Wireless missunderstandings

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Though we bring an iPad to China, we ended up not buying a SIM card for it as we were told we could borrow one. But then the card we borrow was to be returned and we could not cut it down to fit into the iPad. My new Samsung Galaxy S could not accept the card as it was SIM-locked so we ended up using the SIM on our Nokia E71. Thus, iPad could use the GPRS access of the phone thanks to JoikuSpot software.

Unfortunately, the access JoikuSpot provides does not seem to work for the Galaxy S.

Another problem I faced was that the few wireless networks I can access are protected by a captive portal that, once a valid username and password is provided allow clients to access the Internet. My Eye-Fi Geo SD card performs the geo-location for my pictures but only if pictures are downloaded wirelessly to the computer. But Eye-Fi firmware did not support captive portal authentication so I could not use these wireless networks.

Unfortunaltey the Eye-Fi card cannot work with JoikuSpot either. A potential solution was to use the Galaxy S in the wifi router mode as then it acts as an access point. But again, the problem was that Eye-Fi manager software needs to have an Internet access through that connection in order to be able to accept this new network into the Eye-Fi card configuration.

I did not want to enable data roaming for the Galaxy S as prices are just outrageous (even if my company is paying the bill). But eventually I was forced to enable it for a moment till the card configuration was in process. Finally I can download wirelessly the pcitures to my MacBook using the Galaxy S as the access point. For that operation I can keep the data roaming off with no problem.

I reckon that Eye-Fi should have made life easier for their customers and not more difficult.

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