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Review: Rove Mobile File Manager

by Steve Berghorn on May 13th, 2008 at 1:47 pm EST
5 Comments »
 

Review: Rove Mobile File Manager
Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ 5/10
www.rovemobile.com
Cost: Free!

Well the folks at Rove really impressed me with the first two products I reviewed (Mobile Admin and Mobile Viewer), but Mobile File Manager really fell short for me. The claims from Rove are pretty impressive:

Mobile File Manager allows you to connect to remote file servers. Edit web pages and deploy sites, upload photos to websites, transfer files, view graphics on remote computers, edit configuration files, monitor log files, and much more – all from your handheld device.

Read the rest of the review and let me know if you agree or have been experiencing the same problems…

Mobile File Manager supports Windows File Sharing, WebDAV, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Secure FTP (SFTP) connections.

Minimum system requirements

  • a wireless data plan
  • 32 MB of memoryremote file and folder access
  • v4.0.2 or higher of the BlackBerry system softwareremote and local file and folder access
  • v4.2 or higher of the BlackBerry system software

Security:

  • TDES or AES with BlackBerry Enterprise Server
  • SFTP with Secure Shell (SSH) encryption
  • WebDAV with SSL encryption

For the record I used a T-Mobile 8820 with OS version 4.2.2.193 while conducting my tests. Wether most of the claims are true or not, I couldn’t really tell. For the most part I could not get the majority of the stuff to work. Sure it will let you browse the file system on the BlackBerry, which is nice, but not terribly useful. FTP connections were dicey at best… I was able to connect to a Windows FTP server but had no luck with a Novell and UNIX FTP server. I thought FTP was FTP ? Right ? Oh, and niether server was behind a firewall.

I was however able to connect to a Windows share on my internal network and also browse my Windows network, which was pretty cool. The WebDAV connection claim worked on an IIS Web Share on my internal network but I could not get one on the Internet to work. I have a Box.net account which they specifically mention in one of thier knowledge base articles. For those of you who are not familiar with WebDAV and Box.net….. WebDAV stands for “Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning”. It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers. Box.net is an Internet storage and sharing site (http://box.net). Anyway that is one of the WebDAV sites you should be able to connect to, however I tried a few different configurations and could not actually see any of my files private or public. I thought it was the MDS connection on my BES but I also tried BIS, Wi-Fi and straight TCP/IP with no luck either. I also checked to make sure I had no restrictions from my BES through policy and I didn’t.

I guess the thing that bothered me the most was even with the stuff I could connect to I would often get a “File System Disconnected” message. Hey I get that file transfer is not going to be the fastest because of bandwidth limitations but i got a warning that the file I was trying to copy was ove 50K and I was asked if I was sure I wanted to do that. It was a 1MB mp3 file !

This just left me very disappointed. I found it very frustrating. If anyone has had a better experience then I did please let me know.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 and is filed under Free Software, Reviews.

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5 Comments to “Review: Rove Mobile File Manager”

  1. Posted by: haephaestus
    May 13, 2008 at 5:45 pm EST

    Rove Mobile File Manager has been working ok for me with box.net. The trick is to not enter your username/password initially and force box.net to prompt you for credentials. So for your account, here are the settings:

    URL: http://www.box.net/dav
    No SSL

    When it connects, you’ll be prompted for your credentials. You might have to clear your cache or refresh once or twice just to start on a clean slate but otherwise, Mobile File Manager works like a charm. Hope this helps!

    Cheers!

  2. Posted by: Luciano ES
    May 16, 2008 at 6:46 pm EST

    Too bad I didn’t get to read this review earlier. I’ve been able to use Rove to ftp to my remote Linux server. The trick is to use a higher port because BIS won’t let you connect on 20/21.
    Still, I really don’t see a lot of potential in that. What could I possibly want to transfer to/from my phone and server? Shrug.

  3. Posted by: Benjamin
    June 24, 2008 at 2:46 pm EST

    Actually, this produce by Rove as well as their SSH program have been a lifesaver at times. For simple PHP editing, and tweaking some site code, the Rove File Manager has enhanced my productivity by allowing me to do some site tweaks while on the bus or subway. Their SSH program has allowed me to avert several hack attacks by giving me access to some of my servers while I’m away from the desk. Using the SFTP to edit php pages has been great for me. Plus, its free, you can’t beat that.