Hosting a file for direct Kindle download?

[Top Tomato]

Originally Posted by Amalthia

I'm just not sure if the browser can go to the website...

Here's a couple of screenshots for you from my K3. (Typing in the URL is a bit of a pain, so something shorter is ideal. Of course, regular users can make bookmarks.) Your website looks great on the browser and is easy to navigate.





Unfortunately when I clicked on the mobi/prc link, it kicked me back to the page I was on, so no direct download.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

You can (and many do), but the Kindle can only access web servers running on port 80. Since it's not easy getting Calibre's content server to run on port 80

'calibre-server --port 80' (or '-p 80') isn't that difficult

[DiapDealer]

'calibre-server --port 80' (or '-p 80') isn't that difficult

Agreed.
Sometimes I forget that not everyone is like me -- and already has a web server that's selfish and not willing to share port 80 with Calibre.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Agreed.
Sometimes I forget that not everyone is like me -- and already has a web server that's selfish and not willing to share port 80 with Calibre.

You can access other ports (and therefore calibre's default port) with Kindle 3's browser: just add :8080 (or whatever) to the URL. So for example, I've bookmarked http://192.150.23.124:8080/ to get to my calibre server on my local network.

Not sure about K2, since that involves firewall and IP addressing issues that I haven't been motivated to solve...

P.S. - I'd still like to know if it is possible to fake out Kindle's browser so it will download PDF, if only from my own server...

[SunLight]

Originally Posted by tomsem

P.S. - I'd still like to know if it is possible to fake out Kindle's browser so it will download PDF, if only from my own server...

Just found out there was a hack on the Kindle DX that allowed for this function, check it out:

http://blogkindle.com/2009/07/downlo...e-dx-directly/

Hope this can be ported to the Kindle 3

[jphphotography]

@Tomsem
I had tried specifying a different port like how you suggest but the browser flat out refused it, are you sure that will work using the webkit browser? It's possible that the site I tried viewing caused the kindle to reject it (my transmission bit torrent webgui) but I don't have another site to try at the moment. I'd be really happy if specifying the port did actually work because like DiapDealer my port 80 is already taken up with a different web server.

[EDIT]
I just tried this again, I remembered that I have mediatomb also running on port 49152 but any time I specify a port I get "There was an error encountered when processing your request" in my browser. I suspect that when browsing over 3G non-standard ports may be blocked, if this is the case it may even be determined by the wireless provider. Could anyone confirm if accessing a non-standard port (ie 8080) works on their Kindle? Perhaps it'd work if you were at home on wifi instead of 3G? If nobody responds I'll give it a shot when I get home from work and update this thread. It would be nice to be able to access a web library from anywhere via 3G, perhaps I'll have to forego having my nas web gui on port 80 and have my ebook library there instead
[/EDIT]

[DiapDealer]

You can access other ports (and therefore calibre's default port) with Kindle 3's browser: just add :8080 (or whatever) to the URL.

The K2's browser only recognizes the http protocol on port 80. You can use https to get another available port (443 I believe), but it's all moot since I can redirect port 80 on my router to any port on my internal network.

I was just suggesting alternatives for people that aren't so technically proficient.
Good to hear that the K3's WebKit browser has eliminated that particular issue, though!

[jphphotography]

@DiapDealer
I was thinking of 443 as well but that is the gui for my router lol I've got too many damn things running on my system.

80 = My Nas Gui
8080 = My Transmission (torrent client) gui
49152 = Mediatomb
443 = My Router

I ran into similar issues when trying to be able to push torrent links to my Nas for download while I was at work. Our firewall only has 80,8080,443 open for http protocol so I'm already at my limit. I will say though it's great being able to schedule shows for download while I'm at work so when I get home at midnight they're ready to watch.

[DiapDealer]

I ran into similar issues when trying to be able to push torrent links to my Nas for download while I was at work. Our firewall only has 80,8080,443 open for http protocol so I'm already at my limit. I will say though it's great being able to schedule shows for download while I'm at work so when I get home at midnight they're ready to watch.

Looks like you'll have to talk your ISP out of one more IP address.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jphphotography

@Tomsem
I had tried specifying a different port like how you suggest but the browser flat out refused it, are you sure that will work using the webkit browser? It's possible that the site I tried viewing caused the kindle to reject it (my transmission bit torrent webgui) but I don't have another site to try at the moment. I'd be really happy if specifying the port did actually work because like DiapDealer my port 80 is already taken up with a different web server.

[EDIT]
I just tried this again, I remembered that I have mediatomb also running on port 49152 but any time I specify a port I get "There was an error encountered when processing your request" in my browser. I suspect that when browsing over 3G non-standard ports may be blocked, if this is the case it may even be determined by the wireless provider. Could anyone confirm if accessing a non-standard port (ie 8080) works on their Kindle? Perhaps it'd work if you were at home on wifi instead of 3G? If nobody responds I'll give it a shot when I get home from work and update this thread. It would be nice to be able to access a web library from anywhere via 3G, perhaps I'll have to forego having my nas web gui on port 80 and have my ebook library there instead
[/EDIT]

It definitely works for me on calibre's default of 8080 over my local network. I think the syntax is picky - don't leave out the trailing '/'.

In theory it should be possible to extend access to the internet at large (configuring a port of your choice on the router and redirecting this to a server on its local network) but I haven't attempted that. For one thing, my router's IP address is dynamic so whatever access I could arrange would break from time to time when a new IP is assigned to it.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by SunLight

Just found out there was a hack on the Kindle DX that allowed for this function, check it out:

http://blogkindle.com/2009/07/downlo...e-dx-directly/

Hope this can be ported to the Kindle 3

That's interesting, I guess we'll have to wait and see if a port is forthcoming. Not a high priority for me, but a 'nice to have'. I prefer not to hack my Kindle in general though.

If the current PDF restriction is due to bandwidth cost concerns with 3G, they could restrict it to wifi only and everyone should be happy (e.g. k3 will only download audiobooks over wifi). I've sent this suggestion to kindle-feedback, for what it is worth.

[jphphotography]

@Tomsem
It is possible with port forwarding but you're still left with the problem of the incoming port always having to be 80. For example you could have Calibre setup to be on port 1234 at home but to access it from the outside world you'll have to forward port 80 > 1234. This isn't a concern if you're not already running a webserver on port 80, most people probably aren't. Even so you may still run into a conflict if your ISP provides you with a modem/router combo, say like a 2Wire, it is most likely setup to host its web gui on both port 80 and 443 (http and https respectively). On most routers you can specify which ports the router's webgui will be on so this can be fixed.

It seems that both DiapDealer and myself are maybe too "geeky" lol and want to access quite a few things remotely but only have so many ports we can work with. In my case the Kindle can only view stuff on port 80 and my work firewall only lets me view stuff on ports 80, 8080, and 443.

I'm running a hacked NAS that downloads torrents by itself and also acts as a UPnP media server to my PS3. I'm now trying to devise a way of using it to also function as my book library since it also has a webserver feature. I don't like leaving my PC running 24/7 so this NAS has been fantastic. If anyone is interested in the nas you can check it out here and the accompanying group which developed the custom OS here. If I get this figured out I'll post my results either in this thread or I'll start a new one (or both lol). My main concern right now is whether or not the NAS webserver supports .htaccess files so I can get the mime-type set properly.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jphphotography

@Tomsem
It is possible with port forwarding but you're still left with the problem of the incoming port always having to be 80. For example you could have Calibre setup to be on port 1234 at home but to access it from the outside world you'll have to forward port 80 > 1234. This isn't a concern if you're not already running a webserver on port 80, most people probably aren't. Even so you may still run into a conflict if your ISP provides you with a modem/router combo, say like a 2Wire, it is most likely setup to host its web gui on both port 80 and 443 (http and https respectively). On most routers you can specify which ports the router's webgui will be on so this can be fixed.

It seems that both DiapDealer and myself are maybe too "geeky" lol and want to access quite a few things remotely but only have so many ports we can work with. In my case the Kindle can only view stuff on port 80 and my work firewall only lets me view stuff on ports 80, 8080, and 443.

In my case I don't think I have ISP restrictions, so I'd just need to figure out how to configure my router appropriately. But I'd rather have a NAS based or PogoPlug solution etc. if this were ever a requirement for me - dedicating a computer would be overkill.

[jphphotography]

@Tomsem
The restriction may not be at the ISP level, it could very well be that the Kindle web browser itself is restricting http traffic to port 80 while on 3G. I did some quick fiddling and was able to get my NAS webserver to work for direct kindle downloads, talk about a media vault now I've got music, videos, and books at my disposal

Configuring routers for port forwarding isn't all that complicated, there are tons of examples on the web as well if you run into problems. I recommend trying something like this: Setup Calibre to run on say port 5000, then in your router forward port 5000 to port 5000 of whatever internal IP your calibre pc is using. While on 3G if you can point your kindle to http://youipaddress:5000 and it works then my issue is definitely with my 3G provider. If it doesn't work then try again on wifi. This will answer a lot of questions for the rest of us. I can confirm at least where I am (Saskatchewan Canada) that I can only access port 80 over 3G (I'll try on wifi when I get home).

[wesleyer]

Originally Posted by tomsem

In theory it should be possible to extend access to the internet at large (configuring a port of your choice on the router and redirecting this to a server on its local network) but I haven't attempted that. For one thing, my router's IP address is dynamic so whatever access I could arrange would break from time to time when a new IP is assigned to it.

There are free services out there which can give you a hostname and easily update it for dynamic IP cases.
For example: http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/