[cmptekinc]

Hello All:

I'm new to BES and need some suggestions on how to resolve the BES situation.

We have BES 3.6.7.12 running on Win2K SP4 box, there are 14 BB users.
The plan was to purchase a new server and newer version of BES, however things kinda went South with the current BES box.

We had issues remoting into the BES box and installed VNC (big mistake),once VNC was installed and we opened up BES to our suprise there was a big fat red X through the Server Name on the top left, when we right-click on it these are the only options available:

Remove
View
Refresh
Export

Since that incident we removed VNC, however it`s quite possible that MS patches messed it up.

There are no users on the right hand side and if I use the export option, it doesn't list anything in the text file (other then the columns obviously).

Anyway, a couple of users purchased a BB and they were setup through BIS.
I'm not sure I fully understand if BES and BIS are/were tied together at all or not.

All of the people that were on BES originally before server crapped out are still receiving messages on BBs, the ones that were setup through either Sprint or Cingular BIS account are also receiving BB mail.

Here`s what I'd like to find out. If there are absolutely no users listed in the BES and BES server is unavailable then people would be receiving their work mail through BIS, correct ? What makes it interesting is one of the users who IS currently receiving work mail on his BB doesn't have work e-mail setup in his BIS account. Is it possible that alhough it looks crapped out that it`s still functional ? This user also has a personal e-mail account mail that goes to BB, I did verify in Exchange that her work mail is not being forwarded....


What`s the best way to deal with this situation ?

Thanks in advance.

[usererror]

I'm also a fairly new BES admin but here's my thoughts on all that:

1) We have VNC installed on our BES server, and it works fine (Win2k3 server). We keep it as a backup if RDP does not work for some odd reason.

2) If the BES server cannot connect to RIM I don't know how they'd still be getting email via the BES. I thought BIS and BES were completely separate. If I reboot our BES server the email routing stops, but my BIS account on the blackberry still works since it uses the data connection from the provider.

If you can I'd highly recommend the upgrade to the latest BES server, it is much better!

Good luck

[cmptekinc]

I just reviewed the BES vsBIS comparassing article, can't post the link here yet.
Anyway, BIS operates on POP or IMAP.... Within my organization both POP and IMAP are disabled, wouldn't that make BES deliver those messages then, although it looks corrupted ?

[usererror]

Originally Posted by cmptekinc

I just reviewed the BES vsBIS comparassing article, can't post the link here yet.
Anyway, BIS operates on POP or IMAP.... Within my organization both POP and IMAP are disabled, wouldn't that make BES deliver those messages then, although it looks corrupted ?

Do you utilize OWA? Our users (unfortunately) can buy their own BB devices and it will scrape, using BIS, the OWA interface and then get their email, which is against policy but at this point I don't know how to stop them. My exchange admin will not turn off OWA for obvious reasons...we'd all be shot.

[cmptekinc]

Yes, we do use OWA. Wouldn't users have to navigate to OWA site and then login thorugh the browser ? Our users don't navigate to owa site from BBs, they just get their mail sent as if they were on BES. I think that the BES still functions, however when you look at it, there is nothing there. If I was to build a new BES server, do I just bring down the old server and then recreate the users on the new one ? I don't see a way to export anything from my old BES server since everything is greyed out and the only option I have is to remove....

[knottyrope]

You can block RIM's IP's from accessing OWA.
there have been a few threads on this already.


Yes remove the old BES and setup a new one if it is totally hosed.

Just use same BESAdmin account when installing it so you wont have to redo permissions. (might want to double check anyways)