[ajsellaroli]

My dad is self employed, but he wants BES so he can have his contact list, and his calendar automatically updated between his secretary's desk and his phone (he has thousands of contacts). Where should he start? I know alot of people just use a company server to get the features of BES, but what could a self employed small business man do? Could he rent a single account like you can do with Microsoft Exchange Server??

Thanks

[Reed McLay]

Welcome to CrackBerry.

Hosted BES is a sub industry. You can find them easly, the rates are reasonable.

https://www.mailstreet.net/mkt/mobil...FRxNagod7SuPPA

Intermedia – BlackBerry

Hosted Exchange | Microsoft Exchange 2007 | Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server

[Sonicjay]

I'm using hosted Exchange and hosted BES through Sherweb.com. It's about 9 bucks a month for Exchange, and about 10 a month for the BES. Works great!

[sniffs]

Uhm.. or you can download the BES that has 1 key and it's free.

you'll need your own hosted server NOT on your Exchange box for this, so in a sense, there is monatary fee's involved.. but once it's up and running, no more monthly fee to have a 3rd party host it.

=)

[ajsellaroli]

Uhm.. or you can download the BES that has 1 key and it's free.

you'll need your own hosted server NOT on your Exchange box for this, so in a sense, there is monatary fee's involved.. but once it's up and running, no more monthly fee to have a 3rd party host it.

=)

Do you have any experience with this Sniffs? My dad does have a server he uses right now to keep all his business files on. I don't know whether or not it'll be able to run it. Its got a 1.8 ghz pentium 4 processor, and is running Windows Server 2000. What do you think? should I try to load it up?

[sniffs]

You're only putting 1 BB on it, that's more than enough horsepower..

you'll need to look on blackberry.com but I do remember RIM offering free, a bes with 1 key.. Or, alternativly you can install Blackberry Desktop Manager on the PC that has Outlook and you can sync that way..it's not OTA and not up-to-date unless you sync again.

Going the BES route is OTA and syncs wirelessly.

Although if you've never had any experience in installing the Blackberry Enterprise Server (any version), I wouldn't recommend it..it can be a nightmare. A fre things to remember.. Do NOT install it on the server with Exchange and do NOT install Outlook on the server with the BES.. it must be it's own dedicated server.. (not really, but for headache's and issues I'd really recommend it be it's own server)..

EDIT: Here it is..seems to be free still.. BlackBerry

[ajsellaroli]

Well no, I haven't ever done that before, is it really that bad? Maybe I shouldn't do it then...Maybe i'll just rent one for him

[sniffs]

It's not bad.. but since it's free, you get no support from RIM.

it's actually pretty easy to install.. like any other windows software, just require's configuring.

From a cost point, this is the cheapest method.

If you dont mind paying another company to host it, by all means go for it.

Here's a word to the wise though.. a person recently sued their company for privacy breach because the company was reading their SMS messages.. The phone, cell plan AND SMS messages were being paid for by the company. You'd think that the employer would have the right to read them?.. wrong.. Since the data(the sms messages) are being stored on another company's servers(the carriers), that's illegal to read them now without a search warrant.

Seeing as how you're a company and he's using it as a company device, I would suggest looking to getting your own BES so you can rule out any legal entanglements.

[ajsellaroli]

hmmmmmmmm now i don't know what to do lol

You've given me too many choices!

Ok so now you say it isn't that hard after all, but I wouldn't have support from RIM. What sort of things would I need support for?

Would it be anything that I couldn't come here and find out? in this forum? Or are you talking about actually connecting the phone to the account? would that be difficult? Because I have no idea how to do that?

[sniffs]

T-Subscriber support from RIM includes many things..they'll take your event viewer and look at the logs, they'll figure out what errors are causing what and get back with you.. they'll allow you free upgrades, etc..

The "hard" I was talking to was any issues you may run into during install.. As long as you're running Exchange 2003 and the BES on their OWN individual boxes, and you make sure cdo.dll and mapi.dll are the same version on both the BES and E3 box, you shouldn't have any issues. Just dont install Outlook on either server because it overwrites those DLL's with it's own.

other than that.. having 1 user on a BES isn't work at all.. heck I wish I could have 1 user on my BES.. we have 2 BES' with over 2500 Blackberry's on each one and I manage both. It's a full time job, 5 days a week.. =/

[PvT]

Another method is Google Apps... You can host your emails names@yourdomain .com (don't need to be gmail.com addresses; share calendars, contact lists etc.

[neftv]

Say when you enable BES this way does the phone still require BBpersonal from AT&T for example?

[csiguy1]

If I would have known about Mainstreet or Intermedia, I would not have gotten Mobile Me. It is just about the same price as Mobile Me and does what I need it to do.
Thanks for the info. I learned something.

[csiguy1]

Why doesn't RIM offer the same thing as these other services? It would kill Mobile Me.

[BlitzedATL]

I'm not sure why everyone says its so hard. I'm running server 2003, the domain controller, exchange server, and BES server are all setup on one single machine also with 1.8mhz... Only 1 account (mine) on it but it only took me an hour to set it up with no problems at all for the last year. There are instructions on this site how to do it.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[sniffs]

It's not hard if you've done it before.. but for someone who hasn't ever done it can run into problems.. that's why I recommended it be on separate servers.

And wow..you have all those running on 1 box? what if that box freezes? than people cant get BB emails and exchange emails and cant even log into the domain.. yikes!

I guess I'm used to be enterprise grade where there's cold backups, major redundancy and each server on their own VM.. =/

[BlitzedATL]

Its just my 1 account, personal use. Just sits in the closet, never had a problem.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[sniffs]

Ah.. gotcha!

[gieseja]

I have quite a bit experience having done all the above scenarios and would hands down recommend hosted exchange through someone like mailstreet. $22/month gets you 2Gb mailbox with spam and virus filtering by MX Logic and BES. No setup fees right now.

Google Apps is lacking. The calendar is OK and syncs pretty well but if you get a new phone your existing appointments will not sync, only new appointments going forward. There is no contact sync and managing contacts in Google really blows. If you want to use Outlook for email the IMAP is really lacking.

You can install blackberry professional (free w/ one license and one support call) on the exchange server box but you will need the following:
server 2003 (or other) license
exchange server license
static IP
ssl certificate if you want rpc over https
spam and virus filtering

[ajsellaroli]

I have quite a bit experience having done all the above scenarios and would hands down recommend hosted exchange through someone like mailstreet. $22/month gets you 2Gb mailbox with spam and virus filtering by MX Logic and BES. No setup fees right now.

Google Apps is lacking. The calendar is OK and syncs pretty well but if you get a new phone your existing appointments will not sync, only new appointments going forward. There is no contact sync and managing contacts in Google really blows. If you want to use Outlook for email the IMAP is really lacking.

You can install blackberry professional (free w/ one license and one support call) on the exchange server box but you will need the following:
server 2003 (or other) license
exchange server license
static IP
ssl certificate if you want rpc over https
spam and virus filtering

Wait - seriously? Do I really need an exchange server license? Aren't those very expensive? And I don't know what an ssl certificate is...and I don't know what rpc over https is. All I know is we have a server right now running windows server 2000 and is basically just a big networked storage container (or at least thats all we use it for).

I'm not sure why everyone says its so hard. I'm running server 2003, the domain controller, exchange server, and BES server are all setup on one single machine also with 1.8mhz... Only 1 account (mine) on it but it only took me an hour to set it up with no problems at all for the last year. There are instructions on this site how to do it.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

What is this server 2003? Is that the operating system? or is that the file that Sniffs linked me to? the BES?

T-Subscriber support from RIM includes many things..they'll take your event viewer and look at the logs, they'll figure out what errors are causing what and get back with you.. they'll allow you free upgrades, etc..

The "hard" I was talking to was any issues you may run into during install.. As long as you're running Exchange 2003 and the BES on their OWN individual boxes, and you make sure cdo.dll and mapi.dll are the same version on both the BES and E3 box, you shouldn't have any issues. Just dont install Outlook on either server because it overwrites those DLL's with it's own.

other than that.. having 1 user on a BES isn't work at all.. heck I wish I could have 1 user on my BES.. we have 2 BES' with over 2500 Blackberry's on each one and I manage both. It's a full time job, 5 days a week.. =/

Oh wow Sniffs - thats alot of blackberries to manage !! lol yikes. We are planning on having exchange 2003 and bes on their own boxes. Just tell me this - Do I have to pay for exchange 2003 seperately? For some reason I was thinking that the BES was a replacement for the exchange server software.

Thanks for all the help so far guys

[sniffs]

No.. you need 2 copies of Server 2003..

one for the Exchange 2003 box, and one for the BES professional box.

in the short run, it's going to cost quite a bit of money.. in the long run, it's more secure, it's hosted on your machines for legality reasons, and you dont have a monthly fee.

[ajsellaroli]

wait a second sniff, why would I need two boxes?? Remember, All I'm trying to run here is one blackberry's contacts, etc. Actually, I just found out today my dad also wants his secretary's blackberry to be connected, so I guess its 2 blackberries. Why, then, would I need an Exchange 2003 box and a BES professional box? What would the exchange 2003 box's purpose be?

[sniffs]

the exchange box's purpose is to have the mailbox stored where outlook and the BB syncs to.

If you dont have a exchange box, where would your emails get stored? lol..

OR, you can tell your boss to go to a Windows Mobile phone, eliminate $$ and a BES and sync directly to Exchange.. =)

[bezking]

I recently set up 50 BBs on BES hosted by rackspace - at $22/User/Mo and with their stellar support, I highly reccomend them.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[sniffs]

that's $1100 dollars a month.. After 4 months a BES would of paid for itself.

As a corporation that can be sued/go through litigation, there's absolutely no excuse to be using hosted exchange.

With the laws of how SMS is, if you host emails on another company server, you have no legal grounds to view your employee's emails then.

Plus, if you're sued, you now have to ask that company for email logs etc.. they may not have the time or even be willing if all you are doing is paying them $22 bucks a month.