making a Chromecast-clone with Rasberry Pi - General Questions and Answers

I am a complete newbie and I have just purchased with Rasberry Pi and want to make a cool wireless appliance/phone app project out of it that behaves a bit like Chromecast.
It's important to make it as simple to configure as possible upon initial set up with Wi-Fi Network ID and password in Raspberry Pi. I want to hide the command line and GUI's of Rasberry Pi from a non-technical user. As you know, Chromecast does all this in a very intuitive way.
Upon powering up and connecting to a TV, Chromecast makes itself discover-able and configurable to a laptop or Android phone running a Chromecast App. Then a user can configure Chromecast's wi-fi network and password within the App( without a user ever connecting to it via USB or Ethernet cable or typing in a 192.168.1.254 or any URL address, as in configuring Wi-Fi router). It's great to help user to manage the Wi-Fi and password settings..etc while hiding that complexities away from a user.
So this gets me thinking about using the same technique with my experimental Raspberry Pi.
I want to implement the Chromecast's self-broadcast and self-discovery via Wi-Fi and App with the experimental project and thus save a user the hassle of connecting to Raspberry Pi to USB or Ethernet cable in order to configure its Wi-Fi settings, but instead through a custom App.
The only problem I have is: How does Chromecast broadcast itself onto the local network? what protocol does it use to make it self-discoverable to other local network portable devices like Android phone running the Chromecast App?
What book do you recommend to help a complete beginner like myself?
I have no clue at all searching all over Google.
Please help if you know any idea. Thanks!

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[Q] Odyssey Client for Android?

My employer just purchased my group a set of WiFi Xooms, but our WiFi uses Juniper Odyssey to authenticate. Is there an Odyssey client available for Android? (I haven't been able to find one) Or is there a way to replicate the authentication process? I know it asks us for an RSA SecurID when we sign in on our laptops, but I can't get the Xoom to replicate this behavior.
Unfortunately, the only information regarding Android that I could find on Juniper's Knowledge Base is in regards to their Pulse VPN.
If all you're trying to do is connect to the internet, you could try setting up a computer that is connected to the network with internet connection sharing through a secondary ethernet adapter. Then you could use a wireless bridge to share the ICS-enabled connection to multiple XOOMs.

[Q] ConnectBot Port Tunneling

I have given up on working out VPN to my home network so I am giving SSH with ConnectBot a go. I can SSH to my home PC through my modem firewall ok now using key passwordless login (safest I understand) but I can't work out port forwarding.
Is it even possible to tunnel certain ports through my home Ubuntu PC using SSH? I want to access local web servers without opening them out on the Internet, for example sanzbd using the nzbair app or my other home media devices, web cams, etc.
I don't feel comfortable opening anything out on the Internet, even SSH makes me nervous although I understand it is fairly secure using key based log combined with a modem firewall and IDS, so I'd like to access my home network but securely.
I understand SSH is the next best option to VPN. But I can't find any guides.
I also have dyndns set up on my modem so (once that propagates I assume) I should be able to reliably SSH to my home PC.
I am very tired, so I'm sorry if this post is absolutely wrong.
I'm 90% certain you'd want to setup squid on your ubuntu box, so you can proxy through. Then connect with connectbot and then set up a portforward to send all port 80 traffic through on whatever port you got squid running on.
I think that should be at least a decent starting place.
Yeah I agree. I have the port tunelling working for sabnzbd now even if it's a bit flakey (drops out sometimes or the port forward can't be created).
So I'll read up on Squid and enable that on my home PC. That may cover a lot of general traffic from my phone too. I imagine a lot of apps use HTTP.

[Q] Long-range Wifi repeater with auto hotspot authentication?

Hi All,
At this point, I'm just brainstorming, and would like some input. (I hope this thread is in the right place)
I'm trying to find a setup to connect to free wifi hotspots that are far away, and share that connection to a group of devices locally. For example, this solution may be useful in a boat or an RV, when you're not particularly close to a free access point.
There are commercial solutions like the Rogue Wave however, this doesn't do anything to authenticate through the Terms of Service (TOS) pages that are frequently used at free access points.
This is what brings me to using Android. There are Android apps which automate the process of accepting the terms of service. My favorite right now is WebWifiLogin (I'm familiar with the security risks involved in using public wifi; and may also have the Android device to also establish a VPN connection when doing this.) (I can't find an equivalent macro-authentication solution that will run on a PC, which would make this much easier.)
So here's my proposed solution:
1. Start with a powerful omnidirectional wifi antenna (Possibly add an in-line amp if needed. Also perhaps a directional antenna may be better for non-mobile use.)
2. Connect the antenna to any Android device that supports an external Wifi antenna. I found several Android TV devices which should work. Like This, or possibly this.
3. Set up some kind of local access point/bridge. One option may be to use fqrouter2 which supposedly uses the same Wifi radio for the local WLAN, while it also connects to the remote one. Another option may be to USB or Ethernet tether to a DD-WRT Router.
Result:
The Android device has a range to connect to a free hotspot up to a mile or two away, then automatically accepts the TOS using the WebWifiLogin app, and shares that connection locally to a handful of devices.
So am I crazy? Is this too complex to work correctly? Is there a simpler solution that I'm missing?
Can anyone confirm whether I've posted this in the correct sub-forum?
Thanks.
I use a slightly different method which yields the same results.
I have a Linksys WRT54GL router (with high gain antennas) which runs DD-WRT and a script called AutoAP. The script scans for unencrypted WIFI access points, makes sure they're live, and automatically connects to the strongest one in range.
I set up a second WPA2 encrypted WIFI SSID in the router which I connect to with my Android tablet. Once WebWifiLogin on the tablet handles the TOS login, the remote access point allows web access for any device that connects to the WRT54GL router (either by WIFI to the secondary SSID or through one of the ports)! This happens because the remote access point usually checks/remembers TOS acceptance by the MAC address of the connected device. Since it only sees the MAC address of my router, anything behind the router now gets access.
ssenemosewa said:
Once WebWifiLogin on the tablet handles the TOS login, the remote access point allows web access for any device that connects to the WRT54GL router
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is great information; thanks!
I would not have thought WebWifiLogin would work when connecting through another router. When WebWifiLogin is running, its status says "Listening for WiFi events" (Or something similar) so I was under the impression that WebWifiLogin would only work if the connection to the AP is made directly by the Android WiFi interface, and not through a intermediary router.
This makes things much easier.

[Q] Accessing tethered clients from phone/AP

I setup my phone (Gnexus CM10.2.1 Verizon) as wifi access point and have a tablet and rasberry pi connected to it. I can reach the pi from the tablet (ping, ssh, http) using the explicit IP.
I can't, however, reach either the table or the pi from the phone though. Again, trying http and ping off a terminal - using the IP address explicitly.
Should this be possible, or am I missing the point?
FWIW, this is a Galaxy Nexus on CM10.2.1 on Verizon. Have a headless rasberry pi running XBMC, trying to control it with Yatse running on my phone. Best I've been able to do control it from a tablet that's also tethered to the phone. Would like to cut out the middle man.

Can I use an Android Tablet as a way to remotely turn on a home PC

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, forgive me I'm relatively new to these forums.
But what I have difficulty doing (without setting up a whole static ip / dynamic port or w.e) is trying to turn my home PC on remotely, off the network (technically), then I thought my tablet is always at home, connected to the internet, surely I can use it as a gate way to remotely turn my home computer on using a wake on lan app like unified remote, however I now need to find a way to remotely control my tablet (off network) to do this, I thought team viewer would have been the answer but it requires verification on my tablets end rather than password input to control it, does anyone have any recommendations?
I believe splashtop allows remote control but requires you to be on the same network unless you pay, mobizen will technically allow me but i'd need to 2 step authorise it on every PC i go to, which isn't practical for remote connection.
So wondering if theres anything easier which i've missed!

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