Database Users

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.

Understanding GPRS, WLAN and which is chosen

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..

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.

WinMo Network Management SUCKS!

Argh!
I've never really posted a rant, but here's one.
Symbian is streets ahead of WinMo when it comes to network management.
With Symbian if you open an app that wants to access the Internet you get a prompt asking what available connection you want to use. If for some reason while using that app you lose the connection, you get prompted again.
WinMo doesn't ask. It uses whatever network is available going from Wifi down.
This is a problem for some (Okay, not all. I'm sure people with unlimited data plans, and those who don't want to be prompted like this way). Symbian let you configure programs to automatically connect to a network. It gave you a choice. Again, WinMo doesn't.
My own example -
I'm with Telstra, in Australia. We don't get unlimited data. I have a 150MB Plan.
With my previous N95 I could start up Internet Radio, chose WiFi for my connection, and listen to it while I was in bed knowing that if I fall asleep, and the WiFi drops out, the program will stop. It won't switch over to HSDPA and cost me a fortune.
Now my Touch HD. It sleeps automatically after 30 minutes. I've just found out that when it does that, I lose WiFi.
Last night when I went to bed I started up Kinoma, and was listening to a shoutcast stream over WiFi. The phone went to sleep and with the wifi connection lost, the phone went to HSDPA.
12 Hours of streaming has put me 560MB over my 150MB limit. That's $270 extra I'm going to need to pay.
Oh well. Lesson learned.
I don't understand though how Windows Mobile can be so far ahead of Symbian in almost every area, yet lacking by a huge amount when it comes to Network Management.
FWIW - I've now set all programs that want to use the Internet to now use my "Work Connection" so they will only use WiFi but
a) What a useless workaround. If for some reason I do want to use HSDPA data I then have to go through the hassle of changing it back
and
b) How hard is it to have the option there to "Always Ask"
Seriously!?
Phew. I'm done.

you have my sympathy, my last smart phone was symbian UIQ. that had internet profiles and priorities etc. WinMo is sadly deficient in that area.
There are a few issues raised here.
First off wifi turning off when the phone (and you!) goes to sleep. I think there is a setting to prevent that, have a look at this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=488623
also i have seen mentioned an app called no_data which prevents GPRS connections, might be usefull, though I have no experience of it.

I have to agree on this, but on a slightly different subject: the EVIL windows mobile connection manager.
It is completely useless, being in the middle way between iPhone style (connect with any network and don't bother the user), and Symbian style (bother the user and let him choose the network every time). That is, it requires the users to dig into tricky and labyrinthic settings and always fails to do the right thing.
Thx to connection manager, I cannot use the BT PAN connection I spent long nights trying to get it work on my Motorola Q9, when the phone is not in airplane mode, because the CM will unilaterally think the PAN is useless and use H$DPA (or GPR$) instead.

Good old fashion Telstra reeming plays a part as well.

OUCH on the $270!!!
[email protected]#$%^&*()_+|
I share you frastration until I found this No Data application which I install first in every flash, it just disables any Data connection!
If you need it let me know

Thanks for the sympathy.
My biggest problem with NoData is that I actually want to be able to use HSDPA when I am not near a WiFi network, I don't want data off permanently!
Why can't there be an app that lets you chose which connection everytime. That's what is annoying me most!

When you need it just switch it back on. Less than few clicks

Hi,
i have just posted regarding this issue on another thread.
I remember reading a review for the Touch HD and one reviewer mentioned a 'simple thord party app that allows one button switching from wifi to 3g(HSDPA)'. rather disappointingly the reviewer does not mention what this app is called!!!!!
actually the issue i have is slighlty different, if i set the network setting to use wifi , when i turn wifi off i have the phone simply will not connect to anything until is go back through.
START>SETTINGS>CONNECTIONS>CONNECTIONS>ADVANCED>SELECT NETWORKS> either MY Work Network or Orang Internet.
phew what a pain in the preverbials.
Microsoft - i really hope you sort this in winMo 6.5
Anybody else - how about a simple app, if i switch wifi on and a network is found, set the above to my work network.
if not found then either set it to Orange Internet (or whoeever) (for those of us with unlimited data) or as the thread leader suggests just bloody ask whether it is ok to go back to 3G/HSDPA.
but can we please stop the:
START>SETTINGS>CONNECTIONS>CONNECTIONS>ADVANCED>SELECT NETWORKS>MY Work Network
or
START>SETTINGS>CONNECTIONS>CONNECTIONS>ADVANCED>SELECT NETWORKS>"carrier internet connection"
7 clicks of frustration that i struggle to do without a stylus

I've since installed and been using NoData. While not a perfect solution, it does make it easier to turn my data connections on and off without going through the settings menus.
It will do until Microsoft decides to catch up with the rest of the field with regards to network management.

[HTC TOUCH 3G] confused with wifi+3g+data access

Hi, first post.
I am also a first with windows mobile, i recently picked up a touch 3g.
i am rather confused with the internet and data access.
i have added all the wifi internet zones i visit.. home, work and friends... it says i can connect but when i try to browse it doesnt work.
basically i want to be able to connect to and use my WIFI zones when i'm in range, and when i'm not i want it to use 3G if i connect to an app or browser that requires it, then when i leave the application i also want it to stop using data so i wont get charged from my provider?
is there any easy way of doing this, i'm havin a hard time setting it up.. i would like WIFI to take priority.

These could have been my words too ...
I'm searching for this since a long time and even more since I saw how smooth and unobtrusive switching between wifi (when available) and 3G (when wifi is not availabe) is on the iphone (oh, he said the word!). Until now I didn't find any solution but as I would be happy if there was one, I just add myself as possible happy customer to this thread
The only kind of workaround I found was keeping your wifi always enabled (though not in standby) to have a preference for wifi because its most of the time already connected when you need internet access. If no access point is found then and only then 3G is used. It doesn't drain you battery as much as one would think. But what got me away from this was the fact that there is a slight or not so slight lag at least in connection with S2U2 when turning on the display. That annoyed me so much that I always turn on wifi manually whenever I know there's an access point and I need internet access.
Sorry I couldn't tell you anything better ...

Search............
Try searching the threads. There are settings that can be accessed through the advanced config tool that allows you to change these settings.