OWA on BIS

P

phiber

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2005
Messages
4,304
Reaction score
49
Hi guys,

I would like to know if anyone has managed to get their blackberrys syncing with their work exchange servers ? I keep getting errors, and i know a couple of guys that can't get it to work. I also know guys with iphones and windows mobile phones have no issue using owa. Any tips? Do i need to have BIS ?
 
It basically fails if you use https to access owa when the certificate is self signed. If you are the admin of the server try and disable the https and use only http connection to owa. But you should now that it leaves the server vunerable and unsecure.

Thats what i think, havent had the oppertunity to do a proper test of it yet.
 
not an admin, i work for a big corporate.... need to see if they can set it up for me i guess.
 
Remember that if you got a Exchange 2003 bex behind a ISA firewall this will most likely prevent the BIS side of things from connecting to validate your account.

OWA for BIS is not recommended "technically".

Depending on the amount of users and because you getting 1/2 breed Outlook functionality you may as well go the full hog and at least get BPS (Blackberry Profession Server) which runs upto 30 users or Enterprise which does a full whack up upto 2000.

Vodacom Business also does Hosted Exchange and Hosted Blackberry but they need your mail to come over to them to do that properly.

BES does'nt play nicely if its not on the same lan as Exchange.
 
fismail said:
Remember that if you got a Exchange 2003 bex behind a ISA firewall this will most likely prevent the BIS side of things from connecting to validate your account.
Click to expand...



Yea, not validating my account. Even oma. gonna go to them at work tomorrow. Wasn't too keen to have my work mail on my phone, but now it is becoming a bit necessary.
 
Last edited:
tried domain\username and just the username. tried https, http, tried oma... just cant get it right hey. Some don't validate, some say check the owa url... am gonna ask at work when i get the chance.
 
Try this ...

BIS requires the following for OWA.

Outlook OWA / Exchange webmail url -> if you cannot logon to your Exchange box using that then it won't work on BIS. This is either http:// or https:// and the format is in the following ...
http://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/owa - normally a 2007 exchange server
https://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/owa - normally a 2007 exchange server
http://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/exchange - normally a 2003 exchange server
https://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/exchange - normally a 2003 exchange server

It also gets "complicated" if you have a front-end server that then passes the request to a back-end server.

Some companies also "block" connectivity from RIM's carrier's ie Vodacom / MTN because of company policy in receiving email on a Blackberry handheld and thus they may be blocking the following IP ranges / subnets from RIM ...

See the following links from RIM.

Important reading.
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-Internet-Service/Help-with-OWA-and-BIS/m-p/268520

IP ranges in this link.
http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/sear...Public&dialogID=69199896&stateId=0 0 69201325

Your BB does not access OWA...BIS accesses OWA and pushes/pulls to/from your BB, acting as the conduit between the two. To do what you are suggesting would mean that your carrier and RIM would have to make changes to your BIS config in order for it to route through a different path...pretty much not gonna happen, I'm thinking.

BTW -- The reason that WM devices can work is that they don't use a BIS-like service...they indeed access the POP/IMAP/OWA servers directly...BB's route through BIS.

Other detail

Username -> either "username" or "domain\username"

Password -> password associated with your AD (Active Directory) account

Email Address -> the relevant email address preferably the default one under your AD account if you have multiple smtp addresses -> the default is usually preceded by SMTP

Mailbox name -> this is generally your logon name and / or alias as specified in AD.

**When you change your AD password you will have to change it on your BIS profile otherwise no more email will come to the handheld**
 
fismail said:
Try this ...

BIS requires the following for OWA.

Outlook OWA / Exchange webmail url -> if you cannot logon to your Exchange box using that then it won't work on BIS. This is either http:// or https:// and the format is in the following ...
http://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/owa - normally a 2007 exchange server
https://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/owa - normally a 2007 exchange server
http://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/exchange - normally a 2003 exchange server
https://exchangeservername.domain.co.za/exchange - normally a 2003 exchange server

It also gets "complicated" if you have a front-end server that then passes the request to a back-end server.

Some companies also "block" connectivity from RIM's carrier's ie Vodacom / MTN because of company policy in receiving email on a Blackberry handheld and thus they may be blocking the following IP ranges / subnets from RIM ...

See the following links from RIM.

Important reading.
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-Internet-Service/Help-with-OWA-and-BIS/m-p/268520

IP ranges in this link.
http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/sear...Public&dialogID=69199896&stateId=0 0 69201325

Your BB does not access OWA...BIS accesses OWA and pushes/pulls to/from your BB, acting as the conduit between the two. To do what you are suggesting would mean that your carrier and RIM would have to make changes to your BIS config in order for it to route through a different path...pretty much not gonna happen, I'm thinking.

BTW -- The reason that WM devices can work is that they don't use a BIS-like service...they indeed access the POP/IMAP/OWA servers directly...BB's route through BIS.

Other detail

Username -> either "username" or "domain\username"

Password -> password associated with your AD (Active Directory) account

Email Address -> the relevant email address preferably the default one under your AD account if you have multiple smtp addresses -> the default is usually preceded by SMTP

Mailbox name -> this is generally your logon name and / or alias as specified in AD.

**When you change your AD password you will have to change it on your BIS profile otherwise no more email will come to the handheld**
Click to expand...


I connect to my mail via OWA on my desktop all the time, works no problem. Also used OWA to setup evolution. Pretty much tried everything in your guide already, didn't manage. Thanks for guide though, its quite comprehensive, hopefully it can hep someone :)
 
Ok so, only way is to get BES and they will add me to the server... Seems like using OWA on your BIS would violate policy even if it worked.
 
Thats the thing. Half the time the policy is there because the IT okes don't understand it or want to understand it or the accounts beancounters don't want to pay for yet another expensive piece of software.

The US government is the biggest user of Blackberry (with regards to security and encryption and so on)

phiber said:
Ok so, only way is to get BES and they will add me to the server... Seems like using OWA on your BIS would violate policy even if it worked.
Click to expand...
 
fismail said:
Thats the thing. Half the time the policy is there because the IT okes don't understand it or want to understand it or the accounts beancounters don't want to pay for yet another expensive piece of software.

The US government is the biggest user of Blackberry (with regards to security and encryption and so on)
Click to expand...

Yea. Problem is, if i cancel by BIS and get BES then all my internet goes thru the proxy here (from what i understand) and that proxy blocks pretty much everything i need my bb for :P
 
The Blackberry Browser will go via your BES server.
The Internet Browser should bypass it.
You can download Opera Mini which will then use data from the "internet" APN and to not pay R2 a meg out of bundle you will then have to purchase a data bundle / top-up / month-to-month / ad-hoc.

phiber said:
Yea. Problem is, if i cancel by BIS and get BES then all my internet goes thru the proxy here (from what i understand) and that proxy blocks pretty much everything i need my bb for :P
Click to expand...
 
Heres a tip for anyone struggling with this, outlook has case sensitive mail box names.... Seems to do the trick :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X