Forced Network Image Recompression

[Guest UndeadDevil]

A couple of days ago I discovered a way to disable T-Mobiles Image Re-compression when I was stuck using Web'n'Walk on my Desktop, this method should work on every other network that re-compress images to horrible quality.

I've started to develop software for the Pocket PC that provides a workaround as well as offering many other web performance improvements.

A Testing version is below.

Edited November 18, 2008 by UndeadDevil

[Guest Chocolicious]

A couple of days ago I discovered that the following HTTP Header disables T-Mobiles Image Recompression when I was stuck using Web'n'Walk on my Desktop.

I now need to find away of making all HTTP Requests on my PDA add this Header or at the very least find a way of making PIE add the header on its requests.

I should also note that not only do images look as they should, but pages now load 3-5 times faster! I assume T-Mobiles Image Recompression Proxy is congested.

Heres the header that does the magic:

Cache-Control: no-transform

I would not mind doing that myself, I shall be keeping an eye on this topic

[Guest UndeadDevil]

I have found a solution and currently polishing the code that implements it.

Edited November 18, 2008 by UndeadDevil

[Guest UndeadDevil]

My workaround code is now usable (Except in PIE) as well as providing a few other features (And many more planned)

I'm posting a test version here for those who have Forced Image Re-compression on their 3G/HSDPA network, feel free to PM me bugs if you try it.

Current Functionality:

--------------------

Forced Image Re-compression Workaround (T-Mobile UK, etc)

Multi-threaded Low-Resources Locally Running HTTP Proxy Server with Request Prediction Smart-Cache


A few notes:

------------

The Request Prediction caches the most likly request your browser will make on a webpage by anaylising the HTTP Code for Image's, javascript, CSS. It only currently activates if the connection speed is faster than 30Kilobytes/sec


This application is currently not compatible with Pocket Internet Explorer, PIE doesn't even attempt to connect to the proxy service despite the settings telling it to...

All current testing has been done on T-Mobile UK, using NetFront and Opera Mobile 9.5


Install:

--------

Install from CAB

Set your device to use Local Proxy (Settings, Connections Tab, Connections, Setup/Edit my proxy settings)

 - Server Address: 127.0.0.1

 - Port: 3125

Run MobileData Service

Browse the mobile web...


The Service can be shutdown via the *Incomplete* MobileData Control Application.

MobileData_Control.cab

Edited November 18, 2008 by UndeadDevil

[Guest Monolithix]

Hey, great idea. I've installed the cab however MobileData Service is crashing on my Touch Pro, the .net error is attached.

[Guest UndeadDevil]

Monolithix, you got that error because it was already running.

I'll be getting back to work on this project once I get a new handset, my TyTN II isn't usable anymore (Goes from 100% battery to dead in 30 mins on 2G!)

I'm also contacting the Windows Mobile Dev Team to find out why IE doesn't use the proxy its told to use.

As for Opera Mobile, users must manually change the Port in opera:config to 3125 as for some reason Opera picks up the Proxy IP (127.0.0.1) but not the correct port.

[Guest Monolithix]

Happy to keep playing, however I personally no longer on T-Mobile! It seem's o2 does the same though (i think), so it would still be nice to have the option to avoid it...

[Guest MikeWard1701]

Quick question.

Is the re-compression on images you download or upload?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Is this project still alive?

P

[Guest UndeadDevil]

Yes now that I have a usable PDA again :(

I started work on this again a couple nights ago now that I've settled on a ROM on my new PDA. My previous PDA died, I tried alot to get it working reliably (Different Radio's, Rom's, A new battery) but it kept turning its self off.

I'm worried that I have to many ideas for this project though and could do with another coder if anyone wants to join me. I'm using C#. So far the proxy server works but is only a HTTP Proxy, it modify's the headers to bypass image re-compression (The method the proxy app uses makes it illegal for a transparent proxy to re-compress any of the data, this also speeds up throughput on T-Mobile, maybe they only have 1 server handling the image re-compression?)

I ultimately want this proxy to act as a full traffic proxy, I am designing it to be resilient against connection lose. I'm sure many of you also get balloon error messages about the connection being un-available or unable to connect at times especially when your moving between locations?. Or is this something that only happens on T-Mobile (When it switches from 3G/HSDPA to 2G or the reverse; This is when I usually encounter this issue)

Normally this would cause the data to error out, instead the proxy buffers it and try's to send it along and on standard protocols that I know and have coded into it, it can keep the connection alive and dribble data through until the device has restored the internet connection.

I've also designed the proxy so it can go through another proxy, I'm going to spend some time searching Google for a decent, accurate and up to date Proxy List Data Provider and then intergrate this directly into the control application. (So you can access sites that are restricted by IP RIPE Location - For example TV Streaming Sites)

The proxy is also going to include the ability for users to modify headers on all requests. For example the User-Agent/Device header for the iPlayer.

I will have a new and much more stable release out within the next month. I still haven't found a way to get IE/PO to use the Proxy Server though, hence why I'm considering the VPN method for future versions.

On my own I reckon it will be about 6 months until I reach a final stable release of this.

Edit: Does any one think Quality of Service would be worth integrating into this?

Edited March 10, 2009 by UndeadDevil