[dgauthier]

Hello Everyone,
I'm an Exchange/BES admin for the company I work for, and I have a bit of an issue. I'm working on a project which has me a bit confused...

Basically we have a sales force that's remote and never connects to our domain. These people will never connect to the LAN and access their email through Citrix. As such, their laptops are setup using local accounts (not cached domain accounts). This month, we're migrating these users laptops to Windows XP and at the same time, we will be providing them with Blackberry's. The laptops are all running v4 of the desktop manager software, and have a VPN client installed. They do not have Outlook installed since we want to have these users access their email through Citrix (don't ask - long story)

Our BES server is v 3.6 and we can not update until next fiscal year.

Here's the issue. Because the BES is 3.6, activation is done through a physical connection from the unit through the the desktop manager software in the office. To create a similar scenario, what I've done is setup a MAPI profile on a test PC using a local account. Once I sync the device - it calls upon the MAPI profile and I'm asked to authenticate on the domain. The device is activated and all is good.

But what I need to do is get this same result through VPN. So I do the same on another test PC, logging into the laptop with a local account. I setup the same MAPI profile on this new PC and connect through VPN. BUT NOW, when I launch the desktop manager software - the RIM doesn't activate. I'm seeing that I'm "offline". The unit gets a decryption error and I'm requested to generate an encryption key. On the desktop manager software, I can't launch the Replicator applet, again stating that I'm offline.

The weird thing is when I launch the desktop manager software, I'm prompted to authenticate on the domain, which I do successfully. The device appears to sync, but really - it doesn't.

Am I missing something???

Many thanks!!