BES Vs IMAP? - Not sure where to put this.

[NVMY03ION]

A few of my associates have asked if they can get e-mail down to their BlackBerry without going through the BES. Technical answer is YES, but how. Well I've tried just adding my mail server in which case I do get an email back but its acting like its trying to POP the mail in as opposed to IMAP. Is there something we need to add to our Exchange server to allow us for e-mail to be able to come down to the device?

[NVMY03ION]

Alright I know West Coast is awake now - so any ideas?

[fwcmcse]

This is an older thread but maybe I can help someone else who's had to face this dilemma.

If your organization uses Exchange 2007 and your Outlook Web Access server is NOT behind a proxy, you can refer to BlackBerry KB03133 for instructions on connecting to your Exchange server via OWA and BIS.

Problem is, a lot of organizations use Exchange behind an Edge server, and a Proxy between the Edge and the Internet (or in a Small Business Server environment, it's all jammed on the same box). If this is your setup in your corporate environment, I'd suggest adding your BIS address to your Exchange e-mail addresses and creating a forwarding rule or distribution list if your policy permits it. You won't be able to send replies through the Exchange server, but you will receive emails.

Overall, BES is still the way to go in an Exchange environment with more than one or two BlackBerry units, despite a little complexity. Desktop Redirection in a corporate environment is a time-eating no-no. Every power glitch or patch cycle on the PC breaks the connection for the user's BlackBerry, Exchange likes to put the RIM redirector messages in Junk Mail and reconciliation comes to a halt, etc. Users forget to sync, calendar entries aren't transferred, they miss meetings, they get mad, support staff gets headaches. None of these are good.

Despite the occasional clunky behavior, I have found that the Storm 2's browser does support OWA quite nicely. When the pinch-zoom features promised in OS6 arrive, it will definitely be a plus.

[phantomsax]

OWA beind behind a proxy has nothing to do with it. That is the whole design of Exchange 2007/2010 for security. You put your edge servers in the DMZ and protect everything else behind the firewall. If you can access OWA externally (i.e. going to mail.yourcompany.com/owa from your home computer), you can add an Exchange account to your BlackBerry using BIS. You may need to provide the OWA address in the BIS account setup, but setting up a forward to device address is a horrible idea IMO. And why would you try and access OWA using the browser in your BBY?

I break it down for our clients very simply:
- If you want email only and don't care about OTA contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes sync, along with true email sync, go BIS
- If you want all of the above plus bare metal device backups and restore, get a BES (or BESx)

You can make it a lot more complicated, or you can give them two options. If you give people too much latitude they tend to make up their own ideas. I follow the principle of KISS (and I don't mean the rock band).