Offline config/manager? Transparent Proxies...

[gsta]

The Transparent proxy issue renders the eye.fi card useless for its intended purpose if you are unfortunate enough to be caught behind one.

See other posts:
http://forums.eye.fi/viewtopic.php?t=138
http://forums.eye.fi/viewtopic.php?t=129
http://forums.eye.fi/viewtopic.php?t=98
http://photojojo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=439

At the very least a work around would be good?

Could something like this possibly be part of a work-around?
http://www.onion-router.net/

If you think that something should be done about it please add your voice to the poll and or comment!

[hyachts]

It seems pretty clear that Eye-Fi wants to know when people are setting up a new card - hence the reasonable requirement for an online registration. I agree, however, that they ought to provide a workaround like being able to go to their website in a browser and obtain a registration, or activation, code instead of requiring that the card/manager make the connection. I think that would solve a lot of these problems. Alternatively Eye-Fi customer service could even give a registration over the phone if people are really adverse to (or unable to) use an internet connection.

With regards to ongoing configuration, however, I absolutely agree that a user ought to be able to configure the card without an active internet connection. As it stands now if I were to (for example) get a portable router so I could shoot and transfer on the go, I'd have to pre-configure the card when connected to the internet - that doesn't seem necessary. Eye-Fi (the company) doesn't need to know what wireless networks I'm configuring my card to use. Obviously if I'm changing my online service settings, geotagging, hotspot access, etc. I need to be connected to the Eye-Fi servers, but for local configuration settings?

Sorry to be so long winded, but as an aside to this I seem to recall that the vast majority of the traffic when you use the manager.eye.fi "web"site is local anyways (which would make sense) - I'm trying to find the article I read where someone deconstructed exactly what it was doing. If I do I'll post the link here.

EDIT: here's one story that discusses what the card and manager do - it's a bit outdated but you'll get the idea:
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1177111

[aplusmiami]

I do not want my photo pc even connected to the internet - This was a BIG bummer when I purchased this device and found out it must have internet access - I use about 3 to 4 cameras daily and I remained tethered with two of them and the other is the eye-fi on my notebook connected to the internet. I then have to copy them to my photo pc(firewalled).

I hate web apps that MUST call home EVERY TIME! This is the reason i did not buy two more devices for my other cameras.

[surgderm]

Absolutely should be configurable and usable without internet connection.

Also, your online polls should allow voting for non-registered guests. You have 111 views of this topic and only 8 votes.

[TXnomad]

One can understand, from a business perspective, Eye-Fi's desire to have an online "subscription model" to show investors and the likes the number of users consuming their product.

That being said, if Eye-Fi were to create an off-shoot card from their current "home" or "professional photographer" product that costs a little more but included a bundled ISO of the firmware for those willing to tinker and customize the product to their own tastes then I do believe they'd gain an even more substantial customer base.

Hell, even just offering the firmware and SDK for us Linux junkies attempting to get this thing running sans WINE but as a native listening service would pony up the money for this ability as it saves us time while still making Eye-Fi money.

Otherwise, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) Eye-Fi is missing out on taking advantage of a customer base that has the skills and potential to help further their foothold in the digital arena.

Thanks for listening, great product which has a ton of potential if the consumer reins were lifted slightly.

[vernon]

What I would like to see the ability to configure the eye-fi card without any special software required. You should be able to put the card in any SD reader and use any text editor to enter configuration parameters into a special filename on the eye-fi card. Let's call this special file name config.txt. When the ey-fi card powers up and sees config.txt, it reads the configuration parameters from config.txt and then writes them to its internal flash. If the configuration file config.txt was read successfully and the eye-fi card updated its internal configuration successfully, the eye-fi card would then write its current configuration to a text file called config.out. After config.out was read by the user, both config.out and config.txt could be deleted. If the filename config.txt does not exist, the eye-fi card uses its the last internal configuration that it saved in its internal flash.

A config.txt could look something like this:

Code: Select all

apnam=HOME                         # home wireless access point name
search=no                          # search for open access points if home access point is not found
server=home.user.net               # Home server IP address or host name
serverport=22                      # port of home server
serverdirectory=/home/user/photos  # directory where photos are stored on the home server
username=eye-fi                    # username for eye-fi account on the home.server


A config.out could look something like this:

Code: Select all

apnam=HOME                         # home wireless access point name
search=no                          # search for open access points if home access point is not found
server=home.user.net               # Home server IP address or host name
serverport=22                      # port of home server
serverdirectory=/home/user/photos  # directory where photos are stored on the home server
username=eye-fi                    # username for eye-fi account on the home.server
ssh-rsa abaskdde.... eye-fi@eye-fi # eye-fi card public rsa key for scp tranfers to home server