What's up with Hatim?

I bought a VOIP service from BrainTel so that my folks could easily get in touch with me (and vice versa, but the BrainTel service is really crappy, and deserves another blog entry). I had specially bought a Nokia E51  which has builtin WiFi and a SIP phone as I was under the impression that it would be very easy to connect to the internet at Chalmers campus. Chalmers uses an online web based authentication system called  NOMAD which is tied into its RADIUS/AAA servers, the problem is that this authentication is webpage based, ie one has to sign in on a webpage as a HTTP POST request. After some searching around I found a Win32 Application named NomadMonitor which does the same. Following is some code snippet for its HTTP request.

I was actually thinking of making a small midlet following this simple code, but then I found out devicescape which is exactly what I needed. This software lets you manage your wifi access points through a single interface and will hopefully login me to Chalmers nomad automatically. It's funny actually as I was searching for Nomad and Chalmers on the internet and I came across an entry in their forums where another student from chalmers was discussing some problmes in using devicescape with  MacBook at Chalmers campus. So some times you find the best things when you are not looking for them :)

Edit: I have successfully tested device scape on Symbian S60, but for some reason the latest version doesn't let me use keypad to enter user info (or any thing else). So instead I am using an older version 2.0.6. Now I will never have to sign in for NOMAD on my phone again :)

Edit I later got the latest version of the devisecaspe's program from devicescape forums, which is signed only for my mobile (using MEI number). And it is working perfectly for me now

I have to confess that I have never owned a DSL connection. It was always a Fiber optic connection or a shared T1 line at the workplace/university. With the ongoing price wars for DSL connections I decided to get a connection for my self at home (actualy it was for my sister). The connection was ordered in April 2008 and then there was a long wait. Every time I would call to them they would make up some excuse. In the end around June 15th I decided to lynch the call center guys. In limits of decency I lynched him on the phone, and the next thing you know that with in 24 hours the installation of modem was done. It was running fine for one week, when it suddenly it stopped working.

On inquiring from the people in Tech support I was told that this connection was not installed to begin with. I admit that there were probably few loose ends to tie, for example when ever there was an incoming or outgoing phone call the DSL connection would drop. And even though the connection was dropped if the DSL device was on, there would be noise. I had to literally beg the equipment installation guy to make my connection work as I had lots of work to catch up to, he gave me some one elses ID (how typical of Pakistan, solve a problem by breaking rules).

Then I lodged a complains a few times with PTCL(the telephone company) to clear the noise and they always give me a token number (like its a big prize). In short getting a DSL connection in Pakistan is not easy even though as compared to previous years prices have come down considerably. With no electricity or sane internet I wonder why people think Pakistan is an ideal place for outsourcing.

My telephone line at home was out of order for about 3 weeks now and I was in need of an internet connection at home. I decided to give using internet through my cell phone (GPRS) a try. The reason for this was simple, I needed an internet connection which would make me truly mobile and was cost effective as well. And ofcourse an implied requirement was that it should work with Linux(easily). So I searched up the internet for tarrifss of local cellular companies and compared them with other options which I had. I decided to go with Zong's (a China Mobile comapny) unlimited GPRS package. I was skeptical about the internet speed and was not even sure how I would be ablt to connect my laptop with the internet as it was only recently that I had begun using internet through my Mobile.

First I got hold of a Sony Erricson data cable as I had lost the one which came with my phone. This cost me 200Rs (3 US$), then I purchased some Zong credit for testing. Then using another internet connection I searched on how to use ubuntu with GPRS enabled phones. I found an article at softpedia to be very helpful. I found through dmesg that on my system, my phone was registering itself at ttyACM0 as well

Then I installed gnome-ppp and used it as per described in the article. The APN for Zong is zonginternet and apprently there is no username and password, but I still used zon/zong so that gnome-ppp could dial out. I also had to ensure that my user was in the modem/dial_out group. I tested the internet connectivity and was delighted to see that after dailing in there was nothing else to be done. Later I called up Zong customer services after feeding in some extra credit of 550 Rs (roughly 8US$) and activated my monthly unlimited internet package.

Later I tried watching a Youtube video, the bandwidth was not enough for me to stream it live but I was able to download a 9 MB file in a relatively short time compared to dialup connection. I was able to go to a download speed of 15KB/sec which I think is more than enough for day to day browsing and coding related tasks. I am looking forward to using this connection for my summer of code activities.

You would think that with election results not going in favor of the establishment of Pakistan, the least it could do is sit tight and do nothing. Today I recieved the following email from my ISP

Dear Valued Customer:

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (www.pta.gov.pk)
has directed all ISPs of the country to block access
to www.youtube.com web site for containing
blasphemous web content/movies.

The site would remain blocked till further orders from
PTA. Meanwhile, Internet users can write to
youtube.com to remove the objectionable web
content/movies because this removal would enable
the authorities to order un-blocking of this web
site.

We're sorry for any inconvenience.

Best Regards

Manager
Technical Assistance Center
Nayatel Pvt. Ltd.
Islamabad.

I am not sure which objectionable web content is the Govt after now. Previously  Google's blogspot was banned in Pakistan for some time. Some genius decided to block the whole domain of blogspot.com instead of certain blogs. I serioulsy hope that the new Govt would take some steps to ensure freedom for the people of Pakistan on the internet.

I had bought ISDN connectivity from NetSOL back in Nov 2006. It was costing me a whooping 42$ a month for 24/7 64-bit connectivity. Initially I  found it absolutely necessary to have internet connectivity at home, but I was mostly using this for downloading tv series episodes. This came to a drastic halt in summer as I was unable to find time to manage those downloads. Before going to Umrah I got my internet account disabled and disconnected my system. When I came back I turned it on without realizing that it would make multiple attempts to connect to my ISP, and fail. Those attempts each cost a mere 5 cent, but when combined with 1000 attempts they became a whooping 67$. I was sick to my stomach when I found out this had happened. To top it all this thing repeated again (I have yet to recieve the bill). From that day I decided no more internet at home. Internet at home has already cost me around 600$ for an entire year (600$ which could have been easily saved). Internet connectivity (that too on a reasonable price) in this country is a big hassle. I hope PTCL's new schemes make internet connectivity a bit better.
I have also decided to stop watching TV series altogether. I had decided to stop playing video games, but some how kept watching TV-series. TV is good entertainment, but I have enough on my plate in real lif. I will keep watching my top fav tv series from time to time(perhaps on their dvd releases), but regular tv watching is now a big no no.

 Lesson to learn here, know your technology and never under estimate a use case (i simpley ignored the case where my account would expire and had it set to unlimited auto redial.