HOUSECALL information technology

Our Blackberry’s have become an integral part of our lives, whether we like it or not. Many, if not all of us at one time or another, have experienced the frustration that comes with a Blackberry running slow, or worse, locking up completely. Below, we’ll touch on some of the most effective and easy ways to keep your Blackberry running at its full potential.

If you use your Blackberry to do a lot of internet browsing while at home or on the road, then it is a good idea to clear out the browsing cache from time to time. On your Blackberry open your browser just as you normally would. With the standard browser screen showing, press the Blackberry menu button. Then select the Options tab, followed by Cache Operations. Once your Cache Operations window is open simple press the clear button under each category you wish to clear. Please note that clearing the history and passwords will erase previously browsed websites and saved passwords from the device. This procedure will still be beneficial to your device if you wish to not clear your passwords and history.

For an even more extensive cleaning of your Blackberry, you can use the memory cleaning tool on your device. Simply start by going to your options window, and then scroll down and select Security Options, and then select Advanced Security Options. Make your way to the Memory Cleaning window and with this window open press the blackberry button once. Then click the Clean Now option. This need not be done regularly, but can help when the device is running unusually slow.

The third thing you can do is simple called a “Battery Pull”. It is as simple as it sounds; remove the battery and then place it back in the device. This will free up any locked memory in process and resets your blackberry to reboot clean and refreshed. This will solve many problems of performance and is generally a good idea to do this every once in a while as a preventative maintenance measure

These are some quick and easy steps you can take to keep your Blackberry running smooth and quickly. Of course, sometimes these steps will not resolve problems you are experiencing with your device, in the event that this happens to you, don’t panic, just call or email your HouseCall Systems Administrator and we’ll be right there to help you out!

Blackberries are small which makes them easy to lose. Having your blackberry lost or stolen is worrisome enough without being concerned about your emails, notes, schedule, and contacts in the hands of others. Password protection is the best thing you can do to keep your information from being used maliciously.

If you currently do not have password protection enabled on your blackberry it’s very easy to do.

• Instructions for a blackberry Tour or blackberry Curve 2
• Instructions for an 8830 World Edition blackberry or a blackberry Curve
• More password options

Instructions for a blackberry Tour or blackberry Curve 2

1. Go to the options on your blackberry. This icon usually looks like a wrench.

2. Scroll down and select Password.

3. Click the menu button on your blackberry and select Set Password.

4. You will be prompted to choose a password. We suggest making passwords that are at least four characters long. You can use numbers, letters, and symbols in your password.

NOTE: When creating a password, you automatically use the letters on the blackberry keyboard. If you want the password to be numbers, you must hold down the “alt” key when you type the numbers you want. If you hold down the capital key, the letters will be capitalized, and passwords are case sensitive! It may seem like it doesn’t make a difference, but it will make a huge difference when you sync your blackberry with your computer!

5. Enter the password you just created a second time.

6. Hit the menu button and click save when you’re finished.

Instructions for an 8830 World Edition blackberry or a blackberry Curve

1. Go to the options on your blackberry. This icon usually looks like three controls in green, red, and blue, as shown below. Sometimes it looks like a wrench.

2. Scroll down and select Security Options.

3. Select General Settings.

4. At the top you should see the word Password followed by the word Disabled. Click where it says Disabled and change the option to Enabled. Click the menu button and select save.

5. You will be prompted to choose a password. We suggest making passwords that are at least four characters long. You can use numbers, letters, and symbols in your password.

NOTE: When creating a password, you automatically use the letters on the blackberry keyboard. If you want the password to be numbers, you must hold down the “alt” key when you type the numbers you want. If you hold down the capital key, the letters will be capitalized, and passwords are case sensitive! It may seem like it doesn’t make a difference, but it will make a huge difference when you sync your blackberry with your computer!

6. Enter the password you just created a second time.

7. Hit the menu button and click save when you’re finished.

More Password Options

You can change your password options in the password tab on the blackberry Tour and blackberry Curve 2 and in the general settings tab on the 8830 World Edition blackberry and the blackberry Curve:

Number of Password Attempts: This selects how many incorrect attempts you are allowed before the blackberry wipes itself. We suggest allowing for 10 attempts. It’s easy to make typos on the blackberry’s small keyboard.

Security Timeout: This is how long you can go without using your blackberry before it prompts for your password again. Keep it at 10 minutes at most.

Prompt on Application Install: Selecting “yes” will tell your blackberry to ask for your password anytime you try to install a new app.

Lock Handheld Upon Holstering: This will turn on password protection as soon as you put your blackberry in its holster regardless of how long it has been since you used it.

Allow Outgoing Calls While Locked: If you have phone service enabled on your blackberry this setting determines if you can make calls when the blackberry is locked. Keep this set to No. You do not want someone else using up all your minutes or calling your contacts!

Be sure and hit the menu button and click save when you’re finished.

Having a password on your blackberry may seem annoying at first, but having someone with malicious intentions accessing your information is much worse. You will get used to putting your password in soon enough. Your fingers wont even have to think about it!

For those of us who use our BlackBerries (BB) day in and day out quickly typing, sending messages, and navigating on the BlackBerry has become easy.  We thought we would pass some of our top BB shortcuts on to you.

Keyboard Shortcuts in Messages

C – compose new message
U – takes you to the next unread message
T – takes you to the top of the list
B – takes you to the bottom of the list
F – forward
R – reply to message
L – reply to all
P – takes you to previous day
N – takes you to next day
S – search
V – view saved messages
Space – takes you down one page

Address Book Lookups:

Your BB is connected to an LDAP server so you can do lookups in the Global Address List.  That means if you need someone’s information and they have a House.gov account you may be able to find their info using your BB even if you haven’t created a personal contact for them.

When sending a new message simply type in the person’s name (usually LastName, FirstName works best) and select “lookup” (it will be highlighted below where you are typing).  It may take the BB a few seconds to find them so be patient.  If it doesn’t find them try typing their name a different way.

When looking for a person’s general contact info go to the Address Book application and start typing their name. Once you have entered it select “*No Address*” and your BB will perform a Global Adress List lookup.  The BB will take a few seconds to do the search and then display a list of results.  Once you have found the person you can add them to your address book by selecting them, pressing the applications button (the button to the left of the scroll ball), and choosing “add.”  Even if you are not sure how to spell their name make a guess – you can even leave out part of the name (EX. Tim Seym will find Tim Seymour) and it will still give you a list of possible people.  You could even search just by last name or just by first name – its almost like using a phone book!

Typing Shortcuts

To make a selection hold the Shift Key (Caps) and scroll with the ball.  That will make a selection. You can then copy, cut, or paste into that region depending.

Double click space key – puts in a period
Hold down a letter key – makes a capital letter

Remember, the typing shortcuts work everywhere on the BB, so use them!

Blackberry mobile devices have become an invaluable tool in facilitating communication in Congressional offices. So when one stops working it is expedient that the device return to normal operation as quickly as possible. This case study presents obstacles and then methods used to fix those problems.

Email has provided the world with a fast and reliable form of communication; whether it is across the nation or around the globe, we are now able to transmit information almost instantaneously. But all of this is rendered useless unless someone is on the other side to receive that information. That is why many offices have come to rely on Blackberry devices for even more reliable and instantaneous communication. On Capitol Hill, everyone from senior staff to entry-level employees to even the Member of Congress rely heavily on their Blackberry. Most of the time their Blackberry is a simple means of communication used to convey short messages or to stay in sync with the day’s calendar.
One very convenient feature of Blackberry devices is the ease of transferring all of the data from one existing Blackberry to a newer model. While, for the most part, it is a very reliable and straightforward transfer, it can be extremely frustrating when it doesn’t work correctly and has to be done over again. Since all the information is copied from the old device, there is always a backup in case things don’t transfer correctly. The transfer process goes as follows:

* First the old device must be synchronized with the user’s Outlook. This will insure that the two contain the same information in terms of contacts, address book, emails and calendar items.
* Once everything has been synced with Outlook it is time to use the switch device wizard in the Blackberry Desktop Manager. This will automatically backup all of the old emails, contacts, third-party software, and general settings. Once it has grabbed everything from the older device it prompts for the new device at which point it will load all those applications and settings back onto the new device. It usually takes about 20 minutes if things run smoothly.
* Once all the data has been transferred, the Blackberry device then must go through a process called Enterprise Activation, which authenticates the device with the Blackberry enterprise server. This will enable the device to send email as a user. This is where most of the frustration with switching users comes in. It has to go through all the services and sync those settings with those of the existing account. Depending on how much the user has utilized their Blackberry, it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. It often appears to freeze at a certain percentage of completion. When this happens, most of the time, removing the battery and starting the process over again forces the activation to complete. But, if the user has utilized their phone heavily, it may just have to authenticate a large amount of data and take a longer amount of time.

I encountered a problem with a set of Blackberry devices in a legislative office that was particularly perplexing. When the user made a call which didn’t connect or went to voicemail and, simultaneously, received an incoming call – the phone would go into conference mode. However, when the call ended, it wouldn’t leave this mode. Instead, it would just refuse to make any outgoing calls. When this happened, only taking out the battery would re-enable the phone. Because this started to really affect a Congressman, it quickly became a priority to get it fixed. After ‘googling’ the problem with no success, I decided that the best attempt would be to update the firmware on the Blackberry. It was a long process that first backed up the entire device and then updated the firmware. After that was completed, it reloaded the backed up data. Following that procedure the Blackberry worked without further support needs.