

Ask HN: how can Obama use a BlackBerry without going to Canada? - nailer

Hi gents,<p>From what I understand, Blackberry Enterprise Server sends email via Blackberry's datacenter (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry).<p>I keep reading about how the US President is using a BlackBerry, but surely this is without sending the mail (even encrypted) to a third party, particularly one from outside the US? Yet what other options are they?
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pedalpete
The actual device that Obama is using is from Certified Digital, and I've been
looking but haven't been able to find anywhere that it says it is using the
blackberry network (aside from all the reports that say 'Obama's Blackberry).

I'm wondering if this is just a poor naming convention by the press. Like
saying 'he grabbed a kleenex' when grabbing a tissue.

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nailer
Engadget - who you think would know about these things - keep saying it's
definitely a BlackBerry, rather than the NSA-certified device that was
originally planned.

But then again, maybe they are indeed full of it. Do you have a ref for the
Certified Digital quote?

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allenbrunson
ComputerWorld thinks it's a Sectera Edge. I submitted the article earlier:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=450680>

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pclark
IMAP & SMTP

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brk
It might have changed, but last time I had a BB (9 months ago), it was a
BlackBerry server that logged into MY mail server via IMAP, retrieved the
messages and then pushed them to my device.

I never gave it much thought about where the BB back-end servers are located,
but if they're in Canada, then my email would have all been routing through
Canada.

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ErrantX
I have a Blackberry (in the UK) and yes this is how it works. We have, I
think, EU servers so I dont know if the US has it's own dedicated servers.

