Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Update on AT&T Closed Cell Phone Network
On a whim today, I put my AT&T SIM card in my old unlocked Blackberry, just to see if it could make and/or receive calls. This is the same phone that previously worked on the AT&T cellular phone network, then mysteriously became unable to operate as a phone around December 1. At the same time, two brand new unlocked Motorola V3 phones also refused to work with AT&T service. At first AT&T insisted that all three phones were defective, then later stated that they had shut their cellular phone service to unlocked phones. Perhaps they changed their minds? I guess this will remain a mystery.
Friday, December 14, 2007
AT&T Blocks Unlocked Phones
UPDATE DECEMBER 14, 2007
After replacing a brand new unlocked Motorola V3 [GSM] phone with another brand new unlocked Motorola V3 [GSM] phone, I put my wife's AT&T SIM card in it, and had the exact same result as in my previous post. The phone would send and receive text messages, but could not make nor receive phone calls. I spent about an hour with a very helpful person in AT&T Technical Support. He very patiently tried numerous experiments to attempt to coax telephone service out of the new unlocked phone. After trying everything he could think of doing, he escalated the issue to Engineering for resolution. I could expect a call within three business days. Before hanging up, I asked if AT&T had started blocking unlocked phones to prevent fraudulent access. He thought that would not be necessary, because AT&T has to program the SIM card with their customer's account information to work in a compatible cell phone. No phone -- AT&T branded or unlocked compatible -- without a valid account and SIM card would be able to use AT&T wireless service.
Less than an hour later, my wife received a call from AT&T explaining that AT&T DOES NOT ALLOW UNLOCKED CELL PHONES ON ITS CELL PHONE NETWORK, in order to prevent fraudulent access. Unfortunately, paying AT&T Wireless customers no longer have freedom of choice. Caveat emptor.
After replacing a brand new unlocked Motorola V3 [GSM] phone with another brand new unlocked Motorola V3 [GSM] phone, I put my wife's AT&T SIM card in it, and had the exact same result as in my previous post. The phone would send and receive text messages, but could not make nor receive phone calls. I spent about an hour with a very helpful person in AT&T Technical Support. He very patiently tried numerous experiments to attempt to coax telephone service out of the new unlocked phone. After trying everything he could think of doing, he escalated the issue to Engineering for resolution. I could expect a call within three business days. Before hanging up, I asked if AT&T had started blocking unlocked phones to prevent fraudulent access. He thought that would not be necessary, because AT&T has to program the SIM card with their customer's account information to work in a compatible cell phone. No phone -- AT&T branded or unlocked compatible -- without a valid account and SIM card would be able to use AT&T wireless service.
Less than an hour later, my wife received a call from AT&T explaining that AT&T DOES NOT ALLOW UNLOCKED CELL PHONES ON ITS CELL PHONE NETWORK, in order to prevent fraudulent access. Unfortunately, paying AT&T Wireless customers no longer have freedom of choice. Caveat emptor.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Did AT&T/Cingular Disable Unlocked Phones?
Recently, I purchased a new unlocked GSM cell phone for my wife to use on the AT&T/Cingular wireless network. After inserting her SIM card, the phone recognized the Cingular network, and displayed five bars. As long-time Cingular customers, we expected the phone to recognize the network and make and receive calls. Unfortunately, it was unable to send nor receive phone calls. It was, however, able to send and receive text messages. Thinking that AT&T needed to enter the phone's IMEI number, I brought the phone to the local AT&T Wireless store. They looked at the phone and verified there was no problem with the account, and suggested that I call their technical support to resolve the problem, after mentioning that they had received many calls about unlocked phones being able to send and receive text messages but unable to send/receive phone calls, due to a recent network change.
After I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with AT&T customer service and technical support, provided IMEI number, swapped SIMs and power cycled several times, they made some changes on their end, all to no effect. When I mentioned the network changes cited by the local AT&T store employee, the customer service rep stated that he had no knowledge of any such change, and stated that tests they conducted on their side indicated that I had a defective phone.
Today, on a hunch, I put my wife's SIM card in an old unlocked Blackberry that had worked the last time I tried it a couple of months ago. Guess what? Same symptoms as the new "defective" phone -- it would not make nor receive phone calls!
Is anyone aware of a change to the AT&T wireless network to disable unlocked phones? As hard as it is to build customer goodwill and easy as it is to destroy it, one would think that they would not intentionally do this to their paying customers. As always, comments are welcome.
After I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with AT&T customer service and technical support, provided IMEI number, swapped SIMs and power cycled several times, they made some changes on their end, all to no effect. When I mentioned the network changes cited by the local AT&T store employee, the customer service rep stated that he had no knowledge of any such change, and stated that tests they conducted on their side indicated that I had a defective phone.
Today, on a hunch, I put my wife's SIM card in an old unlocked Blackberry that had worked the last time I tried it a couple of months ago. Guess what? Same symptoms as the new "defective" phone -- it would not make nor receive phone calls!
Is anyone aware of a change to the AT&T wireless network to disable unlocked phones? As hard as it is to build customer goodwill and easy as it is to destroy it, one would think that they would not intentionally do this to their paying customers. As always, comments are welcome.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Vista's Blocked Startup Programs
One of the complaints I frequently hear about Vista involves the message "Windows has blocked some startup programs."
Unfortunately, clicking to view the blocked programs just leads to more frustration. Vista d
oes show a list of startup programs, but does not tell which ones are blocked from starting! What to do? Well, you can at least make this annoying and uninformative message go away. Here's how. Right-click on the Blocked Startup Program icon in the System Tray.
Next, scroll to "Run blocked Program," and
click on "System Configuration Utility."
Lastly, check the box labeled, "Don't show this message or start System Configuration when Windows starts," and click "OK." Voila! At last, you should not have to see that annoying message again. And. . . if it ever does rear it's ugly head again, you know how to fix it.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Should I Upgrade My Computer to Vista?
I get this question all the time from people who want to know my opinion of Microsoft's latest and greatest operating system. Some of these people have one- or two-year-old computers on which they want to upgrade to Vista. For almost all of these people, the answer is "No," but it depends on their hardware, software, willingness and time to tinker, and ability to withstand downtime. For people looking for a project on a spare computer, this could be a fun project. In order to help my clients who may purchase Vista computers, I installed Vista Business in a second partition on a one-year-old Dell Latitude D610 notebook computer. Windows XP Professional is on the other partition, and this is where I boot the computer when I need everything to work.
My Linksys wireless PC Card caused Vista to display its blue screen of death (BSOD). After doing quite bit of research, I discovered that Vista did not like my computer's PC Card chipset, even though it is listed on Microsoft's web site as being compatible. Every PC Card I connected to my computer caused Vista to crash with the BSOD. With some very delicate surgery, I installed an internal wireless card, which performed flawlessly with its Vista drivers. My nine-month-old HP Color LaserJet 2600n network laser printer did not have Vista drivers or installation software, but I was able to make it work with about an hour of tinkering. Since my favorite security suite, ZoneAlarm Security Suite, was not compatible with Vista, I installed Norton Internet Secuity 2007. This works fine. ZoneAlarm is still in beta testing for Vista. Although I have to boot to XP to use my data recovery software, Firefox works well for me on Vista. Norton Ghost 10, which has no Vista support, was recently replaced by Ghost 12, which does work with Vista. Ka-ching!
Did I mention that I recommend at least 2GB of RAM and an advanced video card (not integrated video, as present on many computers) to take advantage of Vista's advanced video features?
My Linksys wireless PC Card caused Vista to display its blue screen of death (BSOD). After doing quite bit of research, I discovered that Vista did not like my computer's PC Card chipset, even though it is listed on Microsoft's web site as being compatible. Every PC Card I connected to my computer caused Vista to crash with the BSOD. With some very delicate surgery, I installed an internal wireless card, which performed flawlessly with its Vista drivers. My nine-month-old HP Color LaserJet 2600n network laser printer did not have Vista drivers or installation software, but I was able to make it work with about an hour of tinkering. Since my favorite security suite, ZoneAlarm Security Suite, was not compatible with Vista, I installed Norton Internet Secuity 2007. This works fine. ZoneAlarm is still in beta testing for Vista. Although I have to boot to XP to use my data recovery software, Firefox works well for me on Vista. Norton Ghost 10, which has no Vista support, was recently replaced by Ghost 12, which does work with Vista. Ka-ching!
Did I mention that I recommend at least 2GB of RAM and an advanced video card (not integrated video, as present on many computers) to take advantage of Vista's advanced video features?
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Thoughts on Unwanted Email
On average, about 70% of the email I receive is spam or otherwise unwanted. Most of it is caught by my web host or the Outlook junk mail filter. As would be expected, many of the most pernicious offenders are involved, including phishing scams, re-fi, hot stocks, pharma, pirated software, and porn. These are being actively combatted on many fronts. Hopefully DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and/or other technologies will be effective in making spam economically non-viable. There are a couple other forms of unwanted email may be a little trickier to deal with. Most people will recognize the chain letter, which frequently begins with, "This is true. I checked it on Snopes.com." Then the writer goes on about something that is nearly invariably totally false, and concludes with something like, "Forward this to everyone you know." Trying to convince people to just delete these rather than continue the chain is akin to herding cats. Lastly, there is the weekly or monthly newsletter that comes unsolicited from people who I meet at a networking mixer. As an independent computer consultant who performs on site computer services, a lot of people end up with my business card. A few people I meet ask if it's ok to send me their newsletter, and I'm absolutely ok with that. Unsolicited newsletters from people I don't know are another story. Although I'm not inclined to tell these people to take me off their list, I'm not likely to recommend their services to clients, a colleague or friend. In conclusion, I offer this advice -- "Be considerate of the person at the other end of your email."
Craig Herberg
Craig Herberg
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