[sunpat]

Using BlackBerry Internet Service & OWA. (Outlook Web Access)

When I first got my BlackBerry it worked fine. Used to send any new emails to work BlackBerry within minutes of them hitting my work account. Recently though it's stopped working & I can't determine why.

Vodafone have been useless, the last reply I got to my email stated that...
"Blackberry Webclient solution is not intended to connect to Exchange servers, only POP3 or IMAP4 emails accounts. If an Exchange server has POP3 or IMAP4 access allowed, then the Blackberry service can connect to it."

LOL - it's clear this guy does not grasp how BlackBerry & OWA access works, or at least should work.

Let me explain what I've done to see if anyone can help me diagnose the problem.

At work we use exchange, we have a URL that lets us check our emails via the internet. You don't need to VPN in, we just go to (URL changed, but like)...
h t t p s : / / email.mycompany.com/exchange/ (had to put spaces in for forum to accept it)
...this works fine from home, no problem

so on the BlackBerry web page I've entered the following details...
Email Accounts, Add Account

Email Address:
User Name: normal-company-login
Password: normal-company-password
Re-enter Password: normal-company-password

then on the next screen it says...
We were unable to configure this mailbox. Please tell us how you access this email account.

Internet Service Provider Email
I use an email client such as Outlookxxx8482;, Outlook Expressxxx8482;, Netscape®, Eudora®.

Microsoft® Outlookxxx8482;/Exchangexxx8482;
I can access my mailbox using a Web browser (Outlook Web Access)
I always use Microsoft® Outlookxxx8482; to access my mailbox

Lotus® Notesxxx8482;/Dominoxxx8482;
I can access my mailbox using a Web browser (iNotes)
I always use Lotus® Notesxxx8482; to access my mailbox

If you do not have this information readily available, you can add this email account at a later time.

...so I choose "Outlook Web Access"

Then I get...
Outlookxxx8482; Web Access URL: h t t p s : / /email.mycompany.com/exchange (had to put spaces in for forum to accept it)
Mailbox Name: myname
Email Address:
User Name: normal-company-login
Password: normal-company-password
Re-enter Password: normal-company-password

Then I now get...
"Cannot integrate the email account! Please check your information and try again."

As I said it works perfectly from home (no VPN or anything cleaver. Even works from an internet cafe "easyeverything") so don't think it's a firewall issue.

Since there is no error file or log file it is very difficult to track down the error.

Has anyone any ideas what I should be checking?

thanks

[whsbuss]

Originally Posted by sunpat

Using BlackBerry Internet Service & OWA. (Outlook Web Access)

When I first got my BlackBerry it worked fine. Used to send any new emails to work BlackBerry within minutes of them hitting my work account. Recently though it's stopped working & I can't determine why.

Vodafone have been useless, the last reply I got to my email stated that...
"Blackberry Webclient solution is not intended to connect to Exchange servers, only POP3 or IMAP4 emails accounts. If an Exchange server has POP3 or IMAP4 access allowed, then the Blackberry service can connect to it."

LOL - it's clear this guy does not grasp how BlackBerry & OWA access works, or at least should work.

Let me explain what I've done to see if anyone can help me diagnose the problem.

At work we use exchange, we have a URL that lets us check our emails via the internet. You don't need to VPN in, we just go to (URL changed, but like)...
h t t p s : / / email.mycompany.com/exchange/ (had to put spaces in for forum to accept it)
...this works fine from home, no problem

so on the BlackBerry web page I've entered the following details...
Email Accounts, Add Account

Email Address:
User Name: normal-company-login
Password: normal-company-password
Re-enter Password: normal-company-password

then on the next screen it says...
We were unable to configure this mailbox. Please tell us how you access this email account.

Internet Service Provider Email
I use an email client such as Outlook™, Outlook Express™, Netscape®, Eudora®.

Microsoft® Outlook™/Exchange™
I can access my mailbox using a Web browser (Outlook Web Access)
I always use Microsoft® Outlook™ to access my mailbox

Lotus® Notes™/Domino™
I can access my mailbox using a Web browser (iNotes)
I always use Lotus® Notes™ to access my mailbox

If you do not have this information readily available, you can add this email account at a later time.

...so I choose "Outlook Web Access"

Then I get...
Outlook™ Web Access URL: h t t p s : / /email.mycompany.com/exchange (had to put spaces in for forum to accept it)
Mailbox Name: myname
Email Address:
User Name: normal-company-login
Password: normal-company-password
Re-enter Password: normal-company-password

Then I now get...
"Cannot integrate the email account! Please check your information and try again."

As I said it works perfectly from home (no VPN or anything cleaver. Even works from an internet cafe "easyeverything") so don't think it's a firewall issue.

Since there is no error file or log file it is very difficult to track down the error.

Has anyone any ideas what I should be checking?

thanks

There's been other reports of OWA integration issues. I suggest getting Vodaphone to transfer you to RIM so you can establish a ticket with them.

[sunpat]

Yeah - Vodafone's great response was...

"the Blackberry Webclient solution is not intended to connect to Exchange servers, only POP3 or IMAP4 emails accounts. If an Exchange server has POP3 or IMAP4 access allowed, then the Blackberry service can connect to it."
&
"The only possible solution for enabling the blackberry device to receive the emails, are purchasing a blackberry Enterprise Server, Creating a forwarding rule from the exchange server to the mobile email account or getting the exchange server to allow pop3 external access"
&
"Throughout our interactions I have been in contact with our complex team
who have been giving me the information to pass onto yourself it is not
a error on the Blackberry server"

Complete rubbish you see - they do not understand how it used to/should work!

[rjdennison]

Originally Posted by sunpat

The only possible solution for enabling the blackberry device to receive the emails, are purchasing a blackberry Enterprise Server, Creating a forwarding rule from the exchange server to the mobile email account or getting the exchange server to allow pop3 external access

That's crap.

It works fine for me (BIS & OWA), although there was an early hiccup. When I first tried to set it up, I got a similar error as you did sunpat. What i noticed when I next logged into my OWA account, was that BIS had sent an email to that account telling me that the configuration had failed, and walking me through the right input parameters again.

The 2nd time it worked without a hitch (and the integration is better - sent items on BB are put into sent items on Exch, and vice versa). Guess if it could sync contacts & calendar too, they'd cannibalize the BES business...

So far I haven't helped you, unless you're NOT receiving the email from BIS notifying you of the failed attempt to integrate w/ your account. Are you using BWC (BlackBerry Web Client) or BIS? I haven't tried OWA integration w/ BWC, so can't comment on that. I'll give that a try when I have a chance. BTW - what version of Exchange (and thus OWA) are you using?

Rogers has some BB accounts on BIS & some on BWC, and apparently there's no upgrade path from BWC to BIS. The upgrade Rogers 'recommends' is killing the BWC account, but you're not guaranteed (READ: don't bet on it) to get the same account name when you add a BIS account.... I gather an upgrade path is coming later on...

Hope this helps.

R.

[breaker909]

I have been having the same issue on Nextel for about the last month now. I can login to the OWA (Exchange 2003) on the web but cannot configure the exact same account thorugh either my handheld or the RIM Nextel BIS page....

I tried setting it up as a POP3 account per some nstructionson Pinstack and although I got closer I still didnt get in.

same system too.... really really strange. But interesting I have learned a lot about how these systems work n the past few weeks. If anyone has any idea please toss them my way!

[rjdennison]

Originally Posted by rjdennison

I haven't tried OWA integration w/ BWC, so can't comment on that. I'll give that a try when I have a chance.

Couldn't get OWA (same exch server) to work using Rogers BWC. Works with BIS. I'm using Exch2003 & forcing OWA to use SSL. Maybe (just a guess) BWC doesn't handle SSL very well, while BIS does. I can try turning off the SSL enforcement to see if that changes anything.

Next update shortly...

R.

[cjk]

mine works fine..

when i tried entering my company email login, it did not work

however, with our exchange server it seems for login, i have to enter "internal/username" whiich is the name of your domain at work

and then it works fine..

so if your companies domain is abccompany, you put abccompany/username on bis

[PeterJS]

Username should be: yourusername@domainname

Note the "@" sign. Domain name is the name of the domain where the Exchange server resides.

Hope this helps,
Pete