BlackBerry Internet Service 2.0 has been available since last June. I recently upgraded from 1.8, and I’m very impressed.

BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) allows you to integrate your BlackBerry with up to 10 email accounts, send and receive instant messages, and browse web content from your BlackBerry. You get “push” delivery of messages, and mobile access to email attachments and images in popular formats.

With BIS 2.0 you get some very nice new features that really improve the BlackBerry experience. Here are the highlights:

Multiple “Sent-From” Addresses
When composing an email on the device, you can set which integrated email account you want the “Sent From” field to display.

Email
Send from Multiple Accounts 


One-way Reconciliation
Perform these functions on your device and the action (send, delete or read/unread status) will also appear in the integrated Internet email account.

Individual Email Account Icons
If you have a 7130c, an 8700c, or any other BlackBerry device upgraded with BlackBerry Device Software v4.1, new icons will appear on the Home screen for each integrated email account. Click on each icon to easily view incoming/outgoing mail from that account. NOTE: You may still view all of your messages by clicking on the Message Inbox icon.

Emails
Multiple Accounts Configured in BIS


Improved Attachment Viewing
Continue to view popular formats like JPEG, BMP, TIFF, Microsoft® Word, Excel, PowerPoint®, Adobe® PDF. And with BlackBerry Internet Service 2.0, you can now view PowerPoint presentations in slideshow format.

Unlimited email storage
Because BlackBerry Internet Service v2.0 offers direct access to integrated accounts, a Web version of your BlackBerry Internet Service inbox is no longer needed. Therefore, you will not have to manage your email storage. With the upgrade, all messages automatically age after 30 days.

BlackBerry Mail Connector Delegation

If you use BlackBerry Mail Connector to access Microsoft Exchange or IBM® Lotus® Domino® email, you can now delegate the required email server network connection.

There are some people who may not want to upgrade. You may not want to upgrade if you:

- Require HTML web access to your BlackBerry inbox (for instance, if you retrieve mail sent to your @mycingular.blackberry.net account via a computer web browser). BlackBerry Internet Service v2.0 does not support an HTML view.

- Depend on personal folders. New version 2.0 does not support folders. After a migration to BlackBerry Internet Service v2.0, folders will exist on the device for 30 days only.

- Prefer to manage email storage limits using web access instead of the new auto-aging feature of version 2.0.

- Use BlackBerry Internet Service to access Domino iNotes or Domino Web Access. With version 2.0, Domino iNotes and Web Access is supported only if you download and use BlackBerry Mail Connector which requires a continual desktop connection to your company’s email server using your computer or a delegate.

This is all very cool stuff! OK, so how do you know what version of the BIS you have? You can tell by bringing up the BlackBerry help screen. Type ALT CAP H (Suretype users do this: Hold ALT. Press 1/E/R then ?/A/S then 7/C/V then 1/E/R and let go of ALT ). The second entry down called “Platform” will tell you what version of BIS you are using. If it starts with “2.0″, then you are already running BIS 2.0.

Help Screen
Help Screen showing BIS 2.0


To upgrade, you will have to do it through your carrier. This option should be available to you from the website where you manage your BIS account. Here is a list of all the sites for the various carriers.

## This Article Was Originally Published by AllBlackBerry.com on January 11, 2006.

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