Scalix Connect Questions

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Everyone,

I have been going over some posts here in the forum very interesting information, considering that I could not find installation documentation for Scalix Connect at all on the website.

I have blackberry's in my network and they can no longer sync using the desktop manager. for one, a laptop is on Windows 7, we are testing it. When I attempt to sync the desktop manager simply crashes. Second is the BlackBerry's are all fairly new, about a year old. So the New Desktop manager does not work with the old filter file. I don't have active directory nor do I have any Windows Servers on our network. This shop is strictly Linux based, that is with the exception of the desktops and laptops.

One of my main problems is if we use the current over the air sync, then the All Day appointments run for 24 hours from 5:00pm to 4:59pm the next day, and I can not seem to fix that. This office uses all day appointments like they are going out of style, but that is how they run their business, which is not a bad thing. This has been a long running problem that is just simply never solved. If I could solve that, then there would be no need to implement anything.

Is there any solution that other than the desktop sync that I can use RELIABLY to sync the Blackberry's contacts and calendar? I have tried several and have been a royal pain to either maintain or setup or both. The only one I have not tried is NotfiyLink.

Based on what I have seen, I will not be able to use the BES solution because it requires new hardware (new purchase) , software (Purchase Windows Server) and implementation of Active Directory (My time).

Thanks for all your help!

Sincerely,

SidebandSamurai

[BaldBoy]

Well ... it might be no easy reply.

There are several aspects that has impact on such a deployment. You could go straight for BES Express (requires hw/sw investments as you have already underlined). As an alternative there is NotifyLink which enables over the air sync with BB devices if your email server supports ActiveSync (Scalix does but you have to pay for a license).
All these two options allow you (better say your users) a complete over the air sync experience (email, contacts, calendar ... practically in real time)

There is a third way though, but it implies some work. It's called Funambol.

I assume your users have their email pulled/pushed to their handheld devices using BIS (Black Berry Internet Service): so what remains unsync'd are contacts and calendar. With Funambol you can implement that sync over the air.
Funambols is composed by :

• a server which acts as midlle layer between the datasources and the handheld devices
• a client which dialogues with the Funambol server doing the sync job

Making it short : Funabol Desktop Client <--> Funambol Server <---> Funambol Handheld Client

Funambol Community Edition is free-of-charge and is licensed under AGPLv3. You can find all info at https://www.forge.funambol.org/DomainHome.html

What you can do with Funambol

• you can sync Contacts and Calendar between your outlook clients and you BBs
• you can schedule sync agreements to run at predefined times

What you can NOT do with Funambol

• you can't have real time sync with handheld devices
• you can't sync emails (you have to keep your BIS config)

[SidebandSamurai]

@BaldBoy -> Yes i was afraid that you might suggest Funambol, I have tried that in the past and it did not work well at all. As a matter of fact I had times where the Funambol client would stop syncing and would not start syncing until you did a full battery pull reboot of the Blackberry. This solution is not acceptable. I have been considering AstraSync, it appears to be rock solid and I know the Office manager would pay for the ActiveSync License if I could prove that the product worked reliably. Personally I am torn between AstraSync and NotifyLink.

I have read in some of my research that NotifyLink has some limitations like about 15 fields in the contact list are not sync-able. Their solution was to connect your BB to the usb port and first sync with the BBDM. Well if I could do THAT I would not be looking for another syncing solution (sheesh)

I will have to contact Scalix to see if I can get a trial for ActiveSync to see if this is the solution we need. Its such a small shop, I really can not justify buying hardware and software for a BES server for 5 blackberries.

Do you have expedience with AstraSync?

Sincerely,

SidebandSamurai

[BaldBoy]

Unfortunately I have no knowledge about how Astrasync works. Never tried it.

Nevertheless I feel comfortable endorsing Funambol as I have never experienced the problems you describe : on a total of 5 BB Bold 9000 we have in the office none of them got blocked by funambol. We have also installed that solution on a small customer with about 15 BB 8310 and, again, not a single failure. Maybe we were lucky or maybe you had issues explicity related to the handelds which might require further investigation. Our Funambol server is running smoothly since a year right now.

Anyway I hope you find the solution that best fits your needs.

Regards.

[AdrianChapman]

Unfortunately I have no knowledge about how Astrasync works. Never tried it.

I use it personally - Bold 9000 - and it works well enough that I can't recall having had any problems with it, apart from the usual one of duplication if it needs to be re-setup for any reason (Repeat after me - I must not use my own "production" handset for testing...). I'm but one relatively low-demand user, though.

$50/user/year could quickly scale to "not cheap", though, and it's a definite second-best to "full-fat" BES (even Express), for "real users", due to the handset management and control in BES.

[SidebandSamurai]

@AdrianChapman ->

$50/user/year could quickly scale to "not cheap", though, and it's a definite second-best to "full-fat" BES (even Express), for "real users", due to the handset management and control in BES.

Yea, i do agree, but I can not justify the cost of a BES installation which would include a Windows Server, On that server would be the costs of the hardware (around $2,500) Software (windows Server 2007 which is around $500) my time to implement ActiveDirectory which will be at least $1,000, for only 5 Blackberries. $50 * 5 is $250 per year and though this is a yearly cost it is much cheaper in the short term than the $4,000 investment. I have been with this lawfirm as a consultant for over 10 years, and in the past 10 years, they have shrunk not grown in the number of attorneys that are currently working there. At 250 per year, it will take 16 years to make that 4,000 investment.

If they increased the the staff in the next few years, then I will have to take this up again, but I don't see the Law firm growing anytime soon.

Funamobl has two points of failure. The client that is installed on the laptop or desktop to provide syncing services to the Funambol servers and the client that is installed on the blackberry that syncs from and to the Funambol servers. Should the attorney have a laptop, and he was out of the office for a few days he would not get calendar updates until his laptop was reconnected back to the office network and the Funambol servers had the opportunity to sync up. Also there are privacy concerns when it comes to storing contact and calandar info on public servers such as Funambol. As a lawfirm consultant I have to be able to look the judge in the eye and confidently say I did everything in my power to protect my lawfirms client confidentiality. I can not honestly say that if I use the Funambol service.

There are problems with AstraSync also, for example it requires that ActiveSync be installed on Scalix. The AstraSync client for the Blackberry drains the battery because it is a Java Application and needs to be "running" all the time to receive all the over the air data. Because the AstraSync Client is a java app, it can cause the Blackberry to lock up from time to time. The advantages out way the disadvantages in that their calendars and contacts are always synced, 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. For a lawfirm that can not justify the implementation of BES that is a big plus. BIS (Blackberry Internet Service) does not work properly because of the All Day event bug and BIS does not sync contacts.

--SidebandSamurai

[BaldBoy]

Funamobl has two points of failure. The client that is installed on the laptop or desktop to provide syncing services to the Funambol servers and the client that is installed on the blackberry that syncs from and to the Funambol servers. Should the attorney have a laptop, and he was out of the office for a few days he would not get calendar updates until his laptop was reconnected back to the office network and the Funambol servers had the opportunity to sync up. Also there are privacy concerns when it comes to storing contact and calandar info on public servers such as Funambol. As a lawfirm consultant I have to be able to look the judge in the eye and confidently say I did everything in my power to protect my lawfirms client confidentiality. I can not honestly say that if I use the Funambol service.
--SidebandSamurai

I do not agree on that.

• Availability: while it is true that every sync job requires both the handheld client and the desktop client to sync against a funambol server it is also true you can schedule that process. What we have done here is to dedicate a small pc to do that job: every couple of hours it opens an Outlook profile, runs a sync job, and closes. On the handheld side you can configure your client to run programmatically. This way you know you have both the client and the desktop sync'ed every couple of hours. That's pretty comfortable for an almost no-cost solution.
• Privacy: Funambol Community brings you your Funambol server. It's your server, not a public one: the only thing you have to worry about is that it has to be a server reachable from the internet. That's it. From a strict privacy point of view it's a complete solution within the boundaries of your security policies. (Probably you were misleaded by the myFunambol service which is only a test environment provided for a limited time).

[RSisco]

I know I am a late comer to the conversation here, but I have a Blackberry Storm successfully syncing with Scalix via Desktop Manager. It's not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish, but the Storm will work with the older Desktop Manager software.

See this thread for details (make sure to read the whole thread):
http://www.scalix.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12338

Hope this helps.

Richard

[RSisco]

I forgot to mention, my setup is running on WinXP Pro x64, so I can't vouch that Desktop Manager 4.x works on Windows 7.

Richard