Use your symbian phone as a router! (JoikuSpot Premium)

Member Name: dosftw

Product:	JoikuSpot Premium
Date:	21/10/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: use of full internet protocol on a laptop rather than a tiny phone screem/keypad

Disadvantages: obsiouly max speed depends on phone (my e63 is not HSPA but the e71 is) Speeds are fine for me!!

This is without a doubt THE most useful application that I have on my Nokia E63. (which if you read my review you will know I love :P)

It is an absolute MUST HAVE for anyone with a laptop, a symbian powered phone and some sort or GPRS/3G/3.5G or EDGE connection. It allows you to share your mobiles internet connection to another mobile device such as a laptop that is able to connect to wireless hotspots/networks or other phones or iTouches for example. The posibilities of this application are endless.

There are a few versions of this application. The first of which is a 'Light' version. This version is completely free of charge and does not have a 'maximum usage' or a count down clock or a set number of days it can be used for, it is simply a skeletal version of the full premium version.

So what does the free version do? Well it obviously allows you to share your internet connection from your phone to another wireless enabled device however you cannot change any of the settings except for which 802.xx Channel you would like to use, clicking on the option will reveal to you that you can also use the following channels: 1, 6 or 11, there is also the option to select 'Automatic', this will allow the device to scan for which channel your connecting devices are 'sniffing' on and thus become available to join.

Other 'crippling' features for the light version are for example the inability to change the network name, or select which access point the phone will always offer connection for, with this version it is always stuck on the 'Always Ask' option which means that every time you start up the application you have to physically specify which connection to connect to the internet with. In one respect this is not a bad thing as it prevents people from inadvertently connecting with the wrong service which might incur large data usage bills, and is not that much of a hassle for myself, as I have used the free version.

You cannot change the 'Battery Threshold' either. This means that you cannot change the point at which the application will cut out to preserve your battery life, with the light/free version of the application this is set to the minimum threshold so the application will continue to operate until the phone is almost out of battery power.

The 'Landing page' cannot be changed either. Everytime the connection is first used on the wireless device connecting to it, the first website you will be 'thrown' to will be the OVI store. (atleast it is for me, I would like to be told if this is the same for everyone regardless of network provider, I am on '3') Even the default IP Gateway cannot be altered with the free version, however by far the most limiting restriction in the free version is the inability to use network encryption on the the connection. This means that anyone can connect to your 'hot spot' and start browsing or downloading, this can get you into heaps of trouble.

Some other useful things that both version let you do however, are the ability to see who is attached to your 'hot spot' and also shows you the MAC addresses for that particular device aswell as the name of the device which is attaching to JoikuSpot. You can also see the Status of the connection so whether it is active or if it has been stopped and also the length of time that the connection has been active for. As well, you can see packets that have been received in and out of the device, bytes in and out of the device, network name and encryption all on one tab within the application, this is useful for quick glancing and to see whats happening on 'your' network.

Now as mentioned above, the premium version of the software offers far more capability and functionality, for example; the ability to define a custom network name, which access point is to be used by default, allows the use of network encryption with the options of: None, WEP Open and WEP Shared, if selected to one of the two WEP options, then you can also choose which type of encryption key to use, either ASCII or Hex, and the encryption key length. Either;64-bit or 128-bit, You can also specify what the enctyption key is. As well as customising the battery threshold, landing page either on or off, GPS Positioning and customization of the default Gateway IP Address.

As can be clearly seen, the premium version of the software is well worth every penny, the application can be purchased either from the website (http://www.joikushop.com/ ) for 15 euros This is for the full lisence which allows unlimited usage. The same version can also be bought from the Ovi store on your symbian device for £12.99.

It is also possible to purchase a 6 month lisence for 4.95 (euros) again from www.joikushop.com/ . A 1 month licence is also available for 3.95 (euros) from the same website.

Overall this is an absolutely stunning piece of software and is simply childs play to use. A definite much have and something you will not regret buying. I fully recommend the Premium version of the software but just incase you are dubious, feel free to try the free version first!

Summary: Very useful piece of software

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