[RManochio]

Not sure if anyone else is having this issue. I downloaded BB Bridge on my 9550 in preparation for my Playbook to arrive later today. When I open BB Bridge on my phone, it says, "Bridge has been disabled by your System Administrator". I work for a large Financial Services company and on our internal sites did mention that the firm has not approved use of the BB Playbook at this time and will announce when it has been thoroughly tested. I didn't think they would sneak out a policy that blocked it, but they obviously have.

[JustinGTP]

I hope it is your BES admin that has disabled the bridge and not a limitation of BES. I know BB Protect doesn't work on BES.

[manofice1]

there are policys they could have installed that block the bridge. I would contact them and ask nicely for them to enable it for you.

[lnichols]

Call up your IT group, tell them you bought your own, and that you would love to test out the functionality for your company. A trial at no cost to them could be very tempting!

[TBone4eva]

Yeah, RIM sent out a patch for BES that includes IT policy settings for Bridge feature. By default, it's set to enabled. It's nothing sneaky about it, it just looks like your BES Admin is on top of things. Only thing you can do is plead your case and inform them of the fact that bridging is secure.

[rbenjami]

By default, BES is wide open with respect to all things PB. If your BES Admin does nothing, has not downloaded anything, downloaded something but didnt futz with it, or is otherwise ambivilant about such things, you will have full functionality. The only way your PB functionality (via bridge) will be crippled is if your BES Admin purposefully went in and changed a setting away from the default.

[RManochio]

Yeah, RIM sent out a patch for BES that includes IT policy settings for Bridge feature. By default, it's set to enabled. It's nothing sneaky about it, it just looks like your BES Admin is on top of things. Only thing you can do is plead your case and inform them of the fact that bridging is secure.

Unfortunately, pleading my case will get me nowhere. I work in a profession with high regulation so security is a high priority. Typically they take about 2 months to approve after release; however they did start working on the playbook analysis back in January.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[TBone4eva]

Well, the Bridge is app isn't working for me either , but for a different reason. My BES Admin has disabled the serial port profile for bluetooth connectivity.

[gregerator]

Could BB Balance fix that in the future? Still don't know enough about it.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dkingsf]

Mine works fine on my 9550, but don't have a playbook. Someone said in another thread that it wasn't available from app world for S1 but works fine for S2, installed without issue. If your admin disabled it through BES that's pretty stupid. That's a selling point for the Playbook, security on phone, display on PB.

[Aero247]

My company's IT is working in the stone age and we're still running BEP or whatever the initials are for the free server that came before BESX. It better friggen work.

[Boots4283]

My company's IT is working in the stone age and we're still running BEP or whatever the initials are for the free server that came before BESX. It better friggen work.

You mean BlackBerry Professional Software. They should really upgrade it is about 2 years out of date.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[snuci]

As posted in another thread, you may want to point your BES admins to the following document to speed up (if that's possible) the activation of Blackberry Bridge. All the security technical details are in the following document:

Security Technical Overview - BlackBerry PlayBook - 1.0

[Kerms]

Not to be a downer but did you guys with phones managed by BES not check with your IT dept before you bought a PB?

That would have been one of the first things I did.

[Aero247]

You mean BlackBerry Professional Software. They should really upgrade it is about 2 years out of date.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Yup, that's the one. Trust me, I'm with you 110%. Our IT company, we outsource it, wanted to charge us at LEAST $2,500 to install BESX. That's right, BESX. The free version. I've been pushing for them to be fired.

[PineappleUnderTheSea]

Our company will not enable it at the moment, since it is not in their "approved" apps. I asked what I had to do to approve it, and they sent me a 5-page attachment. Sucks. Part of the reason they block it is that they have no way to know whether it is truly secured at the moment.

Our company also charges $5/month to have "approved" apps installed (e.g. Google Maps). So I don't think my manager will be too excited for me to charge his account in order to have Bridge, if it is ever approved.

I guess I should get my own personal phone....

[Aero247]

Our company will not enable it at the moment, since it is not in their "approved" apps. I asked what I had to do to approve it, and they sent me a 5-page attachment. Sucks. Part of the reason they block it is that they have no way to know whether it is truly secured at the moment.

Our company also charges $5/month to have "approved" apps installed (e.g. Google Maps). So I don't think my manager will be too excited for me to charge his account in order to have Bridge, if it is ever approved.

I guess I should get my own personal phone....

Sounds like your company my company know each other.

[mkarias1]

I am in the same boat. I haven't asked my IT folks if the Bridge can be enabled on my BlackBerry but I also work for a very large financial company so I doubt they will approve. Guess no PlayBook for me.

[narci]

I am in the same boat. I haven't asked my IT folks if the Bridge can be enabled on my BlackBerry but I also work for a very large financial company so I doubt they will approve. Guess no PlayBook for me.

sorry but why would one buy a playbook to use on company time?

it's like saying you'll pay for a bb to do company work.

[mkarias1]

sorry but why would one buy a playbook to use on company time?

it's like saying you'll pay for a bb to do company work.

Well if it makes my life easier and I have the money (doesn't mean I do), I would have bought the PlayBook. My work requires me at times to be out of the office so having a PlayBook would allow me to better work remotely. Also helps if I need to work from home. (I do not have a laptop.)

Unfortunately, my company's stance is that they are evaluating the PlayBook but no decision will be made until maybe the summer. This is a big negative on the PlayBook for corporate users. Shame on RIM for not making this very clear.

[Truckswain]

I really don't believe this to be a RIM issue. By the sounds of things it should be no surprise that your company would not allow bridge on the PB given how security conscience they are. I also have a company owed BB and I can bridge however I have no bridge browser because of BES IT policies. While having bridge apps are neat, even if I did not have them or lose them because of a change in company policy the PB is still great.

Size, browser abilities and future us of Android apps are selling points for me. I get my personal email from the browser with no issue and could do the same for my work email if needed.

[raremage]

I really don't believe this to be a RIM issue. By the sounds of things it should be no surprise that your company would not allow bridge on the PB given how security conscience they are. I also have a company owed BB and I can bridge however I have no bridge browser because of BES IT policies. While having bridge apps are neat, even if I did not have them or lose them because of a change in company policy the PB is still great.

The issue is that browsing works on the bridged phone because they are built to leverage a combination of BES (for PDA functions) and BIS (for browsing functions). The crux of the issue is, while a phone can be locked down with BES, in every case on this thread, they are not locked down by BES and instead are functioning as I just described.

The PlayBook therefore should function identically; however, it does not. Enterprise activation kills bridge browsing. This is a clear flaw that RIM needs to address.

[Truckswain]

The PlayBook therefore should function identically; however, it does not. Enterprise activation kills bridge browsing. This is a clear flaw that RIM needs to address.[/QUOTE]

Enterprise activation does not kill bridge browsing. If the internet browsing is not set to the BES MDS service through BES server admin settings then no bridge browsing is available on the PB. Otherwise enterprise activated phones on a BES server can use the bridge browser.

[raremage]

Enterprise activation does not kill bridge browsing. If the internet browsing is not set to the BES MDS service through BES server admin settings then no bridge browsing is available on the PB. Otherwise enterprise activated phones on a BES server can use the bridge browser.

Actually, you are mistaken, it does. While enabling MDS is a potential workaround, unti the Playbook is activated, bridge browsing was working fine. After enterprise activation it no longer functions.

But the associated Blackberry works fine, using a BIS connection through the wireless proivider. So you are correct, if one were to believe this was a concious decision on BES Admins to disable bridge browsing; however, that's not a logical assumption given the fact that internet browsing via the carrier works on the phone.

The Blackberry core architecture supports browsing without requiring MDS unless it is explicitely forced into configuration. The Playbook should function identically, but it does not.

If browsing from the phone works, browsing via bridge should work; if it does not work, one would expect the bridge browsing to be similarly limited. Instead we have broken functionality.

[Truckswain]

Actually, you are mistaken, it does. While enabling MDS is a potential workaround, unti the Playbook is activated, bridge browsing was working fine. After enterprise activation it no longer functions.

But the associated Blackberry works fine, using a BIS connection through the wireless proivider. So you are correct, if one were to believe this was a concious decision on BES Admins to disable bridge browsing; however, that's not a logical assumption given the fact that internet browsing via the carrier works on the phone.

The Blackberry core architecture supports browsing without requiring MDS unless it is explicitely forced into configuration. The Playbook should function identically, but it does not.

If browsing from the phone works, browsing via bridge should work; if it does not work, one would expect the bridge browsing to be similarly limited. Instead we have broken functionality.

There are currently only 2 BES admin functions for the PB, one is the ability to disable BB bridging and the second is enable bridge logging. Admins cannot disable bridge functions individually including bridge browsing.

I would suspect that the MDS needing to be active for the bridge browser to work is due to security. Many enterprise activated BB's can use the bridge browser because MDS is set to yes and is configured.

I agree completely that if your BB browser works than the PB bridge browser should work as well. And yes this is an issue RIM should address.