SSH and background connectivity

[dreamwizwp]

Hey guys,

I'm considering a switch from iPhone 4S to Lumia 920 or the HTC One. The biggest problem standing in the way of going with Lumia (besides the lack of 1080 screen) is confusion around background apps. I have read that WP8 only supports background connections in certain kind of apps (VOIP, GPS) and all others get killed off the moment you move them to background. Here's the usage scenario I'm concerned about:

If Im connected to a server using SSH app, getting some work done and I need to switch temporarily to my email or to Internet Explorer or some other app to read a tutorial, check up on something etc. or if someone happens to call me while the SSH connection is on... in any of the cases mentioned, I would need to switch away from the SSH app for some seconds / minutes and put the app on the background. Would this kill the SSH connection to the server?

I know iSSH that I use on iOS has a 10 minute interval before it drops the connection and Android probably doesn't have any such limitation but what is the case with Windows Phone 8?

Thanks in advance for all the answers!

 

[stmav]

There is the SSH Client app. It says connection closes when switching applications because Windows Phone 7 does not support sockets running in the background. But it makes no mention of Windows Phone 8. Though it runs on it as well as 7. Maybe you could shoot the developer a message and ask him.

 

[marcomura]

I'm a WP developer and I can confirm that also in WP8 there is no way to keep a connection open.
Some apps workarounds this using a proxy server which keeps the connection open for you (see Gchat) but I don't like this approach because of security concerns...

Sorry, unfortunately in WP there is no way to have what you need.

 

[broar94]

I think background connectivity when apps are suspended doesnt work simply. My wpcentral app fails to retrieve data(it tells this once I multi task back to the app) during multi tasking. This happens before I let it complete the data download fully. For Example: if I switch to home screen or some other app immediately after selecting "forums" , and then going back to forums, it displays an error "tapatalk api fails" or something like that. I'd have to say the internet radio apps work perfectly during multitasking without much of a hitch. This may be due to the Audio API.

It's probably best to go for Android since it maintains background data, and apps never gets suspended(aka true multi tasking, apps keep running in background, battery drain will be unknown during this scenario).

 

[dreamwizwp]

Hi guys,

thanks for all the comments! I guess I just have to decide if this is a deal breaker or not. It's not often I need to use SSH on my phone but when I do, it's usually during some kind of emergency and the phone keeps ringing nonstop