About
 Introduction
 Storages
   Storages on flash cards
   Storages in files
   Fixed-sized and resizable storages
   Storage properties
 Storage operations
   Creating a storage
   Compact
   Resize
 Compression
 Encryption
 Passwords and password management
 Enhanced Security and Automation
 How to order
 Registration

Cryptainer PocketPC is a tool for securing the files on your PocketPC device. Read Introduction for more details.

Visit the Cryptainer homepage to download a new version or to get support. You can find comprehensive information on Cryptainer PPC including product specific technical information.

Alternatively you can send an e-mail to supportppc@cypherix.com.

Cryptainer PocketPC lets you protect files by creating an encrypted as well as the compressed storage on your PDA.

Cryptainer PocketPC creates a virtual "storage card" on either a flash card or as a file in memory.

Now you don't need to worry, that your documents leak away if the device or the flash card is lost or stolen. And you can even send your flash cards by mail or put them to a bank repository.

You start using the application by creating a storage.

Storages are the main unit of operation in Cryptainer PocketPC. They can be encrypted as well as compressed. Storage can take a form of a partition on the flash card or a regular file in the main memory or on the flash card (virtual storage card).

Virtual storage card is visible to the system just as a regular storage card. All operations with such cards are completely transparent. Such "storage card" can be encrypted with industry standard AES-256 and SHA-256 algorithms. It can also be compressed, effectively increasing capacity of your storage! It is important, that virtual storage card takes as little space, as needed to hold the data, and can be resized automatically to not take the extra space.

One of Cryptainer PPC features is creation of encrypted partition (part of the media, which is visible as a separate disk or a storage card) on a real storage card (flash card). Such partition can take either part or whole space of the flash card. If the encrypted partition occupies only part of the card, then the rest is formatted to FAT format compatible with all PDAs, cell phones and computers. You can place, for example, installation of Cryptainer PocketPC to this FAT partition.

Partition on the flash card always takes fixed amount of space, defined when you create a partition.

Encrypted partition is not visible to regular systems which don't have Cryptainer PPC installed. If you want the whole flash card to be recognizable as a single disk, don't create an encrypted partition. Instead create a virtual storage card and put the storage file to the flash card.

If you don't use a flash card or don't want to create an encrypted partition on a flash card, then Cryptainer can create a virtual storage card for you. The Virtual storage card looks like a regular file which you can put into the main memory or as a file on the flash card.

Virtual storage card can be either fixed-sized (that take fixed amount of space, which defined when you create a virtual card) or resizable. Resizable files adjust their size automatically when information is added or deleted to/from the storage.

Storages managed by Cryptainer PPC can be fixed-sized and resizable.

Fixed-sized storages always keep the size, specified during storage creation. Such storages can be resized manually in the storage manager.

Resizable storages initially occupy small amount of space and grow when the information is added to the storage. If the information is deleted and the storage has too much free space, the storage is shrink automatically.

Resizable storage are slower than Fixed-sized storages, but take less space in memory.

Partitions on the flash cards are always fixed-sized. Virtual storage cards can be both fixed-sized and resizable.

Each storage has certain properties that you initially specify when creating a storage, and also can change later. Storage properties are:

• Storage name. Each storage has a unique name, which identifies the storage in file system. When you browse the file system with File Explorer or similar application and the storage is mounted, you will see the storage name under My Device (root) folder.
• Type of the disk (fixed-sized or resizable).
• Storage size. This property is applicable only to fixed-sized storages. The size can be changed only for a virtual storages using Resize operation in the storage manager.
• Autocompact level. This property specifies the amount of free space (in %) which causes implicit Compact operation to be performed (and storage size to be decreased). Autocompact level is applicable only to resizable storages.
• Encryption. This property specifies if encryption is used.
• Password. This property specifies the password or passphrase (when encryption is used).
• Compression. This property specifies if compression is used.
• Cluster size. This property specifies granularity of the storage space allocation. The smaller the cluster is, then less space is wasted in storage. However small cluster size causes slower file operations.

Other storage properties are related to enhanced security and automation.

To protect your data, you first need to create a storage.

Once the storage is created, you will see it as a regular storage card within a system.

Certain operations with the storages can be done only using the special commands:

1. Check and Repair
2. Compact
3. Resize

Storage creation wizard lets you create a new storage. With this wizard you can specify if the storage will be a partition on the flash card or a virtual storage card. Then you specify the exact location of a new storage and give it a name. After this you set other storage properties.

Check and Repair operation must be done to perform internal integrity check of the storage. This operation looks for unallocated or lost clusters and returns them to the list of free clusters.

Compact operation performs optimization of storage usage (free space is moved to the end of the storage) and then the storage size is shrinked to smallest possible size to reduce the space occupied by the storage. On fixed-sized storages this operation only performs optimization. The storage can then be resized manually.

Resize operation lets you change the size of the fixed-sized storages (as they are not compacted automatically).

Note that only virtual storages can be resized. You can't change the size of the storage, allocated as a partition on the flash card.

To increase the capacity of main memory or storage card, you can use the Compression. When the Compression is applied to the storage, all files are automatically compressed when the data is written to storage and decompressed when the data is read from the storage.

Compression can increase the capacity of the storage for up to 3 times depending of the type of the information that you store. Multimedia files (music. movies) and program files are compressed not very efficiently (as they are often already compressed). Text files and documents are compressed the best.

Note, that when you browse the compressed storage with File Explorer or similar application, the size shown for the file is the amount of data that the file contains, and not the compressed file size.

For the compression standard general-purpose ZLib algorithm is used. It offers both good performance and moderate compression results.

To protect the data, industry-standard encryption algorithms (AES-256 and SHA-256) are used. They provide good speed and unbreakable (with the current technology level) security.

Encryption is applied on per-storage basis, where both the data and information about files and folders is encrypted. So you don't need to worry that someone will find out, what files are kept in the encrypted storage.

The architecture of Cryptainer PocketPC makes it possible to never decrypt more data than the application reads from the file. Such approach ensures that, for example, if you open a document in PocketWord and the device is lost, the only decrypted data are the ones that PocketWord contains. Note, that to prevent such situation, you need to unmount all cards and close the application (not Smart Minimize it, but completely stop it) as soon as you finished using it.

To prevent unauhthorized access to the data you need to set a password (each storage has individual password or passphrase).

To access the encrypted storage, you need a password or passphrase. Passphrase is a kind of password which contains several words (usually a complete sentence). If the password is a single word, the attacker can try to guess it. So using a passphrase makes the data more secure.

It is a good idea to change the password from time to time. You can change the password as often as you like.

One of the goals of using the encryption tools it not to leave information in unprotected state. On the other hand, the information should be available as soon as it is needed, without necessity of manual operations. This is why Cryptainer PocketPC includes functionality to automatically mount and unmount storages.

Each storage can be mounted manually. Also the storage can be automatically mounted:

1. after the device is restarted;
2. when the storage card is inserted;
3. when the application attempts to access the storage

Each storage can be unmounted manually. Also the storage can be automatically unmounted:

1. when the power is turned off;
2. after the storage is not accessed for some time;
3. when certain hardware button is pressed

Cryptainer PPC LE is the totally free personal edition of Cryptainer PPC, specially modified to meet the growing security and privacy needs of the home user. It allows you to secure your data and ensure absolute privacy. It 's powerful encryption, creates 2 MB storage (virtual card) on your device. This encrypted storage (container) can be mounted and unmounted on need. You can view, modify and hide all types of file with a single password.

Should you require more than 2 MB secure storage space, we recommend our other product Cryptainer PPC. Cryptainer PPC is a commercial software. It allows you to create unlimited storage (virtual card). You can purchase Cryptainer PPC on-line for instant electronic delivery with our 30 days unconditional money back guarantee at our Store page

The Software is licensed on per-user basis. This means that you can install and use Cryptainer PocketPC on any number of devices that you own. When filling the order form, you will be asked for Unique ID which identifies the owner of the device. This Unique ID can be found in Registration window.

Once the order has been processed, you will be mailed a unique download link with the registration code of the product, within minutes. If you do not receive the email within a minute or two, please contact our Sales department (salesppc@cypherix.com).

Enter the registation code to Registration window.

Please keep the letter with registration code as it is necessary when you re-install the application or when you upgrade the application.

The registration code is valid for all updates of Cryptainer PocketPC which are released for the version you purchased. For example, if you purchase Cryptainer PocketPC 1.0, you will get free updates to all 1.x versions. Version 2.0 will require a separate license, which will be available for purchase with a special discount.

To register Cryptainer PocketPC and enable all it's functions you need to enter Registration Code:

1. Enter the registration code, found in your e-mail, to Registration Code edit box.
2. Press Register button. If the code is entered correctly, then About box will show "Registered" text instead of "Evaluation".

If you don't see "Registered" text in About box after entering the registration code, ensure that the following steps are taken:

1. Check that the registration code is valid for the version of Cryptainer PocketPC that you are registering. Note that the registration code for versions 1.x is not valid for versions 2.x. It may be possible that the registration codes are changed between 1.x versions too so if you are not sure, contact Support department (see below).
2. Be sure that you enter the code correctly. The registration code contains only digits (0..9) and letters (A..F). Don't mix 1 with I and 0 with O.