[fmcgirt]

I understand that! But suppose I set 4Cast to refresh every hour and put my Treo in the case and go away to a morning of meetings, will it not stay connected to the internet essentially all that time? Or have I misunderstood the operation?

What I want is the ability to be sure that it disconnects after a refresh without me having to think about it or more likely, forget to disconnect because I get interrupted by a landline phone call or something like that. I really can't afford to use something that automatically connects to the internet and then does not at least give me the choice of it automatically disconnecting if I so choose.

Please tell me if I am misunderstanding something here,

Frank

[MacInfo]

4Cast does NOT have a AUTO refresh function unless you manually launch it. Once you leave 4Cast program it will not activate any kind of net connection on it's own.

[fmcgirt]

Ok, then what do the "Refresh every" choices in Preferences do?

[MacInfo]

once you have passed that time period and you enter 4cast, it will connect to the net and get an update. BUT if you have not passed that time frame and you enter 4Cast it will not make a net connection to get any updates.

[fmcgirt]

I get it now, I think. If you have launched it and don't exit, it will auto refresh. And then when you exit it will disconnect. So I always have to be sure to never put the Treo away without going back to 2Day or some other app. That is probably OK.

Now tell me how to use it as a plugin to 2Day.

Frank

[MacInfo]

BUT I am pretty sure if you launch 4Cast and it refreshes the content and you have disconnect on exit selected and you NEVER leave the 4Cast application, then I do not think 4Cast will disconnect automatically. So you just need to make sure once you launch 4Cast and check the weather you then click on your home button or launch ANY other application so you force 4Cast exit and disconnect from the net.

[chris.scl]

When I am NOT on the net and enter 4cast and tell it to update. it makes a connection and so far 5 out of 5 it has either given me a host not found or reading weather and then DONE and nothing shows up. (...) I have found if I have a live net connection to start with before I enter 4Cast that it usually works fine.

I had the same problem this morning.

Went to Snapper, checked my mail, left the connection on and returned to 4cast.. voilá, it refreshed. But everytime 4cast tried to launch the connection by itself, it failed.

Just tried it again and it worked, so it was probably related to yahoo rather than 4cast.

[MacInfo]

Make sure you have the latest version of 2Day installed and also make sure you have the latest version of 4Cast. both from http://www.shsh.com/products. Once installed just go into the 2Day prefs and go to the plug-in selection and you should see the 4Cast selection.

Enjoy.

[fmcgirt]

Well, I tested what you told me and everything works great on my T-Mobile Treo. It connects fine, displays the new weather data and then when I try to go to another app it waits to disconnect before exiting - exactly what I want. However, on my wife's Verizon Treo 600, it immediately exits without disconnecting and I have to then go to the Prefs->Network and disconnect manually. On both versions I have the "Disconnect on exit" option checked so something is not quite right on the Verizon version.

I guess I think that a "Disconnect after refresh" option is still necessary or a lot of minutes could be wasted using the Verizon Treo.

Frank

[MacInfo]

I use the Verrizon version of the Treo 600 and no issues at all here. it disconnects when I exit. are you sure you don't have something trying to keep the connection active ?

[fmcgirt]

Not sure of anything, but I don't have anything making auto connections such as mail checking at specific intervals. My Treo Connection Mgr shows no spurious connections. I can't think what would be holding a connection active when I have no active connection, then manually refresh a 4Cast city causing an active connection, and then exiting 4Cast. I guess it may well be one of those treo "gliches" that others keep reporting. For me it will be the first on either Treos so I guess I have been lucky. My Verizon Treo is HW C with the Treo600-1.03-VZW SW and my T-Mobile Treo is HW B with the Treo600-1.12-INT SW.

The only other thing I have noticed about the Verizon Treo is that I am unable to upgrade to the latest PRL - still at 50184 - but that is also true with another Verizon phone that we have so I think it is a feature of our local network.

Frank

[TAKEphONE]

Not sure of anything, but I don't have anything making auto connections such as mail checking at specific intervals. My Treo Connection Mgr shows no spurious connections. I can't think what would be holding a connection active when I have no active connection, then manually refresh a 4Cast city causing an active connection, and then exiting 4Cast. I guess it may well be one of those treo "gliches" that others keep reporting. For me it will be the first on either Treos so I guess I have been lucky. My Verizon Treo is HW C with the Treo600-1.03-VZW SW and my T-Mobile Treo is HW B with the Treo600-1.12-INT SW.

The only other thing I have noticed about the Verizon Treo is that I am unable to upgrade to the latest PRL - still at 50184 - but that is also true with another Verizon phone that we have so I think it is a feature of our local network.

Frank

Hi,

Please try this:
Run 4cast. Make a refresh. Do NOT exit, but in stead select "Disconnect" from the menu. Does it drop the connection ?

[fmcgirt]

I did as you asked. Tried three times. The first time I got the "Disconnecting" message and then the "Idle" message when the green arrows disappeared after the connection dropped. The second time I did not get the "Disconnecting" message but immediately got the "Idle" message and after about 15 sec the green arrows disappeared after the connection dropped. The third time was the same as the first.

Another strange thing. I started a refresh of the same city on each Treo at the same time. The Verizon one displayed data at 2:06PM while the T-Mobile one displayed different data from 4:28PM. This happens consistently.

Frank

[fmcgirt]

Update to last post about differences in data displayed between T-Mobile and Verizon Treos. On the T-Mobile version I had entered cities as zip codes letting the query figure out the city names. On the Verizon I had entered the cites by name. Somehow that changed the data retrieved. I tried the same thing at weather.yahoo.com and get the same data both ways. Sure strange???

Frank

[MacInfo]

Ok, I have to make a correction to my post about having a Verizon Treo 600 and disconnecting when I exit from 4Cast. I COMPLETLY forgot that I had set my Phone Tools Pro to disconnect once I exit my applications. So after I deactivated that feature, 4Cast even if I have disconnect upon exit does NOT disconnect the net connection.

[TAKEphONE]

I did as you asked. Tried three times. The first time I got the "Disconnecting" message and then the "Idle" message when the green arrows disappeared after the connection dropped. The second time I did not get the "Disconnecting" message but immediately got the "Idle" message and after about 15 sec the green arrows disappeared after the connection dropped. The third time was the same as the first.

Another strange thing. I started a refresh of the same city on each Treo at the same time. The Verizon one displayed data at 2:06PM while the T-Mobile one displayed different data from 4:28PM. This happens consistently.

Frank

Thanks.

Regarding the times - they are taken from the device clock - are those devices set for the same time ?

[TAKEphONE]

Update to last post about differences in data displayed between T-Mobile and Verizon Treos. On the T-Mobile version I had entered cities as zip codes letting the query figure out the city names. On the Verizon I had entered the cites by name. Somehow that changed the data retrieved. I tried the same thing at weather.yahoo.com and get the same data both ways. Sure strange???

Frank

Hi,

When you say you tried at weather.yahoo.com - did you try it on those devices ? using the web browser ?

[fmcgirt]

Simon,

Here is what I know so far:
Both times are set the same on each device.
Both connect on refresh, TM disconnects on exit, Verizon doesn't.
Both get same data when cities are entered with either zip code or name.
Both get same data using either WebPro or 4Cast or Mac.

What I did notice NEW this morning on both is that the first time I asked for a refresh, each connected and APPEARED to be refreshing, but the data and times displayed were from the previous refresh, not from the current refresh. When I then asked for a second refresh on each device, the data and times were identical and correct. So yesterday I was obviously comparing a "second" refresh on the TM device with a "first" refresh on the VZ device. Sorry for the confusion but it appears on my devices that the initial refresh does not display the current data. I just tried it again (about 15 min later) and the same thing happened. The other thing I notice is that if I stay connected and refresh, the times (and I presume the data) are correct.

I hope this helps and if you can think of something else for me to try, I will be happy to do so. Again I would request when you get everything going OK and have the time to consider in Preferences a Disconnect menu with "Disconnect after refresh", "Disconnect on exit", and "No disconnect" entries as well as a "Manual refresh" entry in the Refresh after menu. Then I think that it makes it simple and foolproof for everyone on all devices to select exactly what they need.

Frank

[TAKEphONE]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for this depth report...

I have found the problem, and will be posting a fix tonight.
There will also be a "disconnect after refresh"

[fmcgirt]

Thanks, Simon. I enjoy using your software and I appreciate the effort you put in to make sure all is well.

Frank