Using Your Blackberry If The Server Is Down During A Storm  


Blackberry to Blackberry Communication

Normally, when you send a message via Blackberry, it is routed through
your email server. Should your email server go down in a hurricane, or
for any other reason, you can send PIN messages from one Blackberry to
another. Note - this is ONLY for Blackberry-to-Blackberry messages. You
cannot use the PIN to communicate with a computer from a Blackberry or
vice versa.

Each Blackberry device is assigned a unique eight-digit number called a
personal identification number (PIN). You can find your Blackberry's PIN
by selecting the Options icon, then clicking Status. Your PIN will
appear in the Status screen towards the bottom of the list of numbers.

You can copy it from that screen and send it to others with
Blackberries. You can also find it by composing an email and in the
message type mypin and hit the space bar, it will magically appear.

The effect of sending a PIN is that one, it takes literally 2 seconds,
and two, it is routed directly through Blackberry. One downside is that
if you are in your office and someone is sending you a PIN, you will not
see it on your desktop/laptop and sometimes you will not notice these PINs 
until hours later.

Sending a PIN Message

There are two ways to send messages directly to a Blackberry user's PIN,
rather than to the user's email address, depending on whether you have
the PIN stored as a contact in your address book or not.  If you have a
contact in your address book with the PIN entered, you can select the
PIN using the Compose application. To do so, follow these steps:

1.  Select the Compose icon (the open envelope and pencil).
2.  In the "To:" list, scroll to the correct contact. Click the track
     wheel to display a drop-down menu for the contact.
3.  If you have stored a PIN for this contact, PIN will appear in the
     menu. Select it.
4.  Compose your message and send it as usual. 

Note: The next time you select that contact with the Enter key, the PIN
will be used rather than the email address. To reset the contact to use
an email address, simply follow the directions listed above and select
Email rather than PIN from the menu.

If you want to enter a PIN not associated with a contact, you can type
the PIN directly into the "To:" field.  To do so, follow these steps:

1.  Select the Compose icon (the open envelope and pencil).
2.  Scroll up to [Use Once] at the top of the "To:" list. Click the track
     wheel to display a drop-down menu.
3.  From the menu, select PIN.  Enter the PIN and press Enter.
4.  Compose your message and send it as usual.

Note: PIN to PIN messages are not encrypted and transmit in plaintext,
allowing anyone who intercepts them to read them. While this is a remote
possibility, you should keep it in mind and not send sensitive
information in a PIN to PIN message.