It used to be so simple, this GroupWise wireless issue. We didn’t have anything! It might have been frustrating, but hey, we had simple answers for our users when they asked about wireless sync options for their new devices.

My how things change. Over the years we’ve gained so many options. I have used various IMAP programs, Toffa’s SyncWise Enterprise (which still has a very special place in my heart), NotifyLink, Blackberry Enterprise Server, GroupWise Mobile Server, etc. Each of these solutions has very unique and useful features for the mobile user, and since I’m a tester extraordinaire, I’ve switched back and forth between 2 or 3 of them a week at times!

But face it. YOU don’t really want to have 2 or 3 different servers and solutions at your site if you can avoid it. However, many sites have become resigned to the idea that a BES and a GMS are necessary to keep all of their mobile users satisfied.

Then enter the iPhone! This device has shaken things up, both by the very quick adoption rate of users, and by its unique synchronization needs. You may already have a BES and a GMS, or a BES and a SyncWise server. Now you have iPhone users knocking down your door! Currently, NotifyLink is the only provider of a server-based GroupWise synchronization solution for the iPhone. For many sites this means three separate solutions for their wireless users. How are you going to manage that?

I’ve been chatting with the NotifyLink folks about this dilemma. I think they have some good solutions.

If you only have a few iPhone users parked in your office, you can give them a hosted NotifyLink On Demand account, and have these users up and running in a matter of minutes! This On Demand service has an annual fee of $180 per user, which is really a good deal if you think about it. Notify handles the device setup and support for your On Demand users for $15 a month. A perfect solution for a handful of iPhone users who just want their GroupWise (and what a worthy desire)!

On the other hand, if you are ready to “simplify” your wireless server situation, Notify has a deal for you! Consolidate your wireless servers with an On Premises NotifyLink server and offer a unified solution to all of your wireless users.  If you are using GMS, you will need to double-check your devices to see that there is a NotifyLink client for them, but chances are there will be.

And here at Caledonia we want to sweeten the pot a bit.  For a limited time, set up either On Demand users, or consolidate your servers in-house, and we will send you a coupon for our next Upgrade Guide, due out when Bonsai ships.  Just tell the NotifyLink folks that Danita sent you, and shoot us an email at info@caledonia.net to let us know you’ve signed up and get on the list for the book!  And if you want to “Simplify with Notify”, NotifyLink is offering an additional incentive by giving you a $500 discount on the NotifyLink server software.

In the meantime, let me know what you think about all of the options and solutions that are available to you for your wireless users!

Danita (posted from my iPhone - what a geek!)

Okay - so I did it!  I decided to buy an iPhone.  My excuse is that our new foreign exchange student needed a cell phone, so rather than add a new line to our family plan, I got a phone on an entirely different cell phone provider.  Hmmm - I’m sure there is more logic to this than it sounds like NOW!

I had been using a NotifyLink hosted account for testing on my iPod Touch (I know - I’m a true geek), and I liked the Notify implementation, even if I wasn’t convinced that I like the device overall.  But now that I’m REALLY using for more than just “testing” (errr that probably means “play”), I’m starting to like it a bit better.

I have to say that NotifyLink is perfect!  The service does everything that you can expect for this phone.  No tasks (because there is no native Task app on the iPhone), but otherwise, I’m thrilled with the NotifyLink part of the experience.

So, if you have an iPhone and want to hook it up to GroupWise, contact the good people at www.notifylink.com, and tell them that Danita sent you

Off to play with, ummm TEST my iPhone some more!

Danita

I got an email today from a good friend, Rodney Bliss, to tell me that GroupWise (Dos version) turns 20 years old today!  Wow!

Of course, back then it was known as WordPerfect Office 2.0, but it was the beginnings of what would later become the GroupWise we know and love.  While I don’t remember the exact day I began using WordPerfect Office, it WAS version 2.0, in the Spring of 1989.  And while I didn’t meet Rodney Bliss (or even Richard for that matter) for many years after my first email, I got to know Rodney’s wife Annie fairly early along the way, and had no idea that this product would become so much a part of my life.  Not only is GroupWise what pays the bills and keeps me on my toes, but GroupWise is also what has brought me good friends and colleagues along the way.  I think of how much of my day is spent just communicating with so many people who are involved in GroupWise, and I can’t help but believe that my life is richer because of these people, and thus indirectly because of this “little email program”.

In many ways, GroupWise is even responsible for me meeting my husband Joe Zanre!  If I had not been a sysop on the WPUsers forum on Compuserve, Joe and I never would have met!  I guess I owe an awful lot to the developers of this product

Danita

My phone turns of the sound from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night.  Normally this works just fine, even on weekends, but this morning at 6 a.m. my very pleasant chime that I’ve put on my Nokia E61i for email notification started chiming every couple of minutes!  I was getting hammered with “comments” added to my site (which are always moderated), and then I got a message from Google that my blog had been compromised.  It’s fixed now, but it’s annoying!

Being in the anti-spam business myself, I DO know that there must be SOME return on “investment” for these folks.  I mean, if every site blocked their missives, if no one clicked on a link, if no one bought their wares, they would stop right (well, all but the most anti-social of the bunch I guess)?  But my WordPress “spam” has become almost as back as my email spam!  All I can say is “grumble”.

So anyway, I’ve fixed the problem, and asked Google to recheck the problem, but for those of you who got a warning accessing the site this morning, so sorry!

Stay cool (I have that on the brain right now, living in the Denver area!)

Danita

The GroupWise 3.0 for Windows Public Beta has been posted here.

There are a few notes of import if you want to try the beta.

• If you use the Palm or Symbian clients with a prior version of GMS, and you are not using network push you might need to open port 3102 to your GMS server.  While the earlier versions only needed 3102 for true network push, GMS 3 clients require port 3102 be open even for polled syncs!
• Both the Palm and Symbian clients have some cool new features, but watch out for the new hot keys!  They have changed quite a bit since the earlier clients, and you might need to retrain yourself (and your users) on getting the most out of the keyboard.
• I wasn’t that familiar with the prior Symbian clients, being a die-hard Treo user (Palm OS) myself, but there are MANY new cool features in the Symbian client, at least from a Treo user’s perspective