[Thali-talk] Yaron's Weekly Update - 9/8/2014

[Yaron Goland]

eeek! I didn't realize that all connections require user confirmation. And apparently Google has no announced plans to fix this, see https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=30880

I also looked through the Bluetooth docs on Android and it doesn't look like a good choice either.

I updated the section on Wi-Fi Direct and added a new section on Bluetooth to http://www.goland.org/thalimesh/

I'd be curious to see your response to the Bluetooth section in particular.

Thanks,    

     Yaron            

________________________________________
From: Michael Rogers <michael at briarproject.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 1:14 AM
To: Yaron Goland; thali-talk at thaliproject.org
Subject: Re: [Thali-talk] Yaron's Weekly Update - 9/8/2014

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Yup, I was thinking of legacy mode - if you don't need to support
legacy clients then I agree things are simpler. However, I believe you
still need user confirmation to (re)join a Wi-Fi Direct group, which
isn't the case with Bluetooth.

Cheers,
Michael

On 09/09/14 17:23, Yaron Goland wrote:
> Unless I'm misreading the documents I do not believe a password is
> needed to let one Wi-Fi direct client connect to another. In other
> words if I have say a Windows 7 laptop and an Android 4.x phone
> then they can, completely from software and with no user
> interaction, create a Wi-Fi direct group and join it.
>
> The password you mentioned I believe is only needed when dealing
> with legacy clients. For example, if an Android 4.x phone creates a
> Wi-Fi direct group that group will show up on an iOS phone as just
> another SSID. But the Wi-Fi direct standard requires that the group
> be secured by a password if it's going to be joined by a legacy
> client. So that then brings up the password sharing problem you
> described below.
>
> If we are to implement Wi-Fi direct functionality then we would
> probably only focus on Wi-Fi direct enabled clients and not worry
> much about legacy clients. The complexities of joining legacy
> clients just seem beyond the grasp of most people.
>
> Yaron
>
>
> ________________________________________ From: Michael Rogers
> <michael at briarproject.org> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 3:36
> AM To: Yaron Goland; thali-talk at thaliproject.org Subject: Re:
> [Thali-talk] Yaron's Weekly Update - 9/8/2014
>
> On 08/09/14 21:29, Yaron Goland wrote:
>> Last Week:
>
>> * *TL;DR - Squashed remaining known bugs, wrote up
>> **instructions for writing a Thali app*
>> <http://www.thaliproject.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Guide_to_writing_apps_for_Thali>*and
>
>>
>
> published a **blog article* <http://www.goland.org/thalimesh/>*on
> my
>> research on mesh solutions for Thali (short answer: there are no
>> good ones right now, so Wi-Fi direct is probably our best
>> fallback)*
>
> Hi Yaron,
>
> Thanks for writing this article. I agree there's no mesh solution
> that's ready for mass deployment on off-the-shelf devices, so we
> need to look at single-hop solutions. I also agree that the biggest
> problem with Wi-Fi Direct is getting the password from the AP to
> the clients. QR codes would work, but on Android the SSID and
> password are generated randomly each time a group is created - will
> users be willing to scan a new QR code every time they want to
> connect?
>
> Although it doesn't have built-in support for groups, Bluetooth has
> a nicer user experience on Android - once you know the other
> device's MAC address you can connect at any later time without
> bothering the user. On Android and Linux you can connect without
> pairing if you disable Bluetooth's encryption and authentication (I
> assume you're providing your own anyway). I don't know about the
> pairing situation on Windows or Mac.
>
> iOS devices won't communicate with non-iOS devices over Bluetooth,
> but there's a new API that provides a wrapper around Bluetooth,
> Wi-Fi Direct and normal Wi-Fi:
>
> https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/MultipeerConnectivity/Reference/MultipeerConnectivityFramework/
>
>  Some hype:
>
> http://www.wired.com/2014/03/apple-multipeer-connectivity/
>
> Cheers, Michael
>
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