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re: Why your next cell phone should be unlocked By Lincoln Spector

Several months ago, I got a British unlocked Verizon branded Samsung Galaxy S5 and trimmed my ATT SIM card to fit.

I had a few issues – couldn’t use it as a hot spot, couldn’t update it (both required a Verizon connect), couldn’t call forward from the phone, and it didn’t recognize US area codes without a helper app. Data issues may be related to different frequencies/radio bands used by the two different companies or different countries or both.

Wanting more features, I recently ordered a replacement unlocked ATT branded Galaxy S5 ($300 on eBay). The only ATT issues I’ve had is that it asked for a new ATT nano-Sim, although most all functions worked with the old (trimmed) one.

(For now, I stuck the old one in an Electro-Magnetic Pulse resistant bag — a coated Mylar, I think, Ziplock style bag — a Faraday screen, in the event of solar flare or other pulse event — on the assumption that some cell towers may be sufficiently hardened against such an event — or, “moving to Verizon” in the near future).

Thanks. I couldn’t get to that page, but have tracked ATT.net changes over the last decade.

I’ve used Syncopator’s suggestion, “display source”, or I’ve taken a screen shot (editing it down with Irfanview if necessary) and run it through an optical character recognition when I wanted to use the actual text.

Actually, I don’t trust the phone home nature of microsoft’s new stuff. I haven’t taken the time to see what information is shared.

[Just because I’m paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.]

I don’t like Charms nor the touchy(-feely) nature of 8.1. (No touch screen; I’m a keyboard and little bit o’ mouse sort of guy).

Thanks.

That gets me part way there. I can also right-click in the headers, click “More,” highlight a column (i.e. “Type”) and set the width in pixels, but if I take it down too much, that setting truncates all the Microsoft Yada files (Doc, Docx, Excel, PowerPoint, etc….)

I’m hoping for a registry edit, add-in, or something similar to get me to the actual extension letters .

I’m pretty sure I do, checked for updates 5 or so weeks ago.

I imagined that the problem “crops up” since “the last time I was on.” That might not be the problem (especially if the issue is lease timing out or similar).

More to the point, twice when I rebooted, some thing popped up requiring a response after I had lost a connection, but before it finished rebooting. So, twice burned, thrice shy (to modefile [modify + defile] an old saying).

Medico and Part, hello.

I also, randomly, 1/month, loose the LAN. I then do not reboot, I got to the device in System -> Disable -> Enable and I am back on. Would this also be your solution ? Jean.

Jean & Medico, It’s always good to know that I’m not the Lone Ranger and that others have had similar experiences.

Jean, this sounds like a workable solution. I think I did that manually once (but had done a few things, so wasn’t sure which task had been the solution). I imagine that I can figure out how to do this in task scheduler. I think I’ll try it when I get back to the computer.

I imagined that “lease” lengths might be the problem, but they seemed beyond my knowledge and therefor, what I’d try first. I suppose I have a combination of laziness, lack of time (and willingness to do detailed/systematic thinking. I should have tried one solution at a time, tested it, and logged what I had done so that I would remember in the future and/or discover if the order of multiple tasks made a difference.)

Perhaps someone with extensive network knowledge will have something better or more specific, or has some better insights, but Jean’s thoughts are the best so far (here, elsewhere, or in my head).

Just another thought. Might I have an Apple iTunes 11.1.0.126 update in process that needs rebooting? Should that block internet connections?

Thanks. I think that I’m good on those. I had to change the NIC to “do not allow sleep” (or whatever the exact setting was). I guess that was through device manager, though I’ll double check all.

I think the only energy saver I have is the “blank screen after 10 minutes.” (Moot point for power saving, since I turn the monitors off when I leave.)

Since the computer will go a few weeks without the problem, I suspected that something unusual (or at least infrequent) was going on. (Though, the I.E. 10 settings DID sneak past me.)

(And! I finally figured out how to thank with the ‘Thanks!’ button. That may speak to how much [or little] I notice the little details. And, 18,905 posts! Way to go, Joe!)

Thanks. Yes, Windows Explorer.

(I keep holding this mistaken fantasy that computers can make things easier, faster, and do things MY way. I want to go back to DOS, Basic, VisiCalc, and dBase, where at least the programs did things in a way that I understood and could make work.)

“Content” triples the height of the displayed info (working against my desire to minimize space), and from the Details box, the width box keeps reverting to the original number. I’m wondering if a RegEdit (or similar) fix exists that actually displays the file extension as one column option– i.e. .doc, .txt, .eml, … (and one that changes date format to m/dd/yy or mm/dd/yy).

Thanks Pilgrim. I did that (inadvertently) as part of taking out my Teac card reader. I may try again since successful installs in Windows seem often to be install order sensitive.

BTW, Dang!! … it sorta happened again, just before I put this post up. Every time I post here, Vista finds it’s own fix.

My old 256Meg stick just got installed. The new Vista Ready PNY still hasn’t, so I figured I’d post again.

At least this thread is a fairly comprehensive checklist of what people have tried over the last 9 months.

Ok… this is probably another case of me shooting me in the foot for having the temerity to try to do things MY way in Microsoft.

I sent all the faxes to a “Fax” folder. (In prior Windows, I either had to set up short-cuts to get to documents, or click-click-click-click-click-click.) Vista’s software seems to be very good about getting to (and getting things out of) Documents.

When I simply “print” from “Fax and Scan’s” Inbox I get a properly proportioned print out. For some reason or other, my initial few faxes went only to my “Fax” folder and not to the Inbox. Now it’s doing both.

This forum is great so far. All I had to do was ask the question and Vista started working ok. (But I’m learning a bunch, even when I find my own answers. Thanks, and now over to my USB problem in a new thread.)