[fatso485]

hello all
its been such a long time since ive touched or even seen a blackberry device so please bear with me as i have a few questions:

1- i was informed that blackberry can now sync with exchange server without even having a BES (im assuming it will be on BIS)in our company similar to activesync in windows mobile devices and mail4exchange and roadsync on symbiyan phones. is this true. that would be a major cool function as our company does not seem to be willing to invest in a full BES infrastructure

2-if true what are the limitations compared to a full BES activated account? eg. is it less reliable ? battery life issues? fullsync of everything like contacts,tasks,calandar

3-is searching server, folders and html mail supported like activesync on wm6


thanks

[dc/dc]

You will not have full sync with BIS. You will only receive mail.

[fatso485]

can you be a bit more spesific in the features that you will be losing. also does exchange over BIS support pushmail. does the battery in this mode suck(since the bb device will start working like a windows mobile device that is always sending data to the mail server to keep the connection open)

also, is there a similar product to mail4exchange or roadsync that allaws for full exchange sync

[jmosssr]

Wirelessly you will be able to get your email. What you delete on you BB will can be deleted from your Outlook. What you delete on your Outlook will not be deleted from the BB.

You can synch your calendar, contacts, todos and memos by using the desktop synch where you plug your BB into your computer.

[fiffer]

This should help

View Document

[fatso485]

thanks all for your replies veryhelpful

the document does not say anything about pushmail

the remaining question is: how well does pushmail works and if it works, how badly does it effect the batterylife of the device


thanks

[takeshi]

All BB email is push. "Working like a windows mobile device", as you put it above, refers to pull devices -- not push. BB's do not poll for email whether they're on BES or BIS.

Originally Posted by fatso485

can you be a bit more spesific in the features that you will be losing.

As dc/dc said, BIS only handles email. Anything else isn't.

Originally Posted by fatso485

also does exchange over BIS support pushmail.

Hmm, you are a bit confused. BIS is designed to interface with various email systems to retrieve and then push email to the BB. Exchange via BIS, whether access is via POP, IMAP or OWA isn't really push but once email hits BIS it's push from then on.

[rambo47]

Getting your mail instantly pushed over BIS is a provider-by-provider kind of thing. It used to be that nobody enabled this, but recently many email providers have upgraded their services.

Apple upgraded .Mac to MobileMe and enabled the IDLE feature that makes mail instant push. The idea I'm sure was to do this for the iPhone users, but the results was that their mail was pushed instantly to everyone.

It's a similar thing with syncing read/unread status and deletions. They work for my MobileMe account, but not instantly. The changes can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to a full 15 minutes.

[fatso485]

thanks for the clarification seems i was misinformed

. since the traffic is between the BIS server and the bb device theen i should not expect battery life issues since the traffic will be kept to the minimum

1-how is the BIS instentaniously getting the email from the owa server. is it continiously probing the account? if thats the case why not just get the bb device do that by itself not sure whats the need of the middleman (BIS server)

2- some paranoid seccurity people in my company hate this middleman (the BIS in NOC). i am wondering if something like astrasync http://www.astrasync.com/ or activeberry are my only solution

[rambo47]

1. The email servers at RIM do the constant checking and send mail along to your Blackberry whenever they find it. That way your BB is not doing the checking, RIM's servers are. Most other phones rely on the phone itself to do the checking, hence the horrific battery life when using the various "instant email" solutions with Nokia, Windows Mobile devices, etc. Pretty ingenious of RIM really, finding a way around having your handheld constantly making a network connection, sending a polling message, receiving mail, and then signing off, only to repeat it every few minutes. The downside to RIM's approach is that you MUST use their servers for mail with their handhelds. It's the servers that do all the work while your Blackberry waits passively for contact with the mothership.

2. Astrasync doesn't replace BIS, it piggybacks along to give you some of the BES features. Rather than add security it only adds a weak point. Blackberrys are legendary for their security and RIM has countless government contracts with the most stringent security considerations. Any security weakness is in your company's servers, not with Blackberry access.

[fatso485]

Originally Posted by rambo47

2. Astrasync doesn't replace BIS, it piggybacks along to give you some of the BES features. Rather than add security it only adds a weak point. Blackberrys are legendary for their security and RIM has countless government contracts with the most stringent security considerations. Any security weakness is in your company's servers, not with Blackberry access.

im a bit confused here their page say its a direct link between the bb and server. and their users are saying that the battery life stinks when used (something i can live with if it can survive a full day). even the mailbox is part of the application not the standard mailbox that you access from the main page


also about the security. i agree with you about how secure BB is but if the company email is buffered for a while in RIM servers (even if its encrypted) its still considered less secure than the no middleman (activesync,mail4exchange)

[ArgonNJ]

You should also know that RIMs "monkey in the middle" NOC is its greatest weakness as well as its strength. If this goes down and it does, you have zero connectivity other then voice calls and SMS.