Mobile Software Development

Launched All Things Android For Costa Rica

billsdesk — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:37:46 +0000

I created the All Things Android site for two reasons. First, I wanted all Android topics to appear on a separate site. Second, I wanted to focus on Android, as it relates to Costa Rica. While Android devices are not new to Costa Rica, there is surge of interest in Android phones and tablets. In Costa Rica, GSM (3G) is the norm. All 3G mobile devices are unlocked, and now there are three carriers (Kolbi/ICE, Claro, and Mobistar).There are no LTE cell networks, so discussions of 4G devices is not relevant. Consequently, I have refocused my blog sites.

As of now, the focus of each site is as follows:

All Things Android will focus strictly on Android topics.
Low Cost Computing will focus on general discussions of Linux, including reviews of new Linux distros.
Hot about Linux remains focused on advanced Linux topics that assume the reader has a basic knowledge of Linux.
Tell Me about Linux is still the site for Linux on-line course material. I am currently working on a Basic Linux course. When completed, I will write another course.
Mobile Software Development shall focus strictly on developing Web sites for mobile devices.
Linux for Ham Radio awaits my getting a permit to operate my station in Costa Rica, and then will focus on Linux ham radio applications. Since this is a highly speciallized site, it may include Android apps orriented to ham radio.

I would like to post articles on each site on a weekly basis. However, I also write Technology articles for The Costa Rica Star. A very busy writing schedule.

Linux Internet Security

billsdesk — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:11:48 +0000

With all the attacks on Windows based machines, Linux users all to often assume that their machines are not vulnerable to malware. Since Android is another distribution of Linux, the honeymoon from malware is coming to an end. For mobile devices, the dangers of Man in The Middle (MiTM) attacks is always present. What can Linux users do to increase the security of their systems?

Firewall

Every distributions comes with the ability to create a firewall. The question rises as to how many of you have configured the firewall? How many of you that have not configured a firewall connect to the Internet directly through a broadband modem, DSL, cable, or public Wi-Fi connection? Configuring a firewall for desktops is not difficult. The few minutes invested may protect your computer from unwanted intrusion. You don't need to be an iptables expert to use a GUI. You only need to get down-and-dirty with iptables, when you are configuring a more complex firewall.

Malware Protection

While it may be difficult for an anti-virus to effect Linux, the files from Windows machines may contain viruses. At a minimum, these files should be scanned before copying them to your Linux filesystem. Sharing those files with others just propagates the malware to other machines.

ClamAv is the open source standard for Linux malware protection. ClamAV is available from every distro's repository, but the package contains command-line only utilities. In addition to the man pages, documentation for ClamAV exists in /usr/share/doc/packages/clamav. You can find additional documentation at the ClamAV Web site.

One you install ClamAV, you need to configure two daemons: /etc/clamd.conf and /etc/freshclam.conf. The comments in the configuration file are fairly explicit. You can obtain additional information from the man pages for each conf file.

The command-line options for clamscan, or clamdscan, take awhile to master. There are two GUI front-ends to ClamAV that make life a lot easier: ClamTK and Klamav. I use ClamTK, as Klamav is only available for KDE 3, and was last maintained in 2009. The ClamTK site gives instructions for downloading ClamTK. For openSUSE, you can find ClamTK on the openSUSE Build Service.

There is one free alternative to ClamAV for the home user, and that is avast! Home Edition. avast! does require an unlock key that you get from their Web site. The key needs to be renewed every year.

Proxy Services

In some ways a proxy server acts like a router, as it is a gateway between two networks. In terms of IP addresses, the destination server (such as a Web site) only knows about the IP address of the proxy server. However, some application protocols (such as HTTP) also contain information that identifies the source of the traffic. Security is always a major consideration when going through a proxy server. There are three categories of proxy servers:

Web Proxy

The easiest proxy service is the Web proxy. With a Web proxy, you simply enter the URL of the Web proxy service, and then, on their site, enter the URL of the site to which you want to connect. Web proxies come in four flavors: transparent, anonymous, distorting, and high anonymity (hianon for short). The transparent, anonymous, and distorting proxies announce that they are a proxy server. While high anonymity proxies hide that they are actually acting as a proxy. Transparent proxies really do nothing to hide your IP address. Distorting proxies provide a fake address in the request headers, while anonymous and high anonymity proxies truly hide your IP address, with the address of the proxy server. The problem with a Web proxy a is that they do not handle all media types (such as Adobe Flash). In addition, some sites, such as YouTube, complain that there are two many connections from the same IP address.

There is a security risk to using anonymous proxy servers in that any personal information, such as passwords, pass through the server as unencrypted. Unless you use a Web proxy from a reliable provider (for example, Hide My Ass), there is a chance that the proxy server is acting as the MiTM to collect private information. The other danger is that the connection between your machine and the Web proxy is not a secure connection.

HTTP Proxy

The HTTP proxy, sometimes referred to as IP:Port proxy, goes one step further in that it handles all media types, and provide a higher level of security between you and the proxy server. Like Web proxy servers, they come in several flavors: Transparent, Anonymous, and Highly Anonymous (also called Elite). The meanings are the same, and for higher security Elite is preferred. They do provide access to more sites, and exist in different countries. However, they do require additional configuration. You can a list of free proxy servers from Hide My Ass, Proxyhttp.net, or Proxy List.

Web browsers for laptops and desktops generally provide for configuration of HTTP proxies in their preferences or settings menu. For Firefox you click Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Connection Settings. For Google Chrome, you need to click on the wrench icon -> Preferences -> Under the Hood -> Change Proxy Settings.

You need to enter the IP address and port number in the HTTP field. If the proxy server support HTTPS, you enter the same values in that field. You can also enter the same value in the FTP field. You should always add “localhost, 127.0.0.1” to the no proxy field, as there is no point in routing traffic for your local machine to the proxy server.

After saving the results, you are ready for a test. Try connecting to What is My IP Address. If it fails to connect, check your values. If the values are correct, then try a different proxy server. If it works, you will see the new IP address, and its location. Don't bother with the speed test, as it doesn't use the HTTP protocol for the actual tests.

The problem with free services is that there reliability and speed constantly changes. Finding a free proxy service that can actually stream movies takes a lot time. Some free HTTP proxies also have download limits. Paid HTTP proxy service such as FoxyProxy are faster and more reliable. FoxyProxy charges $8 US a month with discounts for three months, six months, or a year in advance. Once you subscribe to a service, you will receive an email that gives you the proxy IP address, port number, your user name and password. FoxyProxy has a browser extension for Firefox, and Google Chrome. As of this writing, the extension for Google Chrome does not work for their paid service.

The main disadvantage of the HTTP proxy is the limitation to just the HTTP protocol. In addition, there is no easy way to turn the proxy configuration on or off (with exception of the FireProxy extension). With an HTTP proxy, you may want to configure one browser just for connecting to sites that require the HTTP proxy.

VPN Proxy

VPN (Virtual Private Network) proxy services are a totally different ballgame. VPN operates at layer 2 of the TCP/IP protocol stack. With a VPN proxy you are sending all Internet traffic through a single encrypted tunnel to the VPN server. Corporations often use VPN to connect remote devices to the corporate network. You can use the same technology to connect to a VPN proxy server that then routes your traffic to the Internet.

Web proxies and HTTP proxies are great for the Web browser, but all other traffic is routed through the Internet. With a VPN proxy all your apps applications appear as if they came from the VPN proxy IP address. It is the best solution for secure connections from a public Wi-Fi hotspot, and for travelers who need extra security.

VPN proxy services are not free. Hide My Ass (HMA) charges $11.52 US a month, with discounts for paying six months or a year in advance. VPN Service Providers provides an extensive list of VPN services, along with there costs. HMA is the largest and cheapest VPN proxy service. HMA does not have a traffic limit, and allows multiple devices to connect to a single account.

HMA provides a simple script for Linux that initiates an openVPN connection. Their instructions call for installing the files into an hma directory under Desktop directory. However, I created an hma directory in my home directory, and installed them there, as openSUSE uses the Desktop directory for its plasma desktops. For the server information required by the script, you need to login to your VPN Control Panel at HMA, and select the PPTP servers tab. When you run the script, you will be prompted for your account name and password. For an openVPN connection, you use your VPN account password, and not the PPTP password. It worked. I had a VPN connection from Costa Rica to the USA.

I wasn't satisfied. I wanted an easier way to make the connection. Since openSUSE is my default desktop, I started my journey to find an easier connection through its Network Manager. It took awhile, but I got it to work. The process is actually very simple, and I documented the KDE steps on the HMA forum. I now have a simple means to start and stop the VPN connection, without using the script.

After spending a lot of time looking for an openVPM plugin that would work with Fedora, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu, I surrendered and tried to create a PPTP connection. I managed to get a stable PPTP connection on these distros, and I documented the steps on the HMA forum. I was not able to establish a stable PPTP connection on openSUSE. It appears that there are missing links in /etc/sysconfig/network/scripts. I haven't had time to resolve this issue. Besides, I prefer the security of openVPN over that of PPTP.

When you use a VPN connection, you need to use a firewall. VPN creates a tunnel through the your router. It is the same as connecting directly to the Internet via a modem (Cable, DSL, or Broadband). When I first started using a VPN, I forgot to change my firewall from internal zone to external zone. It did not take long before I discovered unauthorized ssh connection attempts. I immediately changed the firewall to external zone, and then changed the iptables to provide for local network connects only, which excluded the Wi-Fi router.

While there are routers that support VPN, this approach did not meet my needs for a mobile environment. I now have my netbook, Android tablet, and Android phone configured to use HMA VPN. This is where a VPN service that allows multiple connections comes a necessity.

Writing for Costa Rica Star

billsdesk — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:24:33 +0000

If there seems to be a lack of posts on this site, it is because I am now writing technology articles for the Costa Rica Star. The articles cover cell phone use in Costa Rica, and reviews for Android mobile devices. You can follow these articles by following me on Twitter.

Comment Problem

adminguy — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:15:44 +0000

I am having a problem with comments not being added to the database. I am working on the problem. A successful comment post to this post means that comments are working again.

Nimbuzz - Great Product but Terrible Customer Support

billsdesk — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:08:56 +0000

For mobile devices, I think Nimbuzz is the best chat aggregation tool available for mobile devices. Nimbuzz to Nimbuzz is great for chatting, sharing photos, and making calls. For posting to my main Twitter account, it is convienent. While I am happy with Nimbuzz, I am not happy with NimbuzzOut and Nimbuzz's customer support. Plus, I think navigation of their Web site is anything but intuitive.

When I first setup Nimbuzz, I decided to use FastVIOP for a SIP service. At that time, I based my decision totally on price. The problem with using a third-party SIP service is that Nimbuzz does not display the remaining credit. In October, I decided to give NimbuzzOut a try, as I no longer make a lot of International calls, and like to know how much credit I have remaining.

I prefer using PayPal, so I purchased $10 of credit. The transaction processing did not produce any errors. When directed back to the Nimbuzz site, I received a message that I would be recieving an email to confirm the purchase. I never received the email, so was not able to confirm the purchase. I tried again, and got the same message, and never received an email. While my PayPal account was never charged, I wasted a several days waiting to make sure that I didn't make multiple purchases. I sent a message to Nimbuzz's customer support, and after two weeks got a response that they would get back to me. I never did receive another email on this ticket.

In the meantime, I purchased $10 of credit for NimbuzzOut using a credit card. I received a confirmation email, and my Nimbuzz showed that I had $10 of credit. The immediate need to make an International call passed, but I wanted the credit available. A week ago, I needed to make a call only to find that I had $0 credit. I checked the Nimbuzz Web site and it showed no credit purchase history. I sent a message to customer support, and received a robot response that I would receive a reply within 36 hours. This was eight days ago, and still no response. Nimbuzz ripped me off for $10, and has done nothing to acknowledge or correct the error.

So, why not just switch to Skype? First, Skype is a lot more expensive. Second, it does not integrate to my contacts on the phone, which is why I use Nimbuzz. The only choice is to stick to FastVIOP. I am tired of dealing with NimbuzzOut.

The Nimbuzz Web site has a flashy front page, but totally lacks any obvious link to other services. Only by clicking the Download button do you get to a real page. It is stupid. It is not customer friendly. To be fair, the FastVIOP Web site is only marginally better.

New Theme for the Site

adminguy — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:51:57 +0000

One of the original goals for this site was to build a site that supported mobile devices using Drupal 7.x. I tried every mobile theme available at the time, and nothing met my needs. The Titan theme was OK on my HP mini notebook and laptops, but just didn't look good on a cell phone, or on tablets.

As part on the experiment, I had m.mobilesoftwaredev.com linked to an account on mobify.com. The problem was that there was no switcher that detected the device on mobilesoftwaredev.com, and then switched to m.mobilesoftwaredev.com for cell phones. The Mobile for Mobify module for D7 did not work for, and is no longer supported. It took awhile, but I finally found a solution.

While rebuilding tellmeaboutlinux.com, I found the Adaptive Theme, which supports mobile devices. The new look comes from the Pixture Reloaded theme using the Adaptive Theme as a base. For those interested, the Sky theme offers the similar features, but with a different layout. The new theme treats my HP mini netbook as a tablet in landscape mode. On my Nook Color, it automatically rotates between the portrait and landscape setting. It even looks good on my Nokia E5, which it detected as a smartphone.

The jury is still out on continuing to use mobify.com for m.mobilesoftwaredev.com. It serves a valuable purpose for feature phone, but I don't envision a lot of traffic to this site from feature phones. I am leaning towards trimming down and simplifying maintenance.

Comments Restored

adminguy — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:00:59 +0000

Comments are restored. Because of my slow Internet connection from Costa Rica, I just flushed the relevant tables in the database. I hated loosing all the comments, but restoring them would have taken days of work.

Comments Temporarily Disabled

adminguy — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:49:06 +0000

I have turned off comments, until I have time to track down the problem comments ID field for the first 9 articles. After updating to the latest version of Drupal 7, the corrupted comments field prevents viewing of the full article. I hope to fix this problem in the next few days.

Changes and More Changes

billsdesk — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:34:05 +0000

The biggest change is that I am now living in Costa Rica, which spawned a lot of other changes. Throw into the mix my purchase of a Barnes and Noble Nook Color, for yet another change.

My Nokia E71 is now inactive, as unlocking it for Costa Rica would disable its us on StraigthTalk. Since I still need a phone that works in the USA, I purchased a Nokia E5 for Costa Rica. I like it a lot better than the Nokia E71. I wanted to buy the Nokia N8, but the cost exceeded my budget. Besides, the Nook Color is my Android toy, and eBook reader.

My goals are small, mobile, and sharing resources between my HP Mini netbook, the Nook Color, and the Nokia E5. It is going to take a bit of work, but I am want to be able to share data between all three devices. I will document my efforts on this blog.

At the moment, reliable Internet access in Costa Rica is my number one challenge. Whether it be the Nokia E5 or the data card in the WiFi router, Internet access is terrible during the day and a lot faster from midnight to 8am. Both Internet services are through Kolbi, which is part of ICE. The cheapest rate is 100 colones (20 cents) a day for data access on phones for unlimited data at 512KB/s. The data card has the same speed limit for unlimited access at the rate of 8,500 colones ($17) a month. I have yet to see speeds anywhere close to the limit. The best speed I have been able to achieve was 74KB/s at 4am. During the day, there are burst periods where the rate gets to 24KB/s. I purchased the high speed rate for the phone for a two week period, and the data rate did not improve. Slow is slow, so why pay for more. I am looking at other options, and will post my findings.

Before getting the WiFi router working, I connect my netbook to the Internet using JoikuSpot on my Nokia E5. As with most cell phones, the Nokia phones only operated in Ad Hoc mode. The Nook Color, as does the Kindle Fire, only connects to WiFi networks operating in Infrastructure mode. I have nooted my Nook Color, and am looking for a solution that allows the NC to connect to both Ad Hoc and Infrastructure WiFi networks. So far, the only solution I have found provides switching wpa.supplicant files between one that operates in Ad Hoc mode, and one that operates in Infrastructure mode.

I still have a lot of work to do, before achieving the environment that I desire.

Nokia E71 from Straight Talk

billsdesk — Fri, 06 May 2011 23:26:52 +0000

The Nokia E71 may not be the newest smartphone on the market, nor is it an android phone, but it is no slouch of a phone. It is a GSM phone, and customer service willingly provides you the unlock code. I bought the Straight Talk phone for slightly under $200 and it does require the $45 a month plan. That is correct, the total cost of operating this phone is $45 a month. Can anyone get an iPhone or Droid phone for a total cost of $45 a month?

Undocumented Features

There are two really cool features of the phone that are not well advertised:

There is a front facing camera that is not mentioned in the documentation. There are a few applications that use the front facing camera:
1. While I downloaded Fring to my E71, the Ovi site now states that Fring is not available for the E71. It does, however, use the front camera for Fring video calls. You can download it to your phone via m.fring.com. Using a Fring test call, I verified that the front camera does indeed work.
2. Nimbuzz use the front camera when making Nimbuzz to Nimbuzz mobile calls, at least this is the story. Until I have a mobile Nimbuzz friend, I have no way of verifying the truth of this assertion.
3. HandHeld Mirror costs me $0.99 for the sole purpose of finding a quick way to verify that the front camera works. Now, if this app could just capture an image, it would be a prefect front facing snapshot camera.
While the front facing camera is not mentioned in the E71 documentation, the Wi-Fi capabilites are well known. The JoikuSpot application turns the Nokia E71 into a Wi-Fi hotspot. The free version make it public, while the paid version ($9.99) creates a secure hotspot. It works and it is fast. Battery on phone only last about 4 1/2 hours when being used as a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can still even use the phone, as a phone. What a radical thought, using a phone as a phone.

Learning to Use the Phone

It really does pay to read the documentation about this phone. There are two main source of information.

The tutorials at Straight Talk provide a good introduction to the Nokia E71. There are a lot of features to this phone, and it takes awhile to master them all. I am still learning new tricks.
At the bottom of the above page is a link to the official Nokia E71 User Guide. You can also get the guide directly from Nokia. Except for the undcoumented features mentioned above, the User Guide covers everything about the phone.

I am not a Microsoft Windows user. Instead, I run Linux Mint, and a few other flavors of Linux, on laptops and netbooks. Consequently, I have never used the Nokia Ovi Suite to connect my laptop to the phone. Without any special configuration, I was able to instantly connect to the phone via a USB cable and bluetooth. I transfered all my photos and contacts form a LG Env 3 to the Nokia E71, without a problem. I do, however, recommend that you create an account on ovi.com to backup and edit your contacts. Nokia has a very flexibile contact file format, which requires some editing of the information transfered. To synchronize music with the Nokia, I use Rhythmbox.

The documentation does not make a clear distinctiion between exiting an application and hiding an application. When you exit an application, it closes the application. When you hide an application, it remains in memory and is still running. The grey circle on the upper right corner of the applications icon indicates that it is running. The easy way to see the all running applications is to press down and hold the home key for a few seconds. A window opens on the left side of the screen that shows the running applications, you can then switch to any open application from this window.

Suggested Applications

While I have not tested every application, I have tried a lot of them, and have some favorites:

JoikuSpot is the only application that allows you to create a Wi-Fi hotspot. Unless you want a open Wi-Fi hotspot, I would suggest spending the $9,99 to get the version that allows you to create a secure Wi-Fi hotspot. What is great is that this application just plain works.
While the Nokia browser does a great job, I recommend downloading Opera Mobile for a full featured browser. My one complaint is that the browser does not support the latest version of Adobe Flash.
For Straight Talk, there is no charge of long distance calls within the US. However, if you are looking for a way to make International calls, Skype is a popular alternative. Skype to Skype calls are free. The one weakness is that the Nokia E71 version does not use the front camera. Skype is not available from the Ovi Store. You can down load it to your PC / MAC or directly to your phone.
Nimbuzz is my favoritie social aggregation program. While I still haven't figured out how to use the front camera with Nimbuzz, it does have the neat feature of being able to take picture and integrate into the chat. I have test voice call on Google Talk and Nimbuzz, and both work. I am having a problem connecting to ICQ. Other than ICQ, I was able to link to all my accounts without a problem. Keeping the program active, does not seem to draw a tremendous amount of power.
If you have a single Twitter account, then Nimbuzz is all you need. However, I have four Twitter accounts, and accounts on other networks. While I would like to see a Symbian version of HootSuite or Seesmic, I am not holding my breath. After a bit of searching, I found Gravity, which is good for Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, and FourSquare. While other social networks would be nice, I could solve the posting problem to multiple networks, if they had a link to Ping.fm. I am currently running the demo version, but will probably upgrade to the $9.99 version.
For a super cool application, you should try Shazam. Have you ever wonder who sang a song, or the name of the song? If you ever have, you need to try Shazam. I tested on everything from Malt Shop to Spanish, and it correctly identitied every song. For an orchestral piece, it correctly identified the composition, but not the correct orchestra. Plus, it allows you to link to the YouTube video for the song. A fun app to test and to play with.
ScreenSnap is the only application I could find that captures the screen. It works just fine.
I actually prefer the native application for connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot, but WiFiRadar provides a means to automatically connect to an open Wi-Fi hotspot. In areas with no publicly available Wi-Fi hotspots, it is a waste of battery power. It does cost $4.99, so you need to really think it is worth automatic connection to a network.
With all the applications running, a smartphone requires anti-virus protection. There are a number of choices, but I finally settled on MobiShield. I really don't like application descriptions that fail to tell you that they are a demo, or what will be the final cost. It can be a great application, but I want to know what it will cost. I choose MobiShield, because I knew that this version was free, and what it would cost to upgrade to the professional version.

When selecting applications that aggregate multiple social services, you need to be aware that Yahoo and ICQ only allow a single login. I use Nimbuzz as my social network aggegation application and turn off those networks in Fring. One of the problems with Fring is that it readily displays the Yahoo disconnect message, but does not provide any manual method of signing into Yahoo.

Disappointing Applications

While future revisions may change my opinion, I rate the following applications as not worth the effort of downloading:

While it aggregate a lot of social networks, eBuddy Mobile Messenger has terrible messaging capabilities. Micro-messaging can be fast paced. In the default mode, I had to type each message on a separate screen, and then send the message before seeing received messages. In the in-line mode, I could not capitalize the first letter on a line, the backspace key did not work, and the return key did not work. It also seemed a bit heavy on power consumption, expecially when it could not link to a network.
The shortest lived application on my phone was video chat(imichat). In my opinion, it is a poorly designed application.

Conclusion

I have not even touched on all the capabilities of the Nokia E71. As I discover more, and find more interesting applications, I will post more information. For the price, this is a smartphone that is going to be hard to beat.

Mobile Software Development

Launched All Things Android For Costa Rica

Linux Internet Security

Firewall

Malware Protection

Proxy Services

Web Proxy

HTTP Proxy

VPN Proxy

Writing for Costa Rica Star

Comment Problem

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Nimbuzz - Great Product but Terrible Customer Support

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New Theme for the Site

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Comments Restored

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Comments Temporarily Disabled

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Changes and More Changes

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Nokia E71 from Straight Talk

Undocumented Features

Learning to Use the Phone

Suggested Applications

Disappointing Applications

Conclusion

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