BB Professional Software and Attachments

[AussiePup]

I dont yet have a BB but am seriously considering one when my new every 2 is up November 1st.

I would be the only one in my company that will have a BB and our office uses exchange and outlook for all PIM related activities.

It looks like I can install the BPS on my exchange server for free which would allow me to sync my email, contacts, etc OTA (which is a must). But in doing further reading it looks like the BPS does not support attachment viewing or editing. Is this true? And is there workaround for it?

Thanks

[GlenB]

BPS does support attachment viewing. With earlier versions of BBs the attachments were converted to RIMs own format to make them quicker to send across the mobile network. Newer devices come with the ability to download/open native attachment formats with applications like docs2go.

I'd question whether you need BPS or BES at all, email sync can be done via BIS, PIM sync can be done via USB cable and blackberry desktop manager.

[AussiePup]

Glen, thank you for your response. That is indeed good to know. I have used docs2go on my current Treo and am very familiar with it.

There are times I have appointments made by my office and need to have that sync'd OTA with my handheld. And to be honest with you having a Palm for 2 years with activesync and everything OTA, I will never go back to using USB cables to sync again.

[GlenB]

No problem, I know where you are coming from. BPS is free with one Client Access Licence, but you will need to ensure you have the BES service from your carrier, not the BIS service. The latter has a much cheaper monthly cost.

[Turk54]

Thought I would pipe in on this discussion and let you know that I have been in the same boat as you - single BB user in a small company that has exchange. I used to use BIS and whereas it worked OK, I was constantly having to do a daily re-sync via the USB cable my contacts, appointments, etc. I constantly complained about not having an ActiveSync client to access the exchange server, but limped along. We learned about BPS, but had decided it wasn't worth it because BPS hasn't been updated in eons and doesn't support HTML mail, etc. That being said, since we could get a single user license for free, it was decided to give it a whirl. The install was complicated somewhat because BPS is someshat complicated to install on a MS SBS (Small Business Server), especially if you have some quaint virtual server stuff going on as apparently we do. The person that installed it on our server spent a considerable amount of time getting it to install properly, but the end result is that it works perfectly. I receive my emails quickly -- my contacts and calendar entries are sync'ed automatically -- and all is right with the world. I would strongly encourage you to dive in and use it, because if you are like me and sick and tired of dealing with BIS access to your company's exchange, you will love BPS.