We are currently using our Blackberries on a Blackberry Enterprise Server, and have installed the Blackberry Desktop Manager software on every user's computer.

Our company must always have four (4) persons "on call" at the same time, and we have four (4) different Blackberries that will be rotated among the general staff for this purpose. Although each Blackberry will have its own separate profile, all these people must have remote access to one (1) shared folder that is stored on our network.

Does anyone know whether there is a way to do this? (via third-party software, or whatever)? If so, how would this work? Must the files be stored on our Blackberry Server, or could they be stored on one of their desktop PCs? Would it be secure?

Thanks for your suggestions and assistance,
Marcia Carswell

Unless something has been released, BlackBerry handhelds cannot access network shares or any other type of Windows-based folder (I'm assuming its a Windows or Samba share).

Shared for viewing or updating documents? If you're only viewing the documents you could put them on a web server and let the blackberry users hit them through a browser. If they need the ability to update documents it will be much more difficult if not impossible. One way might be to put something like OpenSSH on the server and use one of the SSH Blackberry clients to allow access. Then, the users are going to see a prompt similar to a unix command line.

With the web server model you can provide some kind of authentication at the web server. The SSH version (which really may not work well) would be more secure.

Viewing purposes only. They don't need "remote access" to modify the documents from their Blackberry (any subsequent changes can be made from their PC). We just want these four Blackberries to synchronize with the files located in a shared folder on someone's(?) computer, so they can open and view the files.

Is this possible? If not, is there third-party software that would allow this?

Thanks!

Jessi

What kind of files are these? I mean are they images, TXT files, Word files, etc?

Most of these will be Microsoft Word files, but we may eventually have a need for Excel or other types.

The Blackberries currently synch with our company's email on the network, but I don't see any way to synch with files.

Thanks!
Jessi

I think a Dynoplex network eFile solution would work, wouldn't it? -- www.dynoplex.com

$1,000-$3,000 for a solution such as this is a bit steep, imo.

Can you make HTML documents of them and put them on a web server?

This may be overkill, but one can use Idokorro MobileAdmin and explore a shared disk drive remotely, and then you can send the file by email as an attachment (even to yourself on your own BlackBerry). Since only one license is required to admin one server (for that one shared drive) from unlimited clients, it would be cheaper than eFile. The software is more designed for remote administration though, but it is one of the many ways this can be done.

Also, there are probably specific purpose-built server software where you can request a specific file by email, and have it automatically emaield to you as an attachment.

What's not confirmed is the cheapest AND simplest way to do what you're asking.

MS Word: File > Save as > HTML

Thanks for the suggestions!

We downloaded a trial version of the E-file program from Dynoplex and tested it. For some reason it wouldn't open the Excel documents. I'm not at work right now, so I can't remember the exact error message, but it kept crashing the system. The version we downloaded was supposed to be "free," however; I didn't see anything about a $1000-$3000 price tag.

I will talk with our Network Administrator to see if it will be possible to post these documents on our secure intranet site. I am assuming, of course, that the Blackberry's browser can hit an intranet site just like a public internet address... right?

Thanks!
Jessi

If MDS services is enabled, then yes.

as for eFile, I was looking at the server component - http://dynoplex.com/corporate.shtml

Thanks so very much for all the suggestions!
Jessi

Jessi, the eFile client for the device is free and you can copy files through the desktop cradle. If you want top copy over the network you do need a server, at least eFile Server Basic at $995. You can contact us at if you need some help with install.