21 replies to this topic

[natas]

I've never been a big cell phone person but the whole unlocking this is kind of interesting to me. I'm a noob when it comes to GSM so I don't really know to much about SIMs and all that, but can anyone tell me a little about how you unlock cell phones? What are you changing/editing on the phone when you unlock it? How do you get unlock codes too? How does all that work? I'm guessing its different with each cell phone manufacturer and service provider?

[fluidicslave]

I've never been a big cell phone person but the whole unlocking this is kind of interesting to me. I'm a noob when it comes to GSM so I don't really know to much about SIMs and all that, but can anyone tell me a little about how you unlock cell phones? What are you changing/editing on the phone when you unlock it? How do you get unlock codes too? How does all that work? I'm guessing its different with each cell phone manufacturer and service provider?

depends on the phone for the most part but I actually if you are unlocking some nicer phones its just updateing the frim ware and or software

[livinded]

in most newer phones you need some way to edit the firmware but wit a lot of phones there are codes you can enter to allow you to edit. And for i think any phone there are codes put in by the manufacturer's to find out information or edit certain information. But basically when phones are made and sold to a certain provider the provider has a lock put into the phone to make it only work with that certain provider. And when you unlock you just reverse it allowing the phone to function on any compatable service. Like for instance you wont be abl to get a verizon phone to work on cingular/at&t becuase their systems are different. But you could use like a t-mobile on cingular/at&t. A good source for information about cell phones is howard forums and cellphone hacks. There are boards dedicated to certain services and posts dedicated to different phones.

Edited by livinded, 03 September 2005 - 02:55 AM.

[markilark]

i would stick to howards, cellphone hacks is not really that helpful...

[t3st.s3t]

I've never been a big cell phone person but the whole unlocking this is kind of interesting to me. I'm a noob when it comes to GSM so I don't really know to much about SIMs and all that, but can anyone tell me a little about how you unlock cell phones? What are you changing/editing on the phone when you unlock it? How do you get unlock codes too? How does all that work? I'm guessing its different with each cell phone manufacturer and service provider?

there is a good article in 2600 volume twenty, number four on gsm unlocking. there is also a a good article in 2600 volume twenty-one, number three on digital cdma cloning. if you want good info from the web, your going to have to dig deep.

[natas]

i just think its kind of interesting that these cell phone stores sometimes charge like 15 or 20 bucks to unlock a phone. and that there are all these places online that will do it for a fee too. seems pretty easy and like a pretty good little side business. especially since unlocked phones always go for more on ebay too.

[t3st.s3t]

i just think its kind of interesting that these cell phone stores sometimes charge like 15 or 20 bucks to unlock a phone. and that there are all these places online that will do it for a fee too. seems pretty easy and like a pretty good little side business. especially since unlocked phones always go for more on ebay too.

just watch your ass.

[natas]

why?

[Rpm]

i just think its kind of interesting that these cell phone stores sometimes charge like 15 or 20 bucks to unlock a phone. and that there are all these places online that will do it for a fee too. seems pretty easy and like a pretty good little side business. especially since unlocked phones always go for more on ebay too.

yeah-you can make $ off of anything if your'e really dedicated. personally, I've been slangin the folg. numbers since the first time I got em. That was the main reason why I sat here for hours at a a time (basically ALL my free time) rackin em up.

[natas]

haha thats awesome. im not gonna start unlocking phones or anything, but i just think its a pretty cool business idea.

[t3st.s3t]

why?

i could only theorize that some people might use you to unlock stolen phones, so that they can turn around and sell them. not that you would know if they were stolen, but that's probably a road you do not want to go down. also, as long as you do not strat offering to change the phone's IMEI (serial number), which some countries have deemed illegal, you'll be ok. prehaps i'm being over paranoid.

Edited by t3st.s3t, 04 September 2005 - 08:56 AM.

[I-baLL]

why?

i could only theorize that some people might use you to unlock stolen phones, so that they can turn around and sell them. not that you would know if they were stolen, but that's probably a road you do not want to go down. also, as long as you do not strat offering to change the phone's IMEI (serial number), which some countries have deemed illegal, you'll be ok. prehaps i'm being over paranoid.

Uhm...that's not what "unlocking" means. "Unlocking" means allowing the phone to use other carrier's networks.

[t3st.s3t]

why?

i could only theorize that some people might use you to unlock stolen phones, so that they can turn around and sell them. not that you would know if they were stolen, but that's probably a road you do not want to go down. also, as long as you do not strat offering to change the phone's IMEI (serial number), which some countries have deemed illegal, you'll be ok. prehaps i'm being over paranoid.

Uhm...that's not what "unlocking" means. "Unlocking" means allowing the phone to use other carrier's networks.

i know what "unlocking" means. i was just saying that people might expect you to go above and beyond the usual unlock. like i said, it's just a theory.

[0sw4ld]

I unlocked my Sony Ericsson T637 with this. It works great and is super cheap. I used this in conjuction with the dual sim card setup so I can use my personal cellphone with two differnt providers. One for work and one for personal calls. It's a pretty slick setup.

[cyrox]

GSM phones are locked by the provider as a way to subsidize the cost of the phone. In order to prevent you from taking your Tmobile phone, and putting a Cingular sim card in it and using it on Cingular's network they created a "subsidy"lock built into the firmware of the phone. The same thing is done with CDMA and the old TDMA technology, for instance SPRINT uses a special 6digit number in order to prevent you from changing the NAM entries.

Now people have been able to reverse engineer the mathmatical equations they use to come up with these passwords and thus are able to get the code without going through the provider. For CDMA (eg. Sprint PCS, verizon[though they usually don't enter a subsidy lock its generally 000000]) the code's are based of of the ESN.

[GIJoe]

Hmm, no one seemed to mention this yet, but if you have been with your carrier for a period of about 3-6 months, depends, often they will unlock it for you if you need to say, go international and want to insert and use a local SIM.

[Hell Reapers]

Nokiafree unlock codes calculator

http://unlock.nokiafree.org/

[zeroxeal]

Generally all unlocking comprises of is removing the sim card and booting the phone, then entering a *#xxxxxx* (or something to that effect) unlock code, there are a few sites you can easily find by googleing that will freely unlock your phone. There are alot more complicated issues and tricks that can be pulled off with GSM phones however, such as the notorious swip and cloning, please note you can also get unlock kits however there a bit expensive and are only good if your going to unlock mass amounts of phones, a kid I know runs a ring that steals phones and sells them to him cheap and he unlocks and sells them, freaking highschool lol.

[wwwd40]

Delete me please

Edited by wwwd40, 28 August 2012 - 04:19 PM.

[jfalcon]

If you run your own GSM network (ie: OpenBSC/OpenBTS), you don't even have to "unlock" your phone. You can just allow your simcard in the HLR database and restrict everyone else from joining your "cell tower".

Oh sh**... didn't look at the thread date...

Edited by jfalcon, 29 August 2012 - 12:59 PM.