has to know a server, the activation password, his active directory password (what will happen if he ever changes his password !?), and also maybe has to accept a self signed certificate.
The BES10 has no attachment servers. It is unlikely, if you send someone a 50MB jpeg, who has a Z10, he will be ever able to open it in an acceptable time.
If the built in VPN from the Handheld to the company also is not availible any more, I am starting to think different about if a BES10 and the new Devices make sense for my personal use.

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Edit (smtp problem):
The problem with the smtp setup might be an exchange, or BES10 problem. If I simulate a basic authentication session with telnet against the server, it tells me that authentication was not sucessful. The password ends with the letter "xxxxxxxxx$n". Now, when I encode the password in perl to base64, but set the string to encode to "xxxxxxxxx\$n", I am able to authenticate sucessful against exchange.
I tried to set the password to "xxxxxxxxx\$n" in the bes10 console but, here the BES10 refuses to accept this password before I am even able to send an test-email.

[nobody7290]

Followup:
MDS service seems to work - I now was able to connect with the playbook (work) browser which was connected via BT tethering to the company network. When I start email, it still complains there is not network connection, but, I was able to send a mail.