Blackberry - Reason: Failed to obtain an IP address

I got a BlackBerry 9000 exactly one year back. I was pretty happy with the interface and functionality after being a loyal Windows Mobile user for a long time. After few days I tried to connect to my Wi-fi in office. My handheld identified the network and asked me to enter WEP key. After I entered WEP key, it tried to connect to the network. But it didn’t work. It came up with an error message “Reason: Failed to obtain an IP address”. I asked Google baba for resolution and got various solutions. One of the solutions included wiping off my BlackBerry. I tried all of them. Sadly none of them seemed to work. I thought problem might be with hardware and was contemplating giving it for service. Apparently bill of purchase is with a friend and he has lost it. So I thought I was stuck with a dud.

Few days back I activated BlackBerry services for BBM and email after constant advice from some of my friends who are proud owners of BlackBerry. I followed all the required steps for activating BB services, but nothing seemed to work. I was pretty frustrated and was fiddling around with various options. All of a sudden I landed in ‘Mobile Network’ settings and found that section called ‘Data Services’ was ‘Off’ and ‘Network Mode’ was set to ‘3G & 2G’. I changed ‘Data Services’ to ‘On’. Immediately I got a message saying that my BB services were activated. Filled with joy, I also tried checking whether it had resolved my Wi-fi issue and it sure did. 

Since I had tried so hard to get my Wi-fi issue sorted, I felt that I would share this on my blog. This way anybody facing similar problem can resolve it without any hassle. Listed below are the steps.

Options -> Mobile Network -> Data Services -> On

Once you do these steps, you are all set to use data services including BlackBerry services and Wi-fi networks.

P.S: It feels great to write after such a long hiatus.