[bigmak]

Hi All,

I've been an Admin for BES servers in 2 different companies for about 5 years and I've never come across a device asking for a Blackberry Activation Server Name after entering the users email and activation password.

Here is a little background.
We have 1 BES server located in North America.
In our Shanghai office a user got a 8320 device from China Mobile.
He called our helpdesk to activate it and we added him to the BES and set the activation password
User entered this information and then when activating it he was prompted for the Blackberry Activation Server Name

This is where we are stuck as we don't allow our end users to install Desktop Manager so a wired activation is out of the question.

Anyone ever here of a device asking for the activation server name and if so what is it? We've already tried the name of our BES server but no luck.

Thanks for any info you can give.

[MarkF]

Sounds like the carrier might have provisioned the account with a BIS plan, not the required BES plan.

[bigmak]

I've never used a BIS plan, does this ask for a activation server name?

[MarkF]

BIS = Blackberry Internet Service, that's where the carrier handles the redirection of the email.
BES = Blackberry Enterprise Service, that's the data plan you require as you are using your own Blackberry server to handle email redirection.

The end user needs to check with their carrier to make sure they have the BES data plan.

[penguin3107]

Originally Posted by bigmak

User entered this information and then when activating it he was prompted for the Blackberry Activation Server Name

This is where we are stuck as we don't allow our end users to install Desktop Manager so a wired activation is out of the question.

Anyone ever here of a device asking for the activation server name and if so what is it? We've already tried the name of our BES server but no luck.

Sounds like the user is trying to do an activation via WiFi. You would need to permit this and have the WiFi activation settings properly configured on your BES.

[bigmak]

We don't do WiFi activations and if so, is there a way to ensure that he's not doing via WiFi.

I'll also check to ensure that the user is on a BES plan but due to the time difference i won't be able to find out until tomorrow

[penguin3107]

Just have the user leave that field blank on the activation screen.
All they need to enter is their email address, and activation password.
(Provided they have a BES data plan and GPRS/EDGE coverage where they are.)

[bigmak]

I'll give it a try and let you know tomorrow

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Pinjo]

We've only had this happen once (I think we only have 2 activated devices on the BES with WiFi capabilities) and it was exactly as Penguin stated. Threw me off when they called me and asked what to enter there. I thought they were lying to me until I saw this KB article Activation server address field

[bigmak]

Good to know.. I've forwarded this information to our techs in Shanghai and hopefully will get some good news tomorrow...

[bigmak]

The helpdesk had user try leaving the server name field blank and still no luck. I'm going to try to get them to ask the user to turn off the WiFi radio next. I also confirmed that he is on a BES plan and not a BIS.

Any other suggestions?

[conniet]

I've tested a couple of wi-fi devices on my bes servers and leaving that field blank worked fine for me. (Although, the extra field on my test bold says: "Activation Server Address" )

[bigmak]

We finally got it activated it seemed the first try with a blank server name didn't work but after another go at it, it activated successfully.

Thanks everyone for your input!

[noname]

Have anyone verified with RIM what is this field used for?
No document, no nothing, come one RIM, not again!!!!

[holden]

Hi all...
This is good info. Our corporate has not embraced any wireless devices as of yet. We cannot activate any device that is capable of wireless as we have a corporate standard and only allow certain phones. (8320 wireless device etc. are not allowed)
Going forward with all the changes in BB phones, this policy may change. (or I hope it does)

[ashworth]

Yah all of my wifi devices have it and i leave it blank without any issues.

I am sure this field is used for wifi EA's. So if you have a wifi device you can get it EA'ed before the SIM is provisioned. I have not played with this yet. It is on my list.

[Pinjo]

Originally Posted by noname

Have anyone verified with RIM what is this field used for?
No document, no nothing, come one RIM, not again!!!!

The KB article I referenced in my last post has a short answer to your question. It's to send the EA message with the ETP.DAT directly to the BB Router for activation over the wireless network.

Here it is again Activation server address field