Comments on: Goodreader & the iPad

By: Top Ten iPad Apps for Librarians | Information Tyrannosaur

Top Ten iPad Apps for Librarians | Information Tyrannosaur — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:05:29 +0000

[...] with all the options for set up and organization, and Jason Griffey noticed that you may want to check your settings for security reasons. But for saving and reading different files, it is great. It also integrates [...]

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:42:58 +0000

I was running Goodreader. As a matter of fact, I could see other folks' iPads, too, just like Jason. I wasn't running Quickoffice since there is no way to run two apps simultaneously.

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:28:47 +0000

Good sleuthing. I'm still unclear what Jennifer and Sarah were doing (perhaps they were running Quick Office, not GoodReader, and confused the names?), but this sounds more likely.

Air Sharing HD has a WebDAV-sharing feature, too, which you can turn on, but it has some security recommendations, too.

By: griffey

griffey — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:19:04 +0000

I'll agree, this is very strange. I followed up with Jennifer by email, and as it turns out, the file that I accessed wasn't in Goodreader at all. It isn't clear to me at this point what on the iPad was allowing the connectivity between the two ipads...but whatever it is, it appears to be a default setting somewhere, as I was able to recreate this time and time again on shared wifi with different iPads.

I don't have 2 iPads, or I'd do testing here and root out the cause. You're completely right...it's most likely some other program that created the hole...and after some quick Googling, it appears that Quick Office might be the culprit...it uses 4242 as it's port.

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:51:07 +0000

I replied above. Port 4242 isn't used by default, so someone must have changed it. Do Jennifer and Sara work for a firm that would have configured GoodReader for them?

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:49:32 +0000

Fascinating. What you're describing is not how GoodReader works, so I'm confused. Also, the “4242″ in the display for you and the other person is not the port (sort of a numbered cubbyhole attached to an Internet address) used by GoodReader by default.

After testing this a few times, there's no way that I can see that GoodReader would have been sharing your connection, which is what makes this strange. Have you or griffey contacted the makers of the software to find out why this happened?

By: Jennifrr

Jennifrr — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:54:48 +0000

To clarify: I didn't access Goodreader via wifi. Wifi was connected when I opened Goodreader.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:47:15 +0000

I'm one of the iPad owners. I wasn't using any other software; I don't even know what bonjour or WebDAV are… All I did was access Goodreader at the convention center via its wifi network. I wasn't required to change any settings on my iPad to do so.

By: Pattern Recognition » Blog Archive » Quick Office, not Goodreader

Pattern Recognition » Blog Archive » Quick Office, not Goodreader — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:08:50 +0000

[...] some prodding from Glenn in the comments of my post on Goodreader and the iPad, it turns out that the security culprit doesn’t look [...]

By: griffey

griffey — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:46:45 +0000

Glenn: Thank you for the follow up! I'm almost certain it was Goodreader natively, in that I contacted the individual in question, and when she followed the instructions I gave, I was no longer able to connect.

I will follow up with her, and get a better idea of what she was using in order to make sure my instructions are accurate.