Category Archive: Tech Tips

I recently had a problem with Skype on my HTC Evo 4G phone running Android 2.3.5. The problem was that Skype would keep disconnecting and getting choppy when the screen turned off.

Whenever I do something that causes the screen to turn off during a call, that includes putting the phone up to my ear to speak, the call would become very choppy and it would eventually disconnect from Skype completely. I have found a fix for this, and I’d like to share it with you so I can help others that may be having the same problem.

This post is the written version of my video tutorial, which you can watch below. The fix in the video is the same as it is here, but the video walks you through it in video form and also demonstrates the problem before and after fixing.


So, I will explain the process of this fix, and post images that will walk you through it. It’s really a very easy fix.

Before we jump into how to fix it, you need to know that the option used in this fix is not available on all ROMs. On the stock ROM for the HTC Evo 4G, I don’t think I saw this option. To find ROMs for your phone, go to http://forum.xda-developers.com/


Also the fix isn’t perfect. Yes, even after the fix, it may still be choppy for a few seconds on turning the screen off. But after that initial choppiness the call is smooth and sounds good, and most importantly it won’t disconnect. (Unless your Internet connection is bad)

So now, onto the fix!

This fix is actually ridiculously easy to do. Most of the video tutorial was just demonstrating the problem, and then the result of the fix.

First, open your settings menu. You can do this by pressing the “menu” button alongside your home, search and back buttons. Or, you can go into your applications and look for Settings.



Next, check the box that says “Best Wifi Performance”. This part is critical, and unfortunately the option may not be available on all phones/ROMs.



Now, if you make a call with Skype and the screen is turned off during the call either by the sleep button or holding the phone up to your ear, the call won’t be dropped.

If a menu option shown here was missing on your device:

I’ve only ever used one Android device, and that’s my HTC Evo 4G. I can’t say anything for sure about other devices, but I know that at least on mine, the solution is to try another ROM. Other devices may not have this option at all on any ROM, other devices might not even have this problem to begin with. But, the only advice I can give you is to try another ROM. I can’t help you any more than that as far as missing menu options goes.

To find ROMs for your device, go to the XDA forums here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/

My ROM is called Energy, you can find it here: http://bit.ly/wmkS9c


Thanks for reading, I hope this helped you. Please comment if you have a question, suggestion, or comment on my post!

Yes, it’s been a long time since I made my last post. A few months, in fact. Today I discovered something interesting about a minor but very annoying problem that occurs while typing.

Have you ever been typing a document and all of a sudden, when you press the question mark key you get a É character? Well, I`ve had that problem a lot and its been very annoying, but I finally found the cause. It is caused by the key combination CTRL+SHIFT (Control shift). I`m not sure why, but that`s a key combination that people (including myself) often hit by accident.

The CTRL-SHIFT key combination changes the keyboard language. This probably doesn`t occur much unless you purchased your computer in Canada (It might though, I`m not sure), but usually the next language [I just did it again by accident while typing this post, right here] “In line” is Canadian Multilingual or Canadian French (Depending on where you purchased it, this may vary).

So, the solution is just to press that key combination again until you get back to the right language. The first time you do it, take note of how many times you need to press it and you can do it faster next time.

I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope this has been helpful. More blog posts soon!

I have an iPod Touch 3G (32-gig) that I got for my birthday. I have some videos on my PC that aren’t converted for it or synced simply because I don’t need them often enough for syncing them to be worthwhile.

Today, I logged on to the App Store to check out the apps. Because Apple didn’t let Canadian iTunes gift cards be used on the App store, I decided that if Apple was going to be stupid, then I would just get free apps with Installous. Therefore, I usually go onto the App Store just to see some good apps that I could find cracked versions of.

Well, Apple has finally made the right decision, so they have my support again! I clicked “Buy” on an app (Doodle Jump), expecting it to give me an error about needing billing information, but to my surprise, it let me have the app, taking money from my gift card credit!

I am very happy about this. So, if you have a Canadian iTunes Gift Card, you can use it on the App Store now!

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In my previous post, I explained how to set up an SSH server on a DD-WRT router. I will now explain how to connect to that server, and bypass filters with it. I will explain methods for Windows and Ubuntu. Here it is:

Windows


1. Download PuTTY (Here)

2. Open PuTTY, and use these screenshots for the configuration settings:
Session window:

Then go to SSH -> Tunnels

In that image, type 1080 in the box, and then click “add”

3. Go back to “Session”, and in the box under “saved sessions”, type anything and click “save”. Now, any time you want to use it, you can open putty, click on your saved session, and load it.

4. Now, click Open at the bottom of the window. For the username, it will always be “root”. For the password, it will be your router password.

5. There are a few different browsers out there, so you will have to find out how to add a SOCKS proxy for your browser. I will say this general information:

- For the SOCKS proxy version (If it asks), it is SOCKS 5.
- For the SOCKS proxy server, use localhost
- For the port, use 1080

When you are done with the proxy, you will need to disable it in your browser.

For Ubuntu, it is the same thing, except you run a command instead of using PuTTY. In Ubuntu, just run this command, and enable the proxy server in your browser:

sudo ssh -D 1080 root@[your server here]

Now, enter your username (root), and your password.

That concludes this guide on bypassing internet filters. I hope you gained something from this guide. I know that almost nobody actually reads this blog, but if you do, then I would appreciate some feedback on how I did with this Howto, and some improvements I could make, if any.

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Previously, I explained how to use VPN to bypass a filter. I like that method a lot, but SSH has advantages. The SSH port 22 is usually open on firewalls, whereas VPN is less likely to be an open port. Also, it is a little simpler to set up.

So, here is how to set it up (Click images to enlarge):

1. Go to the router configuration page (Usually at 192.168.1.1)

1. Go to Services (You may have to enter your username and password)


2. Scroll down to where it says “Secure Shell”


3. Look in the image above, and use those exact settings under ‘Secure Shell’

And that’s it! The server configuration is done. Next post, I will explain how to connect to it and use it.

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See part 2-1 of this series for how to set up the server. In my last post, I explained how to set up a VPN server on a DD-WRT router. I will now explain how to access it, and use it as your internet connection.

On Windows it is quite simple. Perform these from a remote location. Here are step by step instructions for Windows 7:

1. Open Network and Sharing Center. This can be found by searching for it in the start menu.

2. Click “Set up a new connection or network”, and in the box that pops up, click “Connect to a Workplace”.

3. Click “Use my internet connection”, and for internet address, put the Internet IP address or hostname of your router. If you want a free hostname that you can remember, try DynDNS.

4. Click next, and for the username and password, put the username and password that is in the chap secrets on the router, leave Domain blank.

5. Click connect, the connection may fail, if it does follow these steps:

- In the Network and Sharing Center, click ‘Change adpater settings’.
- Right click on the VPN connection, and go to the “Networking” tab.
- Click on the IPv4 protocol, and click properties
- Click “Use the following IP address”, and set your IP address to the IP address that you set as the “Client IP”
- Set preferred DNS server to your router’s IP address (ex. 192.168.1.1)

Now it should work. And if you surf the web, all traffic will be going through the VPN.

For Ubuntu, it is a bit of a different process, and you must have installed the pptp-linux package:

1. Open a terminal window

To use this command, replace things like this: with the real thing. For example, if I say to type
pptpsetup -x [password]
And your password is foo, then type:
pptpsetup -x foo
I just wanted to be very clear on how to interpret my description of the command.

2. Anyway, type this:

sudo pptpsetup --create [anything here] --server [server name or IP] --username [your username] --password [your password] --start --encrypt

Use the username and password set in chap-secrets.

3. After that, you must route the internet through your new VPN server. Use this command:

sudo route del default gw [gateway IP address]

To find your gateway IP address, type “route” (no quotes) into the terminal, and look under “Gateway”.

Then, use this command:

sudo ip route add default via [Server IP address]

Your server IP address will be the one you set at the VPN setup page. Usually, it is 192.168.1.1

And that is the end of the VPN guide! Next post, I will show you how to use SSH to bypass a filter.

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This post will focus on configuring VPN on a DD-WRT router. First though, I will explain some things to remember if you are considering installing DD-WRT.

If you aren’t comfortable with installing DD-WRT, or otherwise just don’t want to, there are alternatives that don’t involve the router. You can install SSH servers on a computer at home, and use that instead. I won’t go into configuration of PC SSH servers, because that isn’t the focus of this tutorial.

So, now that you have DD-WRT installed and configured, you are ready to move on to the VPN server configuration. You can now access the web interface (Default IP address is 192.168.1.1) through your web browser. To do this, type 192.168.1.1 into your address bar.


You will see a page like this:

I have put 4 red dots on the ‘Services’ button. Click this button, and you may get a password prompt. If you have set a username and password, enter it. If not, the deafult DD-WRT username and password is:

User: root
Password: admin

After you type that in, you will be directed to another page. On this page, you may notice there is now a bar with a blue background under the other one. I have pointed it out in this image:


Click VPN in that bar. You will now see another page. Near the top, you will see PPTP server, and two radio buttons next to it (Enable and Disable). Radio buttons are the small circle buttons that you can click to activate. Click the Enable button, and then there will be more options. Set the next two radio buttons to ‘Enable’.

- For server IP, use 192.168.1.1, or whatever the IP address is (If you changed it).

- For client IP, put an IP address that starts with whatever the first 3 numbers of the Server IP is. For the fourth number, put any number up to 255. Remember the number you put here, as it will be used for client configuration.

- For chap secrets, put a username and password in this format:

username * password *

I used ‘root’ as the username, and it worked for me.

- Set the radius server radio button to “Disable”

Click “Apply Settings” at the bottom of the page, and the server’s configuration is finished!

Check out my next post for the VPN Client configuration (I have methods that you can use for both Windows and Ubuntu).