If you have been "off air" for a while and you receive a batch of messages (or in my current situation if BES only seems to servcie each device once an hour - separate thread) then it seems wrong to me that all message are shown in the mailbox with the date/time they arrive at the device (so they all get the same date/time) - surely they should show the date/time that is stored in the email of when the mail was delivered to the host mail system.

Mail goes through 3 basic stages within the BES environment....Pending, Sent and Delivered.
Pending: mail is queued for the receipient on the BES (the wireless network only stores 5 messages/user). This can be seen on the BM stats for users
Sent: 1 or more messages have been sent to the wireless network (NOC). Again only 5 messages in total are allowed/stored per user. This is to prevent spamming and avoid network congestion. If the user is out of coverage or had wireless turned off they will not receive any messages, because the device is unable to challenge request from the BES server.
Delivered: device is on/within coverage (has acknowledged BES server challenge/response), all messages will be delivered to device. The date and time that messages in the "holding" state on the wireless network was actually delivered to the device, is the date/time stamp that the device was considered "active". The messages that are/were still queued pending delivery will also be date/time stamped with the actual date/time they were delivered. This is in accordance with normal mail routing and mail transfer which can be observed when looking at the path(s) a message takes (hops, routing servers) before final delivery.

Don't really understand the logic - this is supposed to be a piece of software that replicates the mail in my mailbox - if I am off air (and I will be for many reasons) BES shouldn't care - it should just batch up my host mail system emails in the order they arrived on that system with the date/time they arrived and deliver them when it can maintaining those dates/times.

What you describe is fine for totally free standing internet mail being sent to my native BB mail address (whatever that is) but I don't get any mail that way.

The date/time in the main inbox shows the date/time received. If you open the message, the date/time it was received to the server is listed if you scroll up.

Thanks for pointing that out - To my mind that is all the more reason why that date/time should be the one displayed in the list of items in the mailbox - whi cares when it arrived on the device - what matters is when my main mailbox received it. The "real" date/time is there so use it.

Firstly, the BES server does not "replicate" mail nor does it store mail. It acts in similar fashion to a traffic cop....it redirects mail...for users that have been enabled on the BES server. The components for GW/Domino/Exchange are different and configured differently, but the wireless activity is identical. Some of the issues you have identified in this forum could be easily resolved with a little "work" on your part. A thorough understanding of "how mail gets around" or "Tracing-a-Message" in the BES environment is freely available from RIM in both pdf and ppt formats. So to is device functions/features.
Tracing a message (delivery, routing servers, SMTP originators, deliverry times..etc) is also a simple task that is part of network management and support. Basic tenet here is "Read & Research", then ask for clarification when not understood.

Dev - if my rudimentary questions and follow ups annoy you then I would suggest that you just choose to ignore them.

Forgive me for being naive but isn't the purpose of a forum to help provide solutions to common issues that others have already encountered and hopefully solved to avoid every one having to reinvent the wheel and spend unnecessary time trying to solve a problem that is known and solved my others already.

Then I hope you have found some answers here.