Free File Explorer for Symbian S60 Phone

I was trying to find file explorer for Nokia N70 with Symbian series 60 V2 - second ed. feature pack 3 (Symbian OS v8.1) , which would have similar functions to windows explorer in Windows XP. Although N70 came with its default File Manager, I found it less detailed and informative when exploring the files or directories within the phone. Therefore I searched for alternatives to the default and found two at that time, ie: FExplorer and Y-Browser.

Here is an excerpt from Y-Browser download link above about the application:

Y-Browser is a free file manager application designed for S60 3rd edition Symbian smartphones. All testing is done with Nokia S60 devices only, but it should work as well with other manufacturers S60 smartphones.
Currently Y-Browser only supports 3rd edition S60 mobile phones. No plans to support for earlier edition S60 or UIQ mobile phones are planned

I tried to install it to the phone but after using it for a while, I found a little bit problem with it so that I change to FExplorer. I guessed it might be caused by the different version of S60? I felt disappointed that I could not use Y-Browser which had rich and powerful features. Here is the S60 version list:

• S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 - Symbian OS v9.2
• S60 3rd Edition - Symbian OS v9.1
• S60 2nd Edition Feature Pack 3 - Symbian OS v8.1
• S60 2nd Edition Feature Pack 2 - Symbian OS v8.0a
• S60 2nd Edition Feature Pack 1 - Symbian OS v7.0s Enhanced
• S60 2nd Edition - Symbian OS v7.0s
• S60 1st Edition - Symbian OS v6.1

Anyway, my disappointment had been cured after installing FExplorer though it did not have features as rich as Y-Browser's. But it was still powerful for us to sneak around into the phone. I thank Dominique Hugo, the creator of this application, because it helps me to delete unnecessary files or to move files around without the need of PC or notebook. But you must be cautious because you can mess up with system files and make the phone locked without notice :-) I think it is one of the best free applications for S60 out there...

Digital Free Currency: Electronic Money

I bet you have heard about electronic money or e-currency or digital money. There are many kinds of electronic money in this world. The ones that I address this time are those being used in cyber world. People usually use them as means of payment and income from many HYIP (High Yield Investment Program) "companies". Yes, electronic money or you may call it virtual money is very popular among the HYIPers. I suggest you had better stay away from these so-called "companies", avoid losing your money. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

A High-Yield Investment Program (HYIP) is a type of scam. At one time, it was used to refer to an investment program which may have offered a high return on investment. The term "HYIP" was abused by the operators of scams to camouflage their scams as legitimate investments. Due to this overuse by the operators, HYIP has become synonymous with scam or Ponzi scheme. The usage of the term has evolved to refer to a kind of Ponzi scheme that recruits "investors" through the Internet.

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns ("profits") to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi.

There are about more than 7 types of electronic money out there which may be legitimate or illegitimate as listed below:

1. e-gold
2. e-Bullion
3. e-dinar
4. Pecunix
5. Liberty Reserve
6. WebMoney Transfer
7. PayPal

Item number 1 to 6 are very famous among the HYIPers or small traders in "forex market". I used e-gold and Liberty Reserve for dealing with Marketiva which is claimed to be "a financial services corporation specialized in providing traders with high quality online trading services" as stated in their website. Recently there are also warnings about Marketiva as a long scam so that I think I will not involve again in such a loose free digital money again (or I go broke due to forex market :-)

What is e-gold? Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

e-gold is a digital gold currency operated by Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. under e-gold Ltd., and is a system which allows the instant transfer of gold ownership between users. e-gold Ltd. is incorporated in Nevis, Lesser Antilles but the operations were conducted from Florida. In 2007 the proprietors of the e-gold service were indicted by the US Department of Justice on four counts of violating money laundering regulations

But then I left e-gold because there was problem with e-gold and I have found a likely-legitimate one ie: WebMoney Transfer. Be careful with e-Bullion because I heard they are also facing problem now?

IMHO, I rather choose WebMoney Transfer, or more trusted PayPay which is owned now by eBay and located in the US. WebMoney Transfer seems to be a real and well managed company though it is located in Russia and it offers a good security client interface, ie: WebMoney Keeper Classic and Keeper Light. I choose Keeper Light because it do not require installation onto your computer. What is WebMoney? Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

WebMoney is an electronic money and online payment system (transactions are conducted through WebMoney Transfer). WM Transfer Ltd, the owner and administrator of WebMoney Transfer Online Payment System, was founded in 1998 and is a legal corporate entity of Belize, Central America. Originally targeted mainly at Russian clients, it is now used world-wide. The company claims to have more than 4.5 million users.

WebMoney seems a little bit loose in its requirements than PayPal. But if I want a safer and surely legitimate one, I will choose PayPal for all transactions. Also you can use PayPal easily for eBay transactions.

Before you can use e-money, you have to change money from standard currency to digital currency. To do this, you must meet digital currency exchange by transferring your standard money to them and then they will deposit an amount of equivalent to e-money. Here are the list of these exchangers:

1. OmniPay
2. GoldfingerCoin.com
3. AsianaGold
4. eForexGold
5. AutoCambist
6. GoldMediator
7. tacoAuthorized
8. GreatAchiever
9. TukarDuid

I used 2 of them, ie: eForexGold and TukarDuid. The process is quite long for eForexGold because it is out of Indonesia. So that I change the service to TukarDuid which is very fast due to simple and easy communication in the same region.

Recently I came across this site while surfing. The site is selling goods or services which one of the payment terms can be done in e-money. More over the shop is claimed to be located in Indonesia so that it is easier for us who live there to deal with the store. I haven't done any transactions with them yet because I have no more e-money and plan not to deal with such things again :-) So guys, be cautious with the world of capitalism and your own desires!

Save Electricity, Save Your Money

Oil price goes high up to the sky :-( The bad impact is on the price of electricity. What is your move to tackle this if you want to decrease or at least to prevent the charges from rocketing. One way is to find an alternative energy source such as solar or wind energy. But for average people, we still use the electricity from state-owned company because alternative energy charges us higher cost of investment though in the long run the cost-benefit of it is much lower...

If you are still utilizing electricity from a supplying company, a simple way to save it is that you may replace your normal ballast of fluorescent lamp (which is a bulky and heavy one) with an electronic ballast. For a 40W fluorescent lamp (CFL), the normal ballast itself will consume approximately 40W so that the total power used in this case is about 2 times of the power of fluorescent lamp alone. 50% of the power is wasted as heat in the ballast! What a waste! Therefore if you are using electronic ballast, you will save about 50% of energy. You will also save the earth in the end.

Recently I have tested 2 brand of electronic ballasts which I purchase from a local store. Actually the storekeeper gave me 3 alternatives of brands with their selling price in Indonesian Rupiah as follows:

1. Philips around Rp 60,000
2. Elite (made in China) approx Rp 15,000
3. Oulex (the printed mark says made in Germany but I think it is made in China also) approx Rp 20,000

I do not select Philips because it is more expensive than the others but I indeed know that the quality should be much better. I may try it later.

The result is as follows:

1. The quality of Elite is lower than Oulex. Its retainer / supporting rings which screwed to the ceiling for clamping and holding the lamp tube, are made from plastic. Whereas the rings from Oulex are made from metal. The casing of Elite is also made from cheap plastic.
2. The brightness of the lamp if you use Oulex is much better than Elite. I guess the capacity of Oulex is greater than Elite due to the bigger size of unit. Elite unit seems to be made without proper design consideration. Just make for sell.
3. I haven't got any time to open or investigate the circuitry but I got a good impression on Oulex. The product looks more professional and has good & durable casing. My suggestion: leave Elite and purchase Oulex if you find it in the market

These product may only be available in Indonesia only....

NEW! For those who live in the US, you may visit my other site which displays and sells various energy saving items powered by Zlio at this site: http://energysaving.shopmarking.com/

OK guys, let's save the electricity!

System Crash: Clean Install

What would you do if your Windows XP system locks up? The problem I had is explained in my "YouSayToo" blog. In my case around a week ago, after trying to find the best solution and saving back up of my data from my notebook Lenovo 3000 Y400 Type 9454-25A to a DVD, I determined to reinstall the whole system from zero (clean install) with the provided original Windows XP Home Edition SP2 and the drivers from Lenovo. I also intend to use its marvelous "One-Key Recovery" to save me from disaster later on. But I do not hope it will happen again :-) The smooth steps in brief are as follows:

1. Clean install windows by erasing all the existing partition on the hard drive of the notebook may have and assigning it as one big partition on whole hard drive as C:\ . Installing window is quite straightforward. You must make the notebook boot up from your system CD. Just follow the procedure including formatting the partition, filling in some entries and then installing and setting up the system which can be done without your attention or interfering.
2. After finishing the installation and setup by the robotic acts, you may give your personal touch on some parts of the system. In my case, I disable some services that are not necessary and may make your system less secure, set the environment and look-feel according to my preference plus set the system for best performance option such as disabling CD autorun etc in my case.
3. Then I install all the drivers for this kind of Lenovo in the right order and right choices as stated in its manual as follows: Chipset Driver 945GM, Graphic Card Discrete NVidia, Sound Card UAA driver firstly and then Audio setup, Foxconn Bluetooth 2.0 Plus EDR/Broadcom 2045 Bluetooth 2.0 USB Device (after enabling it firstly and you must install it by running D:\WinXP\Bluetooth\Setup.exe from driver CD otherwise all the bluetooth drivers are not installed correctly - it means that you cannot install it by just inserting the CD when the device found icon appears or when windows asks you to give the driver after autodetecting), Agere Systems HDA Modem, Energy Cut, LAN Card Realtek RTL8139/810x, Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Net driver using "Intel (NET w3x32) net / Intel (w29n51) net" (also after turning it on - running from driver CD D:\WinXP\Wireless Lan\INTEL\DPInst.exe), Touchpad driver for Discrete Graphic Card, Card Reader RICOH R5C832/843 Flash Media Driver, and the last Easy Button Driver (discrete) for custom buttons on laptop. The process is long and time consumed because you have to restart for each installation. NEWLY REVISED!
4. Now you can shutdown the complete and clean system. Then turning the notebook ON with "One-Key Recovery" button at exactly the left side of the power button. It will bring you to a custom screen with only 4 choices: make a backup partition image, restoring the whole partition to the last backup, clearing / deleting the saved backup, or exits the screen and brings you to normal boot-up. Please make a backup image so that you can use it if there is a disaster. You can have a clean install system again complete with already all its drivers in just a few minutes without going through step 1-3
5. My clean system can now be updated to service pack 3 (SP3) and other further updates such as drivers updates for LAN etc. I have to update the system to SP3 because I need WPA2-PSK for relatively securer wireless connection to a wireless router, in this case Linksys WRT54G. I am a bit disappointed with Linksys WRT54G Version 7 because its firewall setting is not clear or strange and not the same as mentioned in the manual (there is no inbound traffic policy). The configuration is a quite tiresome (a fail product?). You had better choose Netgear WGR614 than Linksys WRT54G.
6. The system needs protection from the beginning. Install a good firewall and anti virus plus anti spyware in order. In my case, I install "Comodo Firewall Pro with Defense+". You may not install the Defense+ so that you use Comodo firewall feature only because the Defense+ is a little bit chatty, many interruptions especially during learning phase. If it is so, you should not select Defense+ at the beginning of setup. I set the firewall mode of network defense to 'safe mode" and proactive defense+ to "clean pc mode". If you want to use this "clean pc mode", you must be sure that your clean install of system is free of malware from the beginning. Setting and tuning it up, then install "AVG 8 Anti Virus + Anti Spyware plus E-Mail Scanner". Setting up e-mail scanner in AVG 8 is a little bit tricky. If you do not set the rules in firewalls and the pop3/smtp server in AVG correctly, the e-mail scanner won't work. AVG acts as a proxy between e-mail clients such as Outlook Express (which I use due to its simplicity) and the pop3/smtp server at gmail or yahoo mail in my case for instance. I will post the procedure if anyone needs it. NEW! I have post the procedure of AVG8 personal e-mail scanner configuration in this blog...
7. After running both firewall and anti-* smoothly, scanning your entire hard drive and tuning your windows system, you may continue to install other useful software or freeware as I have mentioned in my updated previous post. Firstly I install CCleaner, Mozilla Firefox and Addons including McAfee Siteadvisor, Adobe Reader, OpenOffice and HijackThis. Configure them one by one up to your preference and judgement
8. Last step is reinstalling my file backups to "My Documents" only so that the files will not be shattered around causing them difficult to find. At this time, you may also install the drivers for external devices that will be attached to the system such as printer, scanner, or Nokia PC Suite etc. You may also install these driver at step 3 above, so that these can be updated too if the new ones available at windowsupdate. Then running HijackThis and looking for funny or suspicious signs. I hope not to see those in future time though :-)

That's it for now. Just a brief one. Later I will post the setting of Comodo Firewall Pro with Defense+ and personal e-mail scanner of AVG 8. Any comments or even critics, please welcome dude!

Free Mobile Chat & Call Client

Do you like mobile chatting and free calls? Actually there is no free in this world :-) At least you must pay for your GPRS connection. But the rate is much cheaper than ordinary call because it is a data connection which charges each kB of data you send or receive. In Indonesia, it cost you only Rp 1 / kB if using Indosat Mentari GPRS connection, very cheap indeed! I have not used their 3.5G yet because the connection is not good at my place and I think it will cost you more. Or you can enjoy free surfing, free VoIP call and instant messaging if using Axis during promotion at this moment. I have tested 4 client applications for mobile chatting and free calls on my mobile phone ie: Nokia N70 (originally bought as N70-1 type RM-84, product code nr. 0530339, software v5.0638.3.0.1) with Symbian OS v8.1 (Symbian series 60 V2 - second ed. feature pack 3). I have upgraded its firmware to v5.0705.3.0.1 dated 30-01-07 from Nokia website. The mobile client applications can connect you to your friend using instant messaging or VOIP call. It is no charge for VoIP calls between same clients but the charge rates is also cheap if you want to use it for calling ordinary mobile number / fixed phone number around the globe. These applications are as follows:

1. Fring
2. YehBA*
3. mig33
4. eBuddy  NEW! 
5. Coogee which is prematurely dead because I cannot find its website anymore

I have tested all those 4 applications in N70 and find that Fring is the best till now. I have problems or difficulties using YehBA* and mig33. Fring is free (no charge at all as you will not find with agile messenger etc) and the setting is very simple. The VoIP connection is also simple and the quality of the voice is good. I can make calls to a friend in Sydney using Microsoft hotmail / live account only! It means that you and your friends should have accounts at the same provider such as hotmail or yahoo. But so far I just test it with Microsoft hotmail or live account. Just visit Fring website, and click download tab. The site will tell you to follow 3 simple steps. You can also see whether you cell phone is listed among supported ones at fring site. You download the application straightaway from your mobile after Fring sends you a message with a download link to your cell phone. After installing it, please do not forget to register as stated in step 3. New! Fring can accept MSN Messenger, ICQ, SIP (such as Gizmo etc), Skype, Google Talk ID for VOIP communication, and Yahoo or AIM ID for chatting only. Of course, you have to get one at least one account of those IDs to use it with Fring. But according to my experience, it is better just to set Fring only for MSN or Google Talk only (one use only). It is much lighter and faster than to use all IDs in Fring. There is a bit problem with Yahoo because it's too slow or heavy but still you can use Yahoo only for chatting (text based). Therefore, I use MSN only...

NEW! First of all, your phone must be able to connect to internet directly or indirectly, it means that it should have at least GPRS capability for direct connection to internet, or Wi-Fi connectivity which will indirectly relay internet connection to your mobile. If one of the feature is available, you can go to the Fring website, choose download tab, then follow the 3 easy steps there. Choose the brand of your mobile and the device type, which in my case is Nokia brand and N70 device type. Select your country, enter your phone number (with country prefix if required), and fill in your e-mail address, then click join button. Wait till you get an SMS from Fring to your mobile. In your mobile, open the SMS and click on the link referenced by the SMS. Don't forget to activate the internet connection prior to clicking the link in the SMS. It will download the program directly from Fring to your phone through your mobile internet connection. Just follow the instruction then...

Don't forget to read the minimum requirements on the download page. If your mobile is not listed in the selection or the requirements is not met, you'd better not to continue the installation procedure. When installing the program to your phone from Fring website through internet connection, the phone will pop up some messages for information or warning such as certificate, security etc. Just follow them, because you know that you download a valid program from a valid site. If you need other person who knows better about mobile phone, it will be safer to do so because it can lock the phone if it is not done appropriately. Anyway, it is simple indeed and I have no difficulty to follow the steps as instructed at the website. Then you can have free voip call to other part of the world...

One more thing... Before installing and activating the Fring, you got to have one account whether from Windows Live (or hotmail), Gmail, Skype, etc. Use one account only so that it won't bog down your phone. I suggest hotmail because I have proved it my own. Fill in your hotmail account onto Fring's e-mail address entry as described previously. Register also that account to Fring when setting the application after downloading and installing into the phone.

That's is for now and enjoy the application... Feedback is welcomed always

Wireless Router for Home Networking

Do you want to make your own hotspot? Many hotspot areas using Wi-Fi appear recently in public places to offer people easy access to the Internet. New laptops and desktop PCs are equipped with Wi-Fi so that they can connect to each others or to the Internet. Even now some cell phones are also embedded with Wi-Fi. These cell phones can connect to other devices using its Wi-Fi interface besides already available bluetooth interface and USB connection. I haven't tested any cell phone with Wi-Fi yet but I wish I could buy Nokia N95 or Nokia E90 which has complete features than other cell phones including Wi-Fi connection. You may go to this website http://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3 for comparison, selection or browsing cell phones with Wi-Fi. If you own a laptop or PC with Wi-Fi connection, it is very convenient to provide it with Internet access via Wi-Fi especially at home or SOHO. Ethernet cable for LAN connection may be used for better security but I prefer Wi-Fi due to simplicity and convenience.

For installing my own hotspot, I propose 2 different units of affordable wireless router for home networking with price range around Rp 500,000 from 2 different brands ie: Netgear WGR614 and Linksys WRT54G. Both have strength and weakness as I mention below:

1. I guess the signal quality of Linksys WRT54G is better than Netgear WGR614 because Linksys has 2 antennas to handle fading caused by multipath propagation, especially for house with many wall partitions
2. The setup interface in Netgear is far better than Linksys due to simplicity, intuitiveness, and manageability. For instance, it is a bit difficult to setup firewall inside Linksys, whereas in Netgear you can open or block any ports very easily. You can also make restrictions and select other setting much simpler in Netgear without complicated ways

For ease of use, you may choose Netgear but for location with many wall partitions I think Linksys is better. At present, I install Linksys WRT54G as my home hotspot controller. The unit runs smoothly after tuning it up for around 1 month. It is not easy... Some links that may be helpful to those who want to setup their own wireless router at home:

1. Appropriate channels for use on a wireless network
2. Advanced Wireless Security for the Masses
3. 10 tips for improving your wireless network

NEW! In order to use WPA2-PSK for better security, you have to update Windows XP to Service Pack 3. Without it, you can only use WEP which is not as secure as WPA2.

I will show you my settings if I have more spare time to write the articles in later postings. For now on, good luck with your tweaking!

Cheap Mobile Tariff in Indonesia

For you guys who live in Indonesia especially Jakarta and Java Island, which mobile service providers do you choose? Nowadays, It seems that average people use more than 1 provider, not for luxury but to save some money, due to expensive mobile service charges, especially at this time when the petrol price goes high up. It also depends on the activities you have using those services. I use mobile services (I prefer prepaid service than the postpaid one due to nature of mobile service "business" here so that I can change to other operator if it fails to keep the same service level) so that it will be easier for someone or clients to contact me. It is also convenient to bring along cell phones with you in case you need to contact someone or your clients in the middle of nowhere :-) I do not use it for long-range dating or surfing the Internet. I use it for voice telecommunication, frequently to different operators.

UPDATED! Mentari is not cheap anymore...

Tujuan		Tarif (Rupiah)
		23.00 - 04.59	05.00 - 16.59	17.00 - 22.59
Panggilan
Lokal	Semua Operator	5/detik	10/detik	20/detik
SLJJ	Semua Operator	5/detik	20/detik
SMS
Semua Operator		99
Int'l		500

I have been testing the service of different kinds of providers. In the first years of testing, there were not many choices. I had swung from one provider to the others till I fixed to one provider, Indosat Mentari prepaid GSM. It becomes better now due to the lowest cost (I guess for the time being - policies are frequently changed - promo time only?) to call any other operators, anywhere in Indonesia. It only charges you Rp 5 each time unit in second so that the cost is Rp 300 a minute. The other strong side: the quality of the signal is good wherever you use it around Indonesia. But the weak side is that you can only use this scheme from 23:00 till 17:00 for local calls and from 23:00 till 11:00 for long-distance calls. NEW! The rule has been changed recently :-) the cheap rate for long-distance calls are valid only from 23:00 till 05:00 which is practically useless for me because I or the one who will be called, cannot be awake till very late at night just to use that cheap call anyway. Rule changing is part of the marketing gimmick of many similar mobile service provider here...

To cover this weakness, you may add another new provider: "3" Three from Hutchison. "3" charges the second lowest cost for calling any other operators anytime, ie: Rp 399 each time unit in minute. At the beginning, the scheme is valid for either local or long-distance call but recently I notice that it is only valid for local calls as described in "3" website. NEW! The rule has been changed for long-distance call. They charge Rp 1000 each time unit in minute. One apparent weakness of this operator is the coverage of their service. There are blank spots inside shopping malls and at some areas. For the time being, their service can only be enjoyed in Java and Bali.

How about CDMA - fixed wireless providers? For me, the term "fixed wireless" is an oxymoron. Basically there is no much different in technology usage in both CDMA and GSM, ie: for telecommunication in voice or data. I guess the price policies make this happened. Or other politics? :-) At this time, Telkom Flexi Trendy prepaid CDMA is my choice due to its lower rates for calling locally to fixed phones, ie: Rp 250 each time unit in minute. Unfortunately the quality of the signal is not good at my place and there are many dropped calls during conversation if the handset is moved inside a building. You may consider to swing to Esia prepaid CDMA because the rate for local calls to fixed phone (PSTN - Public Service Telephone Network) is the same as Flexi Trendy. I heard from my friend that their wifone local call charge is cheaper than Telkom but you may not want to use it because wifone is not as convenient as common cell phone handsets. You may use it at home / office as substitute for fixed phone line from Telkom. I never heard whether the wifone can be used for fax though. NEW! But according to my experience, it is sometimes hard to contact an Esia phone number from other operators. Also it seems that the charging time unit is faster than normal so that I feel that my deposit value drains quickly compared to Flexi if you call a fixed phone...

For me, I will not use some providers because I have tested them 2 or 3 times and their scheme keeps on changing weirdly which may misguide you if you do not study their terms carefully. I do not know why they keep on doing that, because I think their policies may drive the old and new customers away. The other bad weakness is that their call center doesn't handle the complaints properly.

NEW! There is a good news about a new fixed wireless product, ie: "hepi" which is owned by Mobile 8. This operator also runs a CDMA mobile service "Fren" that has the same tariff scheme as the GSM operators have. I cannot find the tariff scheme for "hepi" yet from their website but the advertising says that the charge for calling to fixed phone is only Rp 200 which is cheaper than Flexi or Esia. I guess the tariff may be altered later according to the company's policy as usual :-)

There is also another CDMA operator running a similar scheme to "Fren" which can be considered as having "cheap" tariff with simple scheme because it doesn't differentiate between local and non-local call. Below you can see this "Smart" Telecom tariff:

That's it for now. Any comments, please welcome...