Using Internet Explorer as the FTP Client for iPod Touch and FileApp

Posted on January 8, 2011December 4, 2022 by GeorgeK

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series FTP to iPod Touch

In the previous post I said I was able to get Internet Explorer working as the FTP client for the file transfer method for the iPod Touch and FileApp program. This is true, but I have elected not to use the method, but you may wish to if you have no other FTP client or do not want to learn how to use one. (Even though some good ones are available for free, and are not that hard to use… try it!)

If you open Internet Explorer, and add the “FTP Url” the way the FileApp program shows, you get something like this:

This opens just fine for me, but try as I might, I could not get it to transfer any files to the iPod Touch this way. It just opens them up, but does not move them. I “think” the way it is supposed to work is to open both Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer at the same time. Then you should just be able to “Drag and Drop” files from one to the other.
Not for me though. I did a little searching and found a Microsoft web site that referred to my problem based on this error message.

Here are the basic steps to make it work once you get the FTP URL in IE, and see the directories as shown above. Go to “Page” then “Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer”.

Follow these steps to change the “Proxy” as required above. Please read the entire post *before* changing anything.

These are the two main items to change. “Uncheck” the Automatic detection, and “Check” the Use a proxy server. Add the information from your iPod Touch FileApp DNS address.

Save everything, close the windows, now open both Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer.

If everything goes according to plan you should be able to drag and drop now! At least it worked fine for me….

Go to this Microsoft Windows web site for full directions.
https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-proxy-settings-in-Internet-Explorer

Now, why did I elect NOT to use this method. Well… if you now go back to Internet Explorer, and try to go to some other web page, see what happens. If your PC acts like mine, you will get a “Not Found” error, meaning you cannot connect to the “outside” internet”… not such a cool thing. Maybe it can be made to work so it can see both the iPod Touch and “the internet” but I am not going to spend much time on trying. I am happy to just use my FTP client to transfer the files. One way MAY be to have two browsers, configure one to use a proxy and one not to. This is not the same as opening two windows, or even two instances of Internet Explorer since they both would use the same settings. But maybe Firefox for one and IE for the other… but hey, I am NOT even sure that would work. If you are technically inclined and know the way to do this and fell like sending the method to do it, please do, and I will post it here. Otherwise, that’s it for me!

George

Adding Files to iPod Touch or iPad – Part Three

Posted on January 1, 2011May 7, 2022 by GeorgeK

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series FTP to iPod Touch

In the last post I finished up by adding the entire Second Site HTML folder over to the “root” on the iPod Touch.

Now we are ready to begin using the files.

Open FileApp on the iPod Touch.

When it opens click on the “WIFI” button. Then the “Done” button at top right.

You should be seeing a list of files and directories at this point!
You can also explore the options. (The little “Gear” icon.) I changed the “Show File Extension” to on, just so I know what I am about to open from the file list. If you add new files it will automatically update when you enter the screen, or you can force the update using the “Circle / Refresh” icon.

Opening the “Kasdorf Genealogy” folder shows all the Second Site created files. Scroll down the list to “index.htm” (No extension shown in the photo… that’s why I turned on extensions in the setting later!

clicking on the index.htm file should open the main page of the SS web page! You can rotate the iPod to see it landscape.

All the links should work, you can open most all of the files for viewing. The FileApp is what is actually opening and showing the documents.

What I have NOT figured out at this point is where to put related documents. In the program I link to a lot of PDF’s and photo albums. The photo albums work just fine, but the linked PDF documents not so… giving me something to play around with.

Update: December 21, 2010.

Okay to see all the related documents you put them (I suggest a COPY of them.) in the Second Site “-i” folder. Rebuild the web site. Now you should be able to see any content you linked to within Second Site. This surprised me. Since I use absolute links in the Second Site pages ie: “https://myweb/myfolder/second site/document.pdf” it still knew to link to these documents. One of the folder for an old newsletter which was a series of 900 scans ran the size of the Second Site project up to 134 megabytes! It still transferred this in just at ten minutes. Pretty impressive. All the links work on the iPod Touch…. now if I wanted to splurge I think the DiskAid app lets you edit the documents (?). Very handy for recording new information on the spot… especially with the camera on the iPod Touch!

Now you can experiment with it.

If you like this, and use it a lot you may want to try out the full “Pro” version. It might be fun to try the “DiskAid” program also. It has some other interesting features like transferring your photos (if you have the newer iPod Touch with camera, or iPhone.)

. . . if you did this before you deleted all the files on the iPod Touch you may have an issue getting those files out of there!

Important Note: The “Pro” version was on sale for the holidays. I bought it… for $0.99 great! Anyway, I installed it and noticed the files I had put there with the “Non-Pro” version were not shown… interesting. I added some files using “Pro”, then closed the program. I then opened the old version (Non-Pro) and looked… there were all my original files. It seems that the two FileApp programs put the files in different places, but both are called “Start Here”… This does not seem to be a huge problem… unless you think “I have the better “Pro” version so I am going to remove the old app…. I think if you did this before you deleted all the files on the iPod Touch you may have an issue getting those files out of there! So I guess I would suggest you use the original “Non Pro” version to remove any files you added using it before you would remove it!

Important Note 2: Make the web site using Second Site. Another post I read discussed the difference between a “regular” web page and once created for use with a CD/DVD. When SS creates a structure for a CD/DVD it makes a subfolder with most of the files. In the root it only puts the autorun files and the Index.html file. I created a web page this way, and then deleted the autorun files. When I moved these to the iPod Touch it made it very easy to launch the web page since there was only the one file in the “Genealogy” root folder. Try it!

Compare this to the iPod Touch screen in previous post where you have to scroll through hundreds of files to find the “Index.html” file to launch the web site.

Okay, think that is is for this post. I am going to create another on using Internet Explorer as the FTP client, which I did get to work.

George

How to FTP files to an iPod Touch / Phone or iPad – Part Two

Posted on December 25, 2010July 14, 2022 by GeorgeK

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series FTP to iPod Touch

Now that you have the FileApp App and probably played around with it… and if you haven’t already figured it out. (Hey I did it so it ain’t all that hard….)

The first step is to start the file sharing program. Just click on “Start Sharing”… oh wait a minute… you are using your wireless network, or on you PC/Laptop.. see warning in Part One of this project.

The program will show what the IP address for the iPod is that you should use.

The you are supposed to be ready to go using a normal web browser and “Drag and Drop”. I didn’t get this to work for me though. (Update: I did get this to work… but with other issues. See upcoming post.)

I used an FTP Program instead. (I may go back and try the browser method again since I think more people would use that method than using FTP client.) There are lots of free FTP clients out there like Cute FTP. Mine happens to be built into the file manager program I have used for many years “Power Desk”.

Begin, in whatever FGP program you use by adding a new FTP site. tippmix eredmények él?

Name the site anything you want.

Use the IP address shown on the iPod, FileApp earlier. (192.168.1.117 in my case) Add the PORT number which is shown after the colon in the IP address in FileApp (2121 in my case.)

I used the “anonymous” logon, just leaving it the way it was…. and leaving the “password” blank.

If it asks for a password I just click on “No”.

Ignore this message, or at least I did.

The final setting, for my FTP program look like this.

Now try to open your FTP session, you may get a prompt for a password… I just cancel this.

If it all goes according to plan you have a successful connect dialog box! gaminator kalandtúra

Now you can start the fun stuff!

You should see a method to move files depending on your FTP client.

I started by dragging my entire Second Site HTML folder over to the “root” which seems to be “Start Here”. I haven’t tried to rename that, no reason to I guess. I did make a subfolder “Kasdorf Genealogy” using the FTP client first, then put all the files in it.

Next, using the FileApp Program.

George

FTP to an iPod Touch (in 125 easy steps!)

Posted on December 19, 2010May 7, 2022 by GeorgeK

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series FTP to iPod Touch

Well, really it isn’t nearly that many… if you do it right the first time, or maybe even the second.

Why am I writing this… the result of a “quest”. After being inspired by a person working on their family tree, I have been working on the family genealogy a little recently. Since I migrated to Windows 7 (64 bit) my old Ultimate Family Tree program would no longer work. I searched around a little, and bought Family Tree Maker.. for the third time. I used it once, maybe twice and decided it did not do what I wanted. To basic, not enough flexibility. So backed up and tried “TMG” The Master Genealogist. A very full featured program. It does come with a bit of a learning curve, but working a little at a time and reading what I could find I am getting it working. One really great add on is “Second Site” a program that reads the TMG data and creates web pages from it… and what web pages. There are more options than you can deal with (almost).

While researching I started reading the forums on TMG and also the Roots L for TMG. One question came up, “How can I put my data on an iPod Touch (and/or an iPad). No one seemed to have a complete answer. Most responses were to create a GEDCOM file, use a software that could then import to iPod and read the GEDCOM. I suppose this works, but it got me to wondering if and how I could transfer any files, and use my Second Site web site on the iPod or iPad. Several articles I found seemed way to complicated… some apps seemed way to expensive to try “just for fun”.

I finally found an app on the Apple Web Store “FileApp”. It sounded like it would do what I wanted, and had the benefit of being free so it it did not work I was out nothing except a little time and effort.

Continue reading→

Now this is “Blog-Worthy”

Posted on September 29, 2010May 3, 2022 by GeorgeK

Sometimes it is the simple things in life that can give the most pleasure! I have been using WordPress for years now. I just looked at the archives and it appears the first post was October 30, 2005. However since in that entry I wrote about adding an RSS feed to the blog I have to believe there were a few earlier posts also, they must have been lost. I vaguely remember a great crash that took out the blog at one point early on so unless they are cached somewhere on the web, they are gone forever. But that is not what this was about. . . I digress.

Ah yes, simple things and pleasure, now I remember.

Ah yes, simple things and pleasure, now I remember. During the last five years of using WordPress I have gone through many core upgrades. (Replacing the WordPress code on the server with updated code.) The early ones were stressful, delete these files, add these files, change the text in some files, update everything and hope to heck it works when you are done. The early loss mentioned above was traumatic, but since it was very early on in the life of the blog it wasn’t enough to where I would say “To hell with it, I am not going to try and recreate all that”… plus it was early on in the life of the blog and I was full of spirit yet. Then the WordPress team cam came along with “Automatic” updates where all you had to do was press a button and TA-DA, the script ran and the core, plug-in etc. was updated without the user having to do anything… other than push that button that is. ‘cept… there is always a ‘cept or “But” you know… always. For me and my WordPress it seemed to never work. On a rare occasion a plug-in would actually update when I pushed the button, but that was rare, very rare. So for several years I developed a routine.
A) Go to Admin panel
B) See there are updates available for a plug-in, (and yes back “in the day” you were not notified when there were updates, you just sort of checked frequently to see there there were any issued.)
C) click on the “Automatic Upgrade” button.
D) Watch the program automatically download the Zip file containing the upgrade
E) Watch as it quit doing anything useful and sit there until I lost patience and shut down the web page.
F) Go to the plug-in page on WordPress.org using the link in the blog plugin page.
G) Manually download the plug-in
H) Create a new directory on local drive
I) Unzip the plug-in to the new directory
J) Open an FTP session
K) Turn off the plug in in WordPress control panel
L) Delete the plug-in directory on the server
M) Copy the new plug-in directory to the server
N) Go back to the WordPress control panel and activate the plug-in
O) Hope it did not crash the system.
P) Repeat C through O for each of the new updates

This week I decided to take the risk and stress to update to the latest version of WordPress 3.0.1. So as always I clicked on the automatic upgrade button, and low and behold but what do you think happened? Of course, it crashed the system. Okay, reset everything, go through the manual install… following steps A through P above. The actual program update went pretty well, but then I got to the plugins and restarting them. Boom – the “500” error. Okay, deactivate all the plug-ins by renaming all of them. Now restart WordPress, now rename all the plug-ins back again. Now re-activate them one at a time until the “500” error comes back. Mark down that plug-in in, rename it, then go on to the next one…. one after the other after the other. VERY time consuming.

After I got everything working again, minus a few of the plug-ins that were causing the 500 error where the author has not updated the plug-in yet, I took a break from everything WordPress. Not upset, just “Head clearing time”.

As I did other things I thought, “I am not going to keep doing this for the next X number of years!”. So I started searching the WordPress forums for an answer. The first observation is that MANY people have this issue. So the automatic upgrading in not all that automatic for many people. The next observation is that the 1 & 1 hosting service seems to be a big offender. Now for observation one, I know from other issues most people write when they have a problem, not when things go right, so it always looks like everyone is having a problem.. same with computer or other hardware issues…. As for observation two, well 1 & 1 is a large hosting service so they probably do have a lot of people with the same issue. Also since it is large trying to get them to change something to make it work for a certain group of users (WordPress) may not be that easy so the people with problems just multiplies.

Then I started finding different “fixes” for the issue. From cross your fingers and pray, to “it isn’t hard to do a manual upgrade, so just do it”, to “I did a complete reinstall of WordPress and it .. nope, didn’t fix it!

Then I noticed a number of threads with the same basic fix, a few lines of code/text to put into the “.htaccess” file, which I also found out stands for “HyperTextAccess” a small routine which the host server reads when it looks at the directory which contains it. (or it could be in the root directory and pointing to the WordPress directory…)

There were actually a couple different entries suggested, but the one that seemed to help most people was a very simple two lines of text:

AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php

I decided it was worth a try, and really it can’t hurt since the .htaccess file can just be deleted if something goes wrong. (If you do this, you may want to save a copy of the original just to be safe.)
I opened up the .htaccess file in Notepad (or any ascii/text editor) and typed in those two little lines, copied the file back to the WordPress root directory and fired up the browser!

In the WP Control panel there were two themes which it was saying there were updates for. (A new feature in 3.01?) I had tried the automatic update before, and it did the usual “Downloading XXXX.zip” and then complete stop……………….
I went back to the same place and clicked on the update button… Well, what do you know… it downloaded those suckers in a few seconds, installed them and told me everything was okay in a matter of a few seconds! I went out to the web page and back to the control panel just to make sure I did not get a 500 error or “System in maintenance” error, and everything seems to now be working perfectly! Now I can hardly wait for a few plugin updates to come out so I can try it on them…. Maybe, just maybe even the full core code update will work next time!

Apparently the two lines of code above tell the server to use PHP version 5 which is what works with WordPress. I don’t know the technical detail even though I read about it on the web, and I don’t know that I care. I do know it seems to have fixed my problem and that is what I do care about.

Enjoy,
George

Kensington Challenge 2010 – A 15K race.

Posted on September 19, 2010May 7, 2022 by GeorgeK

Saturday, September 18, 2010 was the 27th Annual John Rogucki Memorial Kensington Challenge at Kensington Metropark about 30 minutes North of Ann Arbor.

The day started pretty well, up early, but not so early since the race did not start until 9:15 as opposed to the typical 6 am start for a lot of other races. Guess that is one good thing about going into the fall season, cooler weather allows later starts. Plus they probably do not want everyone trying to run in the dark since it is now pitch black at 6 am.

Stopped for a little caffeine on the way, then followed the GPS to the parking lot at Kensington.

This is the second time I have run this race so was somewhat familiar with the layout, made my way down to the pavilion and picked up my bib and swag bag.

Back to car to put bib number on shirt and generally prepare. Saw in the bag they gave sweatshirts instead of technical shirts. Guess that is okay, but I do not wear sweatshirts all that much, and if I knew it, I would have ordered a larger size since sweats have a tendency to shrink quite a bit.

“Geared Up”, Garmin, HRM, Halo head band in pocket, a gel “in case”. Talked for quite a while to the young lady parked next to me. Either always very chatty, or nervous about race but she kept the conversation moving! At 9:05 off with the warm ups, start the Garmin etc. and walk to the start line. They did the introduction thing, played the National Anthem, and then off we went. It was a gun start, no timing mat, but since the crowd was not all that huge it probably only made a few seconds difference in overall time… and since there was not a “start line” I did not know for sure where to start the watch anyway!

A short uphill, then a long downhill run to start. This course doesn’t have any monster hills, but it is probably one of the hilliest that I run on.

The weather had been “threatening” since early morning, and about mile 3 it finally let go! Fortunately it was about 58 degrees, and the rain was not to cold. It poured pretty good for about a mile, then let up…. for about 10 minutes when it started up again. Since everyone was thoroughly soaked from the first downpour this one did not make any difference. It actually had a benefit in keeping me cool, which I liked. I was glad at this point that I made the decision not to have taken the camera along. Might not have been a disaster since I also normally pack a zip lock bag to put the camera in to protect against sweat or the possibility of rain, rivers, floods and typhoons happening while on the course. But without it I did not have to fiddle around with trying to get out the bad, get the camera in it and get it stowed in the SPI belt that I normally use. After the few few miles I often find myself running with people that have settled into the same pace, give or take. In this race there was one person that would just fly by everyone for a couple hundred yards or more while huffing and puffing like a wheezing locomotive, then he would stop and walk, then pass the same people, then stop and walk. Maybe this is the “Run-Walk-Run” method, but it didn’t seem to effective to me, and in the end he was far behind all of us. Maybe a little more even pace would work… I don’t know though I’m not a coach and can barely run myself. A couple other people I was with during about mile 4,5, 6 ,7 and 8 pretty well all kept pace together. Sometimes they would gain a few feet, sometimes I would catch back up. This works really well for me as I determine not to let them get to far ahead. About mile 5 the person in the lead seemed to pick it up a bit, and I hung in there. Finally about mile 8 I moved by all of them and took the lead. I had no idea by how much until there was a point where we had a short “out and back”, when I went around the cones and started seeing the people behind me I was still only 10 yards ahead of them. After a few more minor ups and downs we made the final run to the finish. About two hundred yards out the one person edged by me, I told him to “Go for it” and he started pumping, with me following.

Final result, two minutes off my 2008 time! While not a huge amount of difference it was significant for me since I have felt that I have been getting slower, not faster as I run more. The other significance was that I never stopped to walk, which is the first time for awhile. So overall a very good race for me.

The results are now posted and I see how I did, pretty well in age group with a 7 out of 18, and overall…. I was actually hoping to do a little better in my AG based on moving up an age group, and that groups prior years results, but it seems all the people that kept beating me in the 55-59 group are still running, but now in the 60-64 group. I guess all I can do is outlast them… the 70-74 AG looks pretty open right now.

No pictures of this race due to rain, etc. They took some on course and at finish so if one of those turns out okay may get it.

Some results.

The Age Group Standings.

The course itself runs around the lake.

Until it never rains on a race again,

George