So my friend "sort of" jail breaked her phone, kinda

[NQK]

She called me Saturday because she tried to update her software and at&t carrier settings and it wouldn't work. Then all her apps quit working. She tried to restore and it came up with an error message and wouldn't restore. I told her I was at a loss and to take it to the apple store.

That's when she confessed that a friend at work gave her a program on CD that "enhanced her phone and unlocked it to use on any carrier". I told her she might be screwed. SHe went home and uninstalled the program on her PC and updated the phone just fine.

Anyone ever heard of a program that unlocks the phone and then locks it back up when you uninstall it? WAs the phone really jail broken at all? I'm wondering about the worm that's affecting phones in australia, and if hers might be in danger of getting infected if it started attcking US phones.

Thanks, Kelly

 

[dhlizard]

She called me Saturday because she tried to update her software and at&t carrier settings and it wouldn't work. Then all her apps quit working. She tried to restore and it came up with an error message and wouldn't restore. I told her I was at a loss and to take it to the apple store.

That's when she confessed that a friend at work gave her a program on CD that "enhanced her phone and unlocked it to use on any carrier". I told her she might be screwed. SHe went home and uninstalled the program on her PC and updated the phone just fine.

Anyone ever heard of a program that unlocks the phone and then locks it back up when you uninstall it? WAs the phone really jail broken at all? I'm wondering about the worm that's affecting phones in australia, and if hers might be in danger of getting infected if it started attcking US phones.

Thanks, Kelly

She probably ran Blackra1n RC3 (jailbreak & Unlock) which is generally screwing up many phones.

But you can always restore your phone to official Apple IPSW.

 

[jmann]

First off, the phone only remains unlocked as long as the phone is jailbroken. So if she updates the phone in iTunes or restores it naturally the unlock goes away.

Also that "worm" does nothing more than change the phone's wallpaper. Also if she never installed OpenSSH there is no way she can even be affected.

 

[ViViDboarder]

First off, the phone only remains unlocked as long as the phone is jailbroken. So if she updates the phone in iTunes or restores it naturally the unlock goes away.

Also that "worm" does nothing more than change the phone's wallpaper. Also if she never installed OpenSSH there is no way she can even be affected.

Actually, the worm plants some files on the phone as well to re-infect other phones on the network and disable OpenSSH to prevent re-infection. It's only a warning though and does nothing harmful other than change your wallpaper as you mentioned.

 

[NQK]

First off, the phone only remains unlocked as long as the phone is jailbroken. So if she updates the phone in iTunes or restores it naturally the unlock goes away.

Also that "worm" does nothing more than change the phone's wallpaper. Also if she never installed OpenSSH there is no way she can even be affected.

I always thpought that once your phone was unlocked it stayed that way and if you tried to update it, then it locked up permanently and was useless. Is that how it was in the beginning? Has it changed? I don't know much about JB, I'm too chicken to do it. Scared I'll tear it up and have to shell out cash for a new one.

 

[Night Spring]

I always thpought that once your phone was unlocked it stayed that way and if you tried to update it, then it locked up permanently and was useless. Is that how it was in the beginning? Has it changed?

Updating the iPhone through iTunes removes the jailbreak, ergo, it also removes the unlock. An iPhone that has been unjailbroken and un-unlocked in this way isn't "useless," it's just that it can only be used with its official carrier. So someone who had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile in US might say the phone is now "useless" after a restore, but it's only because he doesn't have an AT&T phone/data plan. If he went and signed up for a plan with AT&T, the phone would work perfectly.

And yes, this is the way it has always been.

 

[dhlizard]

I always thpought that once your phone was unlocked it stayed that way and if you tried to update it, then it locked up permanently and was useless. Is that how it was in the beginning? Has it changed? I don't know much about JB, I'm too chicken to do it. Scared I'll tear it up and have to shell out cash for a new one.

Sort of true.

Once you JB & UL a phone, it will stay that way until you alter the firmware or the phone crashes (which does happen occasionally). If you have to restore the phone to official Apple firmware, the JB & UL are gone and you have to re-do them.

You cannot really "brick" these phones outside of a sudden hardware failure. Newbies are always claiming their phones are bricked, but they just don't know what they are doing. An iPhone can almost in every case be restored as good as new.

 

[jmann]

I always thpought that once your phone was unlocked it stayed that way and if you tried to update it, then it locked up permanently and was useless. Is that how it was in the beginning? Has it changed? I don't know much about JB, I'm too chicken to do it. Scared I'll tear it up and have to shell out cash for a new one.

The reason that the unlock goes away if you restore it, is because the unlock is technically a boot daemon that is run via an exploit in the phone's baseband when the phone turns on. The phone has to be jailbroken in order for the unlock daemon to be run.

The original 2G iPhone was different because they were able to find a way to modify the baseband itself instead of just running a daemon, and it would remain unlocked through a restore in iTunes unless the baseband is updated or the DFU (Direct Firmware Upgrade) Mode restore is performed via iTunes.

It sounds complicated, but basically your phone has to be jailbroken in order to be unlocked. Period.