[Beagle]

OK Folks. I've made the jump to a BlackBerry from my aging palm devices. I am extremely happy thus far! But I've got a quick question regarding how everything is all linked up.

I am the only BlackBerry user in our small company. So I installed BPS on our Exchange server and am using the 1 free license that comes with it. After having a bit of trouble getting things to work, I now have a phone that successfully went through the BES activation. All my 600+ contacts and calendar entries are available on the BB and all of my emails come straight through.

One function that I researched ahead of time was the ability to initiate an SSH session to some of my remote servers for support issues. I was able to download and us midpssh to do exactly that. Works great. But on a recent session, I performed a simple "who" command on my Linux server while logged in and it says that my connection to that server is actually coming from my Exchange server.

Does ALL of my internet traffic flow through my Exchange/BPS server? And if so, is there a way to make it so that it does not? I'll be honest. My Exchange server is fairly old and this seems like it would be adding an unnecessary strain to it if all traffic is getting filtered and then passed on.

Can someone enlighten on exactly how this is all connected? I've searched around but when you enter terms like BES/BPS/Network into the search engines, you get information overload...

Thanks.

[chrapojr]

Not ALL of your internet traffic goes through the BPS. There are multiple browsers on your device. The Blackberry browser uses MDS (Mobile Data Service) to talk to the BPS and then the BPS does the browsing and returns the data to your device. The Internet Browser goes directly to the Internet.

With midpssh, it MUST use the MDS service to make the connection to your servers inside your network, unless those servers are open directly to the internet (I really doubt that). That's why you see the connection on your Linux server coming from the Exchange server.

[Beagle]

The servers I use the midpssh to contact are all on the internet with their own static IP's. I even tried to use the IP instead of the FQDN and it still logged in via the Exchange server. That's a bummer as I've had times when that Exchange server has been down during a storm and I need access into the system via SSH. So now if my Exchange server is down or running lethargically slow, I lose a lot of the tools I rely on via my phone to help make things better. I guess that's one thing the Treo had over a BlackBerry in that internet was internet. No need to have access to a secondary system to do filtering/access for it...

[Jadey]

As chrapojr said, do you have access to more than one browser on your BB? That will take you straight out to web via carrier.

[Jadey]

Hmmm... maybe someone who knows about BPS can say whether you can move MDS onto a different box?

[Beagle]

Originally Posted by Jadey

As chrapojr said, do you have access to more than one browser on your BB?

I do have Opera Mini and it is definitely faster for web access. I ran dslreports speed tests on both browsers. On the BB Browser, I mustered 370 kbps. On Opera Mini it ran 3400 kbps. 10 times faster!

But that still doesn't help me get SSH connected directly to my servers.

[Jadey]

OK, rather than different type of browser, I meant different carrier browser. The BB browser (any any other types of browser using MDS) go via your internal server.
You might also have an icon called something like "Internet Browser" which does not go through GPS, but uses the data connection on the phone provided by your carrier. As you said you had web-facing servers you are connecting to, that solution would probably work for you.

[Beagle]

Originally Posted by Jadey

OK, rather than different type of browser, I meant different carrier browser. The BB browser (any any other types of browser using MDS) go via your internal server.
You might also have an icon called something like "Internet Browser" which does not go through GPS, but uses the data connection on the phone provided by your carrier. As you said you had web-facing servers you are connecting to, that solution would probably work for you.

No icons on the phone for "Internet Browser". And while the servers I'm trying to connect to do have web presence, I'm trying to log into them and not browse them. I'm looking for direct TCP access via SSH.

[cruwl]

mine only has 1 icon as well so try this.

Open your browser on the BB, press menu key.
open options.
select browser config.
at the top of this window should be "Browser:" "(browser name)"

See if you can change it to another browser name and save it,
then try accessing your servers again.

[Beagle]

Inside the browser, I was able to select "Internet Browser" where it had been set to "BlackBerry Browser". I then exited and started up midpssh, logged into my Linux server, and found that I was still logged in as if coming from my Exchange/BPS server.

I'm admittedly no expert in Blackberry's. But I can't help but wonder how changing a setting in the Browser program would affect how a 3rd party application accesses the Internet. I'm not trying to "browse" my servers. I'm trying to get direct secure login access to them.

[chrapojr]

I found this on the midpssh site. It is the connection string for using a Blackberry with Wifi (to force it to use the Wifi Connection), but the part of the string DeviceSide=True seems interesting. If using Wifi, you would definately want to use a DeviceSide connection.

"192.168.1.2:22;DeviceSide=True;ConnectionUID= S TCP-WiFi;ConnectionSetup=delayed;retrynocontext=true"

I suspect you may be able to do something like "192.168.1.2:22;DeviceSide=True" as the connection string to force it to use a local connection and not server connection.

[chrapojr]

Also just found a post that on the 'Session Edit' screen, there are 2 connection options. One is TCP, one is BES. Make sure to chose TCP

[Beagle]

Yay! The DeviceSide option along with adding the port did the trick. I'm a happy camper now.

I thank you for understanding my problem and researching the answer!!!