How do I set up my Blackberry? I work for a pretty big company.
They're rolling out blackberry service but who knows how long it will
take. Until then, is there some way for me to set up outlook and the blackberry
desktop redirector on an admin's desktop that will allow me to have my
email constantly forwarded? |
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
25 Oct 2004 21:26 PDT
seaone-ga:
Since you mentioned that your company has not yet rolled out
Blackberry service (and by this, I presume you mean they have not yet
installed an Enterprise Server to work with your corporate Exchange
server), then you can indeed go ahead and set up the Blackberry
Desktop Redirector on a PC that has MS Outlook installed, where the MS
Outlook is configured to access your e-mail account. Are you looking
for instructions and tips on how to do this? If so, can you please
clarify a few things:
- do you have a PC in the office that has Outlook installed and
configured to access your e-mail account?
- if so, can this PC be left on constantly?
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
seaone-ga
on
26 Oct 2004 07:01 PDT
Thanks aht-ga. I was hoping to set this up for an admin to do. i'm
often out of the office so having an admin do it would be great. i'm
not clear on how to set up outlook on another persons machine so that
they could redirect my mail. can you help?
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
26 Oct 2004 14:36 PDT
A limiting factor is MS Outlook; if the admin is already using MS
Outlook for their own e-mail, then it limits their ability to run
Outlook/Blackberry Redirector to manage your e-mail. Are all of the
admins in your office using MS Outlook for their own e-mail already?
If they are, another option is to simply have a PC (perhaps even an
obsolete one that would otherwise be useless) turned on all the time,
running Outlook and the Redirector... is this an option for you?
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
seaone-ga
on
26 Oct 2004 15:35 PDT
aht-ga;
thanks for the thoughts. I could set up an old machine to run a
redirect (I'd have to go buy one, load outlook, vpn, etc.) might be a
little outside my skill set but I could likely get some help. if I do
set up a permanent "desktop" machine in a closet some place, will that
become the permanent repository for my email? how do I continue to use
my laptop as my computer based email repository?
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
26 Oct 2004 18:39 PDT
Let me take a couple of steps back first, and confirm a few things
with you. First, is your company e-mail using a Microsoft Exchange
Server, or are you instead using Outlook with a POP3 or IMAP type of
Internet e-mail server?
In either case, what you would be doing with the desktop PC is setting
it up to leave all messages on the server. In the case of a Microsoft
Exchange Server, you can actually have the desktop PC logged into your
account constantly, and still use your laptop to log into your
Exchange Server account at the same time. The default way that Outlook
handles Exchange Server accounts is to leave everything on the server,
meaning that no mail would need to be stored locally on the desktop
PC. Similarly, if you have a POP3 or IMAP e-mail server in your
company instead of an Exchange server, you can configure Outlook to
leave the mail on the server so that you can still retrieve it using
your laptop.
So, if you can tell me what type of e-mail server your company has, I
can construct an Answer for you that is appropriate to your needs.
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
seaone-ga
on
27 Oct 2004 07:38 PDT
Hi AHT,
thanks for your help on this. Yes. Company is using exchange. I've now
got my blackberry up and working using the desktop redirector. problem
is, it only works when i'm "on the network;" at work or home via vpn.
didn't know that was how outlook worked. other options outside of
leaving a pc at work? seems like a bit of a hassle. if I do go that
route, can I run multiple users? ie can i set one up for a co-working
on the same machine? not critical, but a yes answer would make the
work more compelling.
thanks
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
27 Oct 2004 09:05 PDT
Unfortunately, no. It's the limitations of MS Outlook (and the
Blackberry Redirector) rearing its ugly head again. It's the same
reason why I asked if your company's admins are already using Outlook
for their own e-mail. In a single Windows session, you can only have a
single MS Outlook profile active at a time. You can open multiple
windows for different parts of that profile (ie. one window for your
Inbox, one for your Calendar, etc), but Outlook can only see the one
profile. Now, within the one profile, you can actually configure
Outlook to look at multiple accounts. However, the Blackberry
Redirector will only work with one Blackberry account, so you're still
limited to a single user.
One workaround, albeit a difficult one for the average person, is to
run several 'virtual PC' environments on the same computer, and run MS
Outlook and Blackberry Redirector within each environment. This is, of
course, a "your results may vary" type of scenario, and any problems
can result in all of the users not getting their e-mail. If you have
Windows XP, you can sort of achieve the same result by setting up
multiple user accounts on the PC, enabling switching between users,
and again run Outlook/Redirector for each user. As neither Outlook nor
Redirector were designed for this, and especially because Redirector
requires synchronization with a single Blackberry during its
installation, this approach can be both messy and difficult.
I suppose this is by design, to encourage companies to adopt
Blackberry Enterprise Server. :)
Now, this leaves the question of whether or not a satisfactory Answer
can be provided to you...?
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
seaone-ga
on
28 Oct 2004 19:02 PDT
aht
thank you for all of your help on this. appreciate the ideas and
diagnoses. please put this up as an "answer"
thanks again!
|
seaone-ga:
Thank you for allowing me to post this Answer. Let me summarize our
discussion, below.
In your current situation, where your corporate e-mail is served by an
MS Exchange server, but where Blackberry Enterprise Server has not
been implemented, the only method to get your e-mail onto your
Blackberry is using the Blackberry Desktop Redirector program. If
there is an admin assistant in your company who does not use MS
Outlook to manage their own e-mail, then it would be possible run MS
Outlook and Blackberry Redirector on that admin's PC (on a permanent,
always-on basis) in order to push the e-mail to your Blackberry;
however, this also means that the admin (or anyone with access to
their PC) would have access to your e-mail as well.
If all of the admin assistants are already using MS Outlook to manage
their own e-mail (or even to manage their boss' e-mail... and you are
not their boss...), then the limitations of MS Outlook and the
Redirector will prevent you from implementing this option. MS Outlook
only allows one user profile to be active at a time on a given PC. As
well, Redirector can only be installed for a single user/Blackberry.
One other approach that would work is to set up a dedicated PC (with
Outlook and Redirector installed) and to leave it on permanently to
push your e-mail to you. As long as you configure Outlook on this PC
to leave all of your mail on the server, you can continue to use
Outlook on your laptop even with this other PC on constantly.
Ultimately, the best 'solution' is to have the Enterprise Server
implemented; knowing all too well how long some IT groups can take to
test out and validate new technology, the most practical approach
right now would be to find an under-utilized PC in the company, set up
Outlook and Redirector on it, and run it constantly.
Hope this discussion was helpful!
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher |
