Previous ToC Next

Software, BH (Before hacking)


The size of the compact flash chip only being 16MB limits the size of the operating system that can be placed on it. Not knowing what the OS was I left it alone and proceeded to explore the software a bit deeper. The Mouse driver does support hot-swapping so it is possible to shuffle the mouse around if needed. The software program tries to obtain access numbers by dialing out to a 1800 number (insert 1800 numbers here) If that fails you are presented with a bunch of troubleshooting steps that you can walk through if you want to. Of interest in this list is a choice that has "I would like to troubleshoot a problem not on this list." Clicking that sends you to a page that has a 1-800 tech support number and a text field that appears to be for special commands. On a whim I called the tech support 800# that they gave me. To my utter and profound amazement, someone from MSN picked up the phone!(See they do exist!) Based on our little confrence I got the following pieces of information:

  • The MSN Companion is still in use and it's pretty popular with a lot of ex-AOL users
  • The MSN Companion uses a WindowsCE installation that is tailored around MSN Explorer 6.0 (IE6?)
  • It is not possible to use another Dialup ISP with this device, it is a proprietary protocol
  • It is possible to hook up any USB printer in the world, as log as it's an Epson 600 series printer. Other printers are not and won't be supported
  • There is no chance in heck of hooking up additional storage to the machine, No zip drives, no USB Hard drives, no floppies, no disk-on-key drives, no nothing, nada zilch. He seemed pretty adament about this. (perhaps he didn't want me to boot it off a zip drive and find out for myself?)
  • The MSN service is $21.95/month, for two years. You can not use the MSN account on anything but this box and you are subject to a termination fee should your box need to be replaced.

    With this in mind, I set out to start hacking it...