Talk:Devicescape Software
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"Impossible tasks"?
I've changed the list of bullet point of what the software can do at the top. "impossible tasks" is false, and the rest of the bullet points smell alot like marketing-speak. Could someone in the know add to these points by listing a more technical description of what the software actually does? Brady8 03:21, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] a clear statement of what devicescape is
i am not affiliated with devicescape, but i own a nokia n95 phone and have installed the software of the same name provided at the devicescape.com webpage. i have a couple thoughts, but before i share them i'll state my observations:
1. devicescape, the company: i have done very little to research the company itself. it appears that they have played a role in some wireless access point firmware (operating system, software) in the past. however, this is not the focus of the company's presentation that is devicescape.com.
2. devicescape, the software: this software serves one major purpose - to connect a wifi device to a wifi network with the intent to limit the need for user intervention.
for example, in the town of Amherst, Mass, USA on the University of Massachusetts, Amherst campus, there exists a set of wifi access points. this set of access points all have the same name: UMASS. they are intended to provide wifi internet access to university students. to prevent random passersby from accessing the network, the umass system employs a system developed by BLUESOCKET (http://www.bluesocket.com/).
the bluesocket system watches for new wifi clients connecting to the wifi network. it then captures all outbound data (web page requests, etc) on any port and, if data was requested via HTTP GET, responds with a local login page. data requests for other types of services (voip, p2p, etc) SHOULD be blocked (simply discarded) but i haven't verified that.
the user, who wished to browse to google.com perhaps, is instead presented with a login page requesting a username and password. if they enter this information and login, they are then free to browse the internet without restrictions. (or with whatever restrictions are employed by campus network staff)
this is the type of system the DEVICESCAPE is designed to help with. using devicescape, i would never be presented with a login page - that page would be fetched and my credentials submitted, without any intervention on my part.
-- this is beneficial -- i use a nokia n95. this phone has wifi support and a built in hardware SIP stack. this means that it is able to connect to a wifi access point and login to a service providing free/cheap telephone calls via wifi, rather than via my GSM carrier. without devicescape, using this VOIP service would require: 1. open mobile phone 2. launch browser 3. choose UMASS wifi access point 4. wait for login screen to open 5. enter username/password using tiny little keyboard 6. close browser 7. connect VOIP application to internet
furthermore, many other internet services (and indeed most voip providers) offer automatic connections when you are within range of a previously used wifi access point. these applications are likely to behave poorly if/when login credentials are required but not yet entered (or expired).
many free wifi hotspots also require the user to visit a webpage before allowing their device to use the network - many of these include EULA's limiting the provider's liability for network outages, etc. devicescape is able to automatically acknowledge these EULA type forms.
in this manner, the DEVICESCAPE software allows a user to access public/private wifi hotspots just as if they were the same wifi access point that user might have at home: no login pages, no EULA's, no effort beyond launching the software which attempts to connect. thats is the purpose of devicescape.
those are my observations. here is my thought for this wikipedia article:
there should be a page for "wifi access point control ", ie the BLUESOCKET system and other similar ones. likewise a page for "wifi access point control - bypass", ie devicescape, and perhaps others.
a page for a single software product seems silly to me, but here it is. if we broaden it to cover any software that bypasses the login part of wifi access point control systems, then we need to identify those control systems. i've just spent too much time writing this already, so i won't look for those just now, but they might already exist.
-jared Bitflung (talk) 20:45, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
