“You may again be experiencing intermittent issues while using BlackBerry services. BlackBerry provider. RIM is working on the issue and it will likely to be restored withing the next 4 hours. We regret the inconconenience caused.”

Other important aspect covered by the report is the problem that such a technology is facing around the world:

When I knew that many people are facing the problem around the world. After getting hit with this issue, BlackBerry users across the world have been left without email or text services for a second day due to an unexplained fault. Customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina have now reported problems with their devices.

BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) released a statement saying: “The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users… were caused by a core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure.

“Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested.”

“As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible.”

“We apologise for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed.”

The server problems started on Monday morning.

Steve Dinneen, technology columnist with City AM newspaper, described the situation as a disaster for Blackberry.

Speaking on Jeff Randall Live, he stressed the outage had badly damaged the firm’s brand, which is already struggling.

“It couldn’t have come at a worse time for Blackberry – it’s already seen its share price fall by two thirds since the start of this year,” Mr Dinneen said.

“If ever there’s a time that people were going to jump ship from Blackberry, this is it.”

Customers have been venting their fury at the lack of service on Twitter and other social networking sites.

One tweeted: “You realise that sending a letter in a bottle and putting it in the Thames is more reliable than a BlackBerry.”

Another joked: “What did one BlackBerry user say to the other BlackBerry user? Nothing.”

RIM had given the all-clear on Tuesday morning after the first problems.

But they struck again later, leaving users unable to access emails or the internet or use messaging services.

Regular voice-calling services appear not to have been affected, and the problem seems to be limited to personal rather than business contracts.

Mobile operators in the UK including T Mobile and Orange posted messages on their websites referring customers experiencing difficulties to the manufacturer.

Vodafone said: “Research in Motion (RIM) is currently investigating the issue as a priority to restore services as soon as possible.”

TV critic Ian Hyland tweeted: “All we need now is for i-phones to start playing up and we’ll have the dream headline: ‘Apple and Blackberry Crumble.’”

When I came to know that SSH works on GPRS enabled phone — it gave me a clue that the port 22 must be opened on GPRS enabled phone. So I asked my BlackBerry service provider – Airtel India support guys to activate the GPRS service on my phone and as it got enabled and tried to connect the remote Linux Server using midpSSH, it started working on my BlackBerry smartphone – WOW .

For Linux developer guys, it is essential that you connect to the remote Linux server from anywhere. I found having a SSH client on my BlackBerry 8520 smartphone is very convenient for a quick status check and troubleshooting.
MidpSSH is a SSH and Telnet client for mobile device [It's open source software - so you can modify it too as per your requirement.]

Here’s step-by-step guide on how to connect to a Linux server from BlackBerry 8520 phone using MidpSSH software.

1. Download MidpSSH on BlackBerry Phone

From the blackberry browser, go to http://www.xk72.com/wap and click on ‘Latest Development Release (v1.7.3)’. This will display several download options for blackberry phone. Select the BlackBerry Build OS 4.x.
* SSH1 Build
* SSH2 Lite Build MIDIP 2.0 MIDIP 1.0
* SSH1 Lite Build
* BlackBerry Build OS3.x OS 4.x
* BlackBerry Enterprise Only build
* No Obfuscation Build

When you select download, you may get a warning message — “The application does not contain a signature. It might not be from a trusted source. Do you want to proceed?”. Select ‘Yes’. This will start the download automatically as shown below.

2. Install MidpSSH on BlackBerry Phone

After download, it will automatically install the application and give you the following installation successful message. Click on ‘OK’, which will display the MidpSSH icon on the blackberry home screen as shown below.

3. Create a new SSH Client session and connect to Linux Server from your BlackBerry Phone

Create a SSH client connection by giving the ip-address of the Linux server you would like to connect to from your blackberry phone as shown in the Fig below.

* Alias – Enter the connection name.
* Host – Enter the ip-address of the server.* Type: SSH, Telnet. Select SSH.
* Authentication: For SSH Connection Only. Optional. Leave this empty.
* Username: Enter the linux user name.
* Password: Enter the linux account password.
* Connection Type: Default, TCP/IP, BES, WiFi. Select Default.

For example:

Alias: Dev DB
Host: 208.67.222.222
Type: SSH
Authentication:
Username: blackberry
Password:********
Connection Type: Default

Once the session is created, select the session using the trackball, which will give the option to connect, for me SSH Client session ‘Dev DB’, you need to go to the ‘Dev DB’ client session and right click on ‘Dev DB’ and select ‘Connect’ to connect to the remote Linux server . This will prompt the message — “The application MidpSSH has attempted to access a low-level network connection. Would you like to allow this?.” Select “Yes” for this message, which will connect to the remote Linux server.

Note: As we know, the firewall only permits access to the SSH Server via port 22. If even you have Rs. 899 unlimited Airtel BlackBerry Internet service plan on your BlackBerry phone, you can’t connect to Linux Server from your BlackBerry Phone – it gives an error message “Writer: could not open tunnel – failed”. Because, by default for Airtel users with using EDGE (enabled) BlackBerry smartphone, port 22 is not opened (first, I tested it on BlackBerry Curve 8520 locked phone with Airtel).

You must need to enable GPRS service on your BlackBerry phone if you want to use SSH on your smartphone. So as the GPRS service is enabled on your phone, the SSH will work and you would be able to connect to the remote Linux server.

Happy SSH on BlackBerry Curve 8520!!

Note that the default font size on the SSH client is very small. This makes the Linux prompt really tiny and practically not readable even with a 20/20 vision. The solution is simple — increase the font size.

Later, I had also tested the midpSSH on BlackBerry 9530 Storm Touch, Blackberry 9000 Bold and BlackBerry Curve 8900 (including BlackBerry Curve 8520) with Blackberry Internet service and GPRS enabled and it worked for me on these Blackberry smartphone models.

If you will have any problems related BlackBerry SSH — just let me know by posting your comment here.