Anyone having read my past, remote controlling-related articles knows there already are some remote control solutions to remotely access a Windows Mobile device from under desktop Windows (or, for that matter, with VNC, any other platform, even including another Windows Mobile device).
Solutions allowing this include SOTI's excellent and, if you don't mind the price tag, by far the most recommended Pocket Controller (review HERE). Other, not that good solutions include the abandoned, not recommended PDA Controller, dotPocket, the, so far, only app to support over-the-firewall solution, MS PowerToys and the Windows Mobile version of the free VNC server, PocketVncServ. (See the review & comparison of all these titles HERE).
Now, LogMeIn, which has an already excellent and highly recommended "control the desktop from the PDA" solution thoroughly reviewed in the Desktop Access Bible, also started to offer something similar.
The new solution, as opposed to all of the existing ones (except for that of MS PowerToys , which also allows for avoiding having to have a direct, non-firewalled Internet address), offers a Web-based interface to control (even) remote Windows Mobile devices. Make sure you sign up for the beta if you'd like to grant remote access to any Windows Mobile device you or your company needs to remotely control / administer and the current, above-listed solutions aren't sufficient.
Related
Everything you need to know about USB networking in WM5 - all secrets explained!
I’m cross-posting this, just-updated article to here too (originally posted to here) because it sheds light on a LOT of WM5 issues. Please note that the first part of the article was written way before AKU 2.2; I haven’t touched it now that 2.2 is out, just added a brand new, “UPDATE” section.
You will want to read particularly the second section because, as I also point out in there, switching back to the old networking model may be really advantageous in numerous cases and is, therefore, highly recommended for casual users.
The original article follows:
In my previous article on the secrets of ActiveSync-based Pocket PC networking, I've elaborated on the pre-Windows Mobile 5 Internet pass-through capabilities of ActiveSync.
As has been stated there, the ActiveSync Internet pass-through is in no way a full-fledged Internet connection. In no way can you access a Pocket PC through a simple, plain ActiveSync connection as a TCP/IP device.
With Windows Mobile 5 (WM5 for short) devices, the situation has changed a lot. Now, they're recognized as an entirely different, fully-fledged network card by Windows, as can be seen in this screenshot.
Also, if you, with, say, the great, (for individuals) free networking utility, vxUtil, check the IP it got from ActiveSync of your Pocket PC, you will see that it's no longer 192.168.55.101 (the IP ActiveSync gives to pre-WM5 devices) but a "true" local network IP; in this case, 169.254.2.1. The services of this PDA will, therefore, be fully accessible to your desktop computer (in this screenshot, you can see I can directly ping my WM5 PDA from my desktop computer) and, if you configure your desktop computer to forward ports (please read my previous article on the meaning of this!) to the PDA, to the entire outside world.
This means Windows Mobile 5 devices connected to desktop Windows PC's via ActiveSync are, now, fully accessible by TCP/IP-based applications. You don't need to build a(n additional) Bluetooth PAN or ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection between the two devices any more for the Pocket PC to become accessible.
The importance of this can't be stressed enough: a lot of - with pre-WM5 devices totally impossible - tasks become really easy:
you can run applications on your Pocket PC that behave like a server: for example, a lot of peer to peer (non-central server based), TCP/IP-based multiplayer games
chatter/VoIP applications like the very good Microsoft Portrait
IRC clients with fully usable DCC capabilities (without full, unrestricted Internet access, it's not possible to initiate DCC send/chat requests from the PDA)
FTP/Web servers for remote access
remote, TCP/IP-based Pocket PC controllers like SOTI's Pocket Controller, PocketVncServ, dotPocket and Microsoft Windows Mobile Developer PowerToys. Now, if your mate/client has a problem with his/her Pocket PC, you will be able to access it distantly without his explicitly logging in to a, say, unrestricted Wi-Fi network. All he'll need to do is doing some port forwarding with either WinGate or the built-in, free Windows Internet Connection Sharing to connect it to the Internet through his desktop computer.
Sharing the Internet (say, Wi-Fi) connection present on your PDA with the not directly internet-enabled desktop via my Web proxy server running on the Pocket PC as described here
And, the list continues...
Please note that you will still need to configure port forwarding (which is in detail explained in my previous, networking-related article). But now, at least this is allowed and can be done – unlike with previous Windows Mobile operating systems.
Kudos to Microsoft – this is a really-really welcome addition! With this, ActiveSync-based networking has become far-far easier!
Of course, every bean has its black. The new networking model does have its share of problems. For example, many firewall/viruskiller applications will sense the WM5 PDA as an intruder, unlike with previous Windows Mobile / Pocket PC versions. You will, therefore, may end up having to fine-tune/reconfigure your firewall/viruskiller applications (if you have any) to let your WM5 devices work. Still, I think the advantages the new networking approach has (for example, the much easier Pocket PC control capabilities from distant locations) far outweigh these minor annoyances/one-time configuration needs.
UPDATE (09/15/2006): Old networking model reintroduced in a later WM5 upgrade
If you have a WM5 device that has AKU (please read this article on what AKU's are) 2.2 or later, then, you have the capability of using the "old" networking model if you just deactivate (screenshot here) the, by default, enabled "Enable advanced network functionality" checkbox in the newly added Start / Settings / Connections / USB to PC applet (x51v screenshot here, HTC Wizard here).
The list of WM5 devices already having AKU 2.2(+) includes for example the HTC Wizard, HTC Universal and Dell Axim x51v - these are the WM5 devices I could test in this respect. Note that, as the 2.01 WM5 upgrade for the iPAQ hx4700 is still AKU1.1 only (screenshot of this here), it has no USB to PC applet and, tehrefore, you can't switch back to using the old networking model using this device (a screenshot showing the Connections tab is here; as can be seen, there is indeed no applet there).
In real life, unless you really need the advantages of the WM5 USB networking model outlined in the above article, it's preferable to disable this checkbox. The reasons for this are very simple: as no additional local networks are created when you connect a WM5 device to your PC, 1. there won't be firewall problems 2. the ActiveSync connection will be active (that is, the device becomes visible to the desktop) far earlier than in the other case (again, because no additional network-creating, IP assigning etc. handshake is needed).
As can be seen in thix vxUtil screenshot (compare it to the new model - that is, this one), the IP of the device will be the old, well-known "192.168.55.101". That is, everything I've ever published about the networking model of pre-WM5 devices' USB connections will be topical with AKU2.2+ WM5 devices with disabled WM5-type USB networking.
I have been a bit inactive lately (in the last 4-5 days), article writing-wise (of course, I tried not to neglect the Windows Mobile forums). In addition to some real-life work, the main reason for this was my being one of the speakers on a Budapest-based regional World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)-organized conference, which required a lot of additional work (creating slides, deciding what to speak of, emphasize etc).
The main homepage of the conference is here (you can make a quick search for my name ) - also linked in from the W3C homepage - see the “Next Event” (as of 10/19) box.
The conference was about the Mobile Web Initiative, which is all about how the Web can be made accessible on mobile devices as well. You can find more info on this stuff on the above-linked page. It’s pretty interesting stuff, particularly if you’re a webmaster and would like to know what the future brings (or may bring). In here, I won’t really explain what it’s all about. Upon popular request, I may summarize it (of course, adding professional insights and explanations) in a future article – feel free to tell me (publicly) if you’d interested in such a more of a ‘techie’ article.
You won’t guess: of course, I’ve lectured on the current Web (with very strong emphasis on my thorough tests of new, emerging technologies like Ajax) accessibility situations on Windows Mobile (and, to a much lesser degree, the Linux-based Sharp Zaurii – just comparing the Opera Mobile and NetFront implementations on the two platforms. Unfortunately, having no access to the also Linux-based Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, I couldn’t compare its browser to those on Windows Mobile).
I’ve taken a strong, “low-level” (that is, protocol-level) W3C-specific approach to the subject. That is, instead of, say, speaking about what features the user interface offers (does it support, for example, downloading link targets easily and so on), I mostly elaborated on compliance issues with current Web standards - that is, can a current Windows Mobile user access currently existing, non-mobile-optimized Web page (that is, the vast majority of current Web content).
Having only twenty minutes, you can guess in what depth (pretty shallow) I could elaborate on these questions – after all, it’d take me days to re-explain / show everything I’ve published about, as far as PPC Web browsers are concerned. Of course, as I’ve already published sometimes really lengthy articles, I referred the participants to these articles (see the Ref: NUMBER references in the presentation - they mostly refer to my articles in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Mag Expert blog). That is, I’ve run over all the main compatibility test subjects I’ve ever published a (notable) article on and explained in some sentences what they are all about.
To summarize my (of which the PowerPoint file you can also download – see the links section) lecture, I’ve proved the participants that Windows Mobile has excellent Web browsing capabilities – I’d say better than, not necessarily taking mobile Linux implementations into account, any other mobile platform.
The Nokia OSS browser – is it really as good as some state?
As far as the other speakers / lectures are concerned, there have been three speakers from Nokia too. They have demoed their latest S60-based Web browser, the famous OSS.
I’ve long been wanting to test this browser – so far, without success. I don’t have the money to get all the current toys and top models of competing OS’es. Even purchasing the latest & greatest Windows Mobile devices is sometimes hard to explain to my wife (“another toy – what for?”). Furthermore, being not really interested in Symbian, I don’t really have the “Hey, lend me your latest gadgets so I’ll write an article of it” relationship with the Nokia folks either.
Now, I’ve had the chance to play a bit with the new browser after the demo and, to tell the truth, wasn’t really impressed.
While OSS is based on indeed very strong and standards-compliant HTML and JavaScript engines* (Apple WebCore (KHTML) – Apple’s well-known Safari browser is also based on this – and JavaScriptCore, respectively), it lacks Flash (it only supports Flash lite, which is unable to play standard Flash animations) and Java applets (NOT JavaScript!).
What is even more important, while the way the OSS browser renders Web pages looks really cool on a high-resolution (for example Nokia E-series) screen (it’s like how Thunderhawk renders pages on QVGA Windows Mobile devices – very similar but even more readable, cool-looking, thin characters), it also suffers from the same problem as Thunderhawk: It doesn’t have a One Column (for PIEPlus users: “Pocket View”) mode. I’ve certainly seen some test pages (heavily packed with text in tables) that did require horizontal scrolling, the most important enemy of mobile Web users.
This is unlike all (except for, again, Thunderhawk) Pocket PC Web browsers (where I also count in PIEPlus’ Pocket View mode on pre-WM2003SE browsers), where One Column is present and supported.
Standards compliance-wise, as far as Pocket PC’s are concerned, both Minimo and Opera Mobile are based on really strong, desktop-quality HTML / JavaScript engines, just like Nokia's OSS. Also, Microsoft’s own PIE / IEMis getting better and better all the time (albeit its CSS support is still pretty weak). No, I’m not praising Microsoft's IEM because I’m a Microsoft MVP myself – in the pre-WM5 days, I wouldn’t have recommended PIE to anyone because of the low level of standards compliance and the bugs at all. Since WM2003SE, IEM has become far better than ever before and is, now (WM5 AKU2+), a decent alternative (particularly with PIEPlus) to both Minimo and Opera Mobile.
That is, if a Symbian fan tells you the OSS browser is more standards-compliant than any Pocket PC Web browser, just tell him or her it’s simply not true and refer him or her to my compliance reports. It’s pretty hard to debate with figures and facts .
The standards compliance rate of Windows Mobile is certainly admirable, particularly taking into the account the meager resources of Windows Mobile , both hardware- and developer manpower-wise. For example, Minimo is only developed by ONE programmer, for free and in his free time. Taking this into account the standards compliance Minimo can rightfully be called breathtaking.
All in all, I don’t think the Windows Mobile platform is weaker than Symbian as far as Web browsing is concerned – the Nokia OSS browser does have its share of (sometimes really acute) problems.
Personal Mobsite: Great remote controller / messaging capabilities!
There were some really cool tech demos at the conference, also by the Nokia folks. Their real (it was already running on their E-series devices and notebooks) “Personal Mobsite” demo, which is described here (the most important pages are in English; I recommend the 14th side the most), was pretty interesting – definitely worth implementing something similar on the Windows Mobile platform too. (As soon as I have some free time, I’ll definitely try to re-implement it or at least something similar on our platform.)
Additional threads / links of interest
You may also want to check out this, brand new, related thread over at PPCT on Web 2.0. It doesn’t really have anything to do with Mobile Web Initiative. Still, it contains some additional information on (future) compatibility issues - and my explanations on why the future isn’t so dark for us Windows Mobile users than some people try to make us think.
Here’s my PowerPoint presentation if interested. (Sorry for the non-English language. Still, it may be worth checking out at least the headers, the references and the screenshots to see what I’ve elaborated on – that is, what needs to be emphasized on the current HTTP / HTML / CSS / JavaScript / Ajax / Java / Flash etc. compliance of current Web browsers.)
Well-known, great business & connectivity-related Windows Mobile site - also having (re)published some of my articles - Modern Nomads has just published a great article on the brand new Windows Mobile 6, also known as Crossbow. Highly recommended!
I’ll also promptly (hopefully still today – I’ll try to publish the RDM updates today as, currently, no existing WM6 article seems to have it compared to the predecessors) update my previous roundups and compatibility tests with WM6-specific information; most importantly, the Bible of Accessing Remote Desktops (the new Remote Desktop Mobile client is VASTLY superior to the Terminal Services Client of previous WM operating system versions), the PPC Mailer Bible (where I’ll elaborate on, for example, the new HTML-related capabilities of the new Messaging version), the CSS/ Ajax Compatibility Report (where I publish info on whether the new, AKU3+ Internet Explorer Mobile indeed supports AJAX better than its predecessors) etc.
1. After publishing my review of VirtualCE 4 (Cross-posts: AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, BrightHand, HowardForums, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PPCT, SPT), there have been some changes:
a new MyMobiler version has been released, implementing, for example, manual screen rotation and the ability to hide the Today screen icon
some of the bugs of VirtualCE 4 have been fixed (for example, BMP24 crashing). Hope the developer also finds a way to completely (even from the bottom taskbar) hide the main selector / controller screen as is asked in the above-linked HowardForums thread
Pocket Controller 6 has turned out to support LAN discovery and hiding the connection “bubble” upon TCP/IP connection (as opposed to the ActiveSync one).
2. I, after more than a week’s waiting (see my previous post HERE), still haven’t received any feedback from the Strategy Analytics Inc. folks regarding the lack of Opera Mini in their 5-Star Safari Leads Mobile Browsing Experience, which, in many Windows Mobile users’ (including me) opinion, is the most useful / quickest Web browser for the Windows Mobile platform. And, for other mobile platforms too – on my Symbian Nokia N95 and BlackBerry 8800, I almost exclusively use this browser to access the Web. Not including it in the test makes the entire report pretty hard to depend on – it’s like completely ignoring, for example, Ferrari (a top-performing car) when evaluating the cars of Formula-1.
And, of course, I’ve already elaborated on the bad ranking of Nokia Web (running on Symbian S60 3rd edition devices – that is, NOT on Windows Mobile) and, particularly, Opera Mobile (running on all major mobile platforms). Again and again, if you do learn the dialpad shortcuts and/or, with Opera Mobile running on a dialpad-less Pocket PC, use a third-party tool to assign its key functionalities (accessing favorites, current tabs, back etc.) to Pocket PC hardware buttons, they both become quicker and easier to operate than Internet Explorer. It’s clearly at this point (in addition to the lack of Opera Mini) that Strategy Analytics Inc.’s report severely lacks – it’s evident the test folks didn’t really make an attempt at learning the dialpad shortcuts / configure Opera Mobile for easy and much quicker access / use.
3. Still as far as Windows Mobile and Symbian are concerned, a brand-new Web browser, Skyfire has been released. See some of the related threads HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (a preview) and HERE. I, as I’m located in Europe, still haven’t had the choice to test it (it's, currently, only available for US residents).
Based on the first reports, it’s based on a similar architecture than Microsoft’s, for the time being, discontinued DeepFish (RIP!) and Thunderhawk’s Java applet emulation. That is, it, in practice, generates an image of the page on the server and transfers this to the client – there isn’t local HTML (?) / Flash parsing / execution on the client side at all. This has both pros and cons, as has already been explained in my Web Browsing Bible.
I REALLY hope Skyfire is WAY better implemented than DeepFish (or Thunderhawk's applet emulation). DeepFish was really slow – not only because its beta servers were, generally, really overloaded, but also because it was implemented using the slowish Compact Framework, as opposed to the much faster Win32 API. Unfortunately, Thunderhawk’s (remote, image transfer-based) Java applet emulation isn’t really capable of emulating running it on the local mobile either. Therefore, I seriously doubt you’ll be able to, say, play fast Flash action games under Skyfire – you’ll still need a local Flash interpreter (only available Opera Mobile or Internet Explorer - and, also, NetFront, but the latter has a pretty buggy and definitely less compatible Flash engine) for that.
I’ll meet the Skyfire folks at Barcelona; hope I’ll be able to play with their browser a bit so that I can quickly test its usability, small screen-friendliness (for example, does it have the same, excellent text boundary recognition engine than that of Opera Mini in full layout mode) and Web standards compliance.
4. There are new builds of both Jbed and Jblend (two excellent MIDlet Managers – see the Java MIDlet Bible for more info). Due to lack of time, I haven’t tested them. Both has been done by Da_G (his projects’ homepage is HERE) and are accessible HERE. Note that you MUST register yourself (it’s free and is done quickly) in order to access the page above (along with the download).
I hope I’ll be able to test them some time – along with the default Blackberry MIDlet manager. (I might wait with testing the latter until version 4.5 of BB OS is released, though.)
5. the new, in addition to the venerable and no-longer-developed Pocket Humanity, Civilization-clone, Revival (see the links to (p)reviews HERE), has been released! It’s a bit pricey for Pocket PC’s (and Palm OS 5 models): $24.95. Fortunately, if you have a non-touchscreen MS Smartphone, you only end up having to pay $15.95 - just like with Symbian S60v3 and UIQ3 devices. Finally, if you have an old Symbian S60 or UIQ device, you’ll only need to shell out $9.95 for the game. Definitely worth a try! Also note that, in addition to the previews linked above, there’s a brand new JAMM one HERE well worth checking out.
Menneisyys said:
I’ll meet the Skyfire folks at Barcelona; hope I’ll be able to play with their browser a bit so that I can quickly test its usability, small screen-friendliness (for example, does it have the same, excellent text boundary recognition engine than that of Opera Mini in full layout mode) and Web standards compliance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look forward to your thoughts on this eagerly anticipated web browser...hope its not a let down
PS:try to bluejack a copy if you can j/ks
Hi !
I have my own server at home, in order to have access to my files outside my home. This is very convenient.
I would like to have an online database (with forms like you can have with MS Access, but Online) so that I can organize my information (foreign language vocabulary, DVD list, todo list, ...). I can install it on my server, and I would like it to be easily accessible from my PocketPC (via Internet, or even better via an specific application on the PocketPC ).
Do you have some suggest for an existing application offering this ?
I have good knowledge (I have already worked with .NET at work).
Regards, Chris
This is very interesting to me. Are you familiar with SQL Server mobile?
I know SQL Server 2005/2008 good.
I have never really used SQL Server Mobile, but I have read about it. Why ?