@madpilot makes

Getting JoikuSpot to play nice with the EeePC

The EeePC is such a sweet little laptop, and it’s really handy when you are on the road, in a meeting or on the train – however being sans network can be pretty limiting. Now, I’ve got a Nokia N95 8Gb on Three, so I have a delicious 1Gb of traffic to burn each month. If only I could connect one to another…

I first tried with Bluetooth, but no dice – besides the obvious issue of the EeePC not having bluetooth, even with a dongle I couldn’t get a network connection. They chatted, but they couldn’t connect on that meta level that can push 1’s and 0’s around.  Besides, bluetooth is slow, I could probably only get 50% of my mobile broadband speed. FAIL.

Next I tried a USB cable. After installing 3egprs, and ith a minor tweak to a chat script, it actually worked, and at full speed! Having a cable hanging off kind of sucks though. PARTIAL CREDIT.

I downloaded JoikuSpot when I got my phone. It’s a cool little app that turns your phone into a mobile hotspot – the only caveat at the moment is the beta edition only supports HTTP, HTTPS and SSH (via tunnelling and only with version 1.2). NATing of more protocols are planned apparently, and I wait with baited breath. When I got my EeePC, I tried to connect, as this would be the ultimate solution, but no dice. After some Googling, I found a few suggestions, and success stories, but no full instructions – so here they are:

  1. Install JoikuSpot
  2. Start it up
  3. Find the Access Point on the EeePC
  4. Stop JoikuSpot, and close it
  5. Open “Configure Network Connections” on the EeePC, select the AP and hit Properties
  6. Click the “Wireless” tab.
  7. Set Mode to “Adhoc”
  8. Set Channel to “Auto”
  9. Select the “TCP/IP” tab. Select “Static” from the drop down
  10. IP Address: 192.168.2.2
  11. Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
  12. Gateway: 192.168.2.1
  13. Select the “DNS” tab
  14. Enter 192.168.2.1 as the primary server
  15. Hit the “OK” button
  16. Connect to the AP (Make sure JoikuSpot ISN’T running. Yes I said ISN’T) it should connect
  17. Start up JoikuSpot and connect to the net
  18. Browse somewhere on the EeePC – you should see the JoikuSpot splash screen

That’s it! I hope that makes sense…

Uncategorized ,

23 comments

  1. Garry Stewart
    I too have an Eee PC and an N95 on Three (original, though, not the 8GB model, and only X-Series Silver).



    The only thing I don't like about JoikuSpot is that both WiFi and 3G have to be active to use it, which kills the battery life.



    Does the larger battery in the 8GB model make much of a difference in this scenario, or are you still looking at needing a power point after an hour or so?
  2. Myles Eftos

    Gary,



    I was on it for about an hour last night and it only dropped about one bar from almost fully charged, so I'd be guessing you'd get about two hours from it.



    Which is the exact reason I bought a USB charger :)



  3. Justin
    Of course, then you're still connected via a USB cable, defeating the point of going wireless in the first place.
  4. Myles Eftos
    Justin: Yes, but you only need to plugin the charger when you are out of battery.
  5. Garry Stewart
    It's not just about battery life on the phone, either.



    If I was charging via USB to give the phone extra juice, I'd be sucking that power from the EEE PC's battery. In additon, I'd also need to have the wireless connection of my EEE PC turned on, which would add further strain to the battery.



    Not so bad if I'm near a power point, but that kinda defeats the purpose of having an ultra portable laptop ;).
  6. Myles Eftos
    Ok. It's isn't a PERFECT solution, but it's a solution none the less :)
  7. Garry Stewart
    I just bought a USB cable that can reach my jacket pocket so that I can connect my N95 to the EEE PC without having to balance the phone on my lap. It sucks having the cable, but it's OK as long as you stay stationary (buses, trains etc).



    The minute they do 6-7 hour battery life for tiny laptops, though.... Goodbye cable!
  8. Myles Eftos
    I've also got one for when I'm in meetings a cafes.



    Luckily by main laptop has an extended battery - I can get 4.5 hours of it. And yes. That does rock!
  9. Pingback: JoikuSpot premium edition released | Bloggy Hell
  10. Riaz tec
    can some one post the tutorial vid bt/usb with step by step

    please some1 help i cant get it over.

    i got n95 8gb.



    thankz in advance.
  11. johan
    thankyou very helpful now everything runs smoothly its fantastic i have eee pc 7 and nokia n95 with telia
  12. Bruce
    The above instructions didn't entirely work for me, on the eee 900 (xandros) - I couldn't view any pages in FireFox nor ping any websites. Turns out the DNS was not resolving.



    Try doing a ping to Google:

    ping 72.14.205.100



    If this works, you just need to set your DNS to the IP address given by your mobile provider, and not 192.168.2.1.
  13. Juha
    With above instructions I can ping google and enter google site by using 72.14.205.100 on browser's url field, but with regular urls it just doesn't work..
  14. Myles Eftos
    @Juha: Sounds like your DNS settings aren't working. Try using a public DNS IP address, or calling your telco and see if they can give you their DNS server IP address.
  15. Pingback: What is the Deal with WiFi and Linux? « Andrew Currie on WordPress
  16. Christophe
    hi all,

    I tried the tuto. All worksfine, but I can't ping any IP adress. I have a xandros eeepc, a N95 8G with the french SFR operator (wap connection). Browsing internet with the N95 is OK. Does someone have an idea ?

    Christophe
  17. Myles Eftos
    Hi Christophe,



    AFAIK, the new JoikuSpot should work out of the box with out having to set IP address. Mind you I'm not running Xandros any more, so I can't help you out more than what is above (I'm running eeebuntu, and I can't get JoikuSpot to work at all.)
  18. Eppie
    I bought joikuspot for my E71 with my eeePC 701

    I follow the above information.

    BUT the problem is that my eeePC 701 "freezes"after step 16.

    I only can take off the battery and start it up



    Can you help me?????

    (sorry for my bad english but i have some braindamage...)
  19. Eppie
    Nobody????????
  20. geoff
    Hi,

    I got eee pc 900 running (standard Xandros) with Nokia 5800 and Jokiuspot premium to connect by wifi but can't get a script to work properly.



    If do not use encryption I run this script as su from terminal I get in ok.



    wlanconfig ath0 destroy

    wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode adhoc

    iwconfig ath0 essid "Test"

    ifconfig ath0 up

    dhclient ath0





    If I try this script with wep encryption turned on I

    can not get in.





    wlanconfig ath0 destroy

    wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode adhoc

    iwconfig ath0 essid "Test"

    iwconfig ath0 enc restricted s:13digit_ascii

    ifconfig

    iwconfig

    ifconfig ath0 up

    dhclient ath0



    However, if I run the above one at a time in terminal as su my eee pc 900 connects correctly, but only if booted the eee from cold!



    If I have tried to connect to another wifi point first or run the above as a script I can not connect to my phone.



    Can anyone help me please?



    My work xp laptop wooshes straight in first time no issues...



    Geoff
  21. Myles Eftos
    I don't really know Geoff, but maybe it's a timing thing? Maybe put some sleep command after the



    iwconfig ath0 enc restricted s:13digit_ascii
  22. Nathan
    Hey Myles

    was just reading your blog. I am having issues with joikuspot and windows. Was wondering if you know anything about it? I can create a wireless hotspot and both my iPod touch and windows machine can connect with them, but will not let me use the internet ARR so annoying! I am also with Three. Any advice you can give me will be great.

    Thanks mate
  23. Dewd
    It took a while, but I have got my 701 with Xandros in Easy mode to work with my Nokia E52 running Joikuspot Light 3.00 (free version)



    I tried all the suggestions and settings suggested above, but no go. Couldn't get past the "Pending" stage.



    They were all static IP suggestions. As a joke, I tried changing from Static to DHCP and all of a sudden, I noticed a new Connection appear on the EeePC called "Asus Wireless Connection" and a new access point appear on the phone in JoikuSpot called "EeePC Des Westcott" (the Des Westcott is my name, so I'm assuming it got that off the EeePC). The "Joikuspot xxxxxxxxxxx Wireless Connection" on the EeePC went from "Pending" to "Enabled" and it worked like a dream.



    Yesteday, however, I could not connect. I could not get the access point "EeePC Des Westcott" to display on the E52. This morning it connected first time no problem. I guess time will tell if this can become reliable.

Leave a comment