Getting Online

This section assumes you've completed the previous steps to activate your device, and install Preware.
It also assumes you've joined a WiFi network using the built-in Settings, and that your WiFi network has Internet access.

The built-in web browser is dated, and has some limitations, but with a little help, there's still a lot you can do online!

Set Date and Time

Believe it or not, this is a critical step! Web encryption requires a reasonable delta from UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time or you'll end up with errors and failures. Use the built-in Settings app to set the date, time and time zone manually. Depending on your device, you may want to sync the time with a remote server once you're online.

Updating Certificates

The root certificates used to establish trust on the Internet are out-of-date in webOS and need to be updated. Fortunately, the community has made it really easy to solve this problem!

  • On your device, launch Preware, and wait for it to update sources.
  • Search for "Certs" using Preware's built-in search tool
    • On a phone, just start typing
    • On a TouchPad, use the Search icon in the toolbar at the top of the main scene
  • Find the app "Root Certs Update" in the search results, tap on it
  • Hit the Install button, and wait while it installs and runs the necessary scripts (this process takes a few minutes!)

Dealing with Encryption

Since webOS was released, encryption standards have changed, and some sites and services have become inaccessible.

If you're on webOS 2.2.4 or higher, a proxy is the simplest and most comprehensive approach to lending webOS a hand, and is covered in detail here.

If you don't want to use a proxy, you can partially improve the situation by installing a SSL update. This is discussed on the Forums, but for brevity, downloading and installing OpenSSL Updater for webOS via webOS Quick Install is all you need.

If you're on an older version of webOS, you won't be able to install or use a Proxy, since the API was not present. This significantly limits your access to the web, and even to some Preware files -- since many have been moved to HTTPS and are inaccessible. This can result in errors during install. As a work-around for Preware issues, look at the end of the error message for the URL of the file -- you can then download that on your computer, and use webOS Quick Install to "sideload" to your device.

For the earliest webOS devices, you can run the Opera Mini browser in Classic to get around encryption problems on web pages.

With or without modern encryption, there's still lots of interesting things you can do with your devices...

What Next

Now that you're online, check out a few of the things you can do with your webOS device.

Alternate Instructions

This documentation attempts to update and simplify information available from older, archived sources. You may find that material to be useful as reference: