So, you've just been handed a new Blackberry on BES by your company - now what?
Now you'll need to connect your company email address to your handset, so that you can synchronise with your emails, address book, and calendar on your work computer
There are two main ways to do this - over-the-air, or using Blackberry Desktop Manager.
Activating Wirelessly
To activate your handset wirelessly, you will first need to have obtained an activation password from your IT department. This can either be automatically generated and emailed to you - or manually set by your IT helpdesk and given to you over the phone.
Once you have your activation password to hand, you will need to Activate the handset.
To do this, navigate the menu on your Blackberry to Tools/Options > Advanced Options > Enterprise Activation.
On this screen you will be asked to enter your email address (make sure this is the same as your work email address), and then the activation password you were given earlier. When both fields have been entered, press the menu key and select "Activate".
Activating using Blackberry Desktop Manager
Firstly, make sure you have the latest version of Blackberry Desktop Manager installed, and make sure that it is running on the same computer profile that you receive your work emails with. When you initially install Desktop Manager, it will present you with an option to either use Blackberry Enterprise or Blackberry Internet Services. For the following instructions to work, DTM must have been installed using the Enterprise option.
Run Blackberry Desktop Manager, and connect your handset to your computer using a USB cable.
If this is the first time you have run Desktop Manager, it may say "Disabled" on the status bar. If this is the case, click on Options > Connection Settings. Pick USB from the drop-down list and then press detect. Press OK to the warning message, and you should then see a pop-up telling you that your PIN has been detected. Press OK to this message, and then OK again on the Connection Settings window. The status should now have changed from "Disabled" to "Connected" or "Working".
Your handset will now communicate with Desktop Manager, and connect to your Outlook Profile. It will use your network connection to talk directly to your Blackberry Enterprise Server and start to activate your handset automatically. You will see your handset status flick between "Connected" and "Working" for a few minutes while this takes place. Once this has settled down, you can then disconnect your handset from your computer, and it will continue to activate wirelessly.
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Your handset will now start to authenticate with your Blackberry Enterprise Server, and synchronise your handset. This process can sometimes take up to 15 minutes to start successfully, and may take the same length of time again to complete. The screen on your Blackberry will keep you updated on the activation stage it's at through a series of progress bars, and will notify you when activation has fully completed.
During this activation process your handheld will communicate with the Blackberry Network, and ask it to send an activation email to the work address you entered on the phone. This email will contain an ETP.DAT attachment, and is designed to be picked up and recognised by your Blackberry Enterprise Server. You should see this email arrive in your inbox and dissappear shortly after.
If there are any problems during activation, or you encounter any errors, it is likely that this activation email is to blame. Make sure there are no SPAM filters or rules setup on your inbox which would move or otherwise alter the content of this email - for example, some virus scanners add the tag "" to the end of an email. Anything like this will result in the email not being recognised by your Enterprise Server, and cause the activation to fail. If this is the case, you may see several of these activation emails start to build up in your inbox and never vanish.
If you see this activation email come through to your inbox and dissapear, then it shows that your server is picking them up correctly. If activation is still not successfull, then this would indicate a problem with your Blackberry Enterprise Server.
If you do not see an activation email come through to your computer at all, then it may suggest a problem with your handset.
Once fully activated, the handset will automatically copy across a portion of your existing emails. If you have lots of emails in your inbox, please note that not all will be transferred across - only the last 14 days worth (or 750 messages, whichever limit is reached sooner) will appear on the handset. This is called "pre-population" and is only done during a new handset activation. Your BES Admin has the ability to alter this limit, but 14 days and 750 messages are the maximum possible limits they can set.
That's it! Your handset is now fully synched with Outlook or Lotus Notes - any changes you make on the handset will instantly be seen on your computer - and likewise any changes you make on the computer will instantly be seen on the handset. Your Blackberry is essentially an exact mirror-image of your desktop email and organiser program.
Enjoy!
