Evothings, Android and Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi

[DonPancoe]

Wanted to share this tip...

I was at a client site the other day and their Wi-Fi network wouldn't allow the Evothings Workbench on my laptop to connect to the Evothings Client App on my Android tablet. I had done some research and learned that Android doesn't natively support ad-hoc Wi-Fi and I had found this to be true myself when I tried to connect my tablet to an ad-hoc network I had created on my Win7 laptop. There are a number of work-arounds that require rooting the Android device and adding software to it, but I already have enough rooted devices. I wanted to leave this one 'official.'

I finally found and tried this method with success: http://youtu.be/ii3e0cB-oMs. I didn't need to share the laptop's Internet connection with the virtual wireless access point as shown in the first part of the video in order for Evothings to work. In fact, I actually powered off the Wi-Fi AP in my house to be sure the laptop and tabled were talking directly to each other.

I still have a few questions/suggestions related to this, though:

1. Would it be possible to store the last-used html/css/js files on the tablet so the Evothings Client could reload the last app without having to turn the laptop on at all? Besides building the app into a self-contained Cordova app, I mean.

2. Would it be possible to have the Evothings Workbench and Client connect over USB?

Thanks for the help and for the very useful tool.

Don

[DonPancoe]

I realize the video linked above is pretty long, so I will try to summarize...

This method uses the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter included with Windows 7 and 8. It is intended primarily for developers so it is not well-documented for users. You have to configure it from the command line using netsh (network shell).

Running cmd.exe as administrator, use the following commands to create/configure, start and stop the network adapter respectively. Substitute 'NAME' and 'PASSWORD' with your own desired settings.

Code: Select all

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=NAME key=PASSWORD

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

Once you start the virtual adapter, the network NAME will appear in your "Currently connected to..." network list. You should also be able to see NAME as a wireless network that your mobile device can connect to. Once I connected the tablet to that wireless network, the Client could successfully scan for the Workbench even with my house Wi-Fi powered off.

You can make shortcuts on your desktop for the start and stop codes above to avoid opening cmd and typing those lines every time, but you have to right-click those shortcut icons and Run as administrator rather than just double-clicking them.

Don

[micke]

Thanks a lot for the tip! This seems very useful indeed.

Will look into including this in the documentation.

Now for the questions:

1. Would it be possible to store the last-used html/css/js files on the tablet so the Evothings Client could reload the last app without having to turn the laptop on at all? Besides building the app into a self-contained Cordova app, I mean.

The plan is to include a way to save apps locally in Evothings Client. What you can do already today is to put the files for the app on a web server, then enter the URL to the app in the Connect field and the app should load. Some info on this here: http://evothings.com/doc/build/share-ap ... ingsClient

2. Would it be possible to have the Evothings Workbench and Client connect over USB?

I guess it would be possible but it is quite an effort to make this work if it needs to be implemented into Evothings Client and Workbench.

Perhaps there is some software that can solve this, emulating a network connection over USB?

How would this work when sharing network from a mobile device with a computer over USB. Then the mobile could connect to the computer? Is the other direction possible over USB, sharing from computer to mobile?

Interesting ideas!

Thanks again, Mikael

[DonPancoe]

Thanks for pointing out the possibility to use a web server to host the Evothings Client app. It works for me quite easily and well. Between that and laptop Wi-Fi tip I posted above, I should be able to do almost everything I need until the Client app is able to save the html/css/js files itself. That will be a good feature, though, and I look forward to it being ready.

As for the USB connection, I was thinking Android Debug (ADB) could be used, but didn't give it much thought beyond that. I will continue to look into networking over USB via ADB to see if it can be made to work without any changes to the Workbench or Client. I will share here if I figure anything out.

Don.

[micke]

Thanks a lot Don!