To help with the wireless delivery to media card of our dictionaries, phrasebooks and other large data files we developed a simple FTP client for BlackBerry, which we called BeFTP.

We plan to release it free of charge for individual, non-profit use.

In fact, a pre-release version of it is already available at Welcome to BEIKS mobile! for direct wireless download.

What we need help with is finding out in which cases it does not work, i.e. how does it behave on GPRS vs CDMA devices, BES versus BIS versus plain phone mode use etc.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

The current version is confrimed to work on T-Mobile GSM devices without BES as well as CDMA devices, again without BES.

friggin awesome!

an ftp client on my blackberry where i can download directly to media card is an awesome option!

downloading now.

BeFTP is apparently still rough, but in exchange it's free for non-commercial use.

That's when it works, of course, and we want to cover some essential basic functionality before we move away from it and start supporting it only for commercial licenses, if any at all.

All in all we would not have developed it if the BlackBerry browser was able to download files to the media card, something that it will sooner or later start doing.

The thing we're focused on now is making sure we can cover the needs of all connected devices , whether through enterprise server or through APN proxy...

Gonna try it out.

Hi, target audience here! *waves*

Any chance you will be incorporating S/FTP (over SSH2) into the BeFTP application? FTP is great (thanks!!) but many of us have a need for S/FTP as well, as time goes on less people are using traditional FTP in favour of a secured FTP (either S/FTP [ssh] or S-FTP [ssl]).

Just a random request from the peanut gallery. ;)

*Stands behinds Rivviepop* I second that request! SSH2/SFTP would be great!!!

Grass roots movement!

@kolev: in the effort of trying to help, I know MidpSSH (and others) use the BouncyCastle J2ME API set for SSH support:

The Legion of the Bouncy Castle Java Cryptography APIs

Give 'em a (free) inch, and they'll ask for a mile. ;)

Wirelessly posted (8320: BlackBerry8320/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Can you implement option to choose bes,bis or tcp

We have many ports blocked on firewall with bes

We developed FTP because we needed a way to download files to the media card.

The only motivation to develop secure FTP would be financial.

If BeFTP secures enough donations (it will start asking for donations) or enough enterprise licenses OR if someone big enough offers a chunk of money for a secure FTP client then perhaps we will do it.

Until then, we're trying to make BeFTP work well in all real life situations.

I particularily want to hear from people using MDS, BES and BIS , people on CDMA, GPRS and iDEN networks.

So if you are kind enough, would you please open your way to BeSFTP by posting your BeFTP success status, carrier [technology] and enviornment (BES/BIS,MDS)...

> Can you implement option to choose bes,bis or tcp
> We have many ports blocked on firewall with bes

That's exactly what we are trying to do.

However, because of the split pipe security policy, we need a way to make that choice work automatically for most cases.

Exceptions will be facing the need to uninstall, reboot, install and manually change the setting before attempting a new connection.

I set it up on my 8830 and it seems to run fine. Sprint EVDO service.
I did try to download a 6mb jpg to store on my sd card..... when it was half way, right around 3mb, the device reset itself and I have half of the image on my sd card.

Is there a way to not have it default to the beiks.com server every time you open it? I have to enter the server info every time I go to use it.
Would also be great to have more than one server saved.... perhaps a few and beiks could be one of them.

Yeah, over time we'll add configuration persistency as well as some other obvious features.

Remember, it's free and, once we get it to serve its primary goal (from our standpoint) its further development will be a function of donations and commercial licenses.

As things are, it is only out there as a byproduct of our dictionary and Bible developments...

We may make persistency only available for registered users, for example.

Still haven't decided on that, we first want to make it reliable across the board and then figure how much interest is out there so that we can decide how much resources we can allocate to it.

In its current form it is mostly a byproduct of our dictionary and Bible development efforts...

Does not work for me (I'm using BES + BIS + TCP on a 8320).

This is really a product I'm looking for and believe that having the possibility to select the connection mode like it is the case in Viigo would be a great feature!

Is it BIS-B compatible?

Best,
Jaime

What is BIS-B?

Watch out, I will shortly be posting about an updated version allowing connection selection of BES+MDS, BES+BIS and direct TCP.

BIS-B is the actual technical name of the Internet data portion of a BIS setup, in your posts you are saying 'BIS' but you really mean BIS-B. Some providers do not have BIS-B capability as part of their BlackBerry/BIS service, it's email only - no data. In the case of your FTP client you should properly be using the term BIS-B since it's a data-only application.

Working:

service: T-Mobile BIS-B, T-Mobile Wifi (both)
host: proftpd 1.2.10 running on linux
login: usernames + passwords

Not working: anonymous logins on the same server which does accept anon logins. "Could not connect to FTP server" is the dialog error in the client. The server log has nothing more than:

"USER anonymous" 331
"PASS anonymous" 230
"QUIT" 221

On a user based login that is working, the third line item above is a normal "PWD" 257 -' command, so something is failing that I cannot see (bad client command?).

Suggestion: the password default should be 'anonymous@' - many FTP servers require an @ sign in the password field for successful anon logins.

Thanks for the feedback.

There is likely a great deal of servers on which BeFTP will actually fail to login and/or communicate properly...developers tell me there are at least 20 flavors of the FTP exchange standard and far not all of them are currently covered.

We may eventually get there.

At the time being, you can try and see if changing the password to anonymous@ would make any difference. I would actually expect not, but I am short ot suggesting what the problem could be other than the above mentioned protocol dialects.

What is more interesting is that the socket connection is apparently working on GPS/BIS.

I take it this does not include BES, right?

If so is Christopher the only one here on BES/BIS that has problems connecting?

And, for those of you who may have better understanding, are BES and BIS two alternative methods of achieving TCP connectivity?

Christopher and DietCoke, you can download BeFTP 0.92 from

http://www.beiks.com/download/BeFTPB.jad

You will have to type the full URL, sorry.

This version has both setting persistency across multiple sessions and selectable connection method.

As you may be aware, changing the connection method AFTER one has been attempted usually requires deleting the application for the device, rebooting and re-installing it, then setting the desired method and only then trying.

Otherwise the BlackBerry's "split pipe" security policy usually kicks in and blocks outgoing connection, even if the selected method is the appropriate one.

This version is guaranteed to change before making it an official release.

Deleting it may cause our LexSpell spelling checker (with which it currently shares program modules) to stop working and require re-installing it.
The opposite also applies, but I do not anticipate having that problem.

No, doesn't help - I tried all those things and know that the two servers I'm testing against (private, sorry) can accept without an '@' in there, I'm root for both servers and run them.

GPS/BIS? That's not a valid combination of acronyms. I don't have/use BES, so cannot comment on that particular functionality.

BIS-B: device -> carrier -> RIM -> Internet
BES: device -> carrier -> corporate network -> Internet
TCP: device -> carrier -> Internet (using APN)
Direct: device -> Internet

Direct only works (currently) with Wifi devices and the BB Browser, and the BB Browser must be set to 'Wifi'). I do believe there's a special connection string you can specify in the code to open a direct Wifi connection from an application, I've seen a few 3rd party apps start to add this functionality. See the programmers sub-forum for the details, there's a thread on it over there.

Am I the only one reporting the freezing problem? Anyway, version 0.92 just did it too.

Wanda

When I downloaded the ASV full bible it stopped at 1883KB. I had to exit out of the BeFTP and renter to download the index file. The index file indicated a succesfull download and I did not need to exit the program. I am using the version 0.92 for the BeFTP.

The same thing just happened when I downloaded the KJV full download. It stopped at 1883KB and I had to exit out of the BeFTP and renter to download the index file. The index file indicated a succesfull download and I did not need to exit the program.

Yesterday when I used version 0.91 my Blackberry would freeze and I needed to do a reset to recover. 0.92 I only need to exit the program and reenter (no freeze or reset)

I am using BIS with AT&T on a Blackberry Curve 8300.

I've had issues with connection to the BeFTP. When I first downloaded it , I tried many times over the course of several hours and every time got an "Unable to connect with FTP server" message. Then suddenly it just started working, for about an hour and a half. I was able to download books flawlessly, then suddenly I tried again and failed.

All day yesterday every attempt to connect failed.

Then, this morning, out of the blue, it worked again, for about 5 hours, I was able to connect, download, delete, download again no problem. Then I did a battery pull and once again started getting the unable to connect message.

This afternoon I deleted everything, BeFTP, Noah, Bibles, and folders and rebooted my BB, downloaded the BeFTP 0.91 again and the new version of Noah. My first 3 tries to connect failed, then on try # 4 it connected and for the last several hours has worked fine.

Does anyone know why sometimes it connects and sometimes it fails? All during this time, I've had plenty of bars of signal, used my browser and lots of 3rd party apps without problems. I have not messed with any settings, it just randomly works, then doesn't. Any insight or suggestions are welcome.

Here's my BB details: 8130 Pearl, OS 4.3.0.81, BIS, Alltel, CDMA

UPDATE:
Well I decided to delete my old version of Viigo which required my BB to restart, then downloaded the newest version of Viigo and tried BeFTP again and once again I'm unable to connect. It seems that restarts or battery pulls seem to mess it up every time. I'll post again when it's working grrrrrrr! But I'll check back in the mean time for suggestions.

Dang slick -- works well for me.

I haave version 0.92. When I try BIS or TCP, it comes back right away and says that it can not connect. When I try BES, it says connecting, but that is as far as it gets.
I know I have my TCP set up correctly because I use JiveSlide all the time which requires it.
I have a BES connection with AT&T on an 8310.

Oh, wait, enventually, I got the folder icon with two dots. At the top of the screen there is a "/"

Doesn't seem to go anywhere from there, and doesn't indicate that it is trying to.

I am using the port setting of 21, and a login and password of anonyous.

First thing off, every time you change the connection method you should actually delete the program, restart the device, download it again, set the new connetion method and ONLY THEN you have a shoot at actually trying it.
Don't blame us, we're just the messengers.
Google for "BlackBerry split pipe" policy for explanation.

Second, once you got connected, was it to our own server or another one?

Unfortunately, I have no explanation yet on to why it would sometimes connect and other times not.

- bobby

I'm not commenting on the split-pipe specifically, but other applications (JiveTalk, FreeRange Reader, and EMV to name names) handle switching the connection method with a dropdown inside their app, no deletion and reinstallation necessary for any of them at all. I suspect your team is using a different coding method than others, they know how to make this work without so much user shenanigans (which is unacceptable, sorry).

I am rather sure this does not depend on the implementation.

RIM's security model is such that if you try using different methods you may end up locked.

The proper way to address that issue is to choose the right connection model from the start.

I strongly suspect that other applications have it selectable - as we do - as a troubleshooting tool and not as a mean of dynamically configurable functional setting.

Unless the split pipe policy is explicitly turned off, all BlackBerries still default to it, which means it would still result in a connection lockout for the application trying to connect via different methods.

I'd be more than glad to be proven wrong as I totally agree it is not at all convenient to have to delete the whole application before you can change a single setting.

T-Mobile BIS

Works fine connecting to beiks.com and my personal FTP server.

There are either 2 messageboxes that say "Could not connect to the FTP server", or it is not in focus when displayed. I have to click the pearl 2x to get it to go away.

Please consider changing the "password" text entry area to a true password style entry, i.e. - no suretype, letters hidden, etc... This bit me the first time i typed in my password for my personal FTP server, and the suretype capitalized the first letter in the password.

Nice product.

I have had fairly successful connections lately and sort of figured out a pattern. Anything I do that makes the BB restart such as using DM to remove apps, battery pulls, deleting apps from the device which require a restart to take effect all cause me to lose my connectivity to the BeFTP server.

If I try just deleting the BeFTP, rebooting, and re-installing, I still can't connect.

However, if I delete Noah, all Bibles, BeFTP, and all related folders then start from scratch and download everything all over again, then it works again.

I have a BB8820 on ATT and have installed BeFTP .92

I can connect to my work FTP server, but cannot "do" anything. It display the default directory on the top bar of the BeFTP app, and a folder with two dots next to it, but none of the files stored in that directory are listed.

If I click on the folder I get nothing.

The FTP server is running on an OpenVMS V7.3-2 Alpha with VMS TCP services 5.1 installed. How can I help you debug this problem?

multivac

Is not working for me. Trying to connect using BIS-B.

Best,
Jaime

I'm on Verizon with BIS on Pearl 8130. It worked fine for me to download the KJV bible files. NOthing fancy required. Just went to your FTP site through the program and downloaded to a folder of my choice. Problem is, your bible reader has no clue where the files are and I don't know how to tell it.

Also, you might want to contact Epocrates.com. They provide free medical pharmaceutical files that are very large (about 9MB) and they don't have a way to get them on the SD card on the Blackberry. They could possibly use your technology and pay for it. Just a thought. I also emailed Epocrates to tell them about your product.

Let me know if you need further endorsement from me or need specific testing other than what I've done.

Bruce

Thanks for the feedback.

The files on our FTP site, as you may have noticed, are under Noah\4.0\ implying they are for the upcoming version 4.0 of the Noah Bible Viwer.

Currently only version 3 is publicly available and perhaps that is what you have.

If any company is interested in using our technology it is more than welcome to contact us...however as I have mentioned earlier BeFTP is a by-product of us putting our own content on media cards...and it is not our main goal to actively push that product to other parties.

I get an error saying I cannot connect to the FTP server. So a few questions :

Does this allow me to upload files from my BB 8320? Also, I was on wifi trying this out, does that not work...do I need to have the data plan and such?

I got the BB data plan, and another issue I have is connecting to my FTP site, anytime I click a folder it just refreshes the root directory.

Works well connecting to the FTP servers I tried. However, the client will not read down long folder trees. Example it wont read past "H" or so in the old music folder. But that probably doesn't matter for the intended application. I copied over images taken from our camera that are roughly 2MB and had no problems. CDMA - Pearl 8130

I'm on a WiFi 8320 and I have a FTP server set up on my desktop.

FTP address is my desktop's IP address.
Username: anonymous
Password: blank
Connection method is TCP

Doesn't work. Suggestions?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/136)

Isn't work for me also. I have bis connection (no apn configured).

Best,
Jaime