TN116 - BlackBerry Connect for Treo

116.1    Summary

        BlackBerry Connect (BBC) is a version of the BlackBerry software that
        runs on PDA's other than the original RIM devices. Palm offers BBC for
        the Treo 650 and 680 and Nokia offers it on few models including the
        6820, 6822, 9300, 9500, E60, E61, E62, and E70. I experienced
        considerable difficulty getting BBC for the Treo to work and I though it
        might be beneficial to provide some hints for others.

116.2    Cingular Treo not required

        I bought my Treo 680 directly from Palm so that I could have an unlocked
        phone and change the SIM cards when I travel outside the U.S. According
        to Palm's web site the Treo 680 would support the BlackBerry Connect
        with Cingular service. When I tried to download the Blackberry Connect
        software from Palm it asks for my serial number and gave me an error
        that the serial number was not valid. I called Palm and after escalating
        my issue several levels I was told that the software is only available
        for Treo's sold by Cingular. It seems that Palm sold Cingular an
        exclusive on the right to offer the Treo with BlackBerry Connect in the
        United States.

        The solution? I borrowed a Cingular Treo serial number from a friend and
        downloaded the software. It seems to work on unlocked Treo 680 without
        any problem. I am running firmware "TREO680-1.04-ROW." A Cingular Treo I
        looked at was running "TREO680-1.03-CNG." I am told that CNG stands for
        Cingular and ROW stands for "Rest Of World."  My unlocked "ROW" Treo is
        successfully running Blackberry Connect using Cingular service, a friend
        of mind is successfully using his unlocked "ROW" Treo with T-Mobile
        Service. It seems that all you need is the serial number from a "CNG"
        Treo to download the software.

116.3    Where you can't get help (Palm, Cingular, RIM)

        When I could not get the BBC desktop software to run on my brand new
        ThinkPad I tried calling Palm. I reasoned that since I downloaded the
        software from their site, they should help. After 40 minutes in IVR hell
        I am told I must call Cingular. Of course no one at Cingular ("The new
        AT&T") knows anything (just like "The old AT&T"), least of all something
        about BBC. After escalating several levels they tell me to call Palm. I
        explain that Palm told me to call them so they call Palm for me and
        transfer the issue. After more then an hour with an idiot at Palm who
        had such helpful advice as "Why don't you reinstall everything on your
        computer?" and "Why don't you call Microsoft?" She finally said that she
        would transfer the call to RIM. After more then 30 minutes on hold RIM
        answers the phone and the Palm rep has dropped off so RIM doesn't want
        to take the call without "escalation codes" from Palm or Cingular. I
        plead for mercy and the RIM rep calls Cingular and gets the magic
        escalation codes. After a week of calls and emails no one at RIM has a
        clue. In the end I figured it out, details follow.

116.4    How BlackBerry Connect works on the Treo

        On the Treo BBC becomes a special account inside VersaMail. All email is
        read and sent from VersaMail. BBC also takes over the Calendar and it is
        no longer synced with the Palm Desktop, but instead the BlackBerry
        server, which in turn syncs with the Exchange or Lotus Notes server.

116.5    Why you need BBC desktop software

        The BBC software on the PDA must be configured with details about the
        BlackBerry server and appropriate identifiers and keys. The ONLY way RIM
        provides to get this information on to your PDA is with the desktop
        software. If you cannot get the desktop software to work you cannot
        setup the basic information (called service books) on your PDA required
        to access the BlackBerry server.

        The good news is than once you have got the BBC software on the PDA
        setup (service books installed), you do not need to run the desktop
        software again. However, you may want to run the applications to change
        certain settings.

116.6    BlackBerry Connect desktop, one bad piece of code

        For the Treo, the desktop software installer application
        (BlackBerryConnect_Treo680_CNG.exe) is one really atrociously bad
        example of coding. I have not used the Nokia version. The installer uses
        scripts to chain together a ridiculously long list of seperate
        installers and steps that have lots of external dependencies and take a
        lot time to complete. There is no error handling in these scripts and no
        contigincies for the failure of any external dependancy. Any error and
        you must uninstall and start over from the beginning. (Apparently Google
        already hired all of the good eningeers and RIM was left to choose their
        staff from the bottom ranks of a recently graduated class.) The basic
        process:

        1. First the installer extracts "BBCDeviceInstaller.prc" from itself,
        queues it for install, and directs you to do a hotsync.

        2. The hotsync will install BBCDeviceInstaller.prc and automaticaly
        execute it on the Treo. This application seems to modify the Versamail
        and Calendar applications and then delete itself. You are now required
        to reset the Treo.

        3. Next, it installs the desktop software and tries to link it to your
        Exchange email account through Outlook (no other option). If you have
        any problems getting it linked to your email account each attempt will
        require that you unstall and repeat everything from step one.

        4. Finally, the installer has you do another hotsync where a special
        one-time interactive conduit generates keys and passes them to both the
        BlackBerry server and the Treo. Any problems here and of course you get
        to uninstall and repeat everything from step one for each attempt.

        5. Finally, the whole installation seems to fail often with the helpful
        error message of "The installation failed. Please try again."

116.7    How to get it right the first time

        1. Outlook must be your default email program, in working order, and
        able to access the exchange server when you run the BBC installer.

        2. C:\WINDOWS\system32\MAPI32.DLL must be the correct Outlook version.

        3. Your email account must already be setup on the BlackBerry Server.

        4. I was never able to get the installer to work on any Treo that had
        previously installed any significant amount of software or had already
        configured Versamail in anyway. The only thing that consistenly works
        for me is to do a hard reset (erasing all user data) on the Treo just
        before each attempt to install BBC.

        5. Adding other email accounts to Versamail after the BBC install also
        seemed to cause problems. However there is really  no reason to do this.
        Addtional email accounts in Versamail each pull mail in to seperate
        in-boxes and must be reviewed like they are seperate email applications.
        As long as you must do this you can you use Snapper Mail for the non-
        Backberry email which works much better then Versamail anyway.

        Finally, I am sure there are other numerous dependencies that I am
        unaware of and by pure luck happened to have right.

116.8    The helpful "BBServer.dll failed" error

        The person who developed BBC for the Treo apparently does not comprehend
        error handling and their QA department apparently does not run test
        cases with Outlook problems. If the there is any problem communicating
        with Outlook you get this message:

        "Loading C:\Program Files\BlackBerry Connect for Palm\BBServer.dll
        failed. GetLastError returned: The operating system cannot run %1.
        Ensure that you have installed all of the software required to properly
        communicate with your handheld."

        I am sure that there are numerous reasons that Outlook can fail to
        communicate with BBC, but the one that I found was caused by a problem
        with C:\WINDOWS\system32\MAPI32.DLL. Lots of programs change this dll
        for various reasons, in my case it was Eudora. The solution:

        If Eudora is set to be the MAPI server it replaces MAPI32.DLL with its
        own and (this is the important part) makes it read only so Outlook can't
        fix it even when outlook is set to be the default email application.
        There are two ways to fix this:

        1. In Eudora Options>MAPI> Set "Use Eudora MAPI server" to "Never" then
        Eudora will fix it; or

        2. Delete (or rename) MAPI32.DLL and run WINDOWS\system32\fixmapi.exe