[canistel]

Other than exchange and BES (express), what options are there for a small business like mine (few handsets) to synchronize emails, calendars, and contacts between BB 9900 and my desktop computer?

Things I've tried:
Zarafa + NotifySync: NS is junk, requires a non-native email client
Funambol: Works the best so far, but no email sync.
IMAP: This is what I use, I have my own IMAP server, and I combine that with Funambol to provide a 95% working solution. Problems include BB not marking email read when the message on the IMAP server is read (which isn't a huge deal except the thing keeps blinking at me driving me nuts. I want the blinking led, but I also want it to shutoff automatically when emails are read on my computer), and very slow delivery of messages (up to 20 minutes poll time). I have a BIS account with rogers, but so much for the much acclaimed "push email" (not blackberry's fault); rogers schedules an email check once every 20 minutes on my IMAP server, worse than pathetic.

I've tried Zimbra, don't like the webclient (nor the desktop client which is basically the webclient wrapped in an html viewer). Also couldn't get the zimbra appliance working though I re-installed twice and am quite experienced in linux.

As you can probably see I'm quite frustrated, seems like there are absolutely no options unless I want to bite (the very very large) bullet that is MS Exchange + Windows Server.

I don't go into hosting providers (google apps or anyother BES hosted solutions), I want my data on my server. I'm willing to pay for it, but not the huge expense of exchange-and-friends.

So far, Funambol + standard IMAP seems to work the best, but like I mentioned above email delivery is pathetically slow thanks to Rogers, and the blinking light thingy (doesn't mark emails as read).

Somebody else out there must have similar issues...?? Am I the only stupid one?

[cntrydncr223]

Wow, sounds like you've been through the ringer.

I have no personal experience with this, so I may be wayyyyyyyyyyy off base...

But have you tried the "cloud" idea?

Secure File Sharing | Soonr

Another idea might be to get a playbook and set up all the bb's with the same BB ID (I've read you can use up to % on the same ID.)

[Don_Henry]

Hey canistel,

Check this out - Astrasync - I started looking into them about 3 years ago, but then my company bought BES Express so I didn't move forward.

AstraSync - BlackBerry ActiveSync Compatibility - Sync BlackBerry with Exchange ActiveSync Server

Appears to be full OTA sync of email, calendar, contacts - does not appear to require them hosting your server - seems like some kind of "proxy" service (for lack of a better description). They don't mention OS7 support on their website - but I can't imagine they are not at least working on it . . .

They have been around for a while - always a good sign. And they have a free trial.

And please let me know if it works - in the event I change companies and they don't do BES, I may need this service as well.

Hope this helps

[canistel]

Thanks guys for your suggestions. As I mentioned though I don't do "cloud" stuff, all my data must be stored on my servers (so soonr is out).

Just tried AstraSync... can't even login to my standard IMAP (dovecot) server But besides that, looks like it also uses non-native email client.

[canistel]

I now have instant emails...! Kind of ridiculous hoops to jump through, but in case anyone else reads this and wants to know:

Basically, Rogers provides a true "push" email address to every blackberry, and it is free. Address (once you sign up using your blackberry "new email account" wizard) is something like "[email protected]". Works good, but of course the address itself is less than ideal (I have my own domain name, don't want people to see or have to remember the rogers.blackberry... stuff).

So on my email server I simply added a "email forwarder" with the same name as my email acount, which forwards all incoming email to my rogers.blackberry email address. The forwarder will leave the original email in the inbox, so my desktop and other email applications can still access the email in the real email account. Also (very important), when I setup the rogers account on my blackberry, I set the "reply-to" to be the name of my real email account on my imap server so that when I respond to a message on my blackberry, the recipient sees my real account address, not the rogers account address.

Only drawback is that some email servers (google) show stuff like "via" in the "from" of the email, because it knows that my blackberry /rogers address which is where the email actually came from, is not the same address as the "reply-to" shows (the real imap account address). So maybe trying to prevent spoofing or something like that.

Anyway, does seem to work...

[Denny_Crane]

That's exactly how I used to set my hotmail up on my device. No mailbox synchronization, but it was instant push and I set it up to "reply to" my hotmail account. Now I just go with a paid BES hosting solution.

If you have your own server, why don't you just install BESX?

[canistel]

BESX requires microsoft exchange; I have my own (email + other) server but it is running linux, not exchange / windows.