Turn your S60 device into a WiFi hotspot!
By Stefan Constantinescu on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 6:22 AM PST In Symbian
In the secret Into Mobile staff chat room, where we hatch our world domination strategy, we’ve been wondering how in the world we’re going to get internet access in our apartment during Mobile World Congress. Will and my boss Tom have Windows Mobile devices that they can turn into WiFi routers, we covered that application here, but what about us S60 folk?
Dusan sent me a link to this Nseries blog, which then linked me to this article on Cellular News, which in turn caused a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) search and brought me to this most awesome development house in Finland called Joikusoft.
They’ve created an application called JoikuSpot which turns your S60 smartphone into a WiFi access point, using your 3G connection of course. I’m in the process of testing it right now and will report back in this blog post, definitely excited by this.
Update:
Here is the application running:
Negative things right off the bat: I can’t create an encrypted network.
Here is my laptop finding the network:
I had to crop the signal, but it is full strength!
According to the manual (PDF) this application only supports http and https protocols. Outlook and Skype may not work, haven’t tested bit torrent since I’m not on unlimited here, but basic internet surfing worked find. I went to a few sites and they popped up instantaneously.
Think of the uses for this. Wireless gaming with your PSP or DS. Browse the internet and check email on your large screen iPod touch.
Update: Buddy of mine Dan Lane used this application to give his iPhone 3G speeds, check out his video on Seesmic.
I might consider getting an ipod touch now! I was considering an N810 but this solution is far cheaper.
I popped down to the apple store in London at lunch to try this out on an ipod touch (using my N95 8Gb) after having read this on Widsets in the cafe – how geeky is that. (Would have been geekier if I posted the images using the mobile serevr app.. but still)
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/3542/05022008038gl1.jpg
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/5931/05022008041ia4.jpg
The images I upped are far too small, these are better –
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7673/05022008038li8.jpg
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/517/05022008041ui5.jpg
The internet was pretty fast as you’d expect (using HSDPA)
The coolest app in a while. And realy useable! Feels like a small revolution. Now i dont need my seperat Huwaei 3g-adapter!
thanks for the images Chris P!
Stefan – be sure you have called your network provider and asked to enable “phone as modem” service. Many “unlimited” phone data plans only allow for basic services and enabling wifi use may cause you to run up a massive data bill (see the guy from the Canadian oil drilling station).
Judging by the email you provided “Snidely,” you work for an operator. You sir should take the head of the company you work for out to a library and have him recite the definition of the word unlimited, aloud, three times.
Hi,
Whoo – i’ve been looking for something like this snice I got my iPod Touch! – Yay!!
It does need the ability to limit access by MAC address like! – preferably WEP too.
Thanks
Ian
Hey Stefan, hows it going?
Really nice find this one, too bad about the (current) lack of security though.
MAC address filtering and/or WPA (screw WEP) would be ideal, but nevertheless this is a really nice thing to be able to do when you need to.
Hey Marty! I’m doing fine, agree 100% they need WPA, that would seal the deal for me.
Fantastic work! Thanks, Stefan!
I’ve been waiting for something like this to pop up for the PSP- I’m thinking Orb on the PSP would be pushing it, but I’m going to try anyway… at any rate, it should give the ol’ PSP a little more interest and worth in my life again. The PSP will totally be making the trip to MWC now.
I just tried this on my N95 8GB (on T-Mobile UK with good 3G coverage, though no HSDPA) and I wasn’t that impressed.
It works as a transparent HTTP proxy. The first website you request will be redirected to http://www.joikuspot.com, the Google search box on that page is an affiliate link (fair enough, they deserve to make money out of their app).
They seem to be caching images server-side, as loading e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk was very slow (slower than browsing on the phone itself) and even after waiting a minute or so I still had lots of broken images.
Forget PSP gaming, the only thing this can currently do is HTTP proxying, and even that didn’t work great when I just tried it. Not as good as a real AP.
Why not use bluetooth DUN?
If you have an Apple notebook, or an USB-to-Bluetooth dongle, you can easily gain internet access through nearly any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone (except the iPhone).
Likewise, at least with a Mac, you can use a USB cable between your laptop and the cell phone for the same purpose.
You’ll need to know your carrier’s WAP settings (APN, username, password) – something like:
APN: “wap.cingular”
Username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1
(these should normally be the same as the WAP settings on your phone).
Thats great if only you want to connect, but when you want to share the connection with others then obviously you want something like this(for instance in group work at medical school away from the Uni WiFi network this would be gold).
Oh yeah, its Murray BTW Stefan! Glad things are good in your world – diggin the new haircut man! ;]