Changes in this release are:

• Fixed a force close issue with HTC Hero and other customized devices
• Added VPN settings for Android 2.x devices
• Tweaked user interface here and there

You can download WiFi Buddy from the usual locations or directly from my web site.

Enjoy!

Update: Took this version our of Android Market for now. It makes things even worse. I’m so sorry

Update 2: WiFi Buddy 0.9.5 is out which should address these newly introduced issues.

Related posts:

1. Small update to Puzzle Blox Lite
2. Another Update to Puzzle Blox
3. Puzzle Blox & Puzzle Blox Arcade! updated

A quick search on my G1 brought up to promising results for use with non-rooted Android devices: PdaNet and azilink. Next thing I had to do was downloading the tools onto the SD card of my phone and to copy it to the desktop PC afterwards. Should be quite easy, shouldn’t it?

PdaNet was the first to try: Installation is pretty straight forward. No separate packages and downloads needed. Just double click the executable, follow the instructions and you’re done. You’ll get a background application, a special USB driver for the Android phone and a modem driver – plus a new app on your Android phone. What I instantly liked about it – besides the installation process – is the tray icon. I know that a lot of people hate applications which put themselves into the tray but in this case it’s really the easiest in terms of usability. A click on the icon opens a context menu where you simply select “Connect” and you’re done! It’s such easy… At least in theory because it seems there is an issue with PdaNet and my Vista system. It crashed immediately I played around and had a quick search in the Internet (via my mobile again) but haven’t found an immediate solution for the problem. So I turned to the next tethering software candidate…

azilink download was my first trouble. As I had no working Internet connection on my PC I had to download azilink on my G1. However, the ZIP archive didn’t want to download as it is an “unsupported file format” on the Android phone. Side note: At this time I wondered why the EXEcutable of PdaNet downloaded without any complains?! So next thing I had to do was to browse the Android market for something which might help. I came up with Download Crunch: “Allows Browser/Download Manager to download files that may not have associated applications”. This time the download of azilink worked. Hooray! I have copied the archive from SD card to my desktop, opened the HOWTO just to find out that I have to download another package, OpenVPN, to make everything work… Okay, okay, I could have seen this on the azilink web site but honestly it’s really a pain in the neck to search and download everything via the Android phone. So I must admit that I just overlooked this little information when downloading the app. After I had everything copied, the setup on my desktop PC was quite easy. Just follow the HOWTO instructions with one little caveat: OpenVPN isn’t really UAC (Vista User Account Control) aware and so you have to take care to start it as administrator. Otherwise it won’t establish a connection to your mobile.

But finally, after about one hour of experimenting… taadaaa… I had a working Internet connection on my Windows PC. Hooray! I must admit that I’m quite surprised that everything works so well. The connection is slow as I have no 3G available at my home but at least I had no connection losses, no hang-ups or anything similar. The speed just reminds me of my famous Elsa Microlink 14.4 modem

There are other Tethering apps out there like Tetherbot but I must admit that I haven’t tried one of them. Having a working connection was my main priority I wonder if anybody of you had similar troubles or if you know any better and easier solution to use the Android phone for tethering? I’m looking forward to hear from you!

Related posts:

1. Puzzle Blox 2.1 Hits Android Market
2. Android Market Observations Part 1
3. Puzzle Blox won’t download, stuck at “Authorizing credit card…”

This seems to be a known issue on the Android market not directly related to Puzzle Blox. Please refer to the following posting on the official Google Android market help board: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=768ff3029eb670cf&hl=en.

The suggested workaround is to simply wait about one hour (sometimes a bit more) for the download to start. Some people stated that rebooting the phone helps, too. I’m very sorry for the inconveniences this might cause but there’s only little I can do about it. Please keep me updated on this issue… I will try to help you wherever I can.

Hope the linked forum post and tips helps a few of you

Related posts:

1. Minor update of Puzzle Blox – Version 1.2.4 released
2. No Internet, No Fun – Android USB Tethering
3. New Puzzle Blox update released