I have seeen some reports over here that runing a SSH-Server (Dropbear from iNdependence or OpenSSH from Installer) may sigificantly reduce battery live.
I wanted to keep my SSH server but use it every now and then.
I am too lazy to type the terminal commands to do so, so I used Installer (from App Tapp Installer) on the iPhone to install "UIctl".
Its a grafical interface that allows to issue launchctl commands to all daemons. USE WITH CARE, if you dont know what you are doing, you may begin from scratch...

I installed and startet it.

All running deamons are printed in black.
The one for Dropbear SSH is
au.asn.ucc.matt.dropbear
the one for Open SSH is
com.openssh.sshd

Type on the one you wanna stop sucking your battery. A dialog appears, choose
unload -w
and in the following dialog hit "Do it". The name (of the deamon) turns red, the ssh-Server (and SFTP-server) is not running anymore but still installed.

If you wanna use it again, start UIctl, hit the (red) deamon name and hit
load -w
in the appearing dialog and then "Do It". Server is up and running again. No restart on both actions needed.

Don't try that on other deamons as long as you dont know what you are doing!!!

volkspost

It really DOES seem to affect the battery life - who would have guessed?

Sweet, good plan. Also makes iPhone more secure (even tho I have changed the root passwords of course!).

I have also used rSBT to "hide" the UIctl application once I did this, as many people like to play with my iPhone and I don't want them opening up that app and clicking away!

Originally Posted by h4xxr

Sweet, good plan. Also makes iPhone more secure (even tho I have changed the root passwords of course!).

I have also used rSBT to "hide" the UIctl application once I did this, as many people like to play with my iPhone and I don't want them opening up that app and clicking away!

haha....oh man how i know this: "may i?" "wow, can i have a look?" "what does this do?" and them "oops" handing it over back to me..

Thanks for the tip volkspost! He he, "the people's post" ;-)

Are you sure this is due to SSH and not the fac tthat you have to set the phone to "never lock" in order for it to not sever the SSH connection. When you're connected to via SSH and the phone is not locked (screen locked) you are obviously draining more power because the screen is always on. This isn't to do with SSH directly per say, it's to do with the screen being on. I noticed the battery drain issue myself which is why I posted a thread in "Native Software" asking kindly for someone to develop a screen off app. If we had such an app i'm sure this wouldn't be an issue.

Originally Posted by hubbards

Are you sure this is due to SSH and not the fac tthat you have to set the phone to "never lock" in order for it to not sever the SSH connection. When you're connected to via SSH and the phone is not locked (screen locked) you are obviously draining more power because the screen is always on. This isn't to do with SSH directly per say, it's to do with the screen being on. I noticed the battery drain issue myself which is why I posted a thread in "Native Software" asking kindly for someone to develop a screen off app. If we had such an app i'm sure this wouldn't be an issue.

Well as I said. I am using SSH/SFTP only every now and then for a couple minutes. For that time, setting Auto-Lock to never and ending up with screen on will drain battery of cause. But, as far as I know the server is - when on - always in kind of a waiting state for connection and running. So shutting this off will decrease use of the battery.
Using Apples Notebooks from almost the beginning with model 100 I always switch off all services (plus network adapters when not using) when I am travelling and away from power supply. With Mac-OS x now I use a setting that has no services running (personal filesharing, web sharing remote desktop etc) that helps for sure - should help on the iPhone aswell. At least it will not harm.

volkspost

Fair point... have your tried running 'TOP' or a similar process monitor on the iPhone to check how much resource the app is using. I can't believe it's that intensive unless it's a badly coded port.

Originally Posted by hubbards

Fair point... have your tried running 'TOP' or a similar process monitor on the iPhone to check how much resource the app is using. I can't believe it's that intensive unless it's a badly coded port.

I dont think its coded badly. I have benn running top on both (dropbear and OpenSSH). Like the always running MobileSafari and some other (Apple-SW) processes SSH is usually at 0% but every like 10-15 seconds the CPU percentage exceeds to > 1000% (I know thats ...) and then drops down to a minus value then back to 0%. Something is happening there I guess. I don't know how much power that needs, I keep SSH off as long as I dont need it. With UIctl switching is just three fingertipps away and (for me) it wont harm battery. Even if it saves just the extra-minute, for me its worth.

best
volkspost

Would be nice to have an icon to switch ssh on and off.