BB Z10 & Company Firewall

I do hope someone can help here, I am at a loss...

Got the new Z10 from Vodafone 2 months back, got the popular 'error connecting' problem when device attached to laptop via USB. Last night I took it home and Bingo! It worked fine! I was able to transfer files no problem.

It must be our company firewall then... Vodafone Technical useless... so I am now stuck with a Z10 that doesn't work in the office. Our network guys say its most probably our firewall and Blackberry Link being a bit too clever. Ok, makes sense, but what to do? I would need port numbers and all sorts from BB to get this working?

What a palava!
Any advice fully appreciated!
Kate

I'm not sure the firewall would apply to USB connections with Blackberry Link?

Originally Posted by K4ate

Got the new Z10 from Vodafone 2 months back, got the popular 'error connecting' problem when device attached to laptop via USB. Last night I took it home and Bingo! It worked fine! I was able to transfer files no problem.

It must be our company firewall then... Vodafone Technical useless... so I am now stuck with a Z10 that doesn't work in the office. Our network guys say its most probably our firewall and Blackberry Link being a bit too clever. Ok, makes sense, but what to do? I would need port numbers and all sorts from BB to get this working?

From what you write there I cannot ascertain what the problem is.

Are you trying to use Blackberry Link while at the office? Is Link the problem? Or are you having some other problem?

There was just a new version of Link released yesterday. You may want to install that and see if it helps your local connection issue.

Link also has a WiFi connection feature that tries to go out by default and publish and/or look for other published Windows resources. Your company's network infrastructure could well see such traffic as malicious and block it, or block the entire device as a result.

I administer company networks as well and I do not allow random devices to connect to it, for good reason. In cases where I do allow it, those networks are heavily restricted.

Thanks for your reply, to further expand.
This as been done on 2 company laptops so far. I downloaded Link, then attached the Z10 via the USB cable. Link recognised the device, but when you try and transfer/drag docs/images from laptop to device via link, it tries to sync, but doesn't, then a traingle sits next to the device tab (within link) saying 'connection error'. I moaned to the supplier and they sent out a 2nd phone, but the same issue.

So last night I took the phone and USB cable home, wondering if its to do with something here in the office? I downlaoded Link to my netbook at home last night, one thing I noticed my netbook do was download several device drivers before recognising the phone (unsure if that process happened here at work). It worked perfectly! I was able to drag and drop items from netbook to Z10 no trouble.

Got back to work this morning and no get the connection error again. Thats why I wondered if this was a firewall issue. I have the latest Link s/w. But unsure where the problem lies, it is with Link? Does Link still use the firewall to speak to the device?

Originally Posted by Omnitech

From what you write there I cannot ascertain what the problem is.

Are you trying to use Blackberry Link while at the office? Is Link the problem? Or are you having some other problem?

There was just a new version of Link released yesterday. You may want to install that and see if it helps your local connection issue.

Link also has a WiFi connection feature that tries to go out by default and publish and/or look for other published Windows resources. Your company's network infrastructure could well see such traffic as malicious and block it, or block the entire device as a result.

I administer company networks as well and I do not allow random devices to connect to it, for good reason. In cases where I do allow it, those networks are heavily restricted.

Not likely a firewall issue, just the usual compatibility/driver issues that inevitably differ from one computer to the next.

There are various threads here and knowledgebase articles from BBRY on this issue, but like I wrote above, the very first thing I would do if I were you would be to uninstall the old version of Link, reboot, and install the new one. There are various bugfixes in the newer one including for connection issues. (Issues which will manifest on one machine and OS/software configuration but not another)

Thanks again, I did just that, uninstalled Link, even shut down before downloading it again. It installed fine, I checked the z10 was also up to date with the latest s/w and it is. But sadly, the same error, nothing has changed. I have tried to transfer one small image over, but have been trying all day, so infuriating.

Link does recognbise the z10 as a device and set's it up. But when I try and transfer any item it attempts to sync, then the error message comes up, there was a problem accessing the drive(s) on this device. Disconnect and rconnect your device and try again.

Originally Posted by Omnitech

Not likely a firewall issue, just the usual compatibility/driver issues that inevitably differ from one computer to the next.

There are various threads here and knowledgebase articles from BBRY on this issue, but like I wrote above, the very first thing I would do if I were you would be to uninstall the old version of Link, reboot, and install the new one. There are various bugfixes in the newer one including for connection issues. (Issues which will manifest on one machine and OS/software configuration but not another)

Just curious, but you did ask your IT department about it right?

Well, it could be a firewall issue - the Z10 will shoe up as a network drive when connected in the same way that the PlayBook does.

Simple test - switch off firewall, test connection.
In theory there is no reason why the Z10 should be blocked, but who knows...

Worst case, go into settings, storage a d enable mass storage mode, voila. (oh, and just check it is set to auto detect the os)

Posted via CB10

Just FYI, "switching off firewall" is not a good idea in many situations, it's like taking off your seat-belt. ;)

More than likely it's a USB conflict of some kind on that specific machine.

What error messages are you seeing, if any?

What operating system and version are you using?

What else is plugged in to the USB ports?

Originally Posted by Omnitech

Just FYI, "switching off firewall" is not a good idea in many situations, it's like taking off your seat-belt. ;)

More than likely it's a USB conflict of some kind on that specific machine.

What error messages are you seeing, if any?

What operating system and version are you using?

What else is plugged in to the USB ports?

For a test it makes no difference. I never said browse the web without a firewall.
You have to start troubleshooting somewhere.

Besides, most networks will have another firewall in front of them, for example in the router. Finally, the chance of randomly being the victim when you test something without a firewall is near zero as well.

Posted via CB10

Let's start troubleshooting at the physical layer... Have you tried another USB cable or are you using the the same cable. It may be as simple as that.

Here's what helped one person, if you haven't tried it already:

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...-fixed-783629/

The Z10 appears to your computer as a network device, so a firewall issue is very much a possibility. As far as your computer is concerned the Z10 is a USB network card, which just happens to have a SMB server (windows file sharing) at the other end.

A workaround is to go into storage and access in your Z10 settings and turn on USB Mass Storage. When in that mode the Z10 appears like a USB drive to the computer, and the firewall shouldn't be an issue. The downside is that USB Mass Storage mode will only let you access your Micro SD card, the internal memory of the phone is not accessible. Additionally, the Micro SD card is not accessible from the phone while this mode is on, you'll have to turn it back off when you're done. I'm not sure if Link will recognize your device as a Z10 when connection, you may have to copy files manually like it was a USB drive.

If your IT department is willing to help troubleshoot provide them the following information (copy/paste it into an email):

The Z10 appears to the computer as a USB network card. The Z10 runs a DHCP server and assigns a link-local address to the computer. File transfer to the Z10 is then done over the SMB (Windows file sharing) protocol. If firewall rules are blocking SMB traffic to IP addresses 169.254.1.0 through 169.254.254.255 that will likely prevent BlackBerry Link from functioning.

That should give them enough technical information to adjust the firewall rules, if they are willing to do so. If they do that you shouldn't need the USB Mass Storage workaround.

I had the same issue from my work laptop. This is what I figured out. The Zed-10 is seen as a Network card to your PC and as such invokes security polices in the laptop when it is connected. (most companies see an issue with the laptop having access to two separate networks)
I have seen two different approaches to correct this. First some have success with putting the phone in Airplane mode before connecting it to the laptop. This didn’t work for me. The second and the way I had to do it.. was to disconnect the laptop from the lan. Then go into device manager after you connect your phone and add or enable the device driver for the phone. There will be 3 drivers shown (in my case there was 3)... one of them will have a question ? mark on it.. reinstall that driver and you should be off to the races. The final thing to note and maybe it has been mentioned.. there seems to be some conflicts happening between Link and the older Desktop software. If you have the older software installed I suggest you uninstall both.. reboot and then install Link fresh again.
I'm not sure this will resolve your issue.. but this worked for me.