KB15242 - How to use IT policy rules to hide browsers on the BlackBerry smartphone

Environment

• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server
• BlackBerry smartphone

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Overview

The Browser application supports multiple browser configurations including the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Browser, the Internet Browser, and the BlackBerry® Browser. For more information about the browser configurations available on BlackBerry smartphones, see KB05483.
The following IT policy rules can be used to disable the browser configurations on the BlackBerry smartphone.
To disable the WAP Browser:

1. Click on Device-Only Items.
2. Set Enable WAP Config to False.

To disable the Internet Browser:

1. Click on Browser policy group.
2. Set Allow IBS Browsers to False.

If the MDS Browser Use Separate Icon rule is set to True, and Allow IBS Browser is set to False, the browser is not disabled. Instead, one icon on the BlackBerry smartphone is hidden.
To disable all Internet Browsing Service (IBS) and WAP carrier browsers:

1. Click on Service Exclusivity Policy Group.
2. Set Allow Other Browser Services to False.

This IT policy rule changes the Default Browser on the BlackBerry smartphone to the BlackBerry Browser with no other browser available on the BlackBerry smartphone.
To disable the BlackBerry Browser:

1. Click on Global Items.
2. Set Allow Browser to False.

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Additional Information

The Allow Other Browser Services and Enable WAP Config IT Policy rules can affect Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages because many carriers use WAP for MMS messaging. See KB11766 for more information.

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http://blog.port3101.org/hdawg/

How timely. I just did this yesterday.

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You may know me as Juwaack68

updated.

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http://blog.port3101.org/hdawg/

updated

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http://blog.port3101.org/hdawg/

If I do the following:

To disable all Internet Browsing Service (IBS) and WAP carrier browsers:

1. Click on Service Exclusivity Policy Group.
2. Set Allow Other Browser Services to False.

Will this disable the service books such that 3rd party apps can no longer use IBS or WAP connection methods? Or does it just refer to the BB browser app?

That blocks the IBS / WAP Browser and forces all Browser requests to go through the BlackBerry Browser.

Other application access should be controlled via Application Control Policy. or perhaps using Security Policy Group > Allow External Connections IT policy rule

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http://blog.port3101.org/hdawg/

I turned this on, and found that my service books for the following services were set to "Disallowed" or a circle with a line through it instead of a checkmark:

IPPP for BIBS [BrowserConfig]
MMS Transport [WPTCP]
T-Mobile USA WAP 2.0 transport [WPTCP]
T-Mobile USA WAP Transport [WAP]
Wi-Fi TCP/IP Transport [WPTCP]

My quick test of UberTwitter found that trying to hardcode it to use BIS-B caused a "Network Error" message and no refresh. So it does appear to affect 3rd party apps connection methods in some cases, as well as the browser.

Interesting; thanks for posting the info on this.

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http://blog.port3101.org/hdawg/

Just a quick heads up, the following (as mentioned above) also disable MMS.

Set Enable WAP Config to False.
Set Allow Other Browser Services to False.

Ok .. I've been rolling this policy change out now the past few weeks and have changed these settings:

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Device-Only Items

- Enable WAP Config - set to False

Browser policy group

- Allow IBS Browser - set to False

Service Exclusivity policy group

- Allow Other Browser Services - Set to True

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I need to be able to reach the BIS setup as we allow secondary email. With this setup I have found a couple side effects:

Website "shortcuts" that users have installed (Cnn.com etc) or bookmarks saved in the browser fail with an error:

Browser is disabled by IT policy

Is there a way around this or is that expected as these are tied to the other browsers that are now disabled?

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The bookmarks will need to be updated manually to point to the BlackBerry Browser. The web shortcut applications can either be removed and reinstalled to see if it fixes the issue. If not, it is likely the developer of the shortcut specified WAP, Wi-Fi, BIS, or BES for the browser in their code and it cannot be changed (or they may have an enterprise/BES version available). It's really one small snippet of code that's the difference, so it may be worth contacting the developer, if possible, to see if they have one available (or would be willing to cater to your needs).

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BCSA (4.1, 5.0) | BCSD (4.1, 5.0)

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