[heyload2]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but I travel a lot for the military. Since they didn't see the need to provide a BB for me I bought my own. Is there a way to get my personal BB conected to the DOD BES network?

I just want to make staying in contact with all of the people I have to comunicate with easier. Currently I have an auto forward rule set up so I can receive all of my work E-mails through my BIS account.

[mab4285]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but I travel a lot for the military. Since they didn't see the need to provide a BB for me I bought my own. Is there a way to get my personal BB conected to the DOD BES network?

I just want to make staying in contact with all of the people I have to comunicate with easier. Currently I have an auto forward rule set up so I can receive all of my work E-mails through my BIS account.

As long as they allow you on the BES and you have a BES plan, I don't see why there would be a problem.

[kcberrymom]

You would have to ask your IT person to add you to the BES. It would be up to them.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[jeffh]

Be careful about getting on the DOD BES. Several DOD employees have posted about very severe restrictions imposed by the military networks. If you go on their BES, you give them complete and total control over your phone through the BES IT Policy.

What's an IT Policy? An IT Policy is the way a company enforces its IT Security rules on BlackBerry's that have inside-the-firewall access. These devices have BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) accounts instead of the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) accounts that consumer users typically have.

BES users get over the air synching of their Calendar, Email, Address Book, Tasks, and Memos. In return, they accept that the company can monitor all their email, log their phone calls, and in general control every aspect of their phone: whether they can install apps, use the Media Card or Bluetooth, or access the internet, for example.

IT Policies can be very strict to benign. Mine, for example, only requires me to use a password and Content Protection and sets the max timeout to 30 minutes.

If you have an employer-provided phone, and attempt to remove the IT Policy, your attempt will be detected the next time you attempt to log on to the company servers, the IT policy will be pushed back on your phone, and you could face severe disciplinary consequences for violating security.

[heyload2]

I think I'll stick to my auto forward rule. I don't care if they see my e-mails or calls or anything, I just want to be able to do whatever I feel I need to do with it. Bluetooth and media are my mainstays on the road.

[bb8154]

JeffH, thanks for the in-depth explanation! I don't have the same situation as heyload2 but still good information.

Being new to the BlackBerry world I'm constantly amazed at the breadth of services and features made available by BB. And I'm even more amazed and thankful for all of the information contained here at the CrackBerry forums!