Browsing, Email, Contacts, Calendars and Tasks
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Fun with Ubuntu Linux | The Road to Freedom - The Journey Starts |The Road to Freedom - Base Camp | Ubuntu All Together - Sharing, Networking, Backup, Synchronisation and Encryption | Ubuntu on the Lookout - Browsing, Email, Contacts, Calendars and Tasks| Ubuntu on the Move | Ubuntu on the Take | The MSI Wind U100 Netbook for Global Communications and Computing
Lookout - nown, a vantage point with good communications commanding a wide view, from which a watch is kept on the surroundings.
This page covers the main Ubuntu programs which interact with the outside world and are largely dependent on the Internet, namely Browsers, Email, Contacts, Calendars and Tasks. It is one of a group of specialised pages which have been extracte from and form part of Fun with Ubuntu Linux.
Firefox is generally accepted as being the best and safest browser available - it is Open Source and available for Windows, Mac and Linux. There are many 'extensions' available which can be easily loaded to extend its functionallity if required. I will mention a few that I use below. Firefox is capable of importing almost anything useful from Internet Explorer including Favorites, Cookies and History so the transition under Windows is very easy. Transfers to Linux is equally easy.
Firefox does not need to be installed in Ubuntu as it is the standard browser in all versions of Ubuntu. Hardy Heron and latter have Firefox 3.0 installed and that is the version I will be considering. There is an extension to Firefox automatically installed which integrates it into the Repository system so some extensions are available from the repositories and, along with the main program, are automatically updated but see below as this extension is somewhat of a poisoned chalice and can cause more problems than it solves. I usually do a little configuration to make it easier to use when I install it for friends or on my clients machines.
Firefox, like all the Mozilla programs has a built in facility to run small programs called 'extensions' to customise and add extra facilities and functionality. There are now hundreds, if not thousands, of extensions available which are added by an internal mechanism and most work under Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. As well as those you add yourself you may find that other programs such as Windows Virus checkers (AVG is an example) add them to enhance there own facilities - these may not be compatible between operating systems. The reason I mention this will become apparent soon. I have found some of the following to be essential or useful to the way I work. Extensions in Firefox and other are usually added by: Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> Browse all Add-ons which takes you to a web page where you can search for an add-on that does what you require and download it as an .xpi file to your desktop.
Googlebar (or Google Toolbar)
I have been using Googlebar for a long time and still prefer it to the official Google Toolbar - one or other is an essential addition if you do a lot of searching. Googlebar adds an icon to the main toolbar customisation so you can hide and display it when you need to have a larger viewing area.
FireFTP
An easy way to gain two panel FTP functionality without installing a separate program
User Agent Switcher
There are still web sites that check the browser and refuse to display pages in browsers other than Internet Explorer. This add-on enables Firefox to 'pretend' to be IE, Netscape or Opera and allow most pages to display.
Caught-up (ITV Player)
Not available from the Firefox extensions site due to problems with advertisers as it enable adverts to be bypassed. Still available from http://chris.orr.me.uk/caughtup/. I do not use it but I found and tried it out for a friend who is very impressed with it.
The writers of Firefox 3 have tried to be clever and automatically start Firefoz in the Offline Mode if there is no internet connection present. They have done that in Linux by checking if Network Manager has an open connection which is fine for the Ethernet and Wireless Network connections that are looked after by Network Manager. Unfortunately Network Manager does not know about Point to Point Protocol connections - that is dial up and other mobile connections using the PPP daemon. The result is that if you make a connection using Gnome-PPP Firefox swithes into Offline Mode when it starts and it has to be switched back using File -> Work Offline. This is OK for the occasional connection but gets very tedious if you have mobile broadband in use all the time or have a old telephone dial up via a modem. This has been discussed at length and there is now an option to inhibit the feature but only deep in the configuration. The way to access it is by entering about:config in the address bar and then enter. This will bring up a warning screen about dragons being present so you have to take care - click Ok and then enter toolkit.networkmanager.disable into the filter which will reduce you down to a view of the required option which will be currently set to false. Right click -> Toggle - this will change the value to true and inhibit the check in network manager. Exit Firefox and when you next use it on a PPP connection it will no longer start up offline. For more details see The Mozillazine Article toolkit.networkmanager.disable
Email is an important part of use of the internet, arguably second only to browsing. It is also an area where many people want to maintain information, not only in the Address Books and Contacts Lists on which people increasingly depend, but also in an audit trail of the email communications sent and received. The problem is that this information is not in a simple form like a list of documents that can be opened, it is all mixed up with various settings for the programs or in files and databases which are almost total opaque and incompatible between email programs such as Outlook Express, Outlook, Thunderbird and Evolution.
As you would expect there are no provisions in Microsoft programs to import from non Microshaft alternatives. Mozilla Thunderbird however is much better and does a first class job of importing mail, contacts and accounts from Outlook and Outlook Express. Likewise Mozilla Firefox imports favourites, history and cookies from Internet Explorer. The Mozilla programs have almost identical 'stores' for their information called profiles largely independent of the operating system in use so a transfer from Windows to Linux and vice versa is quite easy. In fact, under some conditions, it is possible to have a single profile accessible from both systems so you can move backwards and forwards. I understand that the latest versions of Evolution will also be capable of importing Microsoft Outlook .pst files which contain all the email, contact, calendar and task information.
Before getting to details of chosing our email program and the specifics of transferring information etc it is worth looking at how the main email systems work and how that can also help us in our transition, maintaining an audit trail and keeping various machines synchronised.
POP Mail: Most people understand how POP (Post Office Protocol) mail works, the incoming mail is delivered and held on a server at your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and, in the simplest case, you download it to your machine on demand (usually called a Send/Receive activity in your email package) and it is deleted from the server. This was fine when the typical user had only one machine in one place. Nowadays many people access email from home, their office, from a mobile and perhaps a PDA and Phone. This leaves ones incoming mail fragmented in many places. Most email packages and POP mailboxes therefore allow you to collect your email whilst leaving a copy on the server and many also allow one to just download the headers or a restricted amount of data in each email. This is a much better way of working as the downloads can be done on many machines and the eventual deletion from the server is done on one machine and only after it has been satisfactorily archived. It does not help with outgoing mail which has to be copied to another account or some other method to allow an audit trail.
IMAP: There is an alternative to POP mail called IMAP which stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. In this case the email is stored on the server and never downloaded automatically. One can create addition folders on the server so one can have a complete filing system on the server and available whilst one is online, on corporate systems there may even be shared folders accessible by many users. Email stored on an IMAP server can be accessed and manipulated from a desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, and a notebook computer while traveling as well as ones phone/PDA, without the need to transfer messages or files back and forth between these computers. In the simplest case data is only transferred as required - when you select your inbox or a remote folder the headers are transfer - when you select an email the message body is transferred and only when you open an attachment is the attachment transferred You can of course copy anything to a local folder on your machine to work on it and when you finally send a reply (whilst online) it is saved on the server and accessible from any other machine. IMAP is at its best when you are on a Broadband always on internet connection - a GPRS/3G connection charged on data transfers is acceptable.
Webmail: This is really not a separate email system but a way of accessing existing POP or IMAP mailboxes directly via a web interface. The email stays in place unless you delete it or download it from a POP mailbox. It is ideal for access from an internet cafe, it is rather like using IMAP but without easy movement to a local folder system for archiving if used alone. Some email accounts are purely webmail however like Yahoo and Gmail
Implementation by ISPs: Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer the choice of a mixture of POP or IMAP mailboxes - in some cases they are common boxes and the access protocols and port number used differentiates their use. Most POP and IMAP mailboxes are also accessible via a Webmail interface when you are in an internet cafe or on a friends machine. Even if you do not want to change completely without extensive trials it is worth setting up a single IMAP mailbox so when you are traveling so you can transfer mail from your 'mobile' machines via an IMAP mailbox to you home machines filing system via the IMAP mailbox without worries about the incompatible local mailbox and folder formats. You can also tidy up whilst traveling whenever you get a fast WiFi data link in an internet cafe. I do not feel comfortable solely depending on a remote server to store my emails long term but for a few months between archives it seems a very sensible way to proceed. With a GPRS/3G connection where one pays for data transfers rather than time online, it seems a very economical way to operate and most email packages allow one to download selected local copies for offline working as well as remote copies.
Some cautions: Both POP and IMAP protocols are define by RFCs but the implementation by email packages may not be rigorous when it comes to some of the more advanced features. It is possible that POP implementations of features used for leaving emails on the server for a fixed time differ between email packages and may be implemented locally or on the server so if you have different settings or ways those features are implemented between packages you may have a problem. A good way to start investigation is to see if the same mailbox can be accessed by POP, IMAP and Webmail without problems.
Firstly note that I have not even mentioned Outlook Express as the only thing in its favour is that it is free, familiar and built into all versions of Windows. For use at home on a machine XP and with unlimited bandwidth and money to throw at virus and malware checkers and hiding behind hardware and software firewalls Outlook 2003 still has the high ground in my estimation. Outlook 2003 also allows synchronisation with my O2 XDA Exec and Pauline's Palm providing the backup of contacts, appointments, tasks etc.
The comparison for mobile use is less clear both under Windows where the choice is Outlook 2003 versus Thunderbird and on Linux where it is Evolution versus Thunderbird (or possibly Outlook 2003 running under Crossover Office). In the first case it all depends how much you use the functionality over and above email and address books and if you need to sync/backup a Windows Mobile Pocket PC. Thunderbird is faster and more secure in what it does but it does less - on email both offer downloading of headers or limiting size and both have good spam checks although the Outlook 2003 checker does need regular internet updates. Outlook has always had a superb archiving system and I have an audit trail back to 1996 and it is also easy to back up the single .pst file with everything in it. I will still need to keep at least one dual booted system at home with Windows XP so I can use Outlook 2003 to provide a backup for the XDA contacts.
I put a particular emphasis on mobile operation when comparing the options under Linux as we spend a lot of time away from home and without access to Broadband with cost and speed implicatons. Evolution which is installed in Ubuntu as the default email package offers the most basic functionality in calendars, appointments, but seems very outdated - it is comparable to the earlier versions of Outlook patched to offer some modern functionality. In contrast Thunderbird has very much the same feel as Firefox, allows one much more control over how one downloads mail and various extensions (lightning for Calendars and Tasks and MoreFunctionsForAddressBook to strengthen contact management) add most, if not all, of the functionality found in Evolution and Outlook.
Whilst on the move I either download headers only or limit the download to the first few Kbytes - this is easy in Thunderbird and can be set independently for each account by Edit -> Account Settings -> Server Settings and Disk Space for each account. Downloading seems extremely fast compared to Outlook or Evolution. You have no such choice currently over headers or the ability to set download limits in Evolution.
Spam checking is very poor in Evolution and slows the downloading to a crawl, several seconds per email because the spam checking needs to do internet checking to be in the least effective. In contrast Thunderbird has been quickly trained and after a few hundred mails seems to work very well. I have been deliberately accessing a few old and spam ridden accounts for training and the last download identified 48 spams, missed 2 and had one real email identified as spam. That was better than Outlook 2003 did with monthly updates of its data base!
For periods of a few months away I leave all copies of all the mail on the server and then collect into the master system. Thunderbird also gives the ability to blind carbon copy all outgoing emails to a separate email box which ensures I can also pick up all outgoing emails on the home system.
I have therefore chosen Thunderbird, with two extensions installed, over Evolution as my standard email package.
It may seem strange in a article on Ubuntu to start with a discussion of installing a program under Windows but this is the best way to transfer emails etc from Outlook Express and Outlook in Windows to Thunderbird in Ubuntu is via this step. The proceedure is:
Thunderbird under Windows also allows you to import Address Books, Mail and Settings at a latter stage by Tools -> Import. This is most useful to update Address Books but there is no easy way back.
The latest versions of Thunderbird (versions 2 and 3.x) contain all the emails and address book information in a single profile folder which is compatible between Windows and Linux versions. On Windoz it is likely to be in C/Documents and Settings/Username/Application Data/Thunderbird/profile/sillyname.default/Mail/Local Folders/ On the Linux machine the profile is, by default, .mozilla-thunderbird/sillyname.default . Remember files starting in . are hidden in the file manager so use View -> Show hidden files. You can actually have several profiles in Thunderbird although there is no simple GUI way to access the Profile Manager built in. You can however open the Profile Manager from a terminal and create a new profile or use a profile you have copied from another Windows or Linux machine by
thunderbird -P
The profile manager is simple and self explanitory so the creation of a new profile using your profile from another machine is very simple and powerful and is also useful for restoring a backup. You can chose the profile to use in the future or chose to automatically open the profile manager every time you start Thunderbird from then on.
System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications -> Internet
and select Thunderbird from the drop-down box beside Mail Reader
This is required to be able to send emails from Firefox using Thunderbird
The general proceedure for installing an extension in Thunderbird is:
I found a really useful extension for Thunderbird which enables one to see and use several of the hidden fields which are not yet implemented and I have installed it on all my machines. It is called MoreFunctionsForAddressBook and seems almost too good to be true. It adds in many of the functions which are missing in the Thunderbird address book as well as allowing display and use of some hidden fields such as Categories and Birthdays. You can also select and copy addresses and notes from the 'preview' and do searches which include extra fields such as categories and notes. It also extends the actions to handle exporting, sending and importing Vcards. I have done an extensive search looking for the catch but have not found any problems on the internet so far, if you search for problems you just get examples of the problems it solves! I still think that Outlook 2003 is the best overall email, contact management and calendaring package against which the opposition must be judged but Thunderbird with the Lightning and MoreFunctionsForAddressBook Extensions is now coming very very close even before you take into account the costs, security and otherl Microsoft issues.
Mozilla Sunbird is a cross-platform calendar application. It provides a full-featured and easy to use calendar application that can use a variety of standard internet calendar servers (eg WebDav and CalDav) and file formats such as iCal in parallel with its internal database.
Lightning integrates the Sunbird calendar with Thunderbird. Lightning is implemented as an extension making it much more tightly integrated with Thunderbird than the standalone Sunbird thus allowing you to easily perform email-related calendaring tasks. Lightning is by far the most important Extension to Thunderbird and changes it from a good email package to a full function schedule management application on par with Microsoft Outlook and Evolution in functionality. When this page was written it looked likely that future development would concentrate on Lightning as most of the use of Calendars and Tasks requires the use of email.
There are two ways to install Lightning in Ubuntu. The first is using Applications -> Add/Remove and search for Lightning which adds the latest version in the Ubuntu Repository system, This is version 0.7 in the case of Hardy Heron and 0.9 in the case of Jaunty Jackalope. The alternative is to use the mechanisms built into Thunderbird. I believe the built in mechanism is best as this ensures you can chose the [latest] version especially if you intend to implement and of the sharing and synchronisation activities which will be covered later. It is best if it is the first extension installed.
The steps to use the built in mechanism to add the Lightning Calendar Extension to Thunderbird are:
All the configuration and data for Mozilla programs are held in what is called a 'profile' and the 'profile' folders for all the main Mozilla programs look very similar. The profiles have what is called a salted name – that means it is randomly generated and 8 characters long so it is difficult for a hacker to identify. However the first default profile is in standard place and has an extension of .default and new profiles are reached by pointers in an .ini file one level up in a folder often called profiles. The easy way to find your profiles is to do a search for files with a *.default search. Ubuntu Hardy has a file search under Places.
I have set up all my Dual Boot machines to have at least one common Drive/Partition which can accessed from Windows or Ubuntu. I have made this a FAT32 partition because there were some concerns over the reliability of writing from Ubuntu to the proprietary format NTFS which Microsoft has developed. This has been overcome I understand and Hardy heron should be OK with an NTFS common drive.This FAT32 common partition has to be created before starting to install Ubuntu or created at the same time in an unused part of the drive using the Linux partitioning tools – do not try to modify a Windows Partition especially one used by Vista from outside of Windows. Vista allows one to shrink its partition to make unallocated space. Under XP I use an old copy of Partition Magic 8 to create and resize partitions.
This all opens up some very interesting opportunities as I recently realised. If one is running Thunderbird and Firefox under both Ubuntu and Windows then it should be possible to put their internal and configuration data (which is all in the 'Profile' folder) on the common drive and access emails, address books, calendars, browser favourites, cookies and history etc from both machines. This seemed a big step forwards and I used the technique of a common profile on a permanently mounted drive formated as FAT32 so it was accessible both from Windows and Ubuntu for a period when I was still using Windows on a regular basis.
Hibernation works by writing the contents of memory to the disk and then retrieving it again when you turn back on. If you have been working on the same data or even access the same directories then the 'hibernated' data can and usually will overwrite it. It is possible to hibernate provided you go back to the same system but I have forgotten too many times so I turn off hibernation on both systems.
In Windows: Start -> Control Panel -> Power Saving.
I have covered it for for Ubuntu under Disabling Suspend and Hibernate in Ubuntu .
The only problem, other than hibernation, I have found in sharing the profiles for Firefox is with Extensions. In Windows AVG forces in a couple of extensions which are not available under Linux and there is an extension for Ubuntu when running in Linux which is clearly not available in Windows. I find that when I swap I get a popup saying extensions are being installed when I swap from one system to the other - this is to be expected but it would be nice if the messages could be suppressed. In general Extensions are likely to be a problem unless they are available and compatible in both Windows and Ubuntu. The Ubuntu Firefox Extension is added by Ubuntu to allow certain extensions and updates to be handled by the Ubuntu Repositories but in many cases it seems to inhibit correct operation of extension you add yourself in Firefox and many people inhibit it as a matter of course within Firefox.
Kolab is a Open Source Groupware Solution for Emails, Appointments, Contacts and more. It supports mixed client environments because of an open storage format. Kolab was created for the needs of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) by contract in 2002-2004 and is used there in a heterogeneous environment. Kolab won the Linux New Media Award: Category 'Best Groupware Server' in November 2005. In other words it is a professional set-up. We are interested in only a very small part, namely SyncKolab which is the client which runs as an extension in Thunderbird. This can also be run using any standard IMAP mailbox to synchronise Thunderbird Addresses, Calendar Items and Tasks. Each item is converted into a standard Vcard or iCal format and stored on the IMAP server as though they were an email. When you synchronise only the headers need to be downloaded for checking for changes whilst the local copies are checked fully. Any changes are then 'mailed' to the server or the local copy updated. There is no limit to the number of clients that can be synchronised.
You need to have the Lightning extension version .9 installed which may be a problem if you have loaded the modified version .8 for Ubuntu - I had to uninstall it v .8 and also use a new profile. The SyncKolab extension is very small and very easy to set up once you have made some folders on the IMAP mailbox. The configuration tool (Tools -> SyncKolab Options) takes you through a very obvious wizard and ends up in is a single screen with every possible parameter identified on your system and available to select via drop down boxes (IMAP mailbox, folders on the selected mailbox, address book and calendar). It can take a few minutes with an address book of 900 items like I have to download and check all the headers but that is a small price to have everything synchronised. I have customised the toolbar to have a Synchronisation Icon.
If you have to completely uninstall it to, for example, use one of the nightly builds the procedure is:
Odd characters: I initially found that I had 16 entries in an address book of 870 which always showed up as changed. I eventually tracked it down to certain characters and strings in the address book which had originally been converted from Outlook 2003 via a PDA! Tabs were the first problem and did not seem to be consistently handled in the conversion to and from vCards. The other problem was that some of the address stings had been concatenated by the previous conversions onto a single entry and some combinations of 'terminators' in particular | and ; gave problems. Once I found this out it was easy to check the notes for tabs and the address field for a concatenated entry on the problem entries and fix them. I am not sure if this is fundamental or a flaw in the particular implementation of vCard import/export - I suspect the latter. I believe all the problem had come from using cut and paste to fill in address cards in Outlook 2003 so now they are fixed I seen no future problems although I will be careful pasting into the notes field.
Data usage during a synchronisation: I was worried that there would be a significant cost in data but it seems to be small enough to be OK for mobile use. My address book has 850 entries and there are a small number of calendar entries - the total data flow the first time after connection when the complete set of headers has to be downloaded is about 50 kbytes and subsequent synchronisations reduce this to 10 kbytes, to this has to be added any cards which need to be updated but unless you have a lot of notes that will be under 1 kbytes for each. You might not want to do it every day whilst abroad but it is fine on a mobile in the UK.
I have been looking into ways of working with our Windows Mobile PDAs and our dual boot machines with Linux and Windows XP. The standard way of synchronising a Windows Mobile based PDA is using a program called Active Sync which links between Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2003 or 2007 with a Bluetooth of USB cable connection. There are various limitations including that PDA can only Synchronise with two PCs although the PCs can link with many PDAs and can not separate address books so that entries for a home address book migrate to a work machine and vice-versa. Vista is similar but the Windows programs have different names.
We keep emails in step on all our machines by the simple expedient of leaving them on the server so each machine can download them. We periodically clear older emails from the server at a time we know that all the machines have downloaded them using a utility such as IMAP size which also runs under Wine. It is also possible to set the machines up to leave emails for a limited time such as 120 days, ie the longest period we ever expect to be away.
Contacts were originally kept in step between our PDAs, a Palm 750 and an O2 Executive and any machines still running Outlook 2003 by periodic synchronisation with ActiveSync - the PDAs serve as the transfer mechanism between the laptop and desktops. They could then be imported into Thunderbird on dual boot machines although that wass a tedious one way process. We however wanted to reduce our dependence on any Microsoft software and looked for solutions where we can use Thunderbird on all our dual booted machines under Windows as well as Linux yet still be able to use the PDAs. The first step was to share the Thunderbird profile data between Windows and Ubuntu Linux so emails etc could be collected and address books updated whichever was booted up. This has been covered above and has been implemented on two dual boot machines so far without any immediate problems although we have only tested with a limited number of Extensions so far.
This now leaves the Synchronisation of Windows Mobile devices with Thunderbird under Linux (or Windows) which has proved a considerable problem to many people.
Several pieces of software exist to replace ActiveSync which only runs under Windows but most seem to give problems in practice judging by reading the many entries on bulletin boards etc. In looking into all of this I discovered a synchronisation package between Thunderbird and a Windows Mobile device call FinchSync which I spent some time experimenting as others seem to make work reliably but I gave up on after a long frustrating period as it could not handle address books which have over about 400 with contaminating them.
Finally I resorted to trying a Windows based program called BirdieSync which actually costs money (19Euro) to synchronise my XDA and Treo PDAs with Thunderbird under Windows. Its advantage is that it does seem to work. I suppose it is too much to be able to expect to avoid use of Windows altogether when one is using a Windows based PDA as Bill really hates to make life easy.
Birdiesync extends Microsoft ActiveSync so that it will also synchronise the Windows Mobile to Thunderbird and Sunbird/Lightening with the usual limitations that each mobile can only synchronise to 2 other other machines. There is one additional feature in that Thunderbird and Sunbird have to be running so that they are automatically started up when you plug in the mobile on the USB link. Another feature with Windows Mobile 5 is that the synchronisation is carried out every 5 minutes regardless of what you specify.
So what is the procedure for synchronising? I have dual boot system but normally I am using Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and Thunderbird 2 but when I want to synchronise the PDA I reboot into Windows and plug in the PDA by USB. Thunderbird with the Lightening Extension are automatically fired up and synchronisation takes place - it takes a while as Birdiesync also seems to check and remove any duplicate entries which is good if you make mistakes and end up with double entries.
Another very good thing about BirdieSync is that is also deals properly with some of the fields that do not exist in Thunderbird at present although there must be some fields reserved for future expansion. In my case I made extensive use of categories and they are implemented in Windows Mobile. These get synchronised although you can not see them which is not the case when you import from Outlook when you lose them.
I initially hoped I could have a shared profile so when I rebooted back to Ubuntu and my Thunderbird my address books and calendars would all be up to date and synchronised. Unfortunately the synchronisation is done by an extension in Thunderbird this breaks Thunderbird as soon as you access Thunderbird in Ubuntu - it must use Windows specific code and I have not found a way to disable the extension totaly in Ubuntu.
In practice this is not a major problem as I have installed SyncKolab on the Windows version of Thunderbird and run it before I leave Windows and then pick up the changes by running SyncKolab on the Ubuntu machines. The only disadvantage of this is that I have to connect to the Internet under Windows which I otherwise avoid because of security issues and the need to keep my firewalls and virus checker up to date.
BirdieSync is very well documented via FAQ which answers all the questions you might want to ask. It is worth reading it and, in particular, noting the proceedure for updating which does need uninstalling the software on both the PDA and the Thunderbird Extension. If, like me, you have ended up with big address books and versions with large overlaps between the PDAs and Thunderbird you need a stratogy to avoid a huge number of duplicates. I have not tried them but there are some extensions for removing such overlaps and also BirdieSync has a built in utility.
ActiveSync communicates with the XDA on a network TCP/IP connection so there is usually a need to configure the firewall to let this take place. There is information and a list of how to do it for most firewalls other than the free version of ZoneAlarm at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/help/activesync/default.mspx . In the case of the free version of ZoneAlarm open it and go to the Firewall tab and Zones tab. In the list you will see a new adapter called Windows Mobile Device and this needs to be in the Trusted Zone not the Internet Zone. Unplug the USB connection and click on the element of the table containing Internet and change the zone to Trusted. Whilst you are there also click Add an IP Address and fill in the boxes as 169.254.2.1 (one lower than the adapter subnet), the Trusted Zone and call it ActiveSync.
At various times after this the firewall will put up the screens saying various of the ActiveSync programs want permission to access the Internet and Trusted zones, tick the always box and allow them to work. There are 4 programs in total and if you want to avoid waiting you can go to the Program Control -> programs tab and look for programs in the c:/program files/ActiveSync/ folder and give them full permissions. The list is on the site link above includes Wcescomm.exe Rapimgr.exe WCESMgr.exe and CEAPPMGR.exe and all the boxes should be ticked.
I have been looking for a way to handle SMS messages under Ubuntu, in particular when using my USB Dongles which are designed for Mobile Broadband but use SMS messages to purchase additional time or packages, check usage and other housekeeping associated with their use. In general I have been using Vodafone in the UK and NZ for Broadband with a variety of SIMs and tariffs. Vodafone provide a comprehensive 'dashboard' under Windows which I have had to access on a dual booted machine occasionally or to do my 'accounting' via the web. I want to avoid having to use Windoz as we are moving to pure Ubuntu machines without dual boot. One solution is to use the very complex to implement Vodafone Dashboard for Linux I covered in the Page on Mobile Communications.
The main tools I initially found available within the Ubuntu distributions are based round the package gnokii. The useful interfaces are Xgnokii which is a GUI front end to gnokii and gnome-phone-manager which is an even simpler applet which sits in the tool tray and alerts you to incoming SMS messages and allows you to reply or write new ones. Many of the USB Mobile Broadband Dongles have several Serial USB Ports so that they can provide information on, for example, signal strength whilst connected via an alternative port. I hope the SMS facilities can also be run in parallel with a Mobile Broadband connection using one of the alternative USB port into the Dongle.
Although you can install knokii using the Synaptic Package Manager you still need to copy a configuration file /etc/knokiird into your home directory, rename to .knokiirc and configure for your connection (path to the port used for SMS, often /dev/ttyUSB1 ) and model to AT (AT command set interface) at a minimum. You can at re- configure the gnome-phone-manager within the package but you do still need knokii to be set up first and it is desirable to do some checks using gnokii before using anything more sophisticated.
In trying to get to grips with what was going on I found a very full explanation and tutorial which provides many of the basic AT codes and demonstrations of how you can use them to test the facilities of a GSM phone or dongle to send and receive SMS messages at the Developers Home SMS Tutorial. It is very comprehensive and runs to 66 pages, it gave me a much improved understanding and enabled me to receive and look at an incoming series of TXT messages quite easily.
I found using these that there seem to be two responsive serial USB ports for the ZTE modem which are /dev/ttyUSB1 and /dev/ttyUSB3 which can be interogated for device information etc by gnokii.
gnokii --identify is the first test of any stick - the important part of the output from the K3565-Z was
Received message type 06
IMEI : 35651703397xxxx
Manufacturer : ZTE INCORPORATED
Model : K3565-Z
Product name : K3565-Z
Revision : BD_P673A2V1.0.0B09
Serial device: closing device
The ZTE manufactured K3565-Z uses /dev/ttyUSB3 for the internet connection. I have been able to send and receive txts using /dev/ttyUSB1 on the ZTE stick and also on the original Hauwei Vodafone Z3565 which uses /dev/ttyUSB0 for Internet.
knokii can be used to read messages from the stick. The gnokii terminal command to read all the current SMS messages from the phone is:
gnokii --getsms SM 1 end -a Desktop/SMS_Messages.txt
This reads sms messages (gnokii -- getsms) from the Simcard (SM) from message 1 to the end and appends (-a) to a file Desktop/SMS_Messages.txt
You can delete a message by
gnokii --deletesms SM 4
Which deletes message a message gnokii -deletesms stored in SIM (SM) location 4 .
The gnome-phone-manager applet is basic but easily installed by the Synaptic Package Manager. This allows one to send and receive SMS messages from a GUI interface accessed via an Applet which resides in the tool tray once it has been run from Applications. This is enough to enable me to interogate the NZ phone balance by BAL to 777 and MYADDONS to 756 as well as various purchase of bundles and top-ups. The SMS messages seem to only be displayed when the applet is running (and you have a signal) but this is fine for quick interogations of the balances and any other interactions where you expect a near instantaneous response. It means that one can do almost everything without a Vodafone Dashboard and Windows or use of the internet. A better SMS package is still needed for checking for 'old' SMS messages and cleaning up. I tried xgnokki which works to some extent but the display is odd and it does not access everything.
I finally found a package which does what it is advertised to do as far as sending and receiving SMS messages and claims to work with all AT command compatible phones including USB Mobile Broadband Dongles. Wammu is a GUI front end to Gammu which had its early origins in knokii. It can be installed by the Synaptic Package Manager and there is also a Launchpad PPA available so you can get the latest versions and have them automatically updated - I used the straight version from Jaunty for these tests.
When I ran it with the Vodafone K3565-Z stick and NZ SIM it took me to various set up screens where I used the manual option setting it to /dev/ttyUSB1 and for at communication. You first need to use the menus to connect to the phone (Phone -> Connect) and then you can
So far everything I have used has worked and it does everything I need to handle SMS messages on my Mobile Broadband USB sticks and it should be able to do much more via a Bluetooth to my phones as it also handles contacts and calanders. I have not tried it with Windows Mobile but do not expect that to work as Microshaft rarely implement any common standards as one would expect.
I would be very pleased if visitors could spare a little time to give me some feedback - it is the only way I know who has visited, if it is useful and how I should develop it's content and the techniques used. I would be delighted if you could send comments or just let me know you have visited by sending a quick Message to me.
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