Joikuspot connection problem with Ubuntu Linux
This weekend I had to resort to Joikuspot (software that turns your 3G-cellphone into a wireless gateway to the internet) for my web-needs. Because I encountered a few problems setting up a connection from my Ubuntu laptop, here’s a quick recap for documentations sake.
The rather fundamental issue was that I couldn’t get my computer (a Dell D620 running Ubuntu 8.04 with the iwl3945 driver) to join the ad-hoc wifi-network which Joikuspot (on a Nokia e61i) created. As connecting from my wife’s Windows XP laptop did work, I googled around a bit and it turned out I had to specifically set the channel used by Joikuspot to 1 or 6 instead of “automatic” or 11. Although NetworkManager still seemed confused, this did allow me to connect from the command line (disabling wireless networking in NM first and then using iwconfig and dhclient). But why joining an ad-hoc wifi-network on channel 11 doesn’t work in Ubuntu, that I still don’t know.
Once connected to the wireless network, I found out that Joikuspot Light requires your browser to auto-detect a proxy. The proxy in Joikuspot seems to be used to limit the functionality of the free version and gently push you towards the non-free Premium product. As my normal web-connection came back soon after I figured this out, I didn’t bother to test if I could tunnel my way out of those limitations. But crippled or not, Joikuspot is great to have around when your broadband connection is down.
ghosty
9 Dec 08 at 14:54
Strange, when i read about it a couple of weeks ago -don’t remember in who’s post it was- I installed it on my nokia E65, connected with my thinkpad running ubuntu 8.10 and everything worked out of the box! I just started joikuspot, turned on wifi, connected to the ad hoc network, opened firefox and it worked like a charm … (ok did not like the front page with joiku promotions, but that’s just a minor annoyance)
frank
9 Dec 08 at 15:49
Might depend on the channel chosen by Joikuspot (standard setting is ‘automatic’), but the driver for the wireless card might have an impact as well?
But you didn’t have to set FF to ‘auto detect proxy’ either?
Ghosty
10 Dec 08 at 15:45
No I just checked, it’s still set to “use system proxy settings”
Ron
1 Jan 09 at 06:15
I’m still struggling. Can you post the exact commands you used? I can’t seem to get it to work still.
frank
1 Jan 09 at 08:53
sure. as root:
sudo iwconfig eth1 essid mode ad-hoc channel
sudo dhclient eth1
that did it for me, i guess it should be possible to get this to work in networkmanager as well, but i didn’t really try
Ron
2 Jan 09 at 18:36
Yeah, still no workee. I can’t get it to get a dhcp address from the joiku. I’ll google some more and see if I get any joy.
Thanks for the tip just the same.
frank
4 Jan 09 at 09:20
just to make sure; iwconfig as i described it, assumes that “encryption” is set to “none” in joikuspot. maybe try it that way?
Ron
5 Jan 09 at 09:56
Yeah, I had it set to ‘none’.. I haven’t messed with it over he weekend but sometime next week I’ll get on it again to figure out what I need to do to get it working.
Tim
8 Mar 09 at 02:25
Wish everything worked out of the box for me!
When following the instructions I get:
SET failed on device eth1 ; No such device.
Sorry, I don’t really know my way around networking iin Linux. And how come the icon is different for Joikuspot?
It was all really easy in windows, and I just thought all access poinnts worked the same way
Can you help? Thanks.
frank
8 Mar 09 at 02:53
eth1 apperantly does not exist, do “iwconfig” to see what wireless devices are listed?
Tim
8 Mar 09 at 11:22
Cheers again, and excuse my lack of familiarity with this. It appears the connection is ath0. But copying your instructions word for word again gives ‘iwconfig: unknown command “ad-hoc”‘. Also, where am I putting the SSID name – should it be something like:
“sudo iwconfig eth1 essid JoikuSpot_1 mode ad-hoc channel”?
frank
8 Mar 09 at 12:19
in that case it should rather be something like:
sudo iwconfig ath0 essid JoikuSpot_1 mode ad-hoc channel 1
assuming the channel you selected in joikuspot was indeed one off course
Tim
8 Mar 09 at 19:55
Hmm. Well, I’ve got the syntax right but I have a feeling the ad-hoc mode just isn’t going to play.
So far:
Disable wireless in NetworkManager
sudo iwconfig ath0 essid JoikuSpot_1 channel 1 -> works OK
sudo iwconfig ath0 mode ad-hoc -> “SET failed on device ath0 ; Invalid argument.”
Several other people have written about difficulties with ad-hoc mode, so I’ve tried (as per this page – http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/UserDocs/AdHocInterface):
sudo wlanconfig ath0 destroy -> works
wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode adhoc -> “ath0″ (works)
sudo iwconfig ath0 mode ad-hoc -> (works!)
sudo dhclient ath0
And it works up to the point where my laptop name appears in the Clients on the phone. But…I can’t make pages load in firefox. Although ping requests to URLs seem to get returned by 192.168.2.1 (the phone?).
So I return the laptop back to normal by doing the opposite:
sudo wlanconfig ath0 destroy
wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode managed
sudo iwconfig ath0 mode managed
and re-enable wireless in NetworkManager and I’m back to normal. Everything works but JoikuSpot.
Just thought that might be helpful to someone that knows more than me about it.
frank
8 Mar 09 at 20:55
if you get replies on pings, it seems you’re connected. did you configure firefox to auto-detect a proxy?
Tim
9 Mar 09 at 11:25
And it works!
I enabled the auto-detect proxy, and even though Firefox still went into “Work offline”, I just unticked that and it started connecting.
Wireless access with JoikuSpot on a nokia 5800 using Ubuntu on an Acer Aspire One!
On the downside, it’s really slow (quite a bit slower than the cable) and some sites don’t seem to get further than loading the page title. This was a problem on the xp laptop as well though, so I think the issue is JoikuSpot/handset/network related rather than Ubuntu/laptop.
Considering the extra battery required for handset and laptop when using the wireless as well, I might try and remember to carry the cable around (after all that!), but it’s nice to have the option.
Thanks again for all your help getting it sorted.
John
3 Apr 09 at 18:14
Hi, I am trying to use joiku with a Nokia E71, and a Acer Aspre One. The netbook sees the joiku connection, but just wont accept the encrytion key, for 68 or 128 encrytion. I am getting so frustrated with it, hs anybody else had this problem with a Nokia E71, and if so, have you been able to get around it.
Thanks
John
frank
3 Apr 09 at 21:08
what OS is the netbook running john?
John
4 Apr 09 at 13:11
Hi, thank you for your reply.
I am running Ubuntu 8.10 eeepc. It finds the Joiku network, but just wont accept the key, its really strange. i can use it running on my router no problem, or anybody elses router, no problem, just not Joiku. 
John
6 Apr 09 at 13:38
Hi, does anybody have any clues to help, I would really like to be able to get this to work.
Thank you.
John.
frank
6 Apr 09 at 13:43
i’ve only used non-secured connections with my nokia e61i (the e71′s predecessor), but i’ll test it with encryption one of these days.
but have you tried connecting with another client (eg. windows or mac computer) to your joikuspotted e71? does that work?
John
7 Apr 09 at 12:39
Hi, I just tried it on my XP laptop, and it connected using both 68 and 128 encryption secure keys instantly. So, not really sure why it wont connect with Ubuntu. That’s really frustrating me.
frank
7 Apr 09 at 12:45
that sure is frustrating! one would expect an ad-hoc wifi-network with an encryption key to work under ubuntu, but i’m afraid i’m not sure how to solve that one john, sorry …
John
8 Apr 09 at 14:11
Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. It is really frustrating, because I have seen others using this on Ubuntu netbooks, and have had no problems. Nobody seems to be able to find answers.
Thanks again anyway.
John.
frank
8 Apr 09 at 15:19
and were those “others” using the same netbook brand/model as you? from what i read hardware and esp. the drivers used may interfere with normal behavior, esp. in ad-hoc mode?
Jayjay
19 May 09 at 17:25
Just wanted to add my experience with Ubuntu 9.04″
JoikuSpot Light worked fine, and in my excitement I bought Premium, which now doesn’t work.
Maybe if someone can figure out what the diff is between them we could sort this out?
Jayjay
19 May 09 at 17:52
As a follow up to this – I removed Birdstep SmartConnect from my E71 and JoikuSpot Premium worked.
SmartConnect is a pretty common app for the E71 that automatically selects an Access Point based on your set priorities. I think interfered by offering to make JKSpot one of the available Access Points, thus referencing itself or something.
I must have installed that between seeing Lite working and upgrading to premium.
frank
19 May 09 at 20:16
thanks for the interesting feedback jayjay! if my next phone is the e71 (still hoping for the palm pré to land in europe though) this info might come in very handy!
eee xandros
9 Aug 10 at 22:41
i got it working, full version and channel locked to 6 and web 128bit with web-key index 1 in eee wlan settings
Baaz
6 May 11 at 20:00
Dear All ,
my problem is i have installed joikuspot premium on my Hp laptop wid XP OS , but when i turn ON joiku on E71 phone it is visible on other Wlan Phone but Not on my laptop, i dunno what could be the problem plz help me to connect joiku premium via E71 on my laptop. Plz specify if there is some special setting.
frank
6 May 11 at 21:18
i’ve got no experience with joikuspot & windows xp, but if your xp is “company property” it could be that connecting to ad-hoc wifi networks is disabled in the windows domain policy or something (as is the case at my work)?
plj
21 Jun 11 at 11:09
Funny: problems with Joiku & Ubuntu are nothing new, but I just had this same problem with Nokia E90 & OS X (Snow Leopard). Remedy: manually setting channel to 6 in Joikuspot.
(The phone didn’t have the newest Joiku though, but 2.6. Full version.)
Davor
14 Nov 11 at 17:12
I have ubuntu 11.10 installed on my laptop and have nokia e71 with joikuspot premium.
Ubuntu won t connect, it reports bad password.
I am able to connect my other laptop with win XP to my joikuspot
why this doesn t work on ubuntu, is it a bug and when will it be fixed ?
frank
14 Nov 11 at 20:51
good question, but no idea i’m afraid. i’ve left the nokia/ symbian combo a couple of years ago, so can’t test & try to fix.
Davor
19 Nov 11 at 08:00
Well, interesting shit, but now it works fine, just watching a video at youtube.
But now i am using gnome instead of KDE desktop envirement