[berryd]

Hi - great site.
I used a 957 to monitor 120+ servers statuses at my last job, worked great and I wore down the thumb wheel and became expert at one thumb, 55 mph typing

Got laid off from that job last year, just recently got a temp job and they want me to use my own "phone/pager" to do oncall work. I wanted to get a bb since then I could do SSH to fix server issues.

Can anyone help with suggestions for the following in priority order:

0) New bb purchase, is a used "unlocked" model a good idea?
What about any experience with Earthlink?

1) service MDS for ssh ( I was looking at myblackberry.com for this )
Can I use MDS to poll for email from my own server instead? Is that practical?

2) "pushed email" service (Don't know what you call this, we had several of our own bb servers at my last job)

3) Phone service (I've read the new models with phone capabilities aren't as durable, is there a durable model with phone? - My old 957 took alot of abuse and kept going and going)

I'd like services where I can pay cash/mo - being out of work for that extended period took its toll on my credit rating and I am off the credit cards for right now, too - I realize that severely limits my choices, but I appreciate any ideas, feedback, etc. TIA.

[Tom]

I suggest you get the 7510, from nextel, it has a built in tcp/ip stack and public mds. Then get a "academic" version of Idorkko SSH (if you were a student in the past)
Get the personal model, with a BWC account.

[headtailgrep]

a student in the past? That sounds like a violation of their licensing agreement..

i don't think that's a very smart thing to advise..