Anyone who's ever been eight years old has wondered the same thing: How to make those darn AvantGo channels (http://www.avantgo.com/frontdoor/index.html) work without the AvantGo browser. AvantGo boasts a large selection of channels where the URL is kept secret, so official channels are available only to AvantGo subscribers. While trial and error had traditionally been the main method of finding out the URLs, this approach came recently to an halt with AvantGo restricting access to its sync servers (http://pshost.avantgo.net/) based on a range of IP numbers or network addresses. As a consequence popular channels such as the mobile edition (http://pshost.avantgo.net/channels/wired/) of Wired.com stopped working (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4546) with non-AvantGo browsers.

The solution I present here is based on the customized RIM portal AvantGo offers to BlackBerry users. It works for both, online mobile browsers such as NetFront and Opera Mobile, and offline browsers such as iSilo. The only requirement is cookie support.

AvantGo with your mobile browser


Get an account (which can be quite a nuisance)
https://my.avantgo.com/register/account_form_1.html


Subscribe to any of your favorite AvantGo channels
https://my.avantgo.com/browse/


Login to the RIM version of AvantGo
https://rim.avantgo.com/rim

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo1.gif


Change to non-secure URL if your mobile browser doesn't support HTTPS
http://rim.avantgo.com/rim


Browse to your liking

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo3.gif

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo4.gif

AvantGo with your offline browser (example here: iSilo)


Get an account
https://my.avantgo.com/register/account_form_1.html


Subscribe to any of your favorite AvantGo channels
https://my.avantgo.com/browse/


Login to the RIM version of AvantGo
https://rim.avantgo.com/rim

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo1.gif


Your login credentials are stored in a cookie. In case of Firefox, you find it within the "cookies.txt" file in your profile folder.

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo7.gif

For iSilo to successfully download AvantGo channels, you'll need to copy this cookie into your iSilo channel settings and enable permissions for sending and receiving cookies.

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo8.png

For more on how to add cookies to iSilo, refer to this (ancient) thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258).


Since iSilo doesn't support HTTPS we switch to the non-secure portal URL.
http://rim.avantgo.com/rim


Write down the URL(s) of the subscribed AvantGo channel(s) you want to read with iSilo. This URL is the "Source" URL in your iSiloX channel.

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo2.gif


You can use the attached iSiloX template as a guide. Note that by itself it won't work; you still need to add the URL of the AvantGo channel in the source tab, and your login credentials in the cookie tab.

http://www.mobileread.com/upload/custom/avantgo5.gif

Hi,

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

This is absolutely amazing.

I have already gotten Wired set back up and am working on a few others.

Hope this does not get "fixed" like some of the other options you have found.

David

Also works with Sunrise XP. The secure HTTPS version doesn't seem to work, though, so use http://rim.avantgo.com/rim. You need to log using IE as described by Alex earlier and enable "Send Internet Explorer cookies". No need to copy the cookie manually.

Say, I'm confused about what's changed! Or is this old news?

All of my iSilo channels, including about 8 avantgo ones, work fine, just as they have for months (a year plus even), without any need to circumvent the avantgo system by going through the rim entrance. What gives?

Maybe it's just a solution for the channels that we never got to work before. Or, perhaps it formats the ones we do pluck better?

Still, I think the lead-in post/notice here should be changed as it makes it sound as if avantgo has recently changed things in such a way that NONE of the old links work--and that's simply not true!

As always, Alexander your work on all this is to be complimented!

Sorry for confusing you, robinson. What I meant to say is that the trial and error approach for finding URLs to newly added channels, or even some popular channels including Wired.com, would not work any longer as these channels are now located on AvantGo's own servers which restrict access based on IP addresses.

Nice, but now that the cat is out, how long will it take them to "fix" this hole?

Alex...do you ever sleep?

Dear God, THANK YOU, Alex!!! I've been going nuts trying to find out what was going on with Wired News and Jpluck. Now I know, and thanks to you, I've got it back on my Palm. Whew!

BTW, is everyone getting an occasional drill-down page from Wired News that contains only an ad graphic and no article?

...lars

I haven't been able to use Sunrise and this trick to work these past two days, I was wondering if it was my connection or Avantgo has wisened up and plug the loophole...

I haven't been able to use Sunrise and this trick to work these past two days, I was wondering if it was my connection or Avantgo has wisened up and plug the loophole...

Still works fine here. Maybe your login cookie has expired?

I'll check it later. Thanks!

Really quite amazing! Appreciate the iSilo RIM Avantgo plucking directions. It's truly a masterpiece. It actually does mean that I can jettison Avantgo if I needed to (that will help with an old Clie with limited memory)... and avoid having to tap through their ad on the opening screen each time. (Now, if only Avantgo would update space.com regularly, then this would be the ticket.)

Thank you Alexander. I still think iSilo (and the other pluckers) should be giving you a commission on their sales!

Is there anyway of having iSilo *automatically* fetch certain content each day? Or does that require manually opening it up first?

thought since this thread gave me a GREAT tool for offline new browsing I would dredge it up from the tombs.

I have it running right now on my "reader" and have even added a couple RSS feeds too. Very nice and if I find I spend oodles of time using it I can upgrade to an account providing more bandwidth for like $19/yr.

I can say it formats GREAT on my nx73v running Palm OS 5.x, even includes some images, or not, as you decide. I really like that I was able to configure it to save the content to my memory stick not main memory. It updates via either the cradle or WiFi. I suspect it works via whatever internet connection your device supports. They also seem to have versions for several OS's too...

All in all a nice way to get more Kindle like content for free. After fiddling with it all AM I kinda like it.

Has anyone been able to use this method recently? I cannot seem to login to http(s)://rim.avantgo.com/rim :(

Edit: My bad it found under http://rim.avantgo.com/login

Edit2: Nope, the loginpage works, but the login doesnt - all i get is a blank page.

It doesn't work for me, either.

I've ended up searching out the mobile versions for most of my news sources and that seems to work. In some cases, it's their rss feeds. For example, for the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Space.xml

But you may need to set up cookies in iSilo for logging in and should double-check where the RSS takes you as it might only be headlines without extra links or easy ones to get the articles.

I also still use Avantgo in spite of it being a memory hog and the older versions not being able to use the memory card.