Windows Mobile Network Analyzer PowerToy for WM5-based MS Pocket PC and SP released!

[Menneisyys]

Up to now, it was pretty complicated to track down networking errors on the Pocket PC. I’ve been following these tools on the Pocket PC quite closely (example here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=907&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)) but haven’t really found a tool that would work on current PDA’s with as many connection types as possible. The vast majority of them are Wi-Fi only and, in cases, outdated; some examples:


Pocket Warrior (http://pocketwarrior.sourceforge.net/): it doesn’t run on current Pocket PC’s (I’ve explicitly tested it on the HTC Wizard, Universal, Dell Axim x51v and Pocket Loox 720) because it only supports the Intersil PRISM chipset (furthermore, Intersil has stopped offering their drivers for free (http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=6577) in the meantime, which also means even decreased third party app support)
CommView(R) for WiFi PPC (http://www.tamos.com/products/commwifippc/): it is the only Pocket PC-compatible tool of TamoSoft. Their other, more generic (not just Wi-Fi only) tools like CommView(R) (http://www.tamos.com/products/commview/) have no PPC ports.

CENiffer 3.0 by epiphan SYSTEMS inc, which is a complete PPC-based sniffer app (and, in this respect, pretty different from this one) seems not to be offered by any more. (Also see this (http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=251), this (http://www.epinions.com/Epiphan_Consulting_Inc_CENiffer_3_0_ARM_Download/display_~latest_prices) and this (http://www.netstumbler.org/archive/index.php/t-1385.html).)


Others are (MS) Bluetooth-only like btCrawler (http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=18526) (but now that the Broadcom/Widcomm Pocket PC BT stack SDK (http://www.broadcom.com/products/bluetooth_sdk.php) has been made free, this may change).

Sure, there is my favourite networking tool, vxUtil (http://www.cam.com/vxutil_pers.html) I’ve elaborated on in many of my articles (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=vxutil&sentence=AND), but it’s unable to do really low-level tests.

Microsoft to the rescue!

I was just going to start writing a complete roundup & tutorial of the, in cases, really nice and freely available eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1dacdb3d-50d1-41b2-a107-fa75ae960856) remote tools (of which the first utility, CEZoom, I’ve already elaborated on (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1201&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)) when I spotted a brand new networking utility, Mobile Network Analyzer PowerToy.

It’s capable of doing some really thorough tests and is compatible with all network connection types (again, as opposed to most other tools). This, however, also means you can NOT use it for, say, packet sniffing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_sniffer). Nevertheless, its a very capable tool, taking into account the other tools’ inability to find a great deal of networking problems (and, in cases, costing hundreds of dollars).

In addition, compared to for example vxUtil, it’s not only capable of running (pretty thorough) automatic tests but also supports user-added DLL’s for enhancing/extending these tests with your own tests.

Compatibility, availability

It’s free and available here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=081c6401-49d4-4506-a03b-c41bc76c2f51). It, unfortunately, only supports WM5 (I’ve also tested it on pre-WM5 devices without success).

Example screenshots and logs


ActiveSync-connected example (http://www.winmobiletech.com/092006PIRC121AndTCPMPScreenshot/MSNetworkAnalyzerPowertoyx51vMain.bmp.png) (please also see the Fundamental ActiveSync networking differences between WM5 and previous WM versions (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=555&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) if interested in more information on this setup)

GPRS example (http://www.winmobiletech.com/092006PIRC121AndTCPMPScreenshot/WizardNetwAnalyzer.bmp.png)

a no-network example (http://www.winmobiletech.com/092006PIRC121AndTCPMPScreenshot/WizNoIP.bmp.png)


I’ve also uploaded the resulting logs to HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/092006PIRC121AndTCPMPScreenshot/examples/) (please see the three accordingly named subdirectories) so that you can also test the logs’ thoroughness without having to install and test the software itself.

[AcapulcoRolf]

Thanks for the tip Menneisyys

The Mobile Network Analyzer PowerToy is just what I've been looking for

By the way, is there a way to install this directly to the storage card on a WM5 device?

The application doesn't sppear to work when I install to my SD card but works fine if I install to program memory

When I install to program memory and attempt to launch the application I get a warning message as below:

"The file 'AnalyzerGUI' cannot be opened. either it is not signed with a trusted certificate, or one of its components cannot be found. You might need to reinstall or restore this file"


Thanks again

[Menneisyys]

Thanks for the tip Menneisyys

The Mobile Network Analyzer PowerToy is just what I've been looking for

By the way, is there a way to install this directly to the storage card on a WM5 device?

The application doesn't sppear to work when I install to my SD card but works fine if I install to program memory

When I install to program memory and attempt to launch the application I get a warning message as below:

"The file 'AnalyzerGUI' cannot be opened. either it is not signed with a trusted certificate, or one of its components cannot be found. You might need to reinstall or restore this file"


Thanks again

Will check this as soon as I may leave home (that is, the illness goes away - I leave all my PDA's at work and have only a slow GPRS connection at home). It does sound, based on your description, that it indeed can't be installed on storage cards. I'll, however, check how this can be fixed (hexediting or simly editing a file / registry editing)

[AcapulcoRolf]

Thanks for the update Menneisyys

Get well soon...

[skewline]

acapulcorolf, the instructions on the m/s website say that it must be run from the ppc memory, not a card.

[AcapulcoRolf]

OK, thanks, I didn't see that

Thanks again

[that_kid]

A cab file would be nice. Since I'm running Vista there's no way for me to install it because the msi says activesync is needed :roll:

[AcapulcoRolf]

Hi That_Kid

I've extracted the cab file from the msi

If you PM me I can email it to you

[Menneisyys]

A cab file would be nice. Since I'm running Vista there's no way for me to install it because the msi says activesync is needed :roll:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/092006PIRC121AndTCPMPScreenshot/Analyzer_PPC_ARM.cab

[Menneisyys]

OK, thanks, I didn't see that

Thanks again

Examined the stuff, relocation-wise; it has wired-in paths in all the three exe files in \Program Files and in the DLL's in \Windows (which refer back to the home in \Program Files). That is, it can't be relocated without binary (hex)editing (hacking) the files, which, IMHO, isn't worth the effort because it doesn't take up much disk space.

[AcapulcoRolf]

There is a post here http://msmobiles.com/f/viewtopic.php?t=15266 suggesting a workaround to get this application to work from a storage card

I've not tried this yet, but it looks promising

As has been indicated though, since the application doesn't take up much "disk space" it may not really be an issue

[Menneisyys]

There is a post here http://msmobiles.com/f/viewtopic.php?t=15266 suggesting a workaround to get this application to work from a storage card

I've not tried this yet, but it looks promising


I'll only clean up 58k, as the DLL files in \Windows, to which the EXE files (the only ones that will, then, be installed to the storage card) have wired-in references to, stay in Windows; that is, in the main storage.

BTW, in addition to what the post suggested, you'll also need to edit \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Network Analyzer.lnk, start analyzer.lnk and stop analyzer.lnk to point to the Storage Card (they are hard-coded too - not the best programming practice, to put it mildly).