Don't get it, help me understand...

[mrpinkbullets]

1. Can someone explain to me, in relatively simple terms, the technical (hardware/software/mechanical) reason why we experience major BIS outages every six months or so while the same thing doesn't seem to happen to iOS/Android users?

2. With most large corporations and North American federal, state, and local governments relying exclusively on BB for mobile communications, how do they put up with these outages and why don't they raise a bigger stink? If it's such a pain for me not to receive my own (fairly unimportant) emails, I have to assume it would be much more serious if policymakers, law enforcement officers, and government officials were affected by limited communications.

3. What are the technical (hardware/software/mechanical) differences between BIS and the regular data networks for iOS/Android/everyone else? What are the differences to the user? What are the benefits of BIS over regular data? Basically, "what is BIS?"

[D_March]

Originally Posted by mrpinkbullets

1. Can someone explain to me, in relatively simple terms, the technical (hardware/software/mechanical) reason why we experience major BIS outages every six months or so while the same thing doesn't seem to happen to iOS/Android users?

2. With most large corporations and North American federal, state, and local governments relying exclusively on BB for mobile communications, how do they put up with these outages and why don't they raise a bigger stink? If it's such a pain for me not to receive my own (fairly unimportant) emails, I have to assume it would be much more serious if policymakers, law enforcement officers, and government officials were affected by limited communications.

3. What are the technical (hardware/software/mechanical) differences between BIS and the regular data networks for iOS/Android/everyone else? What are the differences to the user? What are the benefits of BIS over regular data? Basically, "what is BIS?"

Yesterday was my first BIS outage in almost two years. BIS is Blackberry Internet Service which routes through the blackberry servers. Other companies do not route through the blackberry servers.

[mrpinkbullets]

Originally Posted by D_March

Yesterday was my first BIS outage in almost two years. BIS is Blackberry Internet Service which routes through the blackberry servers. Other companies do not route through the blackberry servers.

It seems like not everyone is affected by every outage. Maybe I'm just unlucky since I do seem to get hit by a lot of them. Even when it's not us, sometimes it's Europe/ME/Asia...but a few times every year, someone loses BIS for a day or so. I'm not saying the same might not happen for other OS devices, but we seem to always hear about it happening for BlackBerry and it always seems to be the most severe.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mjtvillanova]

BB devices connected to BES are secure from end (your phone) to end (your internal network) for the entire communication stream of data (e-mail) and BBMs. As for iPhones and Androids they are opened from the time the signal leaves your phone to the moment it is received at the other end (a website or whatever). There are exceptions for example if your phone is setup with a Cisco AnyConnect VPN for secure data communications back to the office VPN concentrator.

Look online for all the reasons why various countries won't all blackberries to run. You will be impressed with the security built into these little BB devices.

[mrpinkbullets]

Originally Posted by mjtvillanova

BB devices connected to BES are secure from end (your phone) to end (your internal network) for the entire communication stream of data (e-mail) and BBMs. As for iPhones and Androids they are opened from the time the signal leaves your phone to the moment it is received at the other end (a website or whatever). There are exceptions for example if your phone is setup with a Cisco AnyConnect VPN for secure data communications back to the office VPN concentrator.

Look online for all the reasons why various countries won't all blackberries to run. You will be impressed with the security built into these little BB devices.

Very cool, good to know that. I know BBs are secure but didn't understand exactly how it worked. Are there any other benefits to BB compared to regular smartphone data? I remembering hearing stories that "during 9/11 only BlackBerry users were able to communicate." Is BIS either fully or partially independent of regular carrier data networks? If the network gets jammed, will my BlackBerry have any superior functionality over an iPhone/Android?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mrpinkbullets]

Bump------

[rrrebo]

BB services are not 100% carrier-dependent. If the cell networks go down, you can still get your push email, browsing, and BBM via wifi. SMS and voice will not work when cell networks are down, as they are 100% carrier-dependent. As far as I know, Android and iOS will also continue to function over wifi (except cell and SMS).

A Blackberry outage due to network hardware failure (as was the case in Europe last week) is just like any other network outage or carrier outage. If your internet provider has a core router or switch failure you won't have internet at home. If your local cell towers go down, you won't have cellular coverage. If a server or router goes down at work, you won't be able to reach some company resources7. It's all the same. This outage was not caused by a problem with RIM's NOC or software or "system". It was a simple equipment failure, and the backup fail-over in place also did not function properly. It happens. It's rare, but it happens. To everybody.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com