MDaemon Pro version 11 onwards allows users of BlackBerry's BIS to integrate their MDaemon based email with account with their BlackBerry allowing for BlackBerry push email.

Any BlackBerry device setup to pull email via IMAP from an MDaemon 11 server can be setup for push email and will also mean messages composed on the device will be sent to your MDaemon server for delivery rather than having the BlackBerry BIS servers deliver the email themselves. This ensures all your BlackBerry composed email can comply with your own security policies, content filter rules, archiving, etc.

Configuring your MDaemon account for BlackBerry push mail:

The BIS configuration settings are located at Setup -> BlackBerry:

Tick "Enable BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) integration" and ensure the Subscribe URL and the SMTP server value is pointing to your MDaemon SMTP server. In this example the MDaemon machine is accessible from the Internet as mail.mydomain.com:

The defaults in this location should be the correct values, but you need to ensure that these are values that would be accessible from the Internet along with MDaemon's IMAP service (see Resolving Installation issues below for the steps required to do this)

If you already have your BlackBerry collecting email from MDaemon then it will be necessary to delete that account from the BlackBerry by choosing the 'Email Setup' or 'Email Settings' icon on your Blackberry home screen and logging into your BIS account. This is required as the email account creation function at BIS initiates the push mail functionality.

Once you've done this follow the steps detailed below to configure that email account again on your BlackBerry handset...

If this is the first time you've configured your BlackBerry to collect email from your MDaemon account then you need to configure your device to do so. This is typically performed either via the Email Setup / Settings icon on your BlackBerry or via the setup wizard on the BlackBerry that starts automatically the first time you use it or via your Telco's website directly.

The steps below detail how to do this via the 'Email Setup' or 'Email Settings' icon on your BlackBerry:

1. Click on the 'Email Setup' or 'Email Settings' icon which you should find on the BlackBerry home screen.

2. If you haven't logged into the BIS service before you'll need to click "Create New Account" in this location and click "Yes" followed by "I agree" to accept the BlackBerry Terms and Conditions.

3. Once you've been through the steps to create a BlackBerry Account you'll see a link to "Add My Existing Email Account". In this location you need to enter the email address of your MDaemon based email account and it's password.

(If when you hit 'Next' the connection attempt BIS makes fails then this is because BIS will try and connect to the hostname assigned to your domains MX record to confirm it can see an IMAP service. If your domains MX record isn't MDaemon then this is likely to fail and at the next window choose "I will provide the settings to add this email account". You'll then be asked to enter an incoming mailserver address. In this location specify either the Public IP address of the Internet connection MDaemon sits behind or a hostname that resolves to it. You can also force the "I will provide the settings to add this email account" option by entering your email address and providing no password should you just wish to manually enter the incoming mailserver address)

This completes the setup of your MDaemon email account and you should shortly receive an email from the BIS Activation Server on your BlackBerry handset indicating it's successfully setup your email address:

A few minutes later the Subscribe URL specified at Setup -> BlackBerry in MDaemon will receive a SUBSCRIBE request from BIS and you'll receive another email on your BlackBerry device from your MDaemon server indicating your mailbox has been successfully been setup for push mail (allow around 5-10 minutes for this process to complete fully):

While waiting for the SUBSCRIBE request from BIS to arrive it's important that you don't make any changes to email account settings in the Account Manager in MDaemon (for example: signature text, advanced setup options, etc) as this may invalidate the request and MDaemon will not successfully receive it.

Resolving Installation Issues:

1. Ensuring the required ports are open to the Internet to enable BIS to query MDaemon:

For BIS to be able to successfully configure the MDaemon account for push email and connect to MDaemon's IMAP service, the associated ports will need to be open to the Internet.

This is achieved by creating a port forward on your firewall or router so that incoming traffic from the Internet on the port SMTP, IMAP and WorldClient runs on is routed to the MDaemon machine.

MDaemon's SMTP service runs on TCP port 25 (and if you are also using SSL then TCP port 465). It's important that before you open these ports that you configure MDaemon's IP Shielding settings as described in this article to protect it against spoofing - http://www.zensoftware.co.uk/kb/article.aspx?id=10003

MDaemon's IMAP service runs on TCP port 143 (and if you are also using SSL then TCP port 993)

WorldClient runs on TCP port 3000 (and if you are also using SSL then TCP port 443) by default but you can confirm the port at Setup -> Web & SyncML Services -> Web Server -> Run WorldClient server using this TCP port. The port value in this location needs to be reflected in Setup -> BlackBerry -> Subscribe URL.

The steps required to configure port forwarding on most firewalls and routers are covered at http://www.portforward.com

2. BIS and SSL Support:

The BIS SMTP client does not currently support SSL/STARTTLS with self-signed certificates. If you use STARTTLS or tick "Use SSL port" next to the SMTP server in Setup -> BlackBerry and you are using self-signed certificates then all SMTP sessions from BIS will either produce an error or get "stuck" until the inactivity timeout is reached.  This is solved by purchase and use of a commercial SSL certificate. 

The BIS IMAP client does support SSL with self-signed certificates. If you tick "Use SSL port" next to the "Domain name" value in Setup -> BlackBerry you can get IMAP SSL using the dedicated IMAP SSL port with any certificate you have.  The BIS IMAP client does not currently support STARTTLS so it is not possible to get SSL except on the dedicated IMAP SSL port (TCP PORT 993).

3. Synchronising of changes between your BlackBerry Device and MDaemon:

At present changes you make to email on your BlackBerry such as deletions, marking email as read, etc will be mirrored in Outlook and email you send from your BlackBerry will be present in your sent items folder in Outlook (when using IMAP or Outlook Connector). Similar changes you make in Outlook or email you send in Outlook will not be mirrored back to the BlackBerry device.

4. Unsubscribing an MDaemon account from push email:

Unsubscribing from push mail can be done by deleting the email profile using the BlackBerry device itself. BIS will then send MDaemon an UNSUBSCRIBE request and the account will be unlinked.  The UNSUBSCRIBE request may take some time to arrive and this poses no operational issues.