BES solution for single person

[tcerny]

Hi folks,

for some of you this may be stupid but I really need some help here.
I am using my BB with BIS on Vodafone network. I have recently started using calendar a lot as my schedule is busy (college, work, hobbies etc) As a BIS user, there is no option of syncing my BB and MacBook wirelessly but with some help of USB and Desktop Manager. Of course, you can use google sync or other methods. I've tried it, but stopped after 2 days of using it. It kept messing with either iCal or BB cal and now wit OS X Lion you can't even sync Address Book. So I put my hands off it.

Anyway, back to my issue. I am simply looking for some way to use my BB in full and I am afraid it's not possible unless you have BES.

I don't have exchange server, i don't even use a hosted one and BES license isn't really a cheap thing. I heard about BES express though which is for free. But hello, my IT knowledge isn't that good to run exchange server and just install BES express on it. I don't even want it for 50 people, I want it only for myself,one user, to be able to sync (two way) my iCal (multiple calendars), Address Book and notes with my BB over the air like BES does. I would simple make an exchange account in both ical and address book and then sync it with bb. That would do it, wouldn't it?

Could anyone help me with this stupid thing please?

[nfoman]

What is your email service? Hotmail, Gmail?? Your going to be wasting your time/money with a hosted BES solution. If your using Gmail for example with iCal.. just setup Gmail on your BB and sync it up.

[dosto]

I use Exchangemymail hosted BES for GoogleApps. It's $10/month and worth every penny for what I need it to do. I understand that most people are perfectly happy with BIS, but some of us need/want the extra benefits of BES. Give it a try...if it doesn't fit your needs, cancel it (it's month to month). I think trying to host your own BES (or BESX) server would be cost/time prohibitive.

[seaners]

I'm in the exact same boat as you OP. I live a busy lifestyle, and I rely heavily on my email, contacts, and especially my calendar. I don't have patience to be dicking around with half asked solutions like gmail which has screwed with way too many peoples contact lists that I know alone.

So, my solution was hosted Exchange from GoDaddy. It's about $12/year for my own .ca domain, and around $10/month for a 2GB hosted Exchange account with BES access. But they always have coupons for 30% off, so it's quite cheap when you do it that way.

Keep in mind that you'll also need a BES data plan from your carrier. On TELUS I have to pay an extra $10/month to add this onto my existing BIS data plan. So basically a little under $20/month for hosting and the BES service book. Not bad IMO. Some hosts will charge you over $10/month just for the Exchange account, and then another $10 or more if you want BlackBerry access. Exchangemymail sounds like a decent price too (based on the post above).

As for BESX, I would love to go that route to avoid paying my carrier the extra $10/month, but I don't have my own Exchange server, nor do I want one. I have seen some hosts offering BESX Exchange hosting, but they were going to be more for the hosting than I pay for my hosting and my carrier combined. I think I have the best solution for me right now.

[Schoki]

I'm using Office 365 with the Blackberry Cloud Services which also works with an BIS-Option. It works quite good, but you have to administrate it via web-console by your own.

Before I used Office 365, I used skyshpere.com, which are Hosting Exchange and BESx. This also worked very good.