Guide to Easy Wi-Fi
iPhone/iPod touch version 2.0.126 (updated 2/27/09)
What is Easy Wi-Fi?
Getting started
Preparing the iPhone
Using at a hotspot
Status and error messages
Settings
Your history
Signing up for more
Requesting new networks
Getting support
Limitations
Known Problems
What is Easy Wi-Fi?
Devicescape Easy Wi-Fi automates the process of logging in to hotspots with web-based authorization pages. On many hotspot networks, these pages ask users for their username and passwords. On others, they may ask for acceptance of terms and conditions, or entry of an email address, or checking a box and hitting “ok”. In any event, they all require the use of a browser and some work on the part of the user before a connection to the Internet can be made. Easy Wi-Fi makes it a much simpler process to get connected: in most cases a simple one-click operation.
Easy Wi-Fi installed on an iPhone.
Getting Started
To get started, you need an active connection to the Internet. This connection can be over cellular or via Wi-Fi. If you are setting up at a hotspot, ensure you log in manually first (later, Easy Wi-Fi will do this for you!)
In the example below we are connected to a network called “Devicescape-Guest”:
The Home page of Easy Wi-Fi is the place where you will log in and log out of networks. The status line says “Online” and then the name of the network you are using. Easy Wi-Fi tests whether you have an active connection that can reach the Internet. It says “Offline” if you have not yet logged in. It also will provide a variety of other error and status messages.
The buttons on the screen are:
Login: Starts the login process
Logout: Logs you out of the current network
back to top: shows the main login page
My Wi-Fi: setup your Wi-Fi providers (accounts)
History: shows your login history
Settings: Takes you to the settings page
At this point, you need to tell Easy Wi-Fi about the Wi-Fi providers you use. These can be paid commercial networks you have a subscription to (eg T-Mobile), free networks you need to sign up for (eg Google), or community networks you belong to (eg a university network, FON, or Meraki).
Press the “My Wi-Fi” button
The My Wi-Fi page is initially empty. Here you are able to add all the Wi-Fi providers you use.
Press the “+” button to add your first Wi-Fi account
A search box appears, for you to type the name of the Wi-Fi provider account you want to add. Devicescape supports thousands of different Wi-Fi providers.
Once you’ve entered your provider (here, tmobile), click “Search”
The list of providers which match the search term is shown. Highlight the provider you want:
A form to add in your credentials is shown. Enter your information, typically a username and password.
Note: Easy Wi-Fi understands about roaming partnerships and relationships. For example, T-Mobile credentials will work on many additional networks and Easy Wi-Fi knows how to log you into them automatically. You need to acknowledge any terms of service for the provider, and that roaming may incur charges.
Fill out the form with your credentials and press “Save”
There is no limit on the number of providers you can add. Easy Wi-Fi knows about many free hotspot networks and adds access to them automatically!
If you need to make changes in the future you can go back and edit the information.
Note: ensure you enter only the name of the provider you have an account with and not all the networks which this account has roaming partnerships; Easy Wi-Fi handles those automatically.
Add any number of additional providers
Congratulations. You’ve configured Easy Wi-Fi! Read more below about how to use Easy Wi-Fi at hotspots.
Preparing the iPhone
While Easy Wi-Fi can log you in to hotspots automatically, Wi-Fi must be switched on and you must be "associated" to the hotspot network first. This means that your device must know the network and have performed an initial connection to it.
To do this on the iPhone or iPod Touch, you need to have scanned for networks and selected the one you need to use. Open the iPhone's Settings application and select "Wi-Fi". Look in the list of networks and select the hotspot you want. In the example below, we scan for and select a T-Mobile hotspot:
Select "tmobile". You only need to do this once - thereafter the device will remember and do it automatically.
Using Easy Wi-Fi At A Hotspot
Using Easy Wi-Fi at a hotspot is simple. Ensure that Wi-Fi is switched on, and that your device knows about the network you are about to login to (see Preparing the iPhone).
To login to the hotspot, start the Easy Wi-Fi application. If you have "auto login" setup you will be logged in automatically; otherwise press the login button.
The screen will blank for a few seconds and then return with the “Online” status or with an error:
At this point, exit Easy Wi-Fi and use whatever application you need.
If you wish to logout - which can be important on some networks which are charging you by the minute - start Easy Wi-Fi again and press the Logout button. Easy Wi-Fi will show "Offline" to indicate you have successfully logged out.
Now Wi-Fi is Easy!
Status and Error Messages
The status line shows messages about the state of Easy Wi-Fi:
Online: you have an active connection
Offline: you have logged out (or not yet logged in)
No Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi is switched off or you're not associated to a network
No credentials: you have no account information that works with the network
Login failed: you have incorrect credentials or they are no longer valid
If the network is able to send messages, you will also see a popup message with more information (although these are network dependent and can be very cryptic):
For questions and support, check the on-line forums and other resources.
Settings
The settings page allows you to configure auto login. When set to “On”, Easy Wi-Fi will try to login to the current Wi-Fi network when you start the application. You should set auto login to “Off” if you want to control the process manually (eg if you are roaming).
From the Settings page, you can extend the functionality of Easy Wi-Fi by signing up for an online account, contact the support forum, and read legal information. The page also shows you the version of Easy W-Fi you are using, and a unique identifier for your device (the UUID) which you may need if you contact support.
Login History
Easy Wi-Fi keeps a record of all the places you have successfully logged into. You can access this from the History page. If you have multiple devices linked to your account (see Signing up for More) you will see history for all of your devices.
The history list shows the time, network, and device you used.
Signing Up for More
The Settings page includes a button which allows you to establish an on-line Easy Wi-Fi account at the Devicescape website. Although most of the functionality of Easy Wi-Fi is available without an on-line account, there are several advantages to signing up:
1. You can download software for other devices, such as Macs and PCs
2. You can manage all of your devices in one place
3. You can use your PC to search for new networks and manage your devices, which may be more convenient
Go to the Settings page and click on the “Devicescape Account” button:
The browser will open at a page which allows you to create a new account, or sign in if you already have an Easy Wi-Fi account.
Once you have created an account, the device is registered:
You will also receive a Devicescape message:
At any point in the future you can go to http://my.devicescape.com/ to login to your on-line account.
Requesting New Networks
A unique feature of Easy Wi-Fi is the capability for users to influence the networks which are supported. If you need support for a new network which is not in the list, you can capture the information and send it into us with a web-based form. This is often easiest to do on a PC or Mac, as the procedure involves saving various HTML login pages and attaching them to the web form. The good news is that once we receive the correct information we can generally add support quite quickly. And, once it’s added by one Easy Wi-Fi user, it’s available for all!
Find the web form at https://my.devicescape.com/member/new-service.do
Getting Support
Easy Wi-Fi support is forum based. You can interact with the Devicescape team and the Easy Wi-Fi community at http://forum.devicescape.com/.
The iPhone/iPod Touch Forum is at http://forum.devicescape.com/index.php?board=9.0
There is also a developer program which allows developers to create modified and enhanced versions of Easy Wi-Fi at http://developer.devicescape.com/
To keep up with the latest happenings, you can read the Devicescape blog at http://blog.devicescape.com/
Limitations of the iPhone/iPod Touch Client
Easy Wi-Fi is available for several other platforms, including Windows XP and Vista, Mac OSX, Nokia S60 smartphones, Nokia Web tablets, and Windows Mobile. You can download these at the Devicescape website. Compared to these platforms, the iPhone Client has the following limitations.
Will not run in the background
Apple prevents App Store applications from running in the background. On other platforms, the client is able to log you into hotspots without having to start the application, making the Wi-Fi experience truly seamless. We hope that Apple will address this in a future release.
No Personal Networks or Network Sharing
Apple does not allow applications to manipulate the preferred network list (the list of networks known to your iPhone). This means that Easy Wi-Fi cannot automatically load networks into this list, forcing the user to do this manually the first time. Impacted features, available on the Devicescape web site and available for most other platforms, are personal (home networks) and network sharing.
No Automated Provisioning of Network Names
Similar to the disabling of personal networks, Devicescape is not able to automatically setup the iPhone to connect to all the networks usable by your accounts. For example, a T-Mobile account holder can connect to the “tmobile” network name, but also many other different networks which represent the roaming partners for T-Mobile. On the iPhone, the user must manually scan for and select these networks, at least the first time. This is much less convenient given that the user must experiment or know in advance the roaming relationships of their accounts. Easy Wi-Fi does this automatically on most other platforms.
Known Problems
FON Network Issues
Version 2.0.56.3 is unable to log in to the FON network. We are working with FON to restore support for their network as soon as possible.
BTOpenzone Issues
Users of iPhones are unable to log in to the BTOpenzone network using Easy Wi-Fi at the moment. iPod touch users are unaffected by this issue and can log in to BTOpenzone using Easy Wi-Fi.
Swisscom MOBILE
The Swisscom MOBILE network appears to be causing problems for users of Devicescape (on all platforms) and we are investigating at the moment. Other Swisscom SSIDs do not appear to be affected by this.
Wireless@SG
The Wireless@SG network in Singapore continues to be problematic for Devicescape users. Some locations appear to be working, others do not. Despite collecting a lot of data on this network, and attempting to contact all three of its operators to see if they can explain, we are still unclear as to what is going on here.