Wifi, Smartphone, Voip, and Connectify

After buying our router many years ago, DH setup the Wifi with his desktop running things, and my laptop just logged into the Wifi. After his desktop gave out, I thought about trying to setup my laptop to run the network using Windows 7 instead of Network Magic, but at that time, there weren't many Windows 7 tutorials, so I tried plugging the cable into my laptop and I had internet again. Now "my" laptop is "our" laptop, but we don't move it around like we did when it was Wifi'ed.

Then I finally bought a smartphone and wanted to setup Voip on it. I wasn't able to figure out how to setup a Wifi network on Windows 7 still, so I found Connectify, a program that sets up a Wifi for us. I thought it was great because it was so easy compared to Windows - I even had a Wifi icon in my taskbar. I rooted my phone so I could setup Voip with Google Voice, SipDroid, and PBexes and was happy.

Until Connectify informed me I needed to upgrade. I'm still not sure what happened after I upgraded, but even though Connectify "appeared" to work, I no longer had Wifi! The Wifi icon was still in the taskbar, but now had a red slashed circle! I was mad, especially about losing my Voip!

I played around in Control Panel's network settings and found the Wifi I had tried setting up a long time ago, but couldn't get it to work back then. It still had the key, so I tried it in my phone's settings, but it didn't go through. One of the many sites I checked said something about checking the router's settings, and gave the address to load the router settings in my browser. But that address didn't work. More searching, and someone recommended doing command line Ipconfig/all to find my Default Gateway, which was only slightly different than the one all over the internet, but that difference was enough. Well at least the Ipconfig's default gateway address worked. But the default password didn't!

I finally managed to login (apparently I'd changed the user/pass in the past), but didn't change any settings, then suddenly my phone recognizes the network key I put in earlier! I have no idea why just loading the router settings helped, unless I inadvertently changed something, which I doubt, because I was pretty nervous about techie things I don't understand that well LOL

So I uninstall Connectify, reboot, and my phone is still connected, hurray! Next on my to-learn list is to hook my phone up to AT&T in public. And I might try CSipSimple instead of SipDroid, since CSipSimple allows multiple Voip accounts instead of one.

New Android Smartphone already full LOL

So I sort my downloaded apps by size to see my worst offenders - Facebook is #1 haha. So I figure out how to add Facebook's feed to TweetDeck, then delete Facebook, saving 11mb. BTW, Seesmic also does both Facebook and Twitter, but Tweetdeck=821K whereas Seesmic=2Mb.

Next comparisons of size vs ratings was anti-malware. I ended up uninstalling Lookout and installing Dr Web Anti-virus Light. Of the top anti-malwares, free or paid, they almost all had the same high ratings, and I needed a smaller app, and Dr Web Anti-virus Light was much smaller than all the other higher rated apps - by over half as small!

Now I have room to install Call Control - Call Blocker, thank goodness! It has a community blocklist of known/reported spammers, ability to submit our spammers to the community blocklist, our own personal blacklist/whitelist, and settings to only allow our listed contacts calls to come through. And we can choose between sending blocked calls to voicemail, or pick-up/hang-up (costs air-time). I'm already in love with it LOL

Smartphone accomplishments

So far I've learned how to do the following with my new Android Dart:

Transfer files via USB cable (have to mount it from the Notifications area, then remember to UNmount it from Windows taskbar on the desk/laptop).

Take a screenshot (hold down back button, then click on home button - the screenshot can be found in Files/screenshots).

I've earned "Root" in order to be able to use more useful apps (such as a backup app, and an ads-blocking app that's not a plugin for a browser).

I've setup Voip via Sip using Wifi only, as I'm still undecided which cell plan to use.

Even though I managed to obtain my Network unlock code on my own, I have NOT been able to jail-break it yet. I thought perhaps using a sim-card from a company that might rent off T-Mobile might had been the issue, but I found another tutorial that provides extra trouble-shooting tips, so maybe I'll be able to jail-break it from that tutorial.

1st Smartphone, oh the learning curve

Since I've been house-wifing for quite a while, I haven't felt the need to spend the money on a smartphone - especially with the expensive data plans. I learned about some people using their smartphones at home, using only their wifi, which was intriguing, but I also needed a phone, since we have no landline. I considered using companies like Virgin Phones, but I read such bad reviews of their phones, and the reviews of their tricky payment schemes sounded daunting. I also read that cellphone companies like AT&T/Verizon automatically charged for data plans if their systems sensed a smartphone was in use.

Then I read that T-Mobile doesn't force smartphones to use a data plan, like the rest of US cellphone companies do. And I could change to a T-Mobile pay-as-you-go setup so I could have a real cellphone while I'm away from my home network, and out-of-range from public/AT&T hotspots. But the price of non-contract smartphones were too expensive until recently. Now I'm the proud owner of a Samsung Dart SGH-T499 with Android 2.2.2 - brand-new (sealed box) too!

Ever since DH's desktop went down, I haven't fiddled with the network other than to plug the ethernet cable into my laptop as a quickfix. I'm sure there's more elegant ways to manage networks, but Network Magic+Connectify was how I was able to get the smartphone on our network - this is WITHOUT any phone plan, although we did put the T-Mobile Sim into it, just haven't done anything else with T-Mobile yet. I haven't tested it with a public hotspot, or an AT&T hotspot away from our home yet, but I'll be getting my haircut tomorrow, so I'll probably test it out then.

So far I've synced my phone to my Google account, and have used GMail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, and YouTube. I've also installed Facebook, updated my status and read my wall. But I'm going to postpone installing other apps until I research them using my laptop, since surfing with the smartphone is still somewhat challenging, especially Swyping (digital keyboard only).

I also want to setup VOIP so I can save all my pay-as-you-go minutes for when I'm out and about. I think I'll be studying a while before I can VOIP though LOL