Help needed re Zte "Join Me" software for PC sync <--> Telecom NZ "R1" phones.

[IainB]

A PC and mobile phone user asked me today if I could help to find some possibly obsolete software. It is not something that I am familiar with, so I am posting this on the offchance that a collective "Brains Trust" of DCF denizens might be able to throw much more useful light on the topic than I might be able to do on my own.

This is the gist of it, as far as I have it at the moment:

1. This person says they have been using a mobile phone "Telecom R1" from TNZ (Telecom NZ) for several years now and had previously downloaded the Zte Join Me PC client software (which had been documented in the user manual as to where it could be downloaded from). The software was very useful in archiving text etc. onto the user's PC.
   
2. However, due to a recent upgrade and re-installation of WinXP onto their computer, it seems that the Join Me software has inadvertently been lost/deleted. 
   
3. Having recently purchased two more of the R1 (TNZ) phones, this user wishes to upload files and texts to those new phones as well, using Join Me, but cannot find the software now.
   
4. The user has been in contact with http://www.ztedevice.com/ - makers of the phone - and it seems they do not support the phone with the Join Me software any more. Enquiries made to Telecom and the vendors of the phone get pointed back to Zte, so it seems to be a dead end.
   
5. Whilst this user can Bluetooth just the contacts across to a PC, they also need to get the texts from colleagues (i.e., text messages that are on the old phone) copied off the phone and saved to a PC and then copied across onto the new phones as well.
   ________________

So what seems to be needed is information about potential sources for an intact archived copy of the Join Me software, or information about any useful forums that might be able to help.

[IainB]

Out of my head are some notes which may be of use, plus I did a bit of hunting around for the software needed.
I knew nothing of Zte "Join Me" software for PC nor Telecom NZ "R1" phones.

However, it reminded me that in about 1998 I used some third party software (I dimly recall that it was developed by a French software house) from Vodafone NZ for a Bosch mobile phone and which enabled the user to do some clever stuff with moving SMS text data and phone number data both ways between phone memory OR phone SIM and a PC (I used a laptop) via an RS232 interface.
This was really handy and I used the Bosch phone as a central device to manage and sync the contents (typically telephone contact numbers) of multiple SIMs taken from non-Bosch phones that could NOT use the software/interface directly. The data was forced onto the SIMs, overwriting all existing data.

The software also enabled the Bosch phone to behave like a modem, and the user could send/receive fax and SMS from the PC through the phone - typing the SMS messages on a keyboard was far better/faster than using a phone keypad.
If you had set up a Vodafone "Data Account", you could also connect to the Internet through the phone - I tried that, but didn't use it much as it was a bit slow - slower than a 56K modem, anyway.
I stopped using this method when I wanted some newer technology in my mobile phone, and anyway RS232 interfaces eventually became became a pretty rare item on laptops.
It was very handy and I have seen nothing quite like it since, but the Zte software described sounded a bit similar.

In 2005/6 I used some software that did something similar to the above, but via a Bluetooth interface. It worked on a range of cellphones, including the Ericsson that I was using at the time. It was called floAt's Mobile Agent, which might be a defunct hyperlink now, but there might be copies of the website (and the software) on Wayback at https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://fma.sourceforge.net/

Wayback is really handy sometimes as their archives often have the downloadable software that was available when a snapshot of the site was archived. Just in case, I tend to make a local copy of these Wayback archived sites when I want them, using the FF Scrapbook extension (just plain standard Scrapbook, not any of its forks), which also saves any related files from a website - if you tell it which file extensions you want it to sweep up as it saves.

Wayback gives the following links for Zte, but I have not been able to investigate them at the moment as I am hard pressed for time and also having major performance problems with FF, for which I am trying to locate the cause.

For http://www.ztedevice.com/ ; (AXON Elite and Zte devices):

• https://web.archive.org/web/20130701000000*/http://www.ztedevice.com/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20150910225405/http://www.ztedevice.com/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20150915041445/http://www.ztedevice.com/index.html
• https://web.archive.org/web/20150911205111/http://www.ztedevice.com/support/

EDIT 2015-10-15 0506hrs:
I have discovered the cause of the "major performance problems with FF" - and it's not just FF, but anything using the Internet. My daughter was given access to a family member's Steam library and has been downloading several games and playing them, including Fallout Las Vegas (because she already really liked Fallout 3), and Civilisation V - the latter which she describes as her "new addiction".
Some of these game downloads are 7 or 8 gigabytes at a time, and I watched a full-length HD SF movie the other night which probably broke the camel's back and blew the broadband cap. So it's been throttled back to dead slow now... 

[4wd]

Your "friends" at CNET have v1.1.0B32:



Softonic and other sites also have Join Me but their download links are for installer stubs, unlike the one above which downloads the original installer, (even if it is a fairly early version).

[IainB]

@4wd: Thanks for that.
By the way, I have updated my last comment with a note that I have discovered the cause of the "major performance problems with FF" - and it's not just FF, but anything using the Internet. My daughter was given access to a family member's Steam library and has been downloading several games and playing them, including Fallout Las Vegas (because she already really liked Fallout 3), and Civilisation V - the latter which she describes as her "new addiction".
Some of these game downloads are 7 or 8 gigabytes at a time, and I watched a full-length HD SF movie the other night which probably broke the camel's back and blew the broadband cap. So it's been throttled back to dead slow now... 

[nogojoe]

Your "friends" at CNET have v1.1.0B32:

[attachment 1 not found]

Softonic and other sites also have Join Me but their download links are for installer stubs, unlike the one above which downloads the original installer, (even if it is a fairly early version).

Thanks 4wD
apparently the software for Join Me is network carrier specific for the TelecomR1 phone.  Your link contained phones allocated to the Telstra network and didnt have the R1 phone on the list of phones designed for that software. The only hope is that someone has a copy of the original download for the R1 that could be used. Have tried it on JoinMe software designed for Telecom R100 but that didn't work.
The installer stubs you mention takes you to a deadend link @ ZTE.and the say they are not supporting that software now.
One would think they would have an archived version on hand for legal purposes or maybe not.

[4wd]

... the software for Join Me is network carrier specific for the TelecomR1 phone.  Your link contained phones allocated to the Telstra network and didnt have the R1 phone on the list of phones designed for that software. ...

Sorry, didn't know that - there is an XML file in the archive that lists ZTE models, I wonder if one could be edited to R1 or it tacked on the end?

The USB drivers for the TNZ R1 are available from ZTE CN here.

[Shades]

Not sure if it useful in this particular case, but software such as FlowHeater Designer allows you convert data from one format into another by creating an adapter for any type of file generated by any device or software to collect the data an creating another adapter for the software or device you want to store this collected data. Once this done, you can use these adapters for as long as the software/device lasts.

While this seems complicated, the method is commonly used in software such as Microsoft Bizztalk that companies use to properly communicate whatever data generated by whatever software/device/process to any other software/device/process for both internal and external use. Figuring out the adapters is not too hard in a lot of cases.

The freeware version of Flowheater is limited to a maximum amount of data "flowing through" these adapters. But for trying it out that limit shouldn't be a problem.

[IainB]

I think I've just got it.
I did a duckgo search: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Zte+R1%28TNZ%29+manual&t=ffnt
The first item in the list of hits was: R1(TNZ) - Support - ZTE Devices - Tomorrow never waits
This links to the "Manuals" tab on the Support page.
From there:

• I downloaded the user manual as file: P020111219588636276357.pdf
• I saved the page to Scrapbook, which also swept up the software download files in
  file: p020111219589075332625.zip
• I  then clicked on the "Downloads" tab, and from there downloaded the software download files in
  file: P020111219589075332625.zip

I then compared the 2 software download .ZIP files, and they had an identical checksum (CRC32).

Looks like anyone should be able to do this and get the files with no problem.

Files are also saved here (click on links to view/download):

• ZTE R1(TNZ) Software - P020111219589075332625.zip  12545153Kb
• ZTE R1(TNZ) User Manual - P020111219588636276357.pdf 3615028Kb

==========================

EDIT 2015-10-17 1134hrs:
I did a search:
This hit: JoinMe : A PC Suite for ZTE Phones - ZTE Corporation was a blog post about the PC-based software for Join Me.
The blog post said:

You can download JoinMe from http://joinme.ztedevice.com/
_______________________

However, that gave a 302 error, so I looked it up on Wayback and went to year 2013 and clicked on all the links.

This gave 3 useful pages:

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20130425052804/http://joinme.ztedevice.com/
   This had a download button for WinPC JoinMe V1.0.3.200
   
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20130531113914/http://joinme.ztedevice.com
   This had a download button for WinPC V1.0.3.411
   
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20130801222150/http://joinme.ztedevice.com/
   This was the newest page - per date in the URL - and had a download button for WinPC (unspecified version).

I downloaded the files from each of the 3, which gave me 3 files of equal size (41.7Mb) and identical CRC32 checksum FD23ED5A. The JoinMe.exe file inside this file says it is version 1.1.0.0, but when installed, the PC application says it is v1.0.3.681
This file is saved here (click on link to view/download):
ZTE RI(TNZ) JoinMe(Windows PC) CRC32-FD23ED5A.exe

[4wd]

I think I've just got it.
I did a duckgo search: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Zte+R1%28TNZ%29+manual&t=ffnt
The first item in the list of hits was: R1(TNZ) - Support - ZTE Devices - Tomorrow never waits
This links to the "Manuals" tab on the Support page.
From there:

• I saved the page to Scrapbook, which also swept up the software download files in
  file: p020111219589075332625.zip

The USB drivers for the TNZ R1 are available from ZTE CN here.

Same file. 

[IainB]

EDIT 2015-10-17 1134hrs: I just now updated my previous post (above) where I give links to the files I found.
I have now found the JoinMe software and added it to the list.

[nogojoe]

EDIT 2015-10-17 1134hrs: I just now updated my previous post (above) where I give links to the files I found.
I have now found the JoinMe software and added it to the list.

Hi Ian.
Those files download links are for the Android Smartphone version .

Many thanks for your efforts .ony hope that someone has an archived version of the of the original ZTE Telecom R1. Joinme program.

Nogojoe.

[IainB]

@Nogojoe: Awfully sorry. My mistuk. Not thinkng. I shall correct the posts to reflect that it is for Android phones and will keep looking for the ZTE Telecom R1 JoinMe program.

[fuzeman]

Found it




http://web.archive.org/web/20150113114348/http://www.zte.co.nz/downloads/software/JoinMe_PC_B22.exe

[IainB]

Found it
http://web.archive.org/web/20150113114348/http://www.zte.co.nz/downloads/software/JoinMe_PC_B22.exe

Hey, nice find! Thankyou! How did you manage to track that down? I obviously need to learn something - I spent hours hunting on Wayback for it, but to no avail. Even wrote on the relevant support site, got an initially positive response, then fobbed off, so that went into a black hole.