Just a short update to this.
After successfully setting up my P1i to use my Google 'Apps for your domain' email I have discovered that the messages (new or replies) sent from my P1i are correctly included in the threading of my email conversations. I know this shouldn't come as a surprise but it is worth noting as email sent from my Nokia (E61) where never properly included in treaded conversations.
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Read on Lifehacker that Google have released a new iPhone interface for Google Reader.
I have managed to get this 'new' interface working on my Sony Ericsson P1i using the Opera Mini beta browser available here. So, much like the Facebook app, it looks like it will work fine on other phones too.
Lifehacker article
Official Google Reader Blog
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A great tool for Mac Google Doc users:
Lifehacker writeup
Google Docs Uploader
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At last! I have found the link to the Java App for Google mail for your domain.
The regular Gmail Java app for you mobile phone can be downloaded at http://gmail.com/app. While this is great for all of those with a regular Gmail account, what about those of us with a Google Apps for your Domain account? Well, this can be downloaded here: http://m.google.com/a. It is called 'Mail by Google' and has a blue envelope icon rather than the standard red icon for regular Gmail accounts.
I had been using this for ages on my Nokia E61 but since getting my new P1i I have been searching for the download link, odd that they don't publicise it more.
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Not 5 minutes after I sign up with wikidot and go through the hassle of editing my DNS to have the wiki running on my personal domain Google go and release Google Sites. I haven't had much time to play around with it but so far it looks good. Although it is similar to a wiki in the ease with which you can edit pages there seems to be a lot more too it, like the ability to create 'filing cabinet' pages to store files etc. The only annoyance I have noticed so far is that I can't seem to open documents in Google docs directly from the 'filing cabinet' pages.
Links / Reviews:
Lifehacker
Review
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Google .Mac
Google have released some information on there google-code site about a replacement dotmac service. After playing around with this for a day I managed to get it up and running on my Ubuntu server, mostly thanks to the excellent step by step instructions given in the Distro specific guide.
However, in addition I have written the script outlined below to update my hosts file on my mac to allow me to mount my idisk from anywhere, even though I use dyndns rather than a fixed IP. When combining this with my 'secure' ssh tunneling method when I am not at home give me a relatively secure idisk setup.
Script:
# this program should work out the IP address of the server and add it to /etc/hosts in
# the right place!
#
# find the ip address
rm /Users/Admin/.ip.1
ping -c 1 my.dyndnsdomain.com >> /Users/Admin/.ip.1
#
#
# assign it to DOTMACIP
DOTMACIP=$(grep from /Users/Admin/.ip.1 | grep -o 8...........)
#
#
# clear old .temphosts file
rm /Users/Admin/.temphosts
touch /Users/Admin/.temphosts
#
# output the contents of hosts file
echo "
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
#
#
127.0.0.1 localhost
" >> /Users/Admini/.temphosts
echo "$DOTMACIP www.mac.com syncmgmt.mac.com idisk.mac.com configuration.apple.com lcs.mac.com certinfo.mac.com delta.mac.com notify.mac.com publish.mac.com homepage.mac.com" >> /Users/Admin/.temphosts
#
echo "$DOTMACIP www.mac.com. syncmgmt.mac.com. idisk.mac.com. configuration.apple.com. lcs.mac.com. certinfo.mac.com. delta.mac.com. notify.mac.com. publish.mac.com. homepage.mac.com." >> /Users/Administrator/.temphosts
#
#
# copy the new file to the right place
mv /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.old
cp /Users/Admin/.temphosts /etc/hosts
#
# should be the end!
----------------------------
Mac, ssh, socks proxy and MarcoPolo
Having set up my idisk I began to wonder about the security of my internet connection in general. As I run my own Linux server (Ubuntu 7.10) I thought it should be relatively straight forward to secure my web browsing etc when away from home.
To this end I decided to play around with my Mac to see if I could establish a secure web surfing environment when out and about. It was a relatively simple thing to setup a ssh connection to my home server which would provide a port on the localhost which I could use as a socks proxy for firefox.
ssh -v -ND (the local port to use, I went with 8080) -p (your ssh port)
This etablished a port (8080) on the local machine I was able to direct Firefox to (in the network settings under proxies, socks proxy > localhost 8080) to secure my web browsing. FYI the -v makes the session verbose, so I can see what is happening, the -ND specifies that I don't want to open an interactive ssh session and that the port (8080) is dynamic so responds appropriately to whichever port the application is looking for.
This worked great for firefox but I soon realised that all the other Internet activity, my google notifier, my idisk etc, where not going through this 'secure' tunnel. as a solution to this I went to the Mac's network settings and created a new location called 'Secure'. Here, under the airport settings I was able to specify a socks proxy (under the proxy settings) with a port of 8080. This then ensured that all my Mac's network traffic (at least that going through the Airport) was using the 'secure' tunnel.
However, this was quite alot to change every time I wanted to use the 'Secure' connection. My first thought was to try and learn a bit of applescript to automate this process. But I found an excellent piece of donationware called MarcoPolo which solved the problem for me and gave me some extra functionality I didn't even know I needed!
With MarcoPolo I was able to specify conditions under which it automatically switched the network location between secure and home (my home settings, yes, I don't have an imagination). Additionally I put the ssh command into a shell script so that MarcoPolo would switch over the network location and run setup the ssh tunnel whenever I connected to a particular wireless network, as identified by the SSID. Obviously I will have to set this up for each wireless network I use outside of my home network, however, you only need to specify that the network should trigger the 'secure' environment, rather than each individual action for each network which makes life easier.
In addition to that I have been able to setup Marcopolo to automatically mount my samba shares when I am at home and set the correct default printer for me depending on my location. Now I wounder how I lived doing all these things manually!
Note: Yes, I realise that the connection from my Ubuntu server to the Internet is not secure!
Note 2: I haven't found a good way on embedding links with my current editing method, so they are listed below.
Useful Links:
http://code.google.com/p/dotmac/ - Google dot.Mac
http://code.google.com/p/dotmac/wiki/OS_specific_notes - the distro specific guide for Ubuntu
http://www.symonds.id.au/marcopolo/ - MarcoPolo
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
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With a bit of spare time over Christmas I have decided to migrate my domain etc to Google Apps for Your Domain. Since my existing email host has up'd their prices and made it impossible for me to add my partners email requirements I have decided to jump ship.
Now that Gmail offers IMAP and Thunderbird has support for adding events to Google calendar through the plugin Provider there seams to be no reason not to move to the FREE service.
So far I have successfully migrated two domains over to Google. The biggest headache I have had so far is the fact that, though you can have two domains with one redirecting to the other, when you create email addresses, you can only do so for the primary domain. The solution to this was to have all of my *@seconddomain emails directed through to the 'Admin' account through Googles 'catch all' option and then set up a number of filters to forward them on to the correct address. This does seem a bit over the top, why not let us set up aliases for the secondary domains?
I previously used Gmail, google calendar, Google docs and notes. In migrating to Google apps I found there was no way to simply 'upgrade' my account to Google Apps I had to move everything across. Though this may sound difficult it was in practice very simple. The calendar allows you to export the data via CSV to re import to your new Google Apps calendar and the email was migrated very easily using the IMAP feature and telling up Google Apps to
collect mail from my Gmail account. Using the same method I was able to set up a number of accounts and send mail aliases for these accounts which all seam to work perfectly, with the exception of Hotmail, which I have had to set up a forward on through Hotmail itself.
Migrating the rest of my email, from non Gmail accounts was a bit more tedious but I was able to use Thunderbird to copy all my old emails across without any problems.
The big advantage of all this for me was I now have complete control of my (primary) domain for free! And I have since been able to set up my partners email with no difficultly. Though the cost of my previous provider was not a great deal, now that they have increased there prices the free Google Apps for your domain was too good to pass up.
One feature I particularly like is the ability to have the services available on a custom url, for example, mail.yourdomain.com or calendar.yourdomain.com.
The only real complaint I would have is that Google have not allowed you to access all their toys from your Google Apps sign on. For example I still need my original Gmail user name to access Reader and my Google notes. Though this is not a great problem it would be nice to be able to just have the one sign in for Google products.
On a closing note I have seen a lot of comments about the lack of 'Advanced' features form Gmail showing up in the Google Apps mail. I realise it may just be me but a lot of the features people have been talking about (colored labels for example) have not appeared in ether my Gmail or Google Apps accounts.
There are several other blog with advice for moving to Google Apps, I will update these links as I find them:
Lifehacker, Host your Domain with Free Apps
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