WiFi + Train + Google Location = weird

For some while now, the Austrian Railways (OeBB) offer free Wifi at least on their premium trains ("railjet"). The trains are good and fast, the Wifi (most of the time, at least in Austria) is good, but it confuses the heck out of the Google/Android location services.
The trains operate all the routes from Zürich to Vienna, from Munich to Budapest, from Graz to Prague, etc etc.

And it seems that Google (and Apple as well) associate various geo coordinates to those access points, On my route from Vienna to Salzburg, both my iPad and my Nexus 5 "re-located" me to Graz, Linz and Prague, while I actually was just around Salzburg.

(For the convenience of readers outside Central Europe I include the map as a reference for the screw-up)

There must be some way to report those access points to Google so they exclude them from location services. The concept of mobile hotspots/access points should be too common.

Any idea anyone where I can report this ?

Bluetooth beats Wifi

The other day - when  I was on the train to Prague - I needed to get some work done on my iPad, but the WiFi on the train was dead. Usually then, I enable the hotspot on my Android phone, but this time I decided to finally try this over Blueooth.

I wanted to do this a long time ago already, but the Wifi was too easy.

So, what can I say... it is almost as easy (of course), but uses a lot less energy, both on the iPad and more importantly on the Nexus 5.

I guess, I'll keep it like that. Bluetooth tethering definitely beats Wifi tethering.

Android Automatic WiFi Login - no more

One of the most useful Android apps - Wifi Web Login - stopped working with Android 5.0/Lollipop. The reasons seems to be that Lollipop now continues to use the mobile data (3G, ...) connection if fails to connect to the internet through wifi.

So whenever you are connected to a (public/free) hotspot, which requires a web login (or just acceptance of their terms of service). Android will ignore the Wifi, until you login/accept.

Actually, a good move.
But it seems to break Wifi Web Login, which automated this for me anyway...
Now I'm back to logging in manually...
Still easier than before, because I only have to drag down the Wifi notification, and accept the ToS for some standard hotspots.
But sort of a step back.
Hopefully this will get fixed, but neither the webpage nor the play store hint towards a fix.

Android Automatic WiFi Login

Most of the public and free (as in beer) Wifi spots force you to click on a freaking "Accept" button before you can use them.

In Vienna, for example, we have a free Wifi operator called "Freewave" who have quite acceptable coverage in and around restaurants, cafés, hotels, etc, etc. So I do have freewave wifi configured and "enabled" if you will in my Android phone.
Bad thing is, whenever I come close to a freewave hotspot, I have to click "accept" in order to get connectivity.
There is a freewave app for Android (and iOS), but it only helps you to locate the next hotspot, not to automatically sign in.

I used to have an app called "Wifi Browser Login" that would open a browser page, so I'd only need to accept without opening a browser first.
But this was still to cumbersome for me (talk about first world problems, eh).

What I had in mind was an app, that would detect that there was only a button to click (or sometimes a checkbox to select) and submit the HTML form. automatically

Just before I wanted to hack this myself I checked the play store and found  WiFi Web Login, which does exactly this.
Even more, you can record the sequence on your first "login", and it will automatically replay it, when you connect to this wifi hotspot.

Works like a charm on freewave.
Haven't tried it with a real username/password situation yet, because I don't have any such Wifis.

There's a 3 day trial, and the "full" or perpetual version is just 1.22 EUR. So go for it.

Loving it.

Google sniffing passwords? - Don't be stupid

Admittedly, the situation with Google "inadvertently" sniffing private data when recording the location WiFi networks is sad, annoying, stupid, ...

But what really annoys me is that "the media" keeps talking about Google collecting "private data ... like passwords for online banking".

What??

So they decrypt SSL/HTTPS, too?
Or do online banking sites no longer provide secure login?

Come on...

Yes, they shouldn't have done it - not even by accident.
But...
What's the damage?
Who - with an open / unencrypted WiFi network is to complain... reallly?  [1]
It's like leaving the front door wide open and the complain about burglars ...
And real sensitive data not only go over an encrypted Wifi network, but also at least over HTTPS (and in many cases) over a VPN as well.

I still don't see the actual damage.... except for the damage to Google's reputation...
It's not even evil, only stupid :-)

Wifi Router replacement

I finally replaced my broken Netgear with a Linksys WRT54GL...
Works great so far.
Well, once I remembered that my DSL provider (AON) is not using PPPoE but PPTP...

My Netgear is letting me down

Sadly in the past week(s) my Netgear MR314 started to let me down on the Wifi.
Worked like a charm for about 4 years now, but now the Wifi seems broken. Neither my Palm (T|X) nor my IBM ThinkPad are able to connect. And I triple-checked the settings... Ethernet still works fine.
I really loved this box, the last series of Netgear that just worked without problems. It just had 802.11b though, but I rarely cared (only when I had to transfer large files from the ThinkPad to the PC or v.v., but then I just plugged the ThinkPad to the (wired) Ethernet).
So, I'm gonna start looking for a Linksys ... or a used MR314... if I can get one for under 5€ ...

Wifi vs VoIP

Before Christmas I had a conversation with some former colleagues of mine. We had all worked for the same wireless operator, and most of them still do.

During that conversation one of them said, that he thinks that VoIP over Wifi will replace GSM because its cheaper.
I begged to differ:

His line of thought was, that Wifi is cheap and now that PDAs and phones do support voice over Wifi (e.g. Skype).
Everybody, he said, will switch to PDAs with Skype getting access from cheap local hot spots. GSM (or rather managed/operated voice and networks) will cease to exist.

To me there are several obvious flaws in this reasoning:

Wifi is not cheap.
Granted there are free (as beer and as in speech) hot-spots (like fon, but only a very limited number of them.
Commercial hot-spots charge horrendous amounts per hour/day...
T-mobile in Austria charges 1€/min or 8€/hour; A1/mobilkom is even more expensive

Wifi is not easy to configure
Well, maybe it is on the mac, but not on Phones and PDAs. To be clear, it's still easy to configure the pure Wifi/radio stuff, to get access to the
small network at the hot-spot, but that usually does not give you internet access beyond the hot-spot. In order to get that, most sites force you through some web authentication to be able to charge you.
Repeat for each location where you want to place a call.
Don't even consider a handover (like you are used to on the mobile)

Wifi is not easy to find
Forget all the finder services and icons and logos and what not. You still have to look for it.
GSM/3G you don't have to look for.
It's just there.

I wouldn't want my proverbial mother to have to configure a Wifi phone (not even my real one).
Nor do I want to have to educate her on the usage of the phone...

The transition from the good old fixed line phone to the mobile was difficult for many people, but essentially the only real change was, that you have to press the green button after you keyed in the numbers.
That's it. Ah, end yes, you no longer needed a cable.

Consider all the changes between the classical telephone sytem (including the mobile) and VoIP/Skype over Wifi.
It's more then just the green button. You have to register with several operators, you have various accounts...
So most people just wont follow you there.

Granted, it is possible, and to (us) techies it is a viable option, but only as long as we can cope with the service and usage limitations.

There is really no technical limit: Wifi can transport voice with top quality (provided the hotspot provider knows his stuff)
It's really just the people.

Wifi phone services do work already.
They can also work for my mother, but only stationary, i.e. replace the phone at home by a Wifi service.
My point is only about mobile networks, not about fixed line or home installations.

Palm replacement

So finally my replacement Palm T|X arrived (see what happened to the old one here) .
First of all, eBay, or at least certain eBay members, are just great. The T|X arrived exactly as described on ebay and quite in time, considering the holidays.
Secondly, as I already noticed a couple of hard-resets earlier, the Palm OS Wifi settings are not hard-reset safe, so they also don't survive a migration to a new piece of hardware.
What I found out was that you have to beam the file wiFiDbLibMruDB-WMru with e.g. T'Catalog (formerly known as z'catalog), then you get all the Wifi Settings on the new device as well... Especially the Wifi keys...

Palm R.I.P.

Last week I opened my Palm T|X and I thought there was a leave on the screen.
If only...
It took just a couple of seconds (or probably less) to realize, that the display was actually broken (internally somewhere) and the weird leaf-like pattern must be some liquid of the LCD display (or whatever).

So I wondered whether I should really bother buying a new T|X especially since this one is only about 1 year old... And it's still priced at 250-270 EURO.

Now since my Nokia 6233 can do IMAP over SSL for e-mail and actually also do some decent web-surfing... Both over UMTS/3G...
Then again, the palm is still a much better device for surfing (and sudoku, mind you) and of course I need

I guess I will nevertheless get myself a replacement T|X, there should be some good offers on eBay..

technorati tags: Palm, Nokia, Wifi, UMTS

Calacanis' Podcast device

Jason Calacanis sketches a new postcast-only device he wants to build together with Dave Winer and Peter Rojas; which is obviously DRM free ("obviously" because it's Dave Winer and its about podcasting - so there), and able to fully support Wifi.

At one point, when they talk about how Wifi could be used to download music from your PC (or the net) as well as exchange podcasts between devices, Dave says that obviously RSS would be used for that.

At first I just thought: how typical for him - everything has to be RSS. But then I thought a bit more about it - and yes, he's right: RSS (as well as Atom, in my point of view) would do the job. And quite well, too.

Listen to it on CalacanisCast Beta 7: Dave Winer and Peter Rojas discuss the RWC Podcast player - The Jason Calacanis Weblog

PS: I myself am still using my iPod nano to listen to podcasts - and I still like it - no matter what everyone else says.

technorati tags: RSS, iPod, Wifi, podcast