Wifi Enterprise Activation
 

We just got in a few of TMOs 8320s. As I was activating them I noticed there was a new line on the Enterprise Activation screen that says "Activation Server Address". I assume that this allows for Wifi Enterprise Activation. Is that correct? If so, what are the requirements to do this? I tried putting in the IP address of our BES Server (internal address) and it never activated. Is there a setting on the BES I need to change to allow for this? Or can it even see internal addresses? Would I have to NAT the BES address to an external IP?

I don't know much of anything about the wifi devices (sucks to be me) ... but: Activation server address field ... I'd recommend going through the install / admin guide to see what it says to do for this.

and yes, it is just for wifi enterprise activation.

Having done a few EAs on the 8320, I find you do not need to fill out this field.

Yeah, I went ahead and activated them just fine without putting anything in the field. I was just wondering if this would allow for activation over Wifi. Not really that useful cause I only do maybe one activation a week - it was just for my own curiosity.

If the 8320 / 8820 that you're activating has a GPRS connection, and you don't fill in the third field, it'll activate just like any other Blackberry, over GPRS.

If the BES that you're installing on has had the "WLAN Activation" screen filled in (tick the box and specify the port number to talk to the SMTP server on), and you fill in the third field with an address that the 8320 / 8820 will resolve to the Blackberry Router (or BES, if the router's on the BES), then activation can occur over WiFi without the ETP message being sent all the way to RIM via carrier GPRS.

To test this out, turn on an 8320 / 8820 and turn off GPRS, leaving WiFi on (and configured for the local WLAN of course). Provided that the device can talk to the Router and the ETP message can get to the BES, you can do an activation without GPRS being enabled.

The RIM documentation also implies to me that you can enterprise activate a WiFi Blackberry on one BES using an entirely unconnected Blackberry Router, although I've not tried that though and may be reading WAY too much into the documentation).

Hi, I just got set up on BES and have been trying to get activated on my BB (8320). My IT guy already sent me the password and I've tried activating the account. I keep getting and error saying "The Server is not Responding. Please contact our System Administrator".

Is this an issue with our Exchange server or could this be something with my BB? Wondering if anyone has had this issue before and how they got it fixed.

You might want to create your own thread ...

that said, check that you have an enterprise blackberry data plan ... and these things: The server is not responding. Please contact your administrator.

Thanks a ton for that link. That will help alot.

For info, which of the three fields did you fill in?

With an 8320 you've got a choice of activating over GPRS or over WiFi, and whether you fill in the third field or not will determine which the BB tries. Even activating over WiFi you'll still need a SIM card with an enterprise data plan I think - my understanding is that it has to have had GPRS turned on at least once.

FYI - I was able to activate an 8320 over WiFi after turning on the "Permit wireless activation in your WLAN environment" option within Blackberry Server Configuration. I used the internal IP address in the Activation Server Address field.

I did not notice that it went much faster than doing it over the cell network. As I figured - it's good to know, but I probably won't ever use it.