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I'm a n00b iPhone User w/ No Understanding of Jailbreaking/Unlocking - Help!

L

LissiSays

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
32
0
Miami, Florida
I extremely apologize if my thread is repetitive in any way. I did search throughout the forum (and other places) in order to answer my questions. Some questions have been answered yet I find myself more confused than ever. And sorry, this post is kind of long.

I will be getting my hands on an iPhone 3G this week thanks to a gracious friend that doesn't use it and will be canceling their AT&T contract. I'm on T-Mobile and need to unlock it in order to use it. As I'm told, the phone hasn't been updated to 3.0 yet. As I understand it, that is good b/c there is no unlock for it yet.

I found a website online that sells a program called iPhoneUnlocking that CLAIMS to unlock the 3.0 already. But I'm afraid to trust them. Everyone else seems to trust the Dev Team so I feel more comfortable using their programs.

It's my understanding the phone has to be jailbroken (which I learned lets you install 3rd party applications that aren't in the AppStore) in order to unlock.

But then I see QuickPwn, PwnageTool, Redsnow, Yellowsnow, ultrasnow... There is talk about baseband, cydia, installer, bootloaders, firmware, ipsw, iTune upgrades... Yellowsnow and QuickPwn don't go together.... I've tried to make sense of it but I just ended up with a Migraine (seriously) and no understanding of this at all.

If there is anyone out there kind enough to help a poor n00b girl like me I would really appreciate it. I feel like the most confused girl when it comes to the iPhone. I've never had one so I don't know what I'm doing and would like to start using it as soon as its in my hands. I'm afraid I'll turn it into an iBrick, as I've seen the term used around the internet.

Thanks in advance! And I hope I don't anger anyone for my lack of knowledge and possible post repetitiveness.

 
The phone needs to be updated to 3.0 via iTunes....

Can be done on Mac or PC

Once it's updated, go here .... DevTeam blog .... get redsn0w .072 for Mac or PC (whichever you have)

The go to the iClarified site and find the tutorial for 3G jailbreaking.
Follow the step by step directions.

Thats it.
 
dhlizard said:
The phone needs to be updated to 3.0 via iTunes....

Can be done on Mac or PC

Once it's updated, go here .... DevTeam blog .... get redsn0w .072 for Mac or PC (whichever you have)

The go to the iClarified site and find the tutorial for 3G jailbreaking.
Follow the step by step directions.

Thats it.
Click to expand...

I figured that part out after finding some people that have done it. But I don't know what to use to unblock a 3G with the 2.2.1 update since everyone is posting and talking about the 3.0 update.
 
LissiSays said:
I figured that part out after finding some people that have done it. But I don't know what to use to unblock a 3G with the 2.2.1 update since everyone is posting and talking about the 3.0 update.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by unblock.

If you update to 3.0 (once you have an account set up in iTunes and you plug in the phone it will ask if you want to update or just hit update button), the phone will not be jailbroken or unlocked any longer (in case it is now).
 
I disagree with dhlizard, if you have a Mac

If you do, I would use the the PwangeTool.

Also, you can't do anything until Ultrasn0w is released, and Ultrasn0w is required to unlock both 2.2.1 with the updated baseband and 3.0

If you have Windows, redsn0w is what you require
 
Chris.L said:
I disagree with dhlizard, if you have a Mac

If you do, I would use the the PwangeTool.

Also, you can't do anything until Ultrasn0w is released, and Ultrasn0w is required to unlock both 2.2.1 with the updated baseband and 3.0

If you have Windows, redsn0w is what you require
Click to expand...

I didn't recommend Pawnage Tool for poster because it appears from her initial post she has no prior experience with iPhone, iTunes or JB.

I figured the easier the better, and redsn0w is just about as simple as it gets.
 
dhlizard said:
I didn't recommend Pawnage Tool for poster because it appears from her initial post she has no prior experience with iPhone, iTunes or JB.

I figured the easier the better, and redsn0w is just about as simple as it gets.
Click to expand...

I wasn't saying your way was wrong, I just prefer PwangeTool

PwangeTool makes the whole process pretty simple and includes step by step instructions
 
LissiSays said:
I will be getting my hands on an iPhone 3G this week thanks to a gracious friend that doesn't use it and will be canceling their AT&T contract. I'm on T-Mobile and need to unlock it in order to use it. As I'm told, the phone hasn't been updated to 3.0 yet. As I understand it, that is good b/c there is no unlock for it yet.

>snip<

Thanks in advance! And I hope I don't anger anyone for my lack of knowledge and possible post repetitiveness.
Click to expand...

As you are a new user, and having trouble wading through all the confusion of various jailbreaking and unlocking tools out there at the moment, (I'm a pretty experienced user, and I can't even figure out which version of redsn0w, pwnage tool or quickpwn I should use if I wanted to jailbreak 2.x! ;)) my advice would be you wait until ultrasn0w is released. Then, your path would be simple. Namely:
1. Upgrade to 3.0 using iTunes
2. Jailbreak using redsn0w
3. Unlock using ultrasn0w

Instructions and links for redsn0w is currently on the Dev Team's blog (http://blog.iphone-dev.org/), and instructions for ultrasn0w will be available there when it is released. Just keep checking it once a day until you see a post there releasing ultrasn0w. Good luck!
 
Chris.L said:
I wasn't saying your way was wrong, I just prefer PwangeTool

PwangeTool makes the whole process pretty simple and includes step by step instructions
Click to expand...

As do I, Pwange in Expert mode eliminates alot of the process of running Cydia over and over away.

But, many folks can't manage redsn0w which is almost idiot proof, so Pwange might be a bit over the top.

Later....
 
LissiSays said:
I figured that part out after finding some people that have done it. But I don't know what to use to unblock a 3G with the 2.2.1 update since everyone is posting and talking about the 3.0 update.
Click to expand...

The people you know that has JB their iphones will not do it for you?
 
I just used pwange with redsnow and it worked. The only thing i did wrong was not sync my phone before I jailbroke and lost some pics that I wanted. Well lesson learned I guess. Now I have to figure out how to use it. LOL!!
 
Night Spring said:
As you are a new user, and having trouble wading through all the confusion of various jailbreaking and unlocking tools out there at the moment, (I'm a pretty experienced user, and I can't even figure out which version of redsn0w, pwnage tool or quickpwn I should use if I wanted to jailbreak 2.x! ;)) my advice would be you wait until ultrasn0w is released. Then, your path would be simple. Namely:
1. Upgrade to 3.0 using iTunes
2. Jailbreak using redsn0w
3. Unlock using ultrasn0w

Instructions and links for redsn0w is currently on the Dev Team's blog (http://blog.iphone-dev.org/), and instructions for ultrasn0w will be available there when it is released. Just keep checking it once a day until you see a post there releasing ultrasn0w. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much!

I saw this morning that Ultrasn0w was released so I'll be updating the phone on iTunes to 3.0 as soon as I get home. This might sound silly, but I don't know, does the AT&T sim card have to be in the phone during this process? The AT&T sim card is still activated for a few more days from the previous owner. Or do I put my TMobile sim card in?

And does it matter if you do this process on a MacBook? Or is it better on a PC? I still have my old PC laptop (even though it's super slow) and wonder if there is a difference.
 
theevilone said:
The people you know that has JB their iphones will not do it for you?
Click to expand...

The phone is already jailbroken with 2.2.1. It just wasn't unlocked since it was being used on AT&T.

Do I need to unjailbreak the phone before updating to 3.0? Or does updating to 3.0 undo that already?
 
Moi un Mouton said:
Just update to 3.0 with iTunes, and then:

- first, jailbreak with Redsn0w like this: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=4303

- second, unlock with UltraSn0w like this: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=4253

Read the tutorials carefully before setting out
Click to expand...

Awesome! Thank you so much.

I noticed the instructions said to download the 3.0 Firmware and place it in the folder with redsn0w... Isn't this the same thing as the 3.0 update? If not, where do I download that? I'm such a n00b!
 
Yes you're right, it is the same file, and it will already be on your computer once you update through iTunes, so there's no real need to download it again, you can browse for it in RedSn0w
 
Thank you guys so much for your patience with my n00bness and your replies! I was able to successfully jailbreak and unlock my iPhone last night! It was easy and super fast. Those iClarified links are the best! Thanks again.
 
LissiSays said:
Thank you so much!

I saw this morning that Ultrasn0w was released so I'll be updating the phone on iTunes to 3.0 as soon as I get home. This might sound silly, but I don't know, does the AT&T sim card have to be in the phone during this process? The AT&T sim card is still activated for a few more days from the previous owner. Or do I put my TMobile sim card in?

And does it matter if you do this process on a MacBook? Or is it better on a PC? I still have my old PC laptop (even though it's super slow) and wonder if there is a difference.
Click to expand...

glad to hear that you unlocked successfully! What did you find out about the SIM cards? Do you have to keep the Att during the process, then switch to Tmobile? Or just have the Tmobile in there the entire time?

Also, at what point did you disable 3G on the iphone to make Tmobile work?

thanks everyone
 
chompymcchomp said:
glad to hear that you unlocked successfully! What did you find out about the SIM cards? Do you have to keep the Att during the process, then switch to Tmobile? Or just have the Tmobile in there the entire time?

Also, at what point did you disable 3G on the iphone to make Tmobile work?

thanks everyone
Click to expand...

I left the AT&T Sim Card in the phone until the unlocking process where I had to put in the TMobile card to see if it was successful. I also forgot to turn off the 3G before the process but it didn't do anything. The E for Edge appeared on its own and THEN I turned off 3G when I remembered.
 
LissiSays said:
I left the AT&T Sim Card in the phone until the unlocking process where I had to put in the TMobile card to see if it was successful. I also forgot to turn off the 3G before the process but it didn't do anything. The E for Edge appeared on its own and THEN I turned off 3G when I remembered.
Click to expand...

oooh ok. So do you have to leave the 3G off forever? Does this affect internet speed etc?
 
I for one am very happy you made your post LissiSays because I have/had a lot of the same questions. I still have v1 on T-Mobile but its been dropped several times, the battery is not what it used to be and I would like some of the new apps. (v1 iPhone, v1.1.4 (4A102).

Is there anyway to get the new 3GS other than to buy one on eBay for half my house mortgage?

I live outside the Albuquerque area (way out) and only have T-Mobile, no ATT.

Thanks for any help.:)
 
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