Automatic Switch from Home to Work T'internet

[SimpleSi]

Right boys and girls - time to dust off your brains and get back to work

 

All I want for the New Year ( ) is for my new shiny toy (Samsung Omnia "Smartphone" ) to be able to seamlessly connect to the best network.

 

It currently auto-selects (and seems to do quite well) between home wi-fi and 3G/GPRS as appropriate.

 

What I need (want - well wish for ) is

 

1.To auto (or 3 key presses and no long typing) select using wi-fi for T'internet when in one of my schools complete with using the proxy server (I'm in lancs proxy.lancsngfl.ac.uk:8080)

 

2. Autoselect a different home page depending on location - e.g Google mobile search at home/on 3G and my helpdesk website when I'm at work

 

Anyone got this sort of functionality on their WinMo machine or got ideas on how to achieve it?

 

Happy New Year

 

regards

Simon

Edited January 4, 2009 by SimpleSi

[StewartKnight]

I was about to say that it's a very easy vb script, but then I googled an image of a Samsung Omnia! Had it been a laptop it would have been a doddle!

 

Still trying to outdo ChrisH on the smart phones Simon????

[SimpleSi]

Still trying to outdo ChrisH on the smart phones Simon????

 

It looks smart but it isn't

 

Its worse than my old ones but the last one broke so I needed a new one - it does everything any normal phone doesn't (wi-fi/3g/GPS/web browsing/email etc) but is practically useless as a mobile phone (doesn't have voice dialling - not much good for a mobiletech in a car!!!! ) and as someone else said - you'd be dead before you manged to ring 999

 

 

Fur coat - nee knickers as we say

 

regards

 

Simon

 

I might even have to back to having a separate phone

[StewartKnight]

and even worse for a mobiletech on a bike!

[ChrisH]

It looks smart but it isn't

 

 

Looking in the mirror again?

 

Can you use something like a .pac file with your phone?

[SimpleSi]

Looking in the mirror again?

 

Thanks for the compliment - I didn't know I looked smart

 

Can you use something like a .pac file with your phone?

 

I don't know

 

AFAIK pac files get used in normal IE whereas on WM IE their is no options with the prog itself -everything is configured in the network settings.

 

The problem is (At least I think it is) is that the phone is clever enough to switch between wi-fi and 3G as needed but not clever enough to have different proxy settings (e.g none or proxy.lancsngfl) associated with different wi-fi networks.

 

Or, of course, much more likely that, the lack of smartness with user is to blame

 

regards

 

Simon

[SYNACK]

Ok I'm not 100% sure that this will work but is worth a go:

 

The proxy settings are stored in the networking options and allows you to set a from and to option for each one (at least in WM6). It also allows you to select the type of network each wireless access point is, ie internet or work.

 

What I would try is to set up the home network as a connection to the internet. Then I would set up each of the school wireless networks as connecting to work.

 

I would then set up a proxy connection from work to the internet with all of the appropriate details ie proxy.lancsngfl.ac.uk:8080.

 

Now when you are in any of the schools it should automaticly use the proxy to access any address that has a . in it, if you need to access internal stuff with fqdns (site.internal.local) then you need to add in a exception for your local domains that will tell the phone not to use the proxy.

 

 

As to the automated home page I would cheat and do it with DNS instead. Assuming that you have access to the DNS servers in your school you could setup an internal address like PDAHOME that is directed to whichever server your helpdesk is on. This could easily be a different server at each school with the same DNS name and so homepage setting on your phone. Depending on your network hardware at home you may be able to alter this record to point the PDA at google when you are at home to.

 

glenscott.net Windows Mobile 5/6 Networking Profiles, Proxy and VPN setup

Edited January 5, 2009 by SYNACK

[SimpleSi]

What I would try is to set up the home network as a connection to the internet. Then I would set up each of the school wireless networks as connecting to work.

 

I would then set up a proxy connection from work to the internet with all of the appropriate details ie proxy.lancsngfl.ac.uk:8080.

 

That's the bit I was missing:doh:

All Work APs are the same! - I was thinking that I needed a different connection for each school - obvious now

 

Worked at the two schools today and automatically worked OK at home

 

I've bookmarked my home router and the lancsngfl proxy server so I can test to see if I'm on wi-fi at home or at school or using 3g.

 

If I'm at home and I can see the router info page then I must be on wi-fi.

 

If I'm at school and I get an error msg ffrom the proxy server then I must be connected via lancs network - if I just get an browser error then I'm on 3G.

( I need to get a more positive method of checking whether I'm connected in schools )

 

 

 

Now when you are in any of the schools it should automaticly use the proxy to access any address that has a . in it, if you need to access internal stuff with fqdns (site.internal.local) then you need to add in a exception for your local domains that will tell the phone not to use the proxy.

 

I'll have to play with this

 

 

As to the automated home page I would cheat and do it with DNS instead. Assuming that you have access to the DNS servers in your school you could setup an internal address like PDAHOME that is directed to whichever server your helpdesk is on. This could easily be a different server at each school with the same DNS name and so homepage setting on your phone. Depending on your network hardware at home you may be able to alter this record to point the PDA at google when you are at home to.

 

Not all my schools have DNS servers unfortunately but its something to think about - ta

 

Thanks for all the info @)

 

regards

 

Simon

[SimpleSi]

What I would try is to set up the home network as a connection to the internet. Then I would set up each of the school wireless networks as connecting to work.

 

I would then set up a proxy connection from work to the internet with all of the appropriate details ie proxy.lancsngfl.ac.uk:8080.

 

That's the bit I was missing:doh:

All Work APs are the same! - I was thinking that I needed a different connection for each school - obvious now

 

Worked at the two schools today and automatically worked OK at home

 

I've bookmarked my home router and the lancsngfl proxy server so I can test to see if I'm on wi-fi at home or at school or using 3g.

 

If I'm at home and I can see the router info page then I must be on wi-fi.

 

If I'm at school and I get an error msg ffrom the proxy server then I must be connected via lancs network - if I just get an browser error then I'm on 3G.

( I need to get a more positive method of checking whether I'm connected in schools )

 

 

 

Now when you are in any of the schools it should automaticly use the proxy to access any address that has a . in it, if you need to access internal stuff with fqdns (site.internal.local) then you need to add in a exception for your local domains that will tell the phone not to use the proxy.

 

I'll have to play with this

 

 

As to the automated home page I would cheat and do it with DNS instead. Assuming that you have access to the DNS servers in your school you could setup an internal address like PDAHOME that is directed to whichever server your helpdesk is on. This could easily be a different server at each school with the same DNS name and so homepage setting on your phone. Depending on your network hardware at home you may be able to alter this record to point the PDA at google when you are at home to.

 

Not all my schools have DNS servers unfortunately but its something to think about - ta

 

Thanks for all the info @)

 

regards

 

Simon

[SimpleSi]

Well all going quite well as I've been around all my schools and added each wireless network in as Work networks:)

 

if you need to access internal stuff with fqdns (site.internal.local) then you need to add in a exception for your local domains that will tell the phone not to use the proxy.

 

What I'd like is to be able to access a local webserver via IP (say 10.12.13.3) on a school's lan but I can't find where to put an exception to using the proxy server:confused:

 

Could you point me in the right direction please

 

regards

 

Simon

[SYNACK]

If you are using an ip address directly you should not need to add it to the exceptions list if it is part of the same subnet that your PDA has an IP on. If the ip is part of a different subnet but still local you would need to add the ip address of the site to the exceptions list. I'm not sure if you can use subnets in this list or not, you should be able to but I am unsure of the notation.

 

What version of Windows Mobile are you running and is it the touchscreen edition or the smartphone one?

 

BenQ E72 Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone - Support Forum - eXpansys Inc

Windows Mobile Team Blog : Adding work exceptions to Connection Manager

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/help/synchronize/make-connections.mspx

Add an intranet URL exception

An intranet URL exception tells the browser in your device to look on your work network for an URL, instead of on the Internet.

 

For example, your company may use periods in its intranet URLs, giving them the same pattern as an Internet URL (for example, intranet.companyname.com).

Tap Start > Settings > Connections tab > Connections.

Tap Advanced tab > Exceptions.

In the URL exceptions field, tap Add new URL.

In the Work URL field, enter the work URL, and then click OK.

Edited January 9, 2009 by SYNACK

[SimpleSi]

Tap Start > Settings > Connections tab > Connections.

Tap Advanced tab > Exceptions.

In the URL exceptions field, tap Add new URL.

In the Work URL field, enter the work URL, and then click OK.

 

:D:D

Adding in http://10.12.13.3 did the trick - I can now access my intranet webserver status php page

 

I've got a Samsung Omnia which is using WM6.1.

(its got a touchscreen and its sort of smart in a too clever for its own boots sort of way:p )

 

regards

 

Simon

[SYNACK]

:D:D

Adding in http://10.12.13.3 did the trick - I can now access my intranet webserver status php page

 

I've got a Samsung Omnia which is using WM6.1.

(its got a touchscreen and its sort of smart in a too clever for its own boots sort of way:p )

 

regards

 

Simon

 

Nice phone , colour me jealous. My S730 only has WM6 standard which has different menu organisation hence the question.

Edited January 9, 2009 by SYNACK

[SimpleSi]

Nice phone

 

But I made a big mistake in giving up my MDA Vario (HTC) pull out kbd with all its useful real programmable buttons - big mistake.

 

And not having the stylus slot inside the phone is the 2nd one.

 

No voice dialling is third one - fairly useless as hands free when driving except to receive calls.

 

If you chew your finger nails (and what self respecting geek doesn't ) then your stuffed in trying to scroll up and down using the narrow WM scrollbar - your all right if the automagical full screen wipe up and down action works in your application but the automagical bit knows if your in a hurry and then fails accordingly

 

regards

 

Simon