I have a new 8220 from T-Mobile. I have multiple computer platforms that I use including MAC, Linux (Fedora), and Windows Vista. Is it possible to sync the same data between all these OS's? I want to have the same data on every computer and my phone.

Thanks

Wirelessly posted (8300)

Hmmm. What kind of email account are you trying to sync?

Short Answer:
Go back to tmobile get the bes enterpise plan and subscribe to a commerical bes provider. There is no way to force 2 way changes(delete from computer, gone from device) without being on a bes server.

Normal BIS only allows you to delete from handheld, delete from mail account.

Please correct if I'm wrong their. One the email has been pushed to your device it will only be removed if:
1) Expires(based upon option "keep message how long")
2)Deleted manually on device
3) Bb runs out of memory and removes

Well I am not so much trying to sync my mail as I am my contacts, calendar and notes.

I use IMAP for mail, so I dont think that will be an issue.

I'm not sure what you may want to use for Mac, but with windows and linux, you could check out the funambol project. All of funambol's software can be found here.

For those that don't know, funambol is a SyncML server package that allows you to store calendar events, tasks (to-do's), notes, contacts, and I think email, on a host computer and then sync that information amongst any number of clients that are SyncML compatible.

Here you have several packages available. You can set up your own Funambol SyncML server on either a windows or linux box, or you can use a web service like ScheduleWorld that supports SyncML. I recommend the use of ScheduleWorld so that you don't have to worry about setting up the server infrastructure. Setting up the server could be very tedious and time consuming.

From there it's a matter of installing the proper SyncML clients on your box's and blackberry. For windows you can use the Outlook Sync on the funambol site. For the blackberry you can use the blackberry sync client which is also off of the funambol site. For Linux you can use SyncEvolution which is available here. I do not know if there is a SyncML client for Mac, but I'm sure there is. I would search for an open source SyncML client as they tend to not only be free as in freedom, but free as in beer as well.

Once the clients are installed, just follow the documentation for each client to configure them to connect to your SyncML server (ie ScheduleWorld), and just run them all to sync with the same server and account on the server. The hardest maybe SyncEvolution to setup, but it works very well once it is setup.

The best part is that this is all done over the network so you don't need to have all 3 computers and your blackberry in the same room. you can be anywhere to complete the sync. And there are automated sync options available.

The BB client supports automated syncs by setting a schedule in it's options menu, and SyncEvolution is ran from the command line so you can set up a cron job on linux to run the task when you want. I do not know about the Outlook Sync Client as I run Linux and can't test it out for you.

I hope this all helps you one way or the other, and it is cheaper than paying for BES.

ADDENDUM: It looks like according to this blog post at SyncEvolution - The Missing Link : SyncML + Mac OS X , SyncEvolution supports MacOS X. I will let you research that as I run linux and don't have a Mac ;).

WOW, Thanks for the very detailed reply. That is great.

One question, does the SyncML server have to be a special server with special packages installed? I have a linux dedicated server I can install some software on.

The SyncML server is the core of the funambol project. I do not run my own server, so I can not help you with the process of setting it up. I think it's java tomcat based and my last foray into setting it up 2 to 3 years ago ended with me wanting to slam back many many bottles of jack to drown the pain. Yet I'm sure much has changed since then.

From what I remember, the funambol server can be installed on either a linux machine or windows. It can stand on it's own and does not require apache, mysql or any other package that I know of.

Hope that helps.

You have been a great help, Thanks a million. I will try to remember to post my experiments!