ShowBox Has Stopped Working - Getting Popcorn Time to install on a Kindle Fire Tablet

ShowBox Has Stopped Working! Get a replacement application onto your Kindle Fire or Tablet

By Strictly-Software

Showbox has stopped working.

Hopefully this is a temporary situation but as it provides great TV and Films I needed a replacement. This is how I got Popcorn Time onto my Kindle Fire, a tablet that didn't seem to want to take any .APK file from the web in the first place.

If you have a standard tablet then you should just be able to do a search for the Popcorn time APK and download and install the APK file on your tablet as long as you have turned on the ability to install applications from unsafe locations (e.g the web and not Playstore/Amazon store).

Remember to go to Settings -> Security -> Install Unknown Apps and enable whilst trying to install from a website.

If you want an easy way you can just go to the website https://watch.popcorntime-online.tv and then you can select films or TV shows and watch them directly on your laptop.

If you have a Chromecast you can stream the content to a TV that its plugged into OR if you have a WiFi enabled TV you should be able to select the TV of your choice.

Another way would just be to connect your laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable and get the picture that way. However I wanted the application on my Kindle Fire as its easy to hold and I can take it from room to room and stream it from that device to the main TV or bedroom TV or just watch it on the tablet.

If you want to use a tablet try using the USB cable and connect it to your laptop first and see if it shows as an external device. If it does then just copy the Popcorn APK file across and install it.

I tried this but the Kindle didn't show up despite updating drivers. However try this before the FTP steps below.

Full Requirements for these steps to work...

-A Wifi enabled TV or Chromecast that can handle streamed content
-Kindle Fire or another tablet
-ES File Explorer application working on your tablet (download from PlayStore or web)
-TOR Browser (download from Google to get around blocked sites)
-FileZilla FTP App (or another FTP app - free to download

So to get Popcorn TV onto my Kindle I had to do the following steps...

1. Use TOR Browser and go to https://popcorn-time.en.uptodown.com/android/download (other sites I checked wanted payment for download or had dead links)
2. Download the file to your laptop/PC and remember the location
3. Open the ES File Explorer on Kindle/tablet
4. Go to Remote Manager
5. Press the "Turn ON" button
6. You will be given a local IP address for viewing your tablets files by FTP e.g ftp://192.168.1.125:3725. If you enter that into a web browser you should see the contents of your Kindle however to transfer the downloaded file I used FileZilla a free FTP app for transferring files.
-Open Filezilla and select "New Site"
-Enter the IP address and port number into the boxes
-Chose FTP Plain Insecure
-Chose Anonymous login
-Select the Transfer Settings tab and ensure "Passive" is selected
-Hit connect and as long as the "TURN ON" button is still enabled on your Kindle/Tablet in ES FIle Explorer you should get to see your tablets Hard Drive
-You can then copy the popcorn-time-3-2-2.apk file from the file you downloaded it to on your computer to the downloads folder on your Kindle/Tablet.
-Select the Download folder in ES File Explorer once copied and select "Install"
-It should install the APK
-You can then open it, select a file and hit the Cast button to stream it to your TV or ChromeCast
-I had to open the app a couple of times at first as it was a bit shaky but it is now playing a movie on my TV okay.

Hope this helps people out ....

© 2018 Strictly-Software

Obtaining an external IP address in memory for use in a Firewall Rule

Obtaining an external IP address in memory for use in a Firewall Rule

By Strictly-Software

As I am currently using an ISP which constantly changes my external IP address due to excessive use of DCHP, I have to regularly update external firewalls on servers to allow my computer remote access.

This is obviously a right pain to do and I have no idea why my ISP changes my IP address so much when my old ISP used DCHP and kept it for months at a time.

Therefore I created this little noddy VBScript to sit on my desktop to obtain my IP address and hold it in my clipboard memory ready for me to just open up my firewall and paste it in.

The code uses the MSXML2.ServerXmlHttp object to obtain the IP address from an external website which just prints it on the page and I store the Response.Text into a variable.

I then use WScript.Shell object to open a new Notepad window and write the IP address out into it.

Then I use SendKeys to select the IP address and copy it into the clipboards memory before shutting down Notepad.

This means I can just quickly double click my desktop shortcut icon to obtain the IP address ready to paste it straight into a Firewall rule.

Check this script out and when you are ready and can see that hitting CTRL + V pastes the IP address out elsewhere you should remove the "TEST SECTION" and uncomment the part above it that closes down Notepad. This ensures you are not leaving empty objects around in your computers memory.

It's not exactly amazing code but it's very helpful at this time and saves a lot of time visiting a website manually to get my external IP address.

You might find this useful yourselves!

Option Explicit

Dim IPAddress, objShell
Dim objHTTP : Set objHTTP = WScript.CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXmlHttp")

'* Obtain external IP address and store it in a variable
objHTTP.Open "GET", "http://icanhazip.com", False
objHTTP.Send
IPAddress = objHTTP.ResponseText

'* Open Notepad
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run "notepad.exe", 9

WScript.Sleep 1000

'* Write out the IP address to a blank notepad file
objShell.SendKeys IPAddress

'* select the IPAddress and copy it into memory
objShell.SendKeys "^{a}"
objShell.SendKeys "^{C}"

'* uncomment the following section and remove the "TEST SECTION" when you are ready

'* Close notepad with the IP address in clipboard ready to be pasted
'* Open Save Dialog
'* objShell.SendKeys("%{F4}")
'* Naviagate to Don't Save
'* objShell.SendKeys("{TAB}")
'* Exit Notepad
'* objShell.SendKeys("{ENTER}")

'* TEST SECTION - Proves that the IP address can be pasted elsewhere
WScript.Sleep 1000

'* Proof that the IP address is in the clipboard and can be pasted out
objShell.SendKeys "Test Paste Works"
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
objShell.SendKeys "^{V}"
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
objShell.SendKeys "Try a manual CTRL and V to check the IP address is still in memory"
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

'* Kill objects - DO NOT REMOVE!!
Set objShell = Nothing
Set objHTTP  = Nothing

By Strictly-Software

© 2018 Strictly-Software