As PDAs become increasingly powerful and the need to access and store larger amounts of data rises, so does the need to secure that data. When deploying mobile devices and granting users remote access to local network resources, be it email, an intranet site, file shares or specific line of business applications, the administrator needs to know that those devices are doing so securely, will automatically lock themselves if left unattended and can be remotely wiped if they are suspected of being lost or stolen.

In this article I shall look at the foremost products available today, in the author's opinion, as well as the features that should be considered when evaluating a device management solution. If you are interested in knowing more, or have any questions relating to any of the information in this article, call Brightpoint today on 0870 849 0225.

RIM have released Maintenance Release 2 for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 Service Pack 7, for both Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino versions.

The update, as well as release note, can be downloaded from http://www.blackberry.com/go/serverdownloads

This update includes bug fixes only rather than any new functionality.

The Google Apps Connector for BES is a free application that enables you to integrate a BES server with the Premier or Education Google Apps services, enabling push-based bi-directional synchronisation of Email, Contacts and Calendar data between your Google mailbox and a BlackBerry smartphone.

Features

• Push email delivery
• Read / delete synchronisation
• Folder / label synchronisation
• Global Address lookup
• Calendar synchronisation
• Contacts synchronisation
• Hosting support - support multiple Google Apps domains on a single BES

RIM have published two maintenance releases for the BES 5 software for download on the BlackBerry web site:

• BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0 Service Pack 1 Maintenance Release 2 for Microsoft Exchange
  
• BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0 Service Pack 1 Maintenance Release 1 for IBM Lotus Domino

The packages are available for download from http://www.blackberry.com/go/serverdownloads

These updates include bug fixes rather than any new functionality.

Ensure that Exchange 2010 Update Rollup 1 is installed on the Exchange 2010 server. This package is available here - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=371add31-d7a0-4...

Create a domain user account called BesAdmin

On the Exchange server, in the Active Directory Users and Computers console, create a domain user called "BesAdmin" and assign it an Exchange mailbox. Set the user account password to never expire.

WICKSoft (http://www.wicksoft.com) develop remote access solutions for BlackBerry that extend the native functionality of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) solution, enabling access to shared and public address books and calendars, as well as network file shares and Sharepoint workspaces. Sharepoint and Exchange versions 2003 and 2007 are currently supported.
Although the solution is currently limited to BlackBerry clients, the company have a version for both Windows Mobile and the iPhone in the works scheduled for release imminently.

RIM have officially added support for Exchange 2010 to BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5. Following hot on the heels of SP1 for BES 5 (http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/service-pack-1-bes-5-released), both RIM and Microsoft have released updates for BES 5 and Exchange 2010 to enable compatibility.
The pre-prequisites are therefore:

• BES 5.0.1 MR1 (ie BES 5 with Service Pack 1 and Maintenance Release 1)
  

Service Pack 1 for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5 is now available, bringing the version number up to 5.0.1

The update, which weights in at 657MB for Exchange and 667MB for Domino, is available for download from the BlackBerry web site - https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/browseSoftware.do

New features in this release include:

• BlackBerry Device Dashboard
  

In the unlikely event that your BlackBerry refuses to load one day and simply displays an error message on the screen reading "Error 302 - Reload User Software", all is not lost. You can re-load the software from your PC using the BlackBerry Desktop Manager application.

The BDM can be downloaded free of charge from the BlackBerry web site here - http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/

Install the software before connecting your device to the PC via the USB cable if you have not done so already. The main dashboard will be displayed:

In this article I shall look at what to check when your BlackBerry users are unable to either receive mail, send mail, or both.
This article will only examine how to troubleshoot BES when deployed against an Exchange server rather than Domino or Groupwise.