What’s yours is yours

What am I refering to? Well a lot of mobile devices nowadays are sold handicapped of their abilities in order for a mobile company to twist your arm into buying their ‘services’, essentially to…make them do what they were intended to. Evil huh? There are a lot of sites out there that teach you how to enable some services on your phones for free. Just google ‘cell phone hacks’ for more info.

My story

I recently switched to Metro PCS from Verizon. The guys at Metro PCS told me I could keep my Verizon phone which was cool since they charged full retail for their not so apealing phones. The down side however, is that my internet and pix text messages wouldn’t work. The main reason I switched to them was because of the unlimited everything plans but the thought of me paying for internet (included in my plan) and not getting internet was going to leave a sour taste in my mouth. So I went online and was determined to find a hack for my Motorola RAZR V3m that would enable me to get the internet I was paying for (!). And I found it, which is the reason for this post: as a reminder to myself and to allow others to use their devices as intended. I have not found the fix for the pix messages yet but I will append that to this post once I do.

Aside:

Though i’m talking a little smack about Metro PCS, i’m not mentioning my previous unhappiness with Verizon’s yearn to charge you for everything your phone can do as a ‘service’. I am disappointed with both in a way, one will happily charge me for something I am not getting, and the other wants to charge me for merely looking at my phone. Eh, I guess that’s business.

Metro PCS WAP Settings for RAZR V3m

* By the way I have noticed this method only works on RAZRs where dial-up networking has been enabled. To know if it is enabled navigate to menu/setting and tools/system/security/data connection. If data connection is not available then dial-up networking is not enabled. To enable it you must then perform a seem edit on the Razr’s operating system, be VERY careful doing that, you could break your phone’s operating system rendering it useless. Do this at your own risk. To learn how to conduct a seem edit visit hacktherazr.com’s guides section. Once you know how to do that, perform the edit on this page called “Enable Dial Up Networking” which is the third one from the top.
Once that is enabled go to menu/setting and tools/system/security/data connection, enter your security code which most likely is 000000, then go to 1XRTT Data and type in the same user id and password I provide in step 2.

1. Open your phone and dial #073887* (#SETUP*) and enter the security code which is normally 000000. Press OK.
2. Select ‘Web Sessions’ then go down to ‘[New Entry]‘ and enter the settings provided below.

   Name: Metro PCS (or whatever you'd like, it doesn't matter)
   Homepage: (leave alone since it won't let you change it)
   User ID: YOUR_10_DIGIT_PHONE_NUMBER@mymetropcs.com
   Password: 00
   Gateway IP 1: (leave as is, normally all zeros)
   Gateway 1: wap.metropcs.com
   Serive Type: http
   Port 1: 3128
   E2E Port 1: 443
   LXL Port 1: 3128
   Gateway IP 2: (leave as is, normally all zeros)
   Gateway 2: (leave blank)
   Service Type 2: http
   Port 2: 0
   E2E Port 2: 0
   LXL Port 2: 0
   Cache Start-Up: On(Store)

   Then click ‘Done’.

3. Once your new settings are saved you are taken back a screen. Here you will see the name of the setting you just created. Select it, then click ‘Options’ and choose ‘Set Default’.
4. Once that is done hit ‘END’ and restart your phone. When it turns on you should be able to go online.

If it does not work or you want to go back to your old connection setting. Repeat step 1, then select ‘Web Sessions’ and right click your old wap setting and set it as your default. You may need to restart your phone.