Say I lose my phone, and I pick up another Mogul online or something, could I edit my old ESN into the new phone through ##778# ?
This is something I've been wondering about for years, but never knew how to access that menu on other phones..
-mak
you won't be able to do it via ##778# it will require another software and edit the $ESN.SYS file and all of that is illegal to do
You can always just call your carrier and activate it... I did that many times with Sprint for free, I have 12 Palm Treo 600's I rotate through as disposable phones.
I realize they'll do it for free, and illegal doesn't bother me.. I just wanted to know if it could be done.
On another note; why would it be illegal, if I owned the original phone and the new phone? I could see the carrier looking down upon it, but I'm sure they wouldn't be happy knowing I'm running a Sprint ROM on my Qwest phone either.. or that I'm able to access the previously locked out GPS chip.. but why is it illegal?
-mak
.mak said:
.. but why is it illegal?
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Because the FCC says so (in the US).
http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=operations_3&id=cellular
Fraud
Cellular fraud is defined as the unauthorized use, tampering, or manipulation of a cellular phone or service. Cellular industry estimates indicate that carriers lose millions per year to cellular fraud, with the principal cause being subscription fraud. Subscriber fraud occurs when a subscriber signs up for service with fraudulently obtained customer information or false identification.
In the past, cloning of cellular phones was a major concern. A cloned cellular telephone is one that has been reprogrammed to transmit the electronic serial number (ESN) and telephone number (MIN) belonging to another (legitimate) cellular telephone. Unscrupulous persons obtain valid ESN/MIN combinations by illegally monitoring the transmissions from the cellular telephones of legitimate subscribers. Each cellular telephone is supposed to have a unique factory-set ESN. After cloning, however, because both cellular telephones have the same ESN/MIN combination, cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cellular telephone from the legitimate one.
The Commission considers any knowing use of cellular telephone with an altered ESN to be a violation of the Communications Act (Section 301) and alteration of the ESN in a cellular telephone to be assisting in such violation. The Wireless Telephone Protection Act (Public Law 105-172) was signed into law on April 24, 1998, expanding the prior law to criminalize the use, possession, manufacture or sale of cloning hardware or software. The cellular equipment manufacturing industry has deployed authentication systems that have proven to be a very effective countermeasure to cloning. Authentication supplements the use of the ESN and MIN with a changing encrypted code that can not be obtained by off-the-air monitoring.
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http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=operations_5&id=cellular
Multiple Phones With Same Number
A subscriber may have multiple phones with the same telephone number. However, there are restrictions. Each individual phone must have a unique Electronic Serial Number (ESN). The ESN is a unique number programmed into each cellular telephone at the time it is manufactured and is used by the cellular carrier to identify a telephone to determine whether the user of that phone is entitled to obtain service and to insure that the proper accounting is made of all activity. Most cellular phone emulators or extension services simply "clone" cellular phones, duplicating not only the telephone number but also the ESN. The Commission considers any knowing use of cellular telephone with an altered ESN to be a violation of the Communications Act (Section 301) and alteration of the ESN in a cellular telephone to be assisting in such violation.
It is possible to obtain two cellular phones with the same telephone number as long as the cellular carrier in the market has the software in place to handle the billing and its fraud detection system won't be triggered by the use of two phones with the same phone number.
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Short answer to your question without the legal BS people like to answer, no, it's currently impossible to alter the ESN on the msm7500 chip, however we are working on it.
Can you say QXDM ?
Shadowmite said:
Short answer to your question without the legal BS people like to answer, no, it's currently impossible to alter the ESN on the msm7500 chip, however we are working on it.
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Qualcomm Extensible Diagnostic Monitor, really not sure why they chose that name because it does a lot more than monitor. I was a Qualcomm wmployee and still have QXDM and new chipset support, is pretty cool.
On my Sprint account I can do an online ESN swap. I'm seriously considering getting a second phone for times I need something more reliable than my Mogul.
madman34 said:
Qualcomm Extensible Diagnostic Monitor, really not sure why they chose that name because it does a lot more than monitor. I was a Qualcomm wmployee and still have QXDM and new chipset support, is pretty cool.
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QXDM can not alter the esn, go ahead and try. Hell, I'd like to see you extract the 16 byte rotating key needed to authenticate to it considering you seem to indicate you're so "capable"... What's the algo this time around, considering it's been changed from the other devices we had this reversed for?
After posting last time in this thread, I remembered that ESN stood for Electronic Serial Number.. but thanks for the replies.
Soooo.. my next question is; How is it that one can use a (for example..) Sprint Mogul on Verizon or Qwest.. realizing that the phones are basically identical, unlocking them leaves the ability to put another carriers proprietary software on the phone, but isn't the ESN tied to that specific carrier? (e.g; a Sprint Mogul's ESN is tied to Sprint, and could not be used with Verizon for this very reason..).
Looking forward to your replies
-mak
ESN range
.mak said:
After posting last time in this thread, I remembered that ESN stood for Electronic Serial Number.. but thanks for the replies.
Soooo.. my next question is; How is it that one can use a (for example..) Sprint Mogul on Verizon or Qwest.. realizing that the phones are basically identical, unlocking them leaves the ability to put another carriers proprietary software on the phone, but isn't the ESN tied to that specific carrier? (e.g; a Sprint Mogul's ESN is tied to Sprint, and could not be used with Verizon for this very reason..).
Looking forward to your replies
-mak
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You are correct, the units are electrically the same and any could be used on any carrier, except for the non CDMA that is, but the barrier is that the carriers as of the last time I looked know by the ESN that it is not one of theirs and probably will not activate it, maybe now will but did not used to. It is a company/carrier rule as opposed to a technical barrier.
Well perhaps, I have not done the 6800
Shadowmite said:
QXDM can not alter the esn, go ahead and try. Hell, I'd like to see you extract the 16 byte rotating key needed to authenticate to it considering you seem to indicate you're so "capable"... What's the algo this time around, considering it's been changed from the other devices we had this reversed for?
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Anyway, if you have the latest QXDM and it will not, then I must yield, but my Sanyo units from a few years ago, obviously older chipset, with the QXDM I shuffled routinely the ESN. I went fron one model to the next serveral times, last one being the 5500 phone on Sprint and changed the ESN to that of my older Sanyo. As I recall, there was a 16 byte key that you entered to unlock the protected storage and then it would let you enter a replacement ESN into the field, and I suppose it (the tool) generated everything else. The 16 byte key for each chipset was retreived from our internal web page on the corperate intranet and it always worked. If that has changed and newer versions of the QXDM no longer support this function then what a drag it is. I have had no real need to do it for serveral years so I could not say, but I do not see why it should have changed, but maybe so, in any case i see no need to get nasty about it. I was simply relating past experience.
http://www.mobile-files.com/forum/showpost.php?p=355427&postcount=73
Just got that tonight... It appears you are correct qxdm could do it, once some other variables are ready. Wasn't trying to be nasty about it, I've been working on this for 2 weeks on and off now.
Loaded up QXDM and looked around
Shadowmite said:
http://www.mobile-files.com/forum/showpost.php?p=355427&postcount=73
Just got that tonight... It appears you are correct qxdm could do it, once some other variables are ready. Wasn't trying to be nasty about it, I've been working on this for 2 weeks on and off now.
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Wowsers, what a trip down amnesia lane for me tonight, as you got me curious so I went and got the new QXDM and it is amazing how much different it looks than the version I remember useing on my old Sanyo. I found that the NV browser is still there and still has the 'write' button when you highlight the esn field and hit read the correct esn does appear. I will, however, leave pushing the shiney 'write' button to you, as my 6800 works gooooooood and I want it to stay that way ;-) hehehhehe. Hey I just this second got a flash,,,,,,,I have my 6700 still from when I ported over from Sprint. I should maybe mess with that one because I do not use it anymore and have religated it to the dumper anyway. Should I give it a whack ???????
P.S. On a side note, Sarchasm (for humor sake) I have not got the hang of it in text mode,,,,,,,by 'Nasty' , I meant like in wink wink nudge nudge ha ha sort of ;-)
P.P.S. Did you know that the Nortel MTX (Sprint, VZW, Alltel use) is capeable of having multiple phones (different esn's or course) with the same phone number if they want ? The switch techs at Alltel market where I work at sometimes have their belt clip phones, their tech pool phone, and 3 of the hi power bag phones (out in the sticks of kansas) all on the same number. They all ring at the same time and the first to answer gets the call. I do not remember the table you datafill, but it is interesting, and would be nice if they would let us use our number on our 6800 and a backup phone also, in case we kill it ;-)
You can alter the ESN using software, there are specific softwares that will allow you to do this. But you first have to put your phone in diag mode.
Ive done this to my sprint mogul, after flashing my esn went to all 0's for whatever reason, so i had to find a way to rewrite my esn to get it to be recognized by sprint.
So yes it is possible to change your esn. Illegal for the cloning issues but possible and quite doable.
uperCID and Change E*N of Mogul may also work for Touch / Vogue (But it sayd Invalid Command Boot Loader may not supporting in Touch)
http://www.mobile-files.com/forum/showpost.php?p=355534&postcount=82
Just have a look
any software which uses nv_write method for ESN can change ESN
I have used CDMAWorkShop 2.7 cracked
madman34: that write button won't work in normal mode, it'll throw a error about esn being read only... that's what we had to work around.
Yep you are right
Shadowmite said:
madman34: that write button won't work in normal mode, it'll throw a error about esn being read only... that's what we had to work around.
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But I did mess with my old 6700 and even with the QPST I was able to change the ESN and figured the checksum and put in VZW PRL then a *228 and now my 6700 is my 6800, but will only be used as a safety in case i brick my 6800. I feel better being able to have somthing to use while I play with my 6800.
Thanks a million time to Shadomite
He had Cracked and changed the ESN
I have POsted the Simplified Method Just have a look
http://www.mobile-files.com/forum/showpost.php?p=355534&postcount=82
Is there a relatively simple step by step method to do this ESN thing with the PPC 6700 on sprint?
I already have a working PPC 6700 I have TWO MORE but they are "bad esn"
I want to use them as backups for mine. If mine fails gets broken whatever I can just use one of the backups (I really like this phone)
No cloning or any nefarious purpose. Just want to use the hardware I bought. The bad ESN phones are sprint 6700's
I've been google around for sake of knowledge and benefit, how does these unlocking sites provides unlock codes based on IMEI of devices?
most importantly do they have an inside man or there is actually a way to calculate things based on the carrier and IMEI provider which gets this number?
Thanks
i already unlocked my jetstream using one of these sites and paid them, my question was just how they make it, buying them from network provider seems fishy, i think they have other ways of generating them because they ask first if doable or not like they are testing something on the IMEI #
My guess would be that they pay the same type of people who crack software and create software keygens. The difference being they probably need to brick a few phones in the process.
My brothers contract ended on his Atrix 4g and he said I can use it for rom testing etc
I have managed to root it, unlock the bootloader, install a Jellybean rom on it - all good.
It is however locked to T Mobile and I wanted to use it on O2.
I contacted T Mobile who want £15 to supply a code to unlock it. I took it into a local mobile shop who said that they can get the code within 24 hours. I left the phone with them and they said they would contact me when it is done-fair enough.
They phoned me today and said that this phone needs a higher level of unlock and will take up to 7 days. I have never heard of this before and just wanted to check to see if anyone here had heard of this and is nothing to worry about or the shop are just not very good.
Thanks
It is fairly common actually. I've seen most unlockers have that - either it's in what you might call a "quick lookup" database, or they have to take it to a "higher level". That usually costs more though.
ravilov said:
It is fairly common actually. I've seen most unlockers have that - either it's in what you might call a "quick lookup" database, or they have to take it to a "higher level". That usually costs more though.
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I can actually confirm this. We've had a specifically memorable "higher-level" unlock needed for HTC handsets purchased after a certain date, until other suppliers could catch up.
It required looking up the unlock code in a different database, which was more likely to have the codes that were being requested. We'd usually only do that once we confirmed the unlock codes weren't able in the cheaper providers database.
So yes, it can happen. Although, I understand the suspicion.
A week or so ago I found the name of a manufacturer who produced a transceiver that had a frequency range of something like 700 to 3.2Ghz continuously. This made me think that the frequencies used in the cell operators different systems may essentially be simply(or not) programming in the frequencies of e.g. AT&T vs T-Mobile vs ??? and excluding the others. I was thinking how could the manufacturers (China) of cellphones possibly have specific chipsets for each of the dozens of customers? It seems to me that having a versatile chipset and code would be the only logical way of manufacturing gazillions of cell phones.... Any ideas on this thought of mine?
In most of the world, the "GSM-style" standards are used. The phones are completely the same, the only thing that is truly carrier specific is the "SIM card", which contains your phone number and a code that allows the carrier to bill the calls to you. However phones can be "SIM-locked", meaning that for the duration of your contract, the phone will refuse to accept a SIM card from a different carrier, unless you pay the carrier to get out of the contract, in which case they must tell you the unlock code for your individual phone.
There are however approximately 3 parts of the world that use different radio standards, and those are sometimes made with slightly different chips or circuit boards:
- The US/Canada carriers that used to be based on the old CDMA signal standard. For a very long time, those kept making their own slightly different signal standards, and sometimes based billing on the phone serial number, not a replaceable SIM card. Note that some other US/Canada carriers use the international "GSM-style" standards.
- In Japan, there were, and maybe still are, different signal standards such as "i-Mode".
- In Mainland China, they might also still have their own standards.
So some manufacturers might make up to 4 different variants of a phone, to avoid the cost of including the parts for a region where it won't be sold. But the only thing that is customized for individual carriers is adding extra software and maybe deliberately refusing to talk to competing networks. In theory, they could also fine-tune some bug workarounds for oddities in their radio network, though I personally suspect this is mostly just an excuse to make the other changes.
Note that electrically, while the core chips might be able to do any standard with just different software, sometimes the following is done with region-specific manufacturing:
- Fine tuning tiny antennas, coils and other old school radio components to boost the frequencies used in a region.
- Extra circuits inside the chips to do some of the region-specific signal decoding/encoding in hardware and not software, I suspect this was more common 10 years ago than now.
- Adding receivers for Russian (GLONASS), Chinese (ATLAS) or European (GALILEO) competitors to the US Military GPS satellite signals.
- Printing the sticker with the serial number etc. in a language other than English.
- Paying competing phone makers for permission to use their patented phone technology. A manufacturer might save a few bucks per phone if they don't have to pay for some invention used only in the US or Japan, even if almost all the parts are still there. This of cause does not apply if they managed to negotiate a good deal. Remember that Google payed *billions* of dollars to get the Motorola phone patents (they also got some phone factories in the deal, but they sold those later), and Microsoft made similar deals with Northern Telecom and Nokia.
This is also why people from outside the US/Canada sometimes don't understand what North Americans are talking about when they mention the "AT&T Stone" or the "T-Mobile G2x" phones, because in the rest of the wold, you buy a phone branded by a phone maker such as Motorola Razr or Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge or Apple iPhone 6S, and then look around for the best contract to get that phone cheaply. Kind of like what US/Canada people do with Apple iPhones. In some places, you actually go into a phone superstore, pick a phone and then read a price tag saying "This much without contract, this much with T-Mobile contract, this much with Orange contract", then go to the counter and sign the chosen contract while the store clerk types in a code to lock your new phone to your new contract.
And finally of cause, this is the reason why the "radio" part of the phone is not part of the amateur ROM kitchen: Because the chips can send out almost any radio signal with the right software, only government-licensed manufacturers are allowed to change that code, because the FCC (and its overseas counterparts) doesn't want a bad ROM to start jamming police radios or even just block the phone network by refusing to stop when it is another phones turn to send a few bits.
Much thank you very much for your in depth response I'm not sure that I understand whether or not my question was answered however I do believe that there is customization other than just coding the radio that must be dealt with so it is that indeed these phones are customized and manufactured differently from each other thank you so much again.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
ATT variant S21 purchased at retail from Samsung.com locked to carrier and ATT unlock does not recognize IMEI. Have already escalated to highest tier ATT and Samsung support offered to the public. In ATT's world, if a device is not in their IMEI database, it's not an ATT phone. Samsung claims that unlock codes were automatically shared with ATT when the phone was manufactured. They claim that after the codes are sent, they have no access to the data to provide an individual unlock code at a later date, even at ATT's request.
ATT claims they never received an unlock code for the phone which is why the IMEI is not in their unlock database. Their logic is that if the IMEI is not in their unlock database, it means they never received the unlock code. This logic leaves no room for the possibility of human error or a glitch in syncing data. Oddly, the IMEI is in ATT's warranty database. On ATT support tech suggested that only branded phones sold by ATT stores were supported with unlock codes. This raise the question as to why Samsung would sell a phone that cannot be unlocked and why they would lock it in the first place when it is not being sold on contract?
ATT has requested the unlock code from Samsung during one of my support calls and the request was denied. Samsung CS reiterated the position that they had already provided all codes and no longer had access to them. Third party unlocking services struck out with the IMEI. I can RMA the phone back to Samsung under warranty but likely face the same issue with the replacement. I could try to exchange it in an ATT store as it's in their warranty system but would like to not be setting up a new phone when all I am requesting is a code to remove a soft lock. Samsung's annual preorder trade up deal requires that phones be unlocked which is ironic since this one will likely remain locked indefinitely because the carrier and the manufacturer can't get on the same page. Most consumers with these phones will not realize they can't be unlocked during the Samsung warranty period.
Anyone else have this issue?
If you buy a carrier variant through samsung, you are going to get a locked device. Always buy unlocked if you want it unlocked.
That being said, I've been through this about a dozen times with AT&T. This is what needs to be done:
1- First, try the device unlock portal. This will inevitably fail, because the device isn't in their database. This is fine.
2 - Contact AT&T and be prepared to speak to people who have NO idea what you're talking about. If they say it can't be done, politely end the call and call back in. Ask to speak to *advanced* tech support. Explain that you got the device from Samsung, and you need the IMEI added to the database so you can get the device unlocked.
3 - Explain that you already tried the unlock portal, and they need to email the device unlock team to add the IMEI and get the device unlocked. This takes anywhere from 48 hours to a week, and might get rejected once or twice. If it does, go back to step 2.
4 - If you don't want to deal with that bull****, you can go on ebay and purchase a device unlock. You can either have them search the database for the code (PROBABLY won't work) or some sellers will remotely connect to your machine to unlock the device. I did it in the past for $30, looks like it's $60 these days.
I am seeking a high level contact at Samsung because this is a B2B policy issue which their technical support team, after multiple calls, has been unable and unwilling to help resolve. If anyone on XDA has a high level contact person at Samsung, please DM me. I will put them in direct contact with the AT&T Office of the Executive personnel attempting to resolve this issue and insure that it does not impact other customers.
Did you read my post? That is, step by step, exactly how to solve your issue. if you followed my instructions it would have been unlocked by now.
This has nothing to do with Samsung, this is an AT&T issue. And trying to find a "high level contact person" won't do you any good.
Follow. The. Instructions.