Proxy servers for alternate IMAP port (may be useful for Blackberry BIS users)

I recently posted about our new IMAP alternate namespace port that may be helpful for some users.

Some blackberry BIS users reported that their service provider wouldn’t let them change the IMAP port number, which meant that couldn’t use the alternate namespace port. To deal with this, I’ve setup a “proxy” server for the IMAP alternate namespace port.

Our “proxy” servers are special hostnames that listen on every port and respond with a particular service. Our current proxy servers are:

• imap.proxy.messagingengine.com - IMAP
• imaps.proxy.messagingengine.com - IMAP SSL
• pop.proxy.messagingengine.com - POP
• pops.proxy.messagingengine.com - POP SSL
• smtp.proxy.messagingengine.com - SMTP
• smtps.proxy.messagingengine.com - SMTP SSL
• ldap.proxy.messagingengine.com - LDAP
• ldaps.proxy.messagingengine.com - LDAP SSL
• imapalt.proxy.messagingengine.com - IMAP (alternate namespace)
• imapalts.proxy.messagingengine.com - IMAP (alternate namespace) SSL

So for BIS users, what you would do is:

1. Login to the BIS website your provider gave you details for
2. Setup an external email account
3. When it asks for the username and password, just enter the username
   and leave the password blank
4. It should then take you to a page with more advanced configuration
   options. There you can say to use IMAP + SSL, and when it asks for
   the servername, use “imapalts.proxy.messagingengine.com”