Jonathan's blog

I decided that I need to sort out the way I do my personal calendaring.

Currently I only use my phone’s built-in calendar. I nearly always have my phone with me, but it’s a bit of a pain to enter stuff on when I’m sat at a computer anyway, and carrying all that information solely on my phone presents a huge risk of loss, theft or breakage.

I need some kind of centralised store of information that is able to sync with all the devices and programs I want to use, namely:

• Some sort of cross-platform calendar client – mainly for use on Linux but also nice to be able to use similar software if I’m on Windows or OS X.
• Sony-Ericsson P1i (Symbian) built-in calendar
• iPhone, for when I get one
• Web interface, for those times when I’m borrowing a computer and can’t install a client.

Google Calendar seems to be a good choice. It’s flexible and can sync with lots of things.

Linux

So I installed Lightning on all my Fedora and Ubuntu machines. It’s a calendar extension for Thunderbird, which I already use. To install it yourself:

On Fedora:
yum install thunderbird-lightning
On Ubuntu:
apt-get thunderbird-lightning

It’s easy to set up, too. Suppose your Google account is joebloggs@gmail.com, then you would…

• Add a new calendar to Lightning by right-clicking in the Calendar area
• Choose On the Network
• Select CalDAV
• Enter your location as https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/joebloggs@gmail.com/events
• Give the calendar a name

OS X and Windows

It’s a little more work to install Lightning on OS X. You have to download the add-on from Mozilla, and install it in Thunderbird. Same story for Windows.

It’s quite straightforward and there are instructions on the website.

When you’re done, follow the same instructions as for Linux to subscribe to your Google calendar in Lightning.

Sony Ericsson UIQ

Setting up Google Calendar on my Sony Ericsson P1i was a bit of a pain, too. The P1i can’t interact with Google natively, I had to set up an account with Goosync to enable this. Goosync talks to Google, and your phone talks to Goosync using SyncML.

But once you have a Goosync account, you can synchronise a lot of handsets with Google calendar.

So first, you will need to set up an account with Goosync. It’s free and very easy. Goosync will ask you to tie your Goosync account to your Google account.

There’s also an option to have the settings for your phone sent automatically to your handset. However this didn’t work for me so I had to enter the settings manually.

Assuming the sync task on your phone has been set up properly, do a  test run to make sure it all works.

• If possible, connect to a wireless network first. If not, 3G will have to do.
• Go to the Main Menu
• Go to Tools
• Go to Remote Sync
• Find the profile that syncs with Goosync
• Find the sync task called Calendar. Make sure it is ticked, and then tap Sync to start off the first synchronisation.

If that worked, you can now run the sync task whenever you like from within the calendar itself.

• Open your phone calendar
• Tap More
• Tap Calendar manager
• Tap Synchronise

That’s all there is to it! Unfortunately there’s no way of making your calendar synchronise automatically at set intervals, but that’s probably a good thing, because you can’t get stung for 3G charges!

iPhone and iPod touch

Coming soon…

Note: This article is under development. More info and screenshots will be added later. Keep checking back!

I decided to buy a mobile broadband USB modem yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, I work as a wireless network & VPN specialist for the University of Bristol. At the time of writing, there are 507 access points around campus, giving pretty good coverage. However I often have to visit locations with dead wireless to fix it – and it’s times like these that mobile broadband would come in really handy.

After a bit of market research, I found that Three was the cheapest network; however their standard issue USB modem is made by ZTE and some Googling shows that this isn’t well supported by Linux. That’s a showstopper for me. However, O2 offer Huawei modems which, according to the Internet, work out of the box with recent versions of NetworkManager, which is included with distros such as Fedora and Ubuntu.

After a quick word with an O2 sales adviser, I was told that Windows and OS X are supported, and Linux is not only unsupported, but “won’t work”. Of course, I took this with a pinch of salt. I prefer to believe articles on FedoraForum, for example.

I run a number of operating systems on my various computers. It’s not essential to have it working on all of them, but it would be nice. Here’s what I’ve got:

• Home desktop PC: Dual boot Fedora 11 with Windows Vista for occasional gaming or audio work
• Main laptop: EeePC 901 with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04
• Secondary laptop: HP nx7400 dual boot Fedora 11 with Windows XP for occasional stuff (such as using my slide scanner)
• Work PC: Fedora 10
• Work laptop: Macbook with OS X 10.5 Leopard

So how did O2 Mobile Broadband really fare on these various systems?

Ubuntu Netbook Remix

First I tried it with the computer I am likely to use most on the move – my trusty EeePC. I connected the modem and was immediately greeted with a screen saying it had detected a USB modem.

I was asked to pick a network provider from a short list.

Setup was complete!

I now connect by using the NetworkManager list, the same way as for regular wireless networks. However, even if I connect to O2 Mobile Broadband, it still uses wireless networks in preference if possible. Very sensible!

Using NetworkManager to select a 3G connection

Fedora

Fedora runs a very similar version of NetworkManager to Ubuntu. The main difference is that you don’t get a magic wizard to put the settings in for you. But don’t worry, it’s quite simple.

1. Right click the NetworkManager icon, click Edit Connections
2. Under the Mobile Broadband tab, click Add
3. Do the same on your Ubuntu PC, except click Edit.
4. Copy the settings over (or look them up from O2).
5. Done!

Windows XP

Getting it to work on Windows was easy, although I was not impressed by the software. When you plug in the USB modem, it automatically mounts as a virtual CD-ROM which then autoruns the installer. It’s all themed in the O2 colours and looks smart, even if horrible and blue. Installing it is a simple case of clicking Next repeatedly.

But what I didn’t like was the way that the software automatically takes control of your wired and wireless connections too, without consent.

The main screen

In its defence, it does work and it does do the job. It even has nice features, such as being able to prioritise various connections or networks. You can say you want the wired to always take precedence, followed by your home wireless network, then the 3G network, and finally your neighbour’s wireless.

Listing wireless and 3G networks

However, the application is ugly, blue and blobby. It looks like a UFO. It installed yet another tray icon I don’t want, and it’s changed the way I connect to wireless networks. Of course I’m capable of adapting to the change, but I liked the way I connected to networks before. Why force me to change?

One thing I haven’t tested yet is its ability to connect to WPA2-Enterprise (802.1x) networks, which I use daily as part of my job. This is where lots of other third-party wireless applications fall down.

Tonight I will look into ways to remove the app but keep the driver – and perhaps have the 3G connection available to me as an on-demand connection, the same way that Windows handles VPN connections.

Overall, I’m glad I will almost never be using this laptop with my 3G connection.

Mac OS X Leopard

Despite Apple Macs having a reputation for being intuitive and easy to use, installing the USB modem was a nightmare and I still haven’t got it to work.

While Windows and OS X are the two officially supported platforms, the OS X software is just the default Huawei software without any O2 theming at all. O2 haven’t even bothered to bap in the config in advance. Plugging in the USB modem causes a directory to be mounted, containing an installer and a PDF document. The PDF briefly explains how to install the application and fill in the settings. It has a series of screenshots and simple instructions, although still daunting enough compared with the ease by which most Mac applications are installed.

The software itself is ugly and a bit clunky. It doesn’t have anything sensible like a “tray” icon. You have to load the application manually before you want to use the connection. If you frequently use the software, it would be best to make a dock icon, which you also have to do manually.

Worst of all, it doesn’t actually work (for me). I followed the guide exactly and yet when I came to connect, it always fails with a useless error message of “Connection failure!”.

I think I may have stumbled across a security problem in OS X on my Macbook. To recreate it, you need to satisfy the following conditions:

• Enable locking the screen after waking from sleep or screensaver
• Connect to an 802.1x-authenticated wireless network. Don’t set to remember password.
• Shut the lid to put it to sleep
• Open the lid to wake it up. There will be a time during which the screen backlight is on, but the screen is displaying plain black before the unlocking password box appears. During some of this time, any keys you press will be sent to the 802.1x authentication window, which is “behind” the black screen, as it also appears upon waking. The timing is hard to get right though.
• These screenshots show the two states of the unlock box. Apologies for the quality – can’t take screenshots while locked so had to take a photo


The unlock box - with focus



The unlock box - without focus

• After a second, the unlocking password box will appear. If you got your timing right, it will appear without focus. In this case, your keystrokes are still being sent to the 802.1x password box which has focus, despite being invisible. You also have the ability to press Tab to move between fields and Return to submit. This gives you the ability to authenticate someone on a wireless network using any credentials! When they come to unlock their Mac, there will be no obvious indication that they’re authenticated on a wireless network as someone else.
• This next screenshot shows what the 802.1x box looks like, after unlocking. As you can see, I’ve entered the word hello through the locked screen!

The 802.1x login box that causes the problem

I spotted this bug accidentally on my Mac when I was a bit hasty typing in my unlock password, and was shocked to see it appear in the 802.1x username box after I unlocked successfully.

I’m using Leopard, 10.5.7. I’d be very interested to hear from anyone who can recreate this bug on other versions of the OS.

I’d be ever more interested to hear from anyone who figures out how to enter keystrokes through a lock screen to an arbitrary application. I’ve tried this, and Control+Tab doesn’t work, so you can’t immediately switch to other windows. I’ve also tried successfully entering my 802.1x credentials through the lock screen to dismiss the 802.1x box, but after that my keystrokes are not accepted.