Understanding GPRS, WLAN and which is chosen - Networking

Good morning,
I have just switched from a Nokia N95 to an Asus P635 running WM6 professional.
One thing that is confusing me is how to select a specific connection to the internet.
What I mean by this is that I use ActiveSync to sync email with a server. When I am at home, I want to use WiFi to perform this, when out of the house I want to use GPRS. On the Nokia, I simply selected the access point to use when I came in or out of the house. How do I do this in WM6 so I can ensure I use my home WiFi when available but GPRS when not available?
Many thanks,
Mike

same prob here...

for "usable" phones/pdas stick with the nokias or sonys etc
for "playing around" wm phones are more fun - almost everything we take for granted on "usable" phones needs a 3rd party util or something made by the wonderful people here to do the same. hence a great way to have some fun and pass the time..

Related

WiFiFoFum - For scanning WIFI areas needed?

Hello,
I have PDA2K (integrated WIFI of course).
I don't have any WIFI at work or home. But I may want to use it
sometimes outdoors in special cafes and internet wifi areas.
I didn't get the chance to use WIFI yet.
From what I undetstand, when WIFI radio is ON, my machine will automatically detect WIFI if areas that have it and I do not even need to do a single thing.
But I came across this program WiFiFoFum. From what I understand
it is a WIFI scanner, so that if I go to urban areas, it can automatically
scan for WIFI zones with public Internet and connect me there.
My question is what's the use if WM2003SE does it automatically already?
I'm looking for an easy and fast solution.
Thanks !
sorci said:
Hello,
I have PDA2K (integrated WIFI of course).
I don't have any WIFI at work or home. But I may want to use it
sometimes outdoors in special cafes and internet wifi areas.
I didn't get the chance to use WIFI yet.
From what I undetstand, when WIFI radio is ON, my machine will automatically detect WIFI if areas that have it and I do not even need to do a single thing.
But I came across this program WiFiFoFum. From what I understand
it is a WIFI scanner, so that if I go to urban areas, it can automatically
scan for WIFI zones with public Internet and connect me there.
My question is what's the use if WM2003SE does it automatically already?
I'm looking for an easy and fast solution.
Thanks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wififofum give you a list of all the AP's near you with there SSID and the SNR (signal strenght in db) and tells you if there encypted etc. the windows one is like XP zero config, it just pops up whenever it finds one and lets you connect to it, with a scanner you are scanning and not connecting,but it may give you the option to connect (perhaps when you find an open AP)
you should check out PocketWinCE, its my fav IMO, also check others like ministumbler but this probly wont work.
scanners (uses legally) are good to walk around your company premises to check for rouge AP's etx, illegally it can be used to find open AP that you could use to access internet email or anything TCP really,
I took a 5 km drive one day..
Windows came up with four different findings for connections..
WiFiFoFum found 24...
That's a 6:1 ratio for WFFF...
And at only a few hundred k.. ..install it and enjoy..
Bonzo said:
I took a 5 km drive one day..
Windows came up with four different findings for connections..
WiFiFoFum found 24...
That's a 6:1 ratio for WFFF...
And at only a few hundred k.. ..install it and enjoy..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
around and about glasgow you find loads and loads of AP's and many are unencrypted and unopened,
check out pocket lan, this goes great with wireless networking, you can map printers, shares, and much much more but i wont go into that as i doubt its gonna be used legally (in most cases)
COOL Thank you all guys for good info.
So what's the verdict for a good program that doesn't require
hours of tweakings and techie games to use ? Something simple
that will get the job done ?
Also are Encryped channels really encrypted? I mean, when surfing from an coffee shop that has WIFI, how can I be sure that my communication is totally encrypted and that no simple software sniffer can get catch all the data? OR maybe even hack my pocket pc ?
I thought about the WiFiFoFum as it's the first one I came accross with, but let's hear your choices for my goals (i.e. probably onle to catch wifi zones on t he streets) + sharing etc... would be nice.. disregard the price of the utility, i'm interested in performance.
Thanks guys!
WiFiFo Fum is the best..
It's simple to use, requires little memory, and can be used to connect to the AP's it finds..
As for encryption..
No, there is no WiFi network in the world that is secure..
The way ethernet is buildt, everyone with a very simple sniffer can download ALL your data stream..
As for security.. With WEP encryption, they will need roughly 4 to 6 GB of data before they can crack it and get any information from the data stream..
Don't be paranoid!
If you wanna check that it works, go stand outside PC world, or McSh1te and get WiFiForUm to do some sniffing.
You are right when you say that it 'should just work' unfortunately, though MS wrote windows mobile so it likely wont! If you dont find any hotspots when you think there should be some try a soft restart (my XDA IIs requires this swapping from work-->home AP, but not for Home-->work AP very odd.
Of course the AP's at PC world/mcsh1te will be btopenzone or thecloud ap's which means that it costs approximately 5 million pounds per hour to use them. But if you can sniff them and get to the appropriate 'give us your c/card page' then you've proven that the device works. Check out the btopenzone/thecloud websites for their login url's.
If they ever start being honest and offering a per MB tarriff at hotspots then I'll start using them.
Nigel
veletron said:
If you wanna check that it works, go stand outside PC world, or McSh1te and get WiFiForUm to do some sniffing.
You are right when you say that it 'should just work' unfortunately, though MS wrote windows mobile so it likely wont! If you dont find any hotspots when you think there should be some try a soft restart (my XDA IIs requires this swapping from work-->home AP, but not for Home-->work AP very odd.
Of course the AP's at PC world/mcsh1te will be btopenzone or thecloud ap's which means that it costs approximately 5 million pounds per hour to use them. But if you can sniff them and get to the appropriate 'give us your c/card page' then you've proven that the device works. Check out the btopenzone/thecloud websites for their login url's.
If they ever start being honest and offering a per MB tarriff at hotspots then I'll start using them.
Nigel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tha scots knows all!! haha
thanks for all replies.
I downloaded the latest version of the program (0.3.3 i think)
Couldn't understand it or get it to work properly, it seems designed towards network technicians, not some normal pc/pda freak.
several issues:
1) When I go in urban areas, it does show on the Radar many spots, but the machine's own notification of 'Do you want to use xxxx for connecting to internet or work' dialog is interrupting it, and it starts to be a 'concert' of the WiFiFum and the internal network programs making noise.
2) When I did see many spots and tried to connect to some of them in the list screen(Try to tap and hold on the radar screen does ****) , it doesn't do ****. I click on Connect and no other dialog box or anything shows me as connected or something. Very akward program I must say. I also don't see in the list something which says if a spot is private or public (i.e. anonymous internet access allowed). And even not any help file. Seems like no human engineering was made here. I'd rather buy a program and pay nicely if it works rather than getting even a freeware which simply doesn't work.
Any other suggestion for other light programs that can actually work are very welcomed..
thanks again guys.
I think the problem might be between the stylus and the screen..
WiFiFoFum works flawlessly..
And please, forget about using the radar..
It will not work properly until you use TWO wifi cards..
When you see the list, tap and hold any AP to bring up a "Connect" option.
Now, you must remember; WFFF discovers EVERYTHING!
WM2003 only lets you connect to AP's that meets certain demands. (Signal strength is one)
I firmly believe that WFFF is the best software out there, just like NetStumbler is for Win32 environments..
I find it easy to use, and provides all the information I need..
How do you propose that the software can find out if you must pay before using it or not?
I guess this could be solved by connecting, pinging google, disconnecting and marking as "Public"/"Private"...
Though this would slow down the whole process so much, It would not be usable for anything else...
The concert can be disabled by the options panel, or just turning off the sound..
Sadly, we can't disable the WM2003 settings..
Street Hawk tries to connect to google so you know if the connection works.

GoodLink Users...DO NOT GET A UNIVERSAL!!! (yet)

I have had my imate JASJAR since Tuesday and as of this morning, I have given up trying to setup Goodlink over gprs. It just doesn't work.
Up until the universal, there has not been a factory gprs WM5 device. In fact, Good is saying that they really have only tested WM5 on a Dell Axim X50 with WiFi. So guess what will only work right now on a WM5 device? You guessed it, WiFi only.
I tried no less than 5 different ways on provisioning the device, and numerous calls to Good. It may work on gprs the first time, but after that, it will not do any send/receive on gprs. As soon as you turn on WiFi, it works like a charm.
Looks like I'm on Exchange Active Sync over gprs until they fix it, or until Exchange 2003 Server SP2 comes out. I have turned the corner on my PDA2K and I'm not looking back. The JASJAR is probably the best handheld I have ever owned. I am thinking of getting rid of my laptop in favor of using this...maybe.
Oh and by the way....Good has also not tested their apps with a VGA device (because they only tested the QVGA X50), so everything looks a little fuzzy and the cursor on the screen is one space to the right of where it should be on the screen. So it looks like you have a space after the last letter typed, but you don't.
I have no doubts that Good will have a new release soon, since the devices have now hit the market. They make a great product and I have had a good experience using it. I guess I'm just a little ahead of the curve.
Which of the server product you were trying (Good Server, Good Server Workgroup)? Also, which version of the client you were using on your device, was it 4.5.0.65?
Good Server and the most current version of the client 4.5.0.65.
You should ask them about the workgroup product. It is however currently in beta.
Why? does it have a different client? What makes it different then the server product?
I believe the client is the same, however the server is a little different. I am using it and I don't be I have the issues you have. Nonetheless, I will have to wait a little while to see how well things are going.
I always thought the pocket pc client was a little flaky especially when also sync it with the pc. However there are some days when it works well without issues.
Goodlink on WM2005
I am having similar issues on the Wizard. Good told me there will be a formal WM2005 client release in Q4 2005 and a beta/trial version of the client in the next few weeks. It seems that Sprint AV6700 users are having the same issues... I added my name to those who would like to try out the beta client. Perhaps you guys might try that also... I'll let you know if/when I get a WM2005 beta.
Regards
Chris

WM5 networking as bad as ppc2k3

Please forgive me if I'm asking an already answered question.
Does anyone have any answer to the absolutely pants networking setup in windows mobile? I had exactly the same set of problems on my old machine as I am now having on my new one which proves to me this is an OS problem not something to do with my device.
Its a problem which I'm sure everyone else must have encountered, I don't see how you could use a WM device without getting annoyed by this.
I'm on the wifi at home which connects me to 'The Internet' IE is working away nicely, then I decide to copy some mp3's down to my storage card, when I try to access \\myserver\share in file explorer, it wants a /WORK/ network and starts trying to dial vpn's and wotnot.
So I set the wifi to 'Work', it works fine for files but then when I go back to IE it starts trying to dial up the GPRS because it it believes there is no longer an internet connection.
So of course, I try going into the settings for my 'Work' connection and telling it the work connection does actually connect me to the internet. As there is no proxy on my local LAN I obviously choose not to tick this option.
The 'work connects me to internet' option just won't stay ticked! I had this under ppc and now under WM5 aswell. It makes no difference to the device dialing up a costly connection whenever it wants to sync my email and when I go back into connections it appears unchecked again.
Basicly I have two questions, firstly does anyone have an answer to using one network connection for everything. Ideally I would like the machine to use my wifi at home for everything when its available, and only dialup the gprs as a last resort. If it continues to launch the VPN connection to work for some things I can live with that, its just that connecting to GPRS whenever it feels like it is costing me money! I've had to ditch the idea of using it to sync my email just as I had to ditch the idea under ppc 2003 because its simply not acceptable to have Microsoft choosing to empty credit out of my phone whenever they feel like it.
<rant> (you can stop reading here)
The second question is simply to satisfy my own curiosity.... Why?
Why on earth would this insane networking setup ever come in useful to anyone in the first place? Its as if they did this on purpose just to annoy me!
This Work/Internet distinction seems to be another example of MS living in its own fantasy world, then expecting everyone else to live in it to. In reality its just not as simply as saying 'This network cannot be used to share files', or 'Internet explorer must not use this particular network'... kind of defeats the point of having a network IMO, you know, to enable free easy connection of stuff to other stuff? Microsoft, why?
</rant>
Why? Because what if you had a Work (or LAN) connection that doesn't connect to the Internet? Or maybe it is restricted in some other way (like a slooooow connection to the Internet). Then you might not want to use the Work connection, right? Isn't there a way to setup filters for IP addresses so that only work addresses go to the Work connection?

Choosing between WiFi, GPRS, VPN etc. - any simple utility outthere? plz...

Is there a kind of utility that if a connection is required, asks user how to connect? Something like there use to be on a PC, when You start IE? I don't remember which version of IE/Windows it was but it looks something like this - http://support.bee.net/dial/email/outlook6.gif
The problem is, selecting manually how to connect is very much pain in the ass, I am wondering that if there isn't a software already written for this, why is that. It would be a simple yet very usable - You start IE for example, and the phone asks you how to connect, via WLAN or GPRS or whatever. OR maybe even over BT if You have a BT device for connection over PC or smth.
The second option would be to prioritize the connection list - like tell the PDA that first try WLAN, if it fails then try GPRS etc.
The third option would be somehow to use MortScript for this. It's still better than going to Connection Manager through tens of taps.
Been searching the forums. Looked through at least all threads' titles under networking. But no solution so far.
Any ideas? I would appreciate any help. And still wondering why someone hasn't already solved this... Maybe they have, but cannot find it then
So nobody has ever heard of anything like this? Would there be an enthusiast who would program such utility? It would not be a major application...
How do you manually choose connection?
I have HTC Diamond with Windows Mobile 6. I connect it to my work computer to synchronise with Outlook but I want to use my 3G (or GPRS) connection for internet. What should I do?
i really dislike the way the WM6 autoamatically chooses GPRS has its first connection type.. but then if WIFI is turned off it has no choice
An option to possible enable Wifi rather than GPRS would be nice
Windows mobile's connection manager is horrible. I suspect the group assigned to WM networking at microsoft had little (or no) prior experience and didn't really understand how IP routing, interface stacking, etc. works.
We sorely need some kind of end-to-end communications manager that is aware of all network devices (GPRS, CF wireless/ethernet cards, onboard wireless, bluetooth, USB, etc) and virtual devices (all forms of VPN), and how they interoperate. Something that allows editing of routing rules, per-connection DNS servers, gateway priorities, preferred devices, timeouts, connection persistence, etc.
Worry about things like "dial-on-demand" after the basics are covered.
Today it's virtually impossible to keep a WM device on a VPN connection and even harder when you've got phone calls and wifi to deal with. I have my activesync configured through a PPTP VPN and at least 5 times a day it loses its connection and requires me to manually press "sync." Sometimes that doesn't even work, requiring a reboot. Usually there will be some vague and unhelpful error message like "waiting for network" or "could not connect for an unknown reason."
In fact while I'm on a bit of a rant, is anyone else infuriated by error messages like that?
Obviously there was an error - you don't need to tell the user that. If there was no error, you'd be connected! What is the purpose of telling the user there was an error? There is always an "error" unless there is success. TELL THE USER WHAT THE ERROR WAS. Anything else is useless and frustrating.
The device should also absolutely freak out if it ever loses any connection. If the phone loses anything.. the GSM signal, activesync's connection to the exchange server, the VPN... it should beep, vibrate, flash, and refuse to do anything (sleep, power off, etc) until either one of two conditions is true:
1. The error is no longer present (the phone was able to reestablish the connection), or
2. The user has acknowledged and dismissed the error.
It should never be the case that the phone is disconnected and not attempting to reconnect, unless the user chooses that mode of operation. Anything else leads to lost email, missed meetings, and high blood pressure.
Ugh.
Anyway, I think there's a lot of money to be made by a company that can put together a properly functioning WM connection management system. I'm still looking...
This might help, I've not tried it yet but it looks promising....
http://www.iaccarino.de/silvio/ppcstuff.htm#MobileProfiler
That is a much needed program. WM 6.1 does an awful job with GPRS, WiFi,
Phone, etc.
Thanks joemanb, somehow I missed Your reply. But this isn't exactly what I'm looking for. But thanks anyway. I understand that this proggy would be very useful for many people but I don't understand why somebody with programming skills doesn't want to do it...
I have the very same problem.
I have both symbian and WM phones.
Nokia have had this right since my 9500 when you check email or go on the Internet it prompts you for the connection to use. I got a Imate-Kjam and was shocked that it did not do this. It was subsequently replaced with a E90 that still does it the right way and very well. I just got a Samsung SGH-i780 and it is great but it still has no Idea of how to connect to the Internet the way I would like. having 3g makes it less of a problem as I simply don't use the wi-fi but this bugs me that I can't.
All they need to do is have the phone prompt you when you open a Internet app for the connection to use. How hard can that be to realize ?
Bump bump bump
Um... Bump?
Come on developers, You cannot say You don't miss something like that already...
Bandswitch
I hope too in the developers. While waiting I found "Bandswitch" which make something similar...
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-bandswitch-v1-2-3.html
Disable GPRS connections
Try this. Works fine on my Herald/P4350.
http://www.modaco.com/content/pocket-pc-software/246171/new-free-utility/
Thanks for the suggestions but as far as I can tell, these apps only handle mobile data connections and now Wi-Fi. You can easily disable GPRS by creating a fake GPRS connection with no real access point. That is not what I am trying to accomplish here. But thanks anyway.

Is there a good wlan+hspda setup?

Hi I have looked on the wiki and for some posts and I couldn't find anything, sorry if this has already been answered but, this is what I want...
Various wlan to be setup on my phone, 3g to always be on. When I enter a zone that has wlan that I know of I can activate wlan and the phone prioritizes the wlan connection.
The best solution I have so far: wlan setup for many zones 3g is priority, when i enter a zone I have to connect wlan deactivate 3g connection wlan usually works unless the signal drops too low then 3g will start up and that will take priority(or worse case edge or gprs will start up, which I have never been able to get to actually work it says the connection is there but never have i loaded a web page or downloaded an email in anything other than wifi or 3g)
Now I think windows mobile is to blame here but is there a solution for me? I tried to set wifi as main connection method but when I did 3g never seemed to work maybe I just set it up completely wrong.
Maybe there is some good software that can do this for me? or a known method to get it working properly.
many thanks,
Chris
Am I really the only one not satisfied with the connection options on this phone?
I have friends with the iphone and g1 and they seem to have no problem using 3g and wlan without any hassle.
badasschris said:
Am I really the only one not satisfied with the connection options on this phone?
I have friends with the iphone and g1 and they seem to have no problem using 3g and wlan without any hassle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a matter of "This Phone" it's a problem of Windows Mobile 80% of apps, and ROM fixes are to cover over failings and missing gaps in WM, things that SHOULD have been in place since WM2003. Same with the WinMobile UI... isnt much of one is there? not without a ton of today addons, and pocket plus or WisBar its M$'s strategy they make their money of other people's addons through licensing. You also lose out on 20% of WinMobile functionality if you don't have an Exchange server available, what do i need to buy Exchange server and run it at home on my desktop By buying a half dozen small apps i can get that functionality back at home but those apps are an additional 20+$ a pop.
notice on mobile office theres no database? Oh you can buy a 3rd party for 200$ Microsoft loves to play games.
Just my opinion

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