NetServices.app - control all your services

[punkassjim]

So far, no problems on firmware 1.1.2, but I haven't put it through its paces yet. Will keep you posted!

[aziatiklover]

very nice I like the ip address showing

[Blackwidow74]

i was using services.app before and now i`m using this. it works great on 1.0.2 firmware. no problems.

[RC_OZ]

very nice I like the ip address showing

If wifi is off, does it still show ip address (EDGE) ?

That would be cool if it did. I'll have to try it myself.

[HotStuff2]

HotStuff2 -

Besides the ability to add services externally iToggle allows the user to set any control to be visible or not. This is helpful if for instance you never need to toggle your phone off, you could hide the control and have less clutter.

I found that each service has very specific start & stop protocols and that allowing them to be adjusted or added in a plist would be problematic.

Adding visibility control however is something that will be rolled into the next update.

I see that 0.1.2 was released today, and includes the ability to selectively hide services. While I don't find that useful myself, I'm sure others might. Nice to see it added. Rather than editing the config file, perhaps there's a way to add a "left swipe" to the name, which would bring up the ability to hide it? Or a menu to show what services are installed, and an option to hide/show them there? That would be a nice addition, though I'm not sure how difficult it would be to program it.

I noticed that in 0.1.2, right below the IP address section, it appears to be a double line break, then the copyright notice & "based on" text. This makes it scroll a little bit. Not a problem, merely a cosmetic thing.

Also, it says "Wifi" - shouldn't that be WiFi? (capital F instead of lower case)

Would REALLY like a way to customize the icons for each service, so that a colored one could be shown for enabled services/a black&white (or grayscale) one would be shown for services disabled/turned off.

IMHO, NetServices beats Services and iToggle hands down.

[hartsteins]

NetServices update Ver 0.1.2 is Available.

Please update via Installer or directly from the web site - HERE


VERSION HISTORY

0.1.1 - Initial Release

• Users reported issues with SSH not shutting down correctly
• User reported problems with phone service
• Tinyproxy service was not appearing after installation

0.1.2 - Update 11/23/07

• SSH launching issues have been resolved
• Phone service problem has yet to be replicated but now no longer follows On/Off state through restart. Should toggling phone service present a problem, simply restart iPhone to restore service.
• Additional search locations have been added for Tinyproxy's Launch Daemons in an effort to anticipate installation variations.
• NEW - Switch Visibility - Keys have been added to the settings file (inside NetServices.app folder) to set visibility of any switches. This is handy for services that are installed but rarely turned on or off.

Thank you all for your input and help in making NetServices a better product.

[2petros]

Keep up the good work, some considerations....

my Iphone 1.1.2 , ask for pin entry every time i try to set EDGE on/off. Has anyone tested the option phone on/off under 1.1.2?
I used previously itoggle app option phone on/off under 1.1.2 and it crashed my iphone.
What phone on/off is supposed to do?

[hartsteins]

HotStuff2 -

Thanks for the ideas.

Adding a second page to adjust settings from inside NetServices without having to edit the external settings file is the one of the additions I'm working on for the next update. I needed to roll out 0.1.2 promptly to fix some of the bugs that had appeared in 0.1.1.

There is indeed an additional line break after IP address. It was requested that I add a space.

The "Wifi" label can be changed by opening the settings.strings file in the NetServices.app folder and changing the value of "Label-Wifi" to whatever you like (This is where you set visibility as well).

I'll add icon switching to my additions list as well.

2petros -

I will investigate EDGE issues, though as of yet I am unable to replicate the error. The Phone service has reported some troubles with iPhone FW 1.1.2. In the latest update of NetServices I altered the script to make Phone service status not follow the iPhone through restart. Currently NetServices uses the same process as iToggle for disabling phone service. Should you have a problem, simply restart iPhone and phone service will be restored.

The phone services function basically turns phone service on & off while leaving WiFi & EDGE available. If you find you do not use it (or it continues to cause errors) you can hide the switch by adjusting the settings.strings file in the NetServices.app folder. Simply change "Visibility-Phone" to NO.

Thanks for your ideas and help in making NetServices better.

Greg

[DaveiPhone]

Thanks for the update on NetServices.

• SSH now turns off properly for me.

• The ability to hide visibility is great.

• Tinyproxy, AFP, and Socks still do not show up for me. I uninstalled Tinyproxy and reinstalled Tinyproxy with installer, with no difference. I also tried toggling it on with both UIctl and iToggle (either of which work fine), and that made no difference. The daemon is located at:
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wickedpsyched.iphone.tinyproxy.plist which is a different location than it used before I did the uninstall/reinstall. It used to install to: /Library/LaunchDaemons/

I would also suggest moving the copyright and/or credits to an 'About' screen. It adds far too much clutter to the main screen.

Hope that helps. Thanks again!

[rperalta]

How do download this from installer (direct or .pxl)?

By the way, the link is not working. Thanks!

[hartsteins]

DaveiPhone -

How did you install AFP & Socks?

Tinyproxy is set to look for the sourceforge installation. They have a different named plist hence the problem (quick fix - change name of wickedpsyched Tinyproxy plist to net.sourceforge.tinyproxy.plist). iToggle primarily turns processes on & off rather than loading plists which is why it didn't matter where the plist was for that app.

I will make some adjustments to allow for these variations in installs.

Credits...etc. will move to a second settings page where you can adjust label names & visibility from within NetServices.

Thanks for your ideas and help in making NetServices better.

Greg

rperalta -

Link on website is now fixed (thank you).

You can also add via installer:

Add CopyCoders to your installer sources and NetServices will become available under Utilities.

• Open Installer
• Tap Sources along bottom navigation bar
• Tap Edit along top navigation bar
• Tap Add along top navigation bar
• Enter: http://homepage.mac.com/hartsteins/copycoders/copycoders.xml
• Tap OK
• Once Installer finishes adding source - Tap Done
• CopyCoders should now appear as a source in "Other Sources". If it does not -Tap Refresh.
• Tap Sources along bottom navigation bar
• NetServices will now be available for installation under the "Utilities" heading.

[2petros]

hartsteins, Thank you for you response.

For your info, When i used ITOGGLE app WITH 1.1.2. after turning off the phone (option) in the app menu it froze my phone, it would not start anymore. i saw the white apple and a loading wheel , it kept rebooting every few minutes. I had to reinstall 1.1.1 to 1.1.2.

user VSC told me...
"The problem is that iToggle copied code from an old version on Services.app. (Or at least that is what appears to have occurred.)

Specifically toggling the phone option unloads CommCenter such that it cannot restart when the phone is booted. That said on boot if CommCenter can't load the phone hangs.

The current version of Services appears to handle phone on/off by invoking airplane mode."

[hartsteins]

2petros,

NetServices uses similar methods of disabling phone service as iToggle. Since this method now proves to be a problem with iPhone FW 1.1.2, I will be changing the way NetServices disables this service in the next update.

Thank your for your help in making NetServices better.

Greg

[therealkerni]

Hi, just installed netservices yesterday and like it a lot.

I would love to have bonjour for afp included and automatically started and stopped together with afp service. Maybe even the posibility to change the bonjour name ;-)

Fine attached a plist file to start the Bonjour service with a defined name "iPhone". Prerequisite is an installed dns-sd app in /opt/iPhone/afp/ taken from http://wickedpsyched.net/iphone/afp/

And by the way: my vote for VPN being added

[HotStuff2]

The "Wifi" label can be changed by opening the settings.strings file in the NetServices.app folder and changing the value of "Label-Wifi" to whatever you like (This is where you set visibility as well).

Just did this, very good. Saw it earlier but didn't want to change anything until I knew what might happen.

REALLY looking forward to the changes and improvements! Great work, Greg, this is an excellent app for the iPhone.

[spook75]

GREAT APP! Much better than Services, and beats iToggle by a mile. iToggle wouldn't remember the EDGE setting if you rebooted the phone, so that wouldn't work for me.

My problem with iToggle is that it won't keep EDGE off if the iPhone is rebooted. Both Services.app and NetServices.app are able to do this. As such, iToggle is all but useless to me (the major reason I need this is because I don't have a data plan, don't want a data plan, and don't want to surf the web using EDGE.)

My EDGE settings are remembered on iToggle whether I reboot or restart my iPhone. Also, iToggle shows current IP for both WiFi and EDGE by tapping the "About" button.

Phone FW 1.1.1 (04 bb FW)
iToggle 1.0.4

[HotStuff2]

Huh...mine wouldn't remember at all, and the website for iToggle even says that EDGE settings are not remembered after a reboot:

• EDGE is turned on/off by inserting/removing an invalid IP address in the "ip1" interface.
  Turning it off is straightforward, turning it back on requires a CommCenter "recycle".
  It works with firmware 1.0.2 and 1.1.1 but is not persistent. If you reboot the phone EDGE will be on again.

I knew about the IP address being on the About screen, but I like NetServices showing it right there when I go in to enable SSH. Makes it one less step I have to do .

And since NetServices only displays services that are actually installed, rather than displaying a list of services (like iToggle does), I think that's a HUGELY useful feature.

Regardless, I've uninstalled Services and iToggle in favor of NetServices.

[spook75]

Huh...mine wouldn't remember at all, and the website for iToggle even says that EDGE settings are not remembered after a reboot:

• EDGE is turned on/off by inserting/removing an invalid IP address in the "ip1" interface.
  Turning it off is straightforward, turning it back on requires a CommCenter "recycle".
  It works with firmware 1.0.2 and 1.1.1 but is not persistent. If you reboot the phone EDGE will be on again.

I knew about the IP address being on the About screen, but I like NetServices showing it right there when I go in to enable SSH. Makes it one less step I have to do .

And since NetServices only displays services that are actually installed, rather than displaying a list of services (like iToggle does), I think that's a HUGELY useful feature.

Regardless, I've uninstalled Services and iToggle in favor of NetServices.

Hi...Thanks for the comments.

My EDGE settings are actually my GPRS settings (Location: HKG)...maybe that has something to do with it. Or perhaps, we misunderstood each other. I just realized that when you mentioned "settings", you meant the on/off settings in the iToggle.app. When I mentioned "settings", I was referring to the "APN, Username and Password fields in the General control panel.

So yes...you are correct. I do have to turn it off manually after each reboot. But my login settings are preserved.

Good Day!

[HotStuff2]

Correct, I was referring to the on/off state of EDGE in iToggle. I need EDGE to remain off at all time, and having to remember to go into iToggle after every reboot is not an option IMHO.

Both Services and NetServices remember the setting, even after a hard reboot; iToggle does not, which makes it all but useless to me.

Ergo, NetServices it is!

[hartsteins]

NetServices update Ver 0.1.3 is Available.

Please update via Installer or directly from the web site - HERE

In addition, many of the Network Services apps have been added to the CopyCoder's installer source. If you are having any trouble accessing services that you have installed from a different source or manually, please uninstall and reinstall from the CopyCoder's source. All the network service apps from CopyCoders are set to work with NetServices.

VERSION HISTORY

0.1.1 - Initial Release

• Users reported issues with SSH not shutting down correctly
• User reported problems with phone service
• Tinyproxy service was not appearing after installation

0.1.2 - Update 11/23/07

• SSH launching issues have been resolved
• Phone service problem has yet to be replicated but now no longer follows On/Off state through restart. Should toggling phone service present a problem, simply restart iPhone to restore service.
• Additional search locations have been added for Tinyproxy's Launch Daemons in an effort to anticipate installation variations.
• NEW - Switch Visibility - Keys have been added to the settings file (inside NetServices.app folder) to set visibility of any switches. This is handy for services that are installed but rarely turned on or off.

0.1.3 - Update 11/24/07

• Primarily Maintainence Update
• Ability to toggle Phone service has been temporarily removed until issues with iPhone FW 1.1.2 have been resolved.
• Several memory leaks have been patched.
• NEW - Installer Source - An assortment of Network Services have been added to the CopyCoder's Installer source.

Thank you all for your input and help in making NetServices a better product.