[maemo-developers] Localhost unavailable when wi-fi offline or not connected

[From: Allan Doyle]

On May 2, 2007, at 11:26, Mike Cowlishaw wrote:

> Hmm, yes, same discussion – thanks.  Unfortunately that thread just  
> faded out with no real solution for how to connect to running  
> server on N800 when offline.   One suggestion ‘rewrite the  
> application’  definitely not an option (especially as I’ve spent  
> two months porting it to N800…).
>
>
> mfc
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Antonio Gomes [mailto:tonikitoo at gmail.com]
>
>
> maybe same discussion at http://maemo.org/pipermail/maemo- 
> developers/2007-February/007762.html ?
>
> On 5/1/07, Mike Cowlishaw <mfc at acm.org> wrote:
>
> Hi, I have a Wiki running on my N800 using the usual configuration  
> (for many
> applications) of a TCP/IP server running on the local host address
> (127.0.0.1) and an TCP/IP client on the same device.  (In this case  
> an HTTP
> web server and the Opera browser.)
>
> While trying to test this on an aeroplane at the weekend -- with Wi-Fi
> offline, of course -- the browser would not connect to the server.   
> I've
> since experimented further and find a similar (or the same) problem  
> occurs
> online if no Wi-Fi connection is active.
>
> This is a showstopper for my application as it means I cannot  
> easily view my
> data unless online and connected -- is there a fix/workaround?
>
> Thanks -- mfc

It's pretty clear that there is a class of applications that needs to  
have a browser run against an on-board server even in places where  
it's not possible or not desirable to connect to an actual network.

For my purposes, I'd be happy with any solution that either

1) Provides something similar to the old DUMMY IAP hack

2) Allows me to configure Opera for offline use. There's actually a  
setting in opera.ini that's tantalizing - "Offline Mode=0" - but no  
matter what I do it does not seem to change Opera's behavior.

3) Uses a non-Opera browser, e.g. Minimo. I found a copy of Minimo  
that sort of runs on ITOS2007 but I couldn't get it working enough  
for what I need to do. (And, since then, I lost track of where I  
found it in the first place). The ITOS2006 compatible Minimo was fine  
in offline mode but needed too much memory.

The pattern of "on-board HTTP server + local web pages" makes a  
really powerful application development environment. I'm using  
Python's BaseHTTPServer class to build a local server and Javascript/ 
AJAX web pages to build the user interface. The beauty of this  
paradigm is that you can use tools like Firefox's Firebug on a laptop/ 
desktop system to build the UI, even while talking to the server on  
the tablet. And, of course, it's possible to run the Python server  
code on a laptop/desktop as well.

I'd like to encourage the people who are able to do so to actually  
pursue each of the options above. I'm not well-versed enough in Maemo  
development to help with any of the three but I'll sure put them to  
good use!

	Allan

-- 
Allan Doyle
http://museum.mit.edu/mwow
+1.781.433.2695