Journal Shakrai's Journal: I Hate Crackberry 6
Trying to set up an employees Blackberry to connect to Outlook Web Access. Can't manage to make it connect. Call up Verizon Tech Support, get bumped from Level 1 to Level 2 and then to Blackberry. Blackberry bumps me up to Level 2 and then Level 3. Still no explanation for why it won't work. Did receive a "helpful" recommendation to purchase Blackberry Enterprise Server. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense for one user....
From research I've done on my own while on hold it appears that Blackberry doesn't want to play nice with reverse proxy servers. We have such a server between our Exchange box and the internet -- a small Linux box running Squid. This configuration works just fine with every other smart phone we have (Droids, Palms and Windows Mobile) and users who log into OWA from normal web browsers but not with the Blackberry for some reason. Go figure. Naturally the employee in question is a member of management and will be most unhappy if I can't get her stupid crackberry working. I wonder if there is a work around for this or if I'm really going to have to change our network configuration to accommodate this one device?
Just concluded my three hour telephone marathon with no resolution on the issue. I asked my rep at "Level 3" whether or not the reverse proxy server might be the cause and his response was "What's a proxy server?" So much for Level 3 support....
Use a Windows Phone for 6 years (Score:1)
Then, cry like a baby with sweet tears of bliss, when you curl your paw - at long last - around a Blackberry.
Express (Score:2)
May I suggest Blackberry Server Express [blackberry.com]? Does what you want, no cost to acquire it, no CAL cost, and RIM supports it being run directly on the exchange server (unlike BES). Also, you can allegedly drop the BES data plan (at least RIM claims so) and go with the consumer grade option, which will save you an average of $15/month/line.
BTW, next to nothing plays nice with Exchange with a reverse proxy in the way... I had to get rid of my apache reverse proxy (and forward 443 directly to the exchange box *shudd
Re: (Score:1)
Does BSE work with more than one device? Someone had indicated to me that the free version is only good for one Blackberry and that you need to purchase CALs for additional devices. As it stands I only have one to worry about but I know that twenty other people are going to come out of the woodwork when and if I get this one working.
Reverse proxy has worked for me with Droids, Windows Mobile and Palms. I haven't tried the Palms with Exchange 2007 through the reverse proxy but they worked just fine with
Re: (Score:2)
That was true under the old BES ("BES Express" as opposed to "Blackberry Express Server"). The new version lacks a couple of features (MVS, most of the fine grained IT policies... policies are now limited to a couple of dozen) but the software and CALs are zero cost for unlimited devices (75 on the exchange box, couple of thousa
Re: (Score:2)
FYI Here's the FAQ [blackberry.com].
Re: (Score:1)
I'm SSL proxy'ed to SSL now as well. I couldn't get the forwarding in the clear to work with Exchange 2007 for whatever reason. It kept trying to redirect to https. So now squid forwards it via ssl and accepts the self-signed certificate from the Exchange box. This setup hasn't given me any fits with the other smart phones I've setup or with web browsers accessing OWA, so it's disappointing to discover that the Blackberries choke on it.
More disappointing was the quality of their tech support. One of t