Quick Guide: Enable/Disable Your BlackBerry Firewall To Block/Unblock SMS, MMS, PIN, BIS & Enterprise Email

By Mauricio

Many new BlackBerry owners don’t realize what a powerful device they’ve just purchased. One of the biggest pros of owning a BlackBerry is its level of security with what’s on it and what gets sent out via email, etc. After all, you don’t want to make it easy for a malicious user or application to access your information.

One of the security features of a BlackBerry smartphone is a built-in Firewall that allows you to block certain message types and connections from happening. The following Quick Guide will walk you through on how to manage the Firewall.

Note: Some firewalls will be locked because of security IT policies in place. There is a workaround for this if it shouldn’t be locked but that will be in another guide.

1. Find the application icon for Options and click it. This icon will sometimes be located in the Setup folder.
2. Scroll down (or press S to jump) to Security Options and click it.
3. Scroll down to Firewall and click it.
4. Now that you’re in the Firewall options screen you can see what can be blocked, unblocked, etc.
5. Select either Enabled or Disabled in the Status drop down menu.
   • Note: Disabling the Firewall will disallow blocking of services.
6. Select what you would like to block/unblock in the Block Incoming Messages field.
   • SMS: This option will block all incoming SMS or text messages. This is good for anyone that does not have an unlimited SMS pla or prefers using BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) or other instant messaging applications.
   • MMS: Not everyone has a picture messaging plan. This option is good to enable if you don’t.
   • PIN: Block PIN messages.
     • Note: This does not include BBM messages. This is the message you receive similar to an email but through your BlackBerry PIN.
   • BlackBerry Internet Service: Just like SMS and MMS, not everyone has a BIS plan. Enable the blocking of this service to prevent accidental usage charges. If you don’t want to receive BlackBerry Messenger messages you use this option to block it but you will not be able to browse the web.
   • Enterprise email: If you’re not on an enterprise server I don’t believe this option applies to you but if you are and don’t want to receive enterprise email you can enable the blocking of this service.
7. If you’d like to block everything except messages from specific people you can do that with the Except messages from Contacts and Specific addresses options. Add people you want exempt from the Firewall options here to be able to receive messages only from them.
8. Back out to save or open the menu and select Save.