BlackBerry Redirector vs. BIS and BES
Determining the Best Way to Get Email on a BlackBerry
Many people are familiar with the ubiquitous BlackBerry, which has made its way from exclusive resident of the C-suite to celebrity toy and now to the consumer market. But depending upon how an individual wishes to use the device and the environment he or she is in, the way email appears on the device may vary.
Get Blackberry Email via BIS
The simplest way to get email on a BlackBerry is to obtain BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) from the carrier. The carrier gives the user an email address (yourname@carrier.blackberry.net for example), and then that email address can be used to contact the user on the BlackBerry.
Users of BIS can set other email accounts up to automatically forward to the yourname@carrier.blackberry.net address. Additionally, the BlackBerry can be configured to pull down other POP3 internet email addresses (for example, yourname@yahoo.com) with BIS as well. See this article for more information on BIS.
Get Blackberry Email via BES
If, however, the user needs to get corporate email on a device, many companies will set up a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) or BlackBerry Professional Software and manage all the corporate mobile email from a central location. See this article for more details.
Get Email via the BlackBerry Redirector
For corporate employees that do not have access to a BES and want a more professional domain name in their email address than the options available with BIS, it is possible to use BlackBerry Redirector. BlackBerry Redirector is a part of the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software that came on the CD that was delivered along with the BlackBerry smartphone, charger, and other components in the original box.
A user who wants to receive corporate email while on the go can leave their company or home computer on and the BlackBerry software running. The BlackBerry Redirector software will “listen” to the user’s corporate email in box and wait to an email to arrive. The Redirector software will then forward that email to the device.
The essential difference between BES and BlackBerry Redirector is that BES listens at the server, and the BlackBerry Redirector listens at the individual desktop or PC. Since a corporate server is the responsibility of the company’s information technology team and is always on anyway, this is the preferred method of sending corporate email to the device. For the corporate user whose company does not yet have a BES, BlackBerry Redirector can be used to monitor new company emails.
Keep in mind that the BlackBerry Redirector is only for forwarding wireless email. To delete emails and synchronize calendar, tasks, contacts, and other items, the user will have to tether the device to the computer. Additionally, if the computer is turned off, BlackBerry Redirector will not work until the computer and the software are restarted.
For more information on BlackBerry Redirector, see the BlackBerry Redirector manual on the RIM site.
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