[chazzy1973]

Hi,

I work for a small company and the MD has decided he wants a blacberry 7100v because he does a lot of travelling accross europe. I've asked vodafone for advice on the following questions but they haven't exactly been helpful!

1- Is it possible to use the blackberry for e-mail without the BES. We don't want to go to the expense of having a standalone pc/server for 1 user so I was thinking that we could forward all mail from his account on our excahnge server to his blackberry e-mail address. The only problem with this would be setting the reply address on the blackberry to appear that he was replying from his 'normal' e-mail address. Is this viable, and would there be reduced functionality?

2- Are there any other solutions? I'm open to suggestions!

Currently we have 1 office server running SBS2000/Exchange 2000

thanks
Charlie

[takeshi]

Yeah -- you can set the apparent "from" address in BWC (at least I know you can with T-Mobile USA and it works well).

[Ajnt]

Hi chazzy1973 ,

I use a 7100v on VF UK for e-mail without a BES. It works great.

When you purchase the BlackBerry you setup your account with Vodafones mobile e-mail service. This means when an e-mail comes in to the Vodafone account it is forwarded to your BlackBerry (through Vodafone's BES).

I have setup my web mail (gmail) to forward to my VF e-mail account. I have also setup my VF e-mail account "Reply To" to be my gmail address.

The only problem with this is that I don't get a copy of all the sent items from my BlackBerry in my Gmail. But they are stored in my VF e-mail account so I could always login to that and see them from there.

Hope this helps!

Andi.

[pierre1631]

Have you tried setting up in the VF settings where you changed the Reply to address, have everything BCC'ed to your gmail account. Or if it is a major issue- have gmail POP it to your VF BWC. That way you get a copy of everything in that conversation. It worked for me. Hope this helps Andi.
Malcolm

[WNO]

Chazzy, I'm not sure if this would defeat your goal of avoiding a "standalone pc/server," but the BlackBerrys come with something called a desktop redirector that turns a desktop PC into a server of sorts by forwarding Exchange mail to the user when he/she is away. It's more secure and has a better response time than the BlackBerry Web Client (which, from the internet, periodically pulls mail from your server and forwards it to the BlackBerry), but requires the PC to be on the entire time. It doesn't have all of the features of the BES, but doesn't have its associated costs, either. And it is completely transparent in the sense that mail sent through the redirector will look exactly as if it were sent from the desktop, and will even be saved in the Exchange sent mail folder.