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Handhelds Wireless Networking Hardware

SSH or VNC From Your Cell Phone? 222

fintler writes "Andreas Karlsson has a working release of a simple ssh client for the Ericsson P800 and is looking for a way to imput control charactors in the interface. Here is Screenshot 1 and Screenshot 2. There's also a VNC client for the Ericsson P800 (Auf Deutsch!) written by Gino Micacchi with some more screenshots here and here."
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SSH or VNC From Your Cell Phone?

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  • by sweeney37 ( 325921 ) * <mikesweeney&gmail,com> on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:16AM (#6557902) Homepage Journal
    oh sweet, as demonstrated via the pictures [p800.info], using VNC from my mobile would allow me to check the status of my KaZaA downloads or check my email for my latest RIAA subpoena!

    Mike
    • You missed that you can also use Daemon-Tools to mount your latest downloaded W***z ISO's and even play them over VNC (at 1/10 FPS)! :)
    • by diersing ( 679767 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:10AM (#6558190)
      And seriously, that's about all. I've tried remote administration via my phone (Sprint A500 has a VNC client as well), Crackberry, and PDA. SSH is the best (IMHO), VNC screen rendering is impractical on such a small device (so are the other alternatives like RDesktop and TermServ). I also tried SonicAdmin without much fan fare from me.

      With VPN and so many computers available at cafes, libraries, etc... I think real remote admining via portable devices is just for the 'way I'm cool' factor.

      • > And seriously, that's about all. I've tried remote administration via my phone
        > (Sprint A500 has a VNC client as well), Crackberry, and PDA. SSH is the best (IMHO),
        > VNC screen rendering is impractical on such a small device (so are the other alternatives
        > like RDesktop and TermServ). I also tried SonicAdmin without much fan fare from me.

        SSH is very nice, but it depends on the device. 160x160 PalmOS devices are crappy with ssh, because you can't get too many characters in a line, and that me
      • by Phil Gregory ( 1042 ) <phil_g+slashdot@pobox.com> on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @10:42AM (#6559694) Homepage

        Though I haven't tried it (my Palm Pilots have never been network-connected), GEORDI [geordi.org] looks like it's a pretty decent interface for administering Unix (and Unix-alike) systems remotely from a PDA. Barring that, I'd probably go for ssh, but I found text-based things (text adventures, mostly) to be very annoying on the Palm.


        --Phil (Now I just need to stop dropping the things...)
      • just for the 'way I'm cool' factor

        So that means I can use it to telnet to blinkenlights.nl and watch Star Wars Episode IV - "A New Hope"?
  • Neat hack. (Score:2, Interesting)

    These must be those super cellphones that are built around computers rather than the ones you get with a basic plan. Better use than games on the things, although I'm at a loss as to how you'd actually type using the twelve digit keypad.

    I thought it was illegal to encrypt over wireless connections... just for speech, I guess? Irregardless, I'd definently wipe this off the phone before travelling abroad just in case.

    • by chrisbtoo ( 41029 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:26AM (#6557956) Journal
      I thought it was illegal to encrypt over wireless connections

      That'd go a fair way to explaining WEP.
    • Re:Neat hack. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Bushcat ( 615449 )
      I'm at a loss as to how you'd actually type using the twelve digit keypad

      Maybe with this [nttdocomo.co.jp] or this [justmyshop.com] (the text is Japanese but the pictures are English).

    • Re:Neat hack. (Score:2, Informative)

      by GuyWithLag ( 621929 )
      Regading key input, the P800 has a touchscreen with handwriting recognition. Works really good too, unless you are like me and write really really small letters.....
      • I have a P800, and it wuold be really nice for a shoulder-surfer to read you writing your root password... :)

        To anyone that owns one, make sure you back up your stuff regularly - you don't want to switch it on to find "Your filesystem is corrupt and must be formatted - Continue?" on it....

    • Re:Neat hack. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by suwain_2 ( 260792 )
      I thought it was illegal to encrypt over wireless connections...

      I don't think it is. As a ham, I know we're not allowed to use 'codes or ciphers,' but just about anything else nowadays uses encryption. WEP over wireless Ethernet. Digital spread spectrum (I suppose that's debatable on whether it's encryption or just obscurity?) on my cordless phone. The box for my cell phone bears a "RSA Encryption" logo.

      It doesn't make sense from a legislative standpoint, either. The people who really have something to h
    • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:13AM (#6558212)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • What would be cool would be PGPFone [pgpi.org] for the P800 - encrypted voice over IP.
    • These must be those super cellphones that are built around computers rather than the ones you get with a basic plan. Better use than games on the things, although I'm at a loss as to how you'd actually type using the twelve digit keypad.

      With a keyboard, perhaps? (Don't laugh...they're available for some phones. For instance, the packaging for the Motorola i95cl [nextel.com] shows the phone plugged into something that resembles the keyboard for my Palm III.)

  • by Psiren ( 6145 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:20AM (#6557916)
    I can see the ssh client being semi-useful, but the screen is just too small to do anything much with VNC. This is one of the advantages of *nix imho, anything you can do in the gui, you're likely to be able to do on the command line. More often than not faster too.
  • Wow! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by James A. A. Joyce ( 681634 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:20AM (#6557919) Journal
    There's so many uses for this; if you've got SSH on a mobile, the possibilites are endless. If you can remotely log into any of your other networked machines then you can do all kinds of things from a sufficiently sophisticated mobile. Just imagine what you could do as a journalist or undercover Amnesty International worker!
  • Seems to me... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jkrise ( 535370 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:20AM (#6557920) Journal
    A cellphone is less useful than a dumb VT100 terminal. Granted, you can't carry the terminal around, but if people would build a simple 80x25 screen with a tiny keyboard,that gets a login prompt from the service provider, that could be the most useful innovation since sliced bread.

    Building intelligence into the client, but making data-input difficult, and not using standard protocols - seems a huge waste of money and bandwidth.

    -
    • Re:Seems to me... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by pesc ( 147035 )
      I don't agree. The mobility provided by a cellphone is a great value in itself. You can now access your computers from wherever you are.

      Building intelligence into the client, but making data-input difficult, and not using standard protocols - seems a huge waste of money and bandwidth

      I would say that SSH is a standard protocol. And having that kind of intelligence in a mobile client is extremely useful when you are communicating over an insecure network. SSH provides much better authentication and encryp
    • by Baki ( 72515 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:49AM (#6558080)
      One month ago I was hiking in the mountains (on Corsica) and it was quite useful to be able to login on my server at home while staying in a mountain refuge at 3000m altitude. Every gram counts on such travels, and I would never be able to take a 80x25 screen with me.

      Also what do you mean "not using standard protocol"? SSH is as standard as it gets when you want to have a secure login on a UNIX server.
      • by Anonymous Coward
        Your definition of 'refuge' is different than mine.
      • Every gram counts on such travels, and I would never be able to take a 80x25 screen with me.

        I didn't imply that you carry a VT100 terminal with you. A small 80x25 LCD screen, USB interface for kbd., a mobile interface to the ISP - that's what is required for a mobile VT100 device. That could be a very simple, low cost, flexible, powerful option for most of us.

        -
      • I may be stepping out on a limb saying something like this on /. but here goes...

        You are enjoying the beautiful views from a mountain top at 3000m, enjoying the outdoors, hiking (one of my favorite activities), and being away from it all.

        Yet you had to login to your server at home from your fucking cell phone?

        Man, I bring my cell phone with me but I would NEVER EVER EVER EVER use it to login, surf the web, check email, do whatever, while out enjoying what nature has given us.

        Yay, let's be 100% connected
        • Well, it certainly wouldn't be my first choice either, but if you consider having to disrupt your vacation/trip/day-off to have to try and locate a terminal somewhere to put out a fire back home...

          I'd rather be able to spend the 5 minutes to do it from my P800 than have to waste hours on the problem, or have a young PFY at work mess with things and make more of a headache for myself.

          Especially good idea, if it's because I'm the only one who can do it and it looks good to the boss, and I think some extra b
    • Building intelligence into the client, but making data-input difficult, and not using standard protocols - seems a huge waste of money and bandwidth.

      No, running a VNC connection vis a GSM link is a waste of bandwidth and money... At least if you consider what a MB of data transfer over GPRS costs here in Germany...

    • The input for a phone is WAY different that that of a cell phone. Using the standard ctrl-key is gone.

      All you have on a phone are MINIMALLY your 12 dial keys. Using this for logging in to do really simple administration is plausable, and keys like ctrl-c would be most valuable.

    • Already exists.. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      See the hiptop at http://www.danger.com ..

      Developers have access to other applications that are not installed on the phone by default (but soon will be available for anyone to download over the wire). Included is an SHH client which not only takes full advantage of the keyboard and color screen, but also has really smart key mappings for CTRL etc.. making emacs quite useable (meta is still a problem though).

      Slickest thing to show off on that phone, works really well, definitely got some slack jaws from t
  • by Prince_Ali ( 614163 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:22AM (#6557927) Journal
    "It doesn't make telephone calls?"
    "We didn't have room for a phone."

    You can now shoot me for making a Spy Kids reference.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:24AM (#6557938)

    The company I work for, Idokorro Mobile [idokorro.com], has a working client (in beta) for the Nokia 3650 & 6800. Cool stuff.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:24AM (#6557941)
    I think I'd break my phone out of frustration long before I got logged in.
  • gprs lag. (Score:4, Informative)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:24AM (#6557942) Homepage Journal
    is something that makes cheap use of these remote use programs quite a pain for anything except emergency(that and the small screen too). much more convinient to have programs that have the interface on the phone..

    irc and others are nice to have on phone though, gprs pricing usually ends up being cheaper than calling or sending sms messages too(if you can arrange the other person to be on irc as well).

    -
    • I use a GPRS PCMCIA card in my laptop (T-Mobile, 56K, $29/mo flat rate) and love it. I use VNC and ICA over it all the time. While there is a little latency (or lag as you called it), it is quite easy to get used to. Wouldn't be without it now that I've had it.
  • PDA and VNC (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    We've been trying to get a Compaq Ipaq working with VNC over the GPRS network here in the UK for a while now. Unfortunately, O2 our provider, is doing something crazy with NAT which breaks our ability to form a VNC connection. This was supposed to be my team's support device to take down the pub with them when they were on out of hours support but...
  • Nokia 3650? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PhoenixK7 ( 244984 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:26AM (#6557953)
    Anyone know of clients of similar sorts that will run on a Series 60 Symbian phone? I've been looking around but the VNC clients that I located refused to run on the phone after installing the package.
  • um? (Score:4, Informative)

    by xNullx ( 635439 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:26AM (#6557955)
    My Samsung phone has had a Java VNC client for quite some time already, odd that this would make news. Though that phone looks nicer than mine
  • Cute... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BiggerIsBetter ( 682164 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:27AM (#6557959)

    ...but how do you hack scripts in Vi with a funky cell-phone kepad? And maybe someone will implement TXT compatible shell expansion?

    It's a cool idea whose time has come, but I think it'll be an emergency tool rather than a new way to work.

    • Re:Cute... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:01AM (#6558129) Homepage
      ...but how do you hack scripts in Vi with a funky cell-phone kepad?

      You don't. You use a bluetooth keyboard instead.

      No experience using a bluetooth keyboard with this SSHe client. However, plenty of experience using bluetooth to send text between OS X and a phone. It's certainly possible, just don't know if it's been done yet.

      Anyone else know if a bluetooth keyboard compatible with phones yet exists?

      Cheers,
      Ian

      • I know next-to-nothing about bluetooth, but what about security?

        Would using bluetooth create a gaping security hole in your otherwise secure connection to your server? How easy would it be for somebody to monitor your keystrokes and snag your password from thin air?

  • i have used this putty port for a while, but i am now using the telnet/ssh client by mochasoft, commercial, but functioning way better than the basic putty port listed in the article.

    http://www.mochasoft.dk/nokia.html#telnet800 [mochasoft.dk]
  • NoMachine NX port ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by wolruf ( 30926 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:27AM (#6557965)
    Someone could also port NoMachine (GPL), it already runs on Zaurus and iPAQ Linux:
    http://www.nomachine.com/documentation.php [nomachine.com]
    It runs really nice on slow links.
  • by linuxrunner ( 225041 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:28AM (#6557968)

    Screen Shot 1 [vintagerex.com] - SSH Client

    Screen Shot 2 [vintagerex.com] - SSH Client

    VNC Viewer [vintagerex.com]

  • Screenshots (Score:5, Funny)

    by spieters ( 312206 ) <spieters&gmail,com> on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:32AM (#6557986)
    Apparantly the P800 also runs apache, the screenshots are being served from there aswell...

    The first mobile phone casualty of slashdotting, *sigh*
    • Re:Screenshots (Score:4, Interesting)

      by wagemonkey ( 595840 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @09:02AM (#6558646)
      Err, it's not Apache, but I do have a webserver on my P800 :-) It's called Prosit - if you want to know why I have a webserver on a cellphone ... um, er, ah well, I know - just because I can!

      I also have myBuddies (ICQ) PuTTY and VNCviewer. And 2 browsers - a built in one for WAP and Opera for GPRS (It really is good too). It plays video (avi) and will sent photos from the built in camera by email. There are some utilies (sman and control panel), games, Java note util (standard one has proprietary format) and some crypto. I also use Mobipocket to browse offline and read books.

      Downside is it 'only' has 12Mb onboard and 16Mb Memory Stick Duo and I really need to get rid of some stuff or buy a 64Mb card. Screen is quite good too for 4096 colour. If it had some sort of spreadsheet/DB util I wouldn't bother with a 'normal' PDA, I still might get one eventually. But I downloaded the SDK to see if I can whip up something in Java.
      I get strange looks as my ring tone is a good quality .wav of an old-fashioned phone ringing (bells).

      • I happened to wander into the Sony Store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, and they had racks full of 128Mb Memory Stick Duos. I bought one immediately, of course. Bad news? They're $89.99 each.
  • by gseidman ( 97 ) <gss+sdot@nOSPaM.anthropohedron.net> on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:35AM (#6558008)
    I am just about to order the T-Mobile Sidekick (a.k.a. the Danger Hiptop [danger.com]). It has an actual keyboard, and an ssh client is promised (a beta is available with the SDK, which is available through the developers program).
    • I bought a sidekick about 6 weeks ago. All I have to say is "wow." It's really fun to have people make fun of you for not being able to leave the internet at home, and then ask to check their hotmail five minutes later.

      It's the first mobile internet device that I've actually found useful. You get the actual page, rather than some crappy WAP version. Images are high quality, as my friends have shown me with porn... The only downside is that it doesn't support Java.

      It has been a little more expensive than I
  • What about J2ME (Score:2, Interesting)

    by RawCode ( 464152 )
    Would this app (which it seems is only for that Ericsson phone) be that much more a killer app if it were done in J2ME and be available on MANY different platforms? Or is that possible given the J2ME graphics library? Surely the SSH client would be doable.
  • Samsung i330 (Score:2, Informative)

    by _critic ( 145603 )
    I've been SSHing on my Samsung (PalmOS - with TGssh) for a couple of months now . . . it's a freaking godsend - no more macerena of cell-phone, palm, blackberry and laptop.

    now if it just had an mp3 player . . .
  • by drazvan ( 93345 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @07:44AM (#6558059) Homepage
    ActiveViewer [simeda.com] is the first VNC client for J2ME-enabled handsets. It works on pretty much anything, from Siemens handsets to Blackberry pagers and color-screen Nokia 7650/3650. Razvan
  • I used to do this with my nokia's infrared to my visor and used PalmVNC to VNC in from my cell phone. This is a little less bulky of a solution, since it only requires the cellphone.

    What I'd like is a phone that acts as it's own modem. With all the cell phones I've owned, it was possible to dial up with externel equipment, but the phone itself had no dial up networking, just the expensive internet the phone company offers.
  • Kyocera SmartPhone (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jarnot ( 192253 )
    I've had these capabilities for a few years with my (already antiquated) Kyocera 6035 SmartPhone [kyocera-wireless.com].

    Palm VNC client [btinternet.co.uk] and TopGun SSH [offshore.com.ai] are a bit of a strain on the phone's CPU, but still usable -- even over a dialup connection. It comes in handy if I need to access my servers when I'm away from my desk.

  • by abulafia ( 7826 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:02AM (#6558135)
    www2# r u OK

    r: not found
    www2# cn u srv www
    cn: not found
    www2# y r u so btchy
    www2# talk 2 me




    -------------[press any key to exit]---------



    ^Cwww2# $! $?
    127: not found

    [Smashes phone]

    • And I thought I was a lazy bastard with lots of short bash aliases to minimize typing!

      I can see where these people will use up every damn single letter alias and function name around!

      alias i=init
      alias u=unmount
      .
      .

      If it really takes off, then maybe the filesystem naming conventions will be next. We'll turn the tide from current verbose offerings such as "/home/joeuser" to the much more succinct "/u/ju".

  • by psmears ( 629712 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:03AM (#6558147)
    ... on the Nokia 9210 [nokia.com] (or 9290 for those in the US) for some time... both VNC [machiya.free.fr] and SSH [f-secure.com] ports have been available for (as far as I remember) over a year... ssh.com [ssh.com] used to do a client too, but I can't see it on their site any more... I've found the ssh client very useful, e.g. it means I can set a task (e.g. a long compile) going, leave, then check up on it later from wherever I happen to be...
  • by tramm ( 16077 ) <hudson@swcp.com> on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:08AM (#6558175) Homepage
    I'v been running TopGun SSH [offshore.com.ai] for years on my 3Com Palm Pilot. Originally, I ran it over CDPD with a Minstrel, although entering shell commands via Grafiti was painful. With my Treo 300 [handspring.com], I now have a "real" keyboard and unlimited data so I can use it without worrying about how many packets are sent back and forth.
  • by nlinecomputers ( 602059 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:11AM (#6558199)
    It is bad enough driving with everyone and his ass talking on cell phones and not paying proper attention to the road. Now some geek will run my ass over while he is trying to hack my server.
  • Kyocera 7135 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MrFrog8552 ( 579817 )
    I have a Kyocera 7135, and had a 6035. Both can do ssh sessions with a palm ssh client. You can use the grafiti input to send commands, not as nice as a keyboard, but I can use that a lot faster than one of those small thumb keyboards. There's also a vnc client, works alright if you're on 1rxtt network, not so good with just standard dial up (or atleast not when you have a 2480x768 X session). Not the most beautiful view, but if you need it, it works.
  • by mydigitalself ( 472203 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:16AM (#6558247)
    i was doing this 5 years ago with a palm pilot, IR and an ericsson modem phone...very useful.
  • I have a Treo 270 using a GPRS network, allowing for near ISDN speeds for network connections. Like other users that have posted, i regularly use a combination of TopGun SSH [offshore.com.ai] and Mergic VPN [mergic.com] for getting into my corporate network when away from a computer.

    From my experience, due to limited screen real estate, it's really hard to do very complex actions via this combination. However, in a pinch,
    you can access a mission critical box and perform a restart of a service. With praticalities aside though, it's super
  • One of the ways to input control characters would by means of an alternative keyboard, like it's done, for example, with Russian language. (SIS can be downloaded from here [ericssonclub.org]. After installation, switch to RusKey in Applications--Tools--Control Panel--Text Input--Alternative.) Not only it provides a way to input Russian characters, but a more convinient English keyboard.

  • by AwesomeJT ( 525759 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:46AM (#6558501) Homepage
    Gosh, you can't even go on vacation without your server calling you! What?! You want me to fix sendmail from Bora-Bora? I can see my cell phone skipping across the water now. :)
  • Is the killer app I'm waiting for. I just need some money to buy a portable computing device.
  • by buro9 ( 633210 ) <david@buro9 . c om> on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @08:50AM (#6558545) Homepage

    This is a fantastic idea, but as the developers pointed out... it's a bit frustrating without the ability to CTRL + ESC.

    So... the chat keyboard should work:
    Chat Keyboard @ Sony Ericsson [sonyericsson.com]

    The Sony Ericssons use the same interface as all prior Ericsson phones, and whilst they haven't updated the site accordingly, I do have my old accessories for my T29 running smoothly on my T610... namely my old data transfer cable (for syncing contacts with Outlook).

    I believe that the chat keyboard above should work fine with the P800... thus solving the input method.

    Does anyone have the keyboard? Can you confirm if the extra keys are on it? Maybe the developers can use key combinations (if the interfaces expose them) to emulate the CTRL and ESC keys.

  • None of whom have a P800, I'll warrant. I do (I develop for it), and the screen is plenty big enough for VNC and SSH, especially if the VNC client supports landscape mode. Hell, if it doesn't, I might help it along.

    Don't knock the P800 until you've tried it. With a decent browser in landscape mode (Opera or Picsel) it's also an acceptable web browser.

    Now, would you non-P800 luser please get off the site so that I can grab the files? ;-P

  • I haven't used ssh over a cellphone but I can immediately see the advantages of being able to do so. While VNC and Windows Terminal services are surely easier to use, in general, with the omnidirectional toggle switch on most phones, the bandwidth is a pig and the small screen obviously doesn't make it easier to use. This would be definitely an emergeancy tool for those services. ssh however, being more lightweight would be very useful for sysadmins on call or other types of similar work.

    What would be a re
  • Symbian is the most intolerant OS it has ever been my mispleasure to develop for. I managed to get a KERN-EXEC out of the putty client with 4 taps. Hey, that's not alpha, that's ready to ship!
  • by ViXX0r ( 188100 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @10:14AM (#6559353) Homepage
    ... and is looking for a way to imput control charactors in the interface.

    I think we need better ways to input the correct characters on our current interfaces first.
  • Dang if I can find it now, but there was an effort to make a Palm-based Unix admin tool. It had a lot of menus and buttons for common remote-admin tasks ("ps -ef | grep", "kill", "cp", "rm", editing files, etc.) Last I saw it only worked via telnet but they were thinking of adding SSH and such.

    Given a moderately good screen, and a moderately fast network, such a tool could be darn useful. I'd say slap a decent GUI on these existing tools and you could get a lot done.

  • by britrock ( 684244 ) on Tuesday July 29, 2003 @10:36AM (#6559616)
    Ok, so right now its only for the developer builds, but it will be released by the end of the summer. I run the developer OS builds on my hiptop every day. The ssh client is AWSOME! It is even easy to use because of the qwerty keyboard. If some one has some space on a server I can send some screen shots.
  • for quite some time...
  • If you have a Danger Hiptop (T-Mobile Sidekick), the developer's kit has a SSH client in it.
  • Funny, I've been doing this for almost a year now with my Treo 300 using PalmVNC and TGSSH.
  • Symbian is a great OS; I hope they'll not just keep shipping cell phone combos but also get back into the handheld market: they beat PPC and PalmOS hands down in just about every respect.

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