can you manually asign a PIN number to a user?

No, PIN's are built into the handhelds and can't be changed.

no on the server, you add a user can you asign the PIN number for that user it's searching for?

No it would be a security risk you have to do an EA or a cradle activation.

Well - you actually can do this with the BES for MDS Apps, but that's because it uses a service account for provisioning and uses the PIN to transport the EA data for that user. One of the main diffs between the MDS BES and normal BES's is that provisioning method. With a normal bes the ea is transported through email ... trying to change this would be quite a rewrite I would assume.

The EA for MDS BES is also through email It's just that everyone activates to the same account so they need to know which user is which.