Software for BlackBerry® Devices
with OS 4.3 or higher

 

FileScout - User Manual - WiFi-Sharing Plugin

A file manager Software for BlackBerry® Devices

The "all in one" file, zip, text and image manager for your BlackBerry®

The FileScout WiFi-Sharing Plugin

General

Preparation & Installation

Before you can use the Plugin you need a) BlackBerry Device that is WiFi enabled, b) at least FileScout v2.9.0.5 (or higher) installed.

Verification

For the start, open the FileScout Options and scroll down to the Item 'WiFi-Sharing Options' - if you do not have such a Item present then you need to update your current FileScout installation. The WiFi-Sharing Options have been added since FileScout v2.9.0.5

Step 1)

  • When the WiFi-Sharing Plugin is not installed yet then you see a button called 'Install Plugin OTA'

Step 2)

  • Once you press this button Filescout will be closed and the BlackBerry® Browser will be opened and point to the FileScout WiFi-Sharing OTA Installation page.
  • To start with the installation click on the appropriate link (see screenshot)

Step 3)

  • Follow the Instructions on the webpage to install the Plugin (o)ver (t)he (a)ir on your Device

Step 4)

  • When the installation is completed you should confirm the requested permissions in order that the WiFi-Sharing Plugin can work correctly
  • Once the permissions are confirmed you can close the Browser and launch FileScout again.

Configuration of the WiFi-Sharing Plugin

Accessing the WiFi-Sharing Options

To configure the WiFi-Sharing plugin after the installation you simply need to start FileScout again and select 'WiFi-Sharing Options' from the FileScout Options list.

WiFi-Sharing Options

  • Server-Port
    Port which is used for sharing the Data of your BlackBerry. By default the port 80 is used for HTTP. You can adjust it to any available port you like/prefer but have in mind that you need to specify the port also when you then type the URL in your browser (to access your device).
    Important to know for InternetExplorer users: When you make use of a different port then 80, you have to add http:// before the IP address!
  • Start WiFi-Server on FileScout start
    When you like you can automatically start the WiFi-Sharing Server everytime you start FileScout. When you make use of this autostart functionality the successful start of the WiFi-Sharing will not be promted with a dialog (displaying the URL) [if you like to verify the scuccessful start you can check the SystemEventLog of your device (key: com.emacberry.WiFiPlugin)].
  • Send & Receive-Buffer Size
    The Send- and Receive-Buffer Size should normally not be adjusted the default values should be fine in most of the cases. Only if you have difficulties to upload/download files to/from your device you might can considder to adjust these values.
  • Use alternative ulpoad buffering (OS6 or higher only)
    For OS6.x and OS7.x you can make use of an alternative transfer buffering. When you make use of this setting the server will use a maximal buffer of 8 KiB to receive files and constantly recycle this static byte buffer. This makes it very System & JavaVM friendly (since the GarbageCollector does not need to do anything while a transfer is in progress).
    You should enable this option when you see frequently the device hourglass while you upload files to your BlackBerry.
  • WiFi-HotspotClient Configuration (OS5 or higher only)
    The WiFi-HotspotClient is a seperate module that comes with it's own configuration screen. The seperation was made because of I wanted to make the WiFi-Sharing Plugin even available for OS4.x devices (that does not support HotSpotClient).
    Press the 'Open Configuration' to enable & configure the WiFi-HotspotClient (see below).

WiFi-Sharing Hotspot Client (OS5 or higher)

When like, you can install & configure a HotspotClient that will automatically start/stop the FileScout WiFi-Sharing depening on the SSIDs that are visible to your BlackBerry device.
If you like to use this feature you need to enable the 'Start Filescout WiFi-Sharing when connected to SSID(s)' checkbox.
When you enable this feature you need to switch over to your WiFi configutation and accept the installation of the speciall Hotspot Client (normally this Configuaration dialog should be open automatically).
To add a new SSID (the identifier of a WLAN) to the list, simply press the 'Add SSID' button and enter the name of the SSID. When you like to add multiple SSIDs you need to repeat this step for every SSID you would like to enter.
To delete a previously entered SSID from the list, select the SSID from the list and press the DEL-Key on your BlackBerry keyboard.

How it works

As soon as your device will see a WLAN with a SSID that you have in your WiFi-Sharing Hotspot list FileScout will be automatically started and the WiFi-Sharing will be activated (no matter if you have configured 'Start WiFi-Server on FileScout start' or not).
When the FileScout application will be started automatically it will be instantly send into the background (if it was not already running before).
Once your device will not see any WLAN which is listed in your SSID-List (configured in FileScout) the HotspotClient will auto-shutdown FileScout again (if it was not running in forground).
Please note that when you make use of the autostart functionality the successful sart of the WiFi-Sharing Server will not be promted with a dialog [if you like to verify the scuccessful start you can check the SystemEventLog of your device (key: com.emacberry.WiFiPlugin)].

Usage of the WiFi-Sharing Plugin

The Usage of the Plugin is quite simple - best is to watch this short Video in order to understand the core functionality of the WiFi-Sharing.
Open video in a new window

WiFi-Sharing (Do's) and Dont's

DO's:
  • Check frequently the SystemEvent Log for possible (debug) messages of the WiFi-Plugin (they are listed as 'com.emacberry.WiFiPlugin')
  • Be a bit patient when uploading files - sometimes it takes some time till a upload will be started

DONT's:
  • Drag Folders from your local fiile system (pc or mac) to the file drop zone of the browser
  • While a file upload is in progess, drop even more files int the drop zone of the browser (simply wait till the current transfer has completed)
  • Try to use Drag files from the Brwoser to your local file system with a different browser then Chrome (Google Chrome™ is currently the only browser that is supporting this feature)
  • Use Internet-Explorer™ (any Version) - at least not when you want to make use of the Drag & Drop functionality
  • Upload files larger then 512MiB
  • Use the Browsers-Back or History functionality