It all started off great.  I was getting email on my Blackberry Pearl from about 4 different email accounts and managing to stay on top of it all.  Like you, I would respond to the ones that needed an immediate response and delete the ones that didn’t, knowing I could handle it once I got back to my computer.  Then it happened…

SPAM!

My work email is all over the company website and the spam robots found it.  I started getting over 100 spam emails a day.  That wouldn’t be bad if I just accessed my email from work, but I don’t.  All of these emails were going to my Blackberry.  I would hear the distinct tone of another email coming in, look at my phone and see an offer to increase the size of .. well, you know what I mean.  I was getting more spam than I was legitimate email.

My company wasn’t doing anything to filter the email on the server side, so I saw stuck getting all of these emails and feeling helpless.  I couldn’t just remove my work email from the phone, since they were giving me a monthly phone allowance.  Hard to justify that.  So, I would look at the emails and delete.  Look and delete.  Look and delete.  All day long.

Server Side Filtering

Then I remember how I was able to filter my email so I wouldn’t get a copy of every message I sent out through Gmail (I’ll post instructions for this soon).  It was in the BIS site but I hadn’t been there in a LONG time.  If you’re using your Blacberry Pearl with a regular email service (not an Enterprise server) you’re probably using a BIS (Blackberry Internet Service).  If you’re using Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo mail, there’s no doubt this is what you’re using.  Here’s a link to the main BIS sites (open them in a seperate tab or window) so you can follow along:

• Verizon BIS
• AT&T BIS
• Sprint BIS
• T-Mobile BIS
• Rogers BIS

If your wireless provider isn’t listed, try doing a Google search for your wireless carriers name and BIS.  That will usually bring it up for you.  If all else failes, give your customer service a call and they can point you in the right direction.

If you’re getting email on your Blackberry Pearl, you should already have a login for your BIS. If you don’t know this, you’ll have to get help from your wireless carrier.  Once you’re logged in, we can get started filtering your email so you only get the important items you need to have when you’re on the go.

Creating Your Filters

The first filter I created was to tell the BIS that I only wanted emails sent from people with the same domain name as mine.  This would most likely be your company name.  For example only get emails from other people with @blackberry-pearl.net in their address.  I did learn it’s a LOT easier to tell your Blackberry what you WANT than what you DON’T want. Here’s how you do that.

You email account or accounts should be listed on the screen once you log in.  On the right side of the screen, there will be an icon like this under the heading “Filters”.  Click the one that corresponds to the appropriate email account.

1. Now you’ll want to “Add Filter” and give it a name.
2. In the section “Apply filter when:” select “From:” field
3. Under “contains” put @yourcompanyaddress.com
4. Then click on “Forward message to device.”

Next I created a rule to forward email addresses that are not part of my company email, but I still want to get on my Blackberry, such as my wife.  I did that by repeating the above process and including the full email address in the “contains” section.  You can put more than one email address in there if you seperate them with a semi-colon.

Once you’re done with this filter, you’ll be back at the front page with a list of your filters.  You’ll notice part way down, there’s a choice for handling items not listed in your filters. Make sure you click “do NOT forward messages to device.”

That’s it.  Now you’ve got it done.  If you find you’re not getting some emails that you need, simply add their name to your safe list on the BIS and they’ll start to come through.  Truth is, most of these people don’t really need an instant response and it frees you up to enjoy your “out of office” time a little more as well.