Connect Mobile Broadband and Windows 8

If your Dongle is not working with Windows 8 but it installs correctly and looks like it connects but just dose not do anything else when you try to open Internet explorer for example then try this work around first.

I must apologize as I currently do not have a Windows 8 Machine at hand to put a graphical representation of this up for you so this is put up for those that know there way around a computer.

Simply put go in to the Control Panel and then select the Network icon and setup a new Dial up Network connection, When doing this select your Mobile Broadband Modem and leave Username and Password fields blank when it asks for a Phone number use *99# save it up and it should automatically connect first time to test your connection.

This can now be used to connect your MBB device using the right pop-out menu you should see the Network Connect options popup when you click the Computer Monitor icon on the bottom of that side bar.

For a more detailed look at MBB in Windows 8 try Microsoft's own site. Here

Your providers I'm sure are working on new software to be 100% compatible with Windows 8 and they may already have it on their sites so check your providers technical support download sections.

Irish Text Message Centre Settings (SMSC Ireland)

When you send a text message in any country it is first sent to a Message Centre before being forwarded on to your destination number ie. your Friends and Family.

If you change your Phones network provider, purchase a sim free phone or mistakenly delete the message centre number you will get errors when you try to send your SMS, This is usually due to an incorrect message centre number. There can be other causes but it better to check this first then to be on Hold waiting for Customer Care or in a Shop!

So below I have a list of the Irish Network Centre Numbers for you. In most cases you will find this setting in Text Message Settings under Message Centre Number you just need to edit this to your chosen network.

The + is important so hold the Zero key on your handset until the + Symbol comes up, on some handsets you might have the quickly push 0 twice.

Vodafone Message Centre: +35387699989

Meteor Message Centre: +353857000000

O2 Message Centre: +353868002000

3 Message Centre: +353830000800

eMobile Message Centre: +353857000000 

Tesco Message Centre: +353894300000

Postfone Message Centre: +353876999940

48 Message Centre: +353894300000

5 Easy Ways to Customize your Android Phone

There are tons of ways to customize the look, feel and sound of your Android phone and I can see this will be an on going topic for us but for the moment We're going to talk about 5 simple ways you can customize your phone to get you started so your not stuck with the boring usual wallpapers ringtones and icons. 

• Zedge: Zedge is a really handy App you can grab from the Play store and it has loads of free Wallpapers,Ringtones and Notification Sounds that you can download free it even makes it a breeze to set these as your default. ZEDGE 

• Change your Lock Screen: After changing your home screen wallpaper you should hit your lock screen with a fresh coat of wallpaper,On most phones you can enter the Settings menu and in Screen settings select change lock screen to select a new image from your Gallery it may look for you to crop or centre the image, set it as you like and confirm, job done!

• Add a Face to that Name: Grab some Photos of Friends and Family and add them to their contact information on your phone, Usually all you have to do is open your contacts and select the contact you want to add the photo to edit the contact then hit the default picture to select your own.
  
• Widgets: Widgets are a great way to quickly get to information and settings, Try the widget category in the Play store and check out what's on the top list, everything from Calender widgets to WiFi is there and it is something in there that will make your life easier and your phone look cooler. In general when your on your home screen hit the Phones Menu Key and then tap Add to select from your installed and pre installed widgets.
  
• Live Wallpapers: Another great way to freshen up your phone is with Live wallpapers these are animated back drops to your home screen and will make it feel alive, Again load into the Play store and hit the Live Wallpaper Category to search through them. Bare in mind this can be an extra drain on your battery life and also on the phones resources so if you notice poor battery or slower performance after install this maybe the cause.

As with all Applications coming from the Play store check the reviews and ratings to make sure its worth while installing, there is some great content in there so don't let some badly made applications ruin your phones experience.

Reset an Android Phone

If you find your Android Handset is running slow, maybe you've forgotten the pattern to Unlock your handset or it could be a dodgy launcher install, there are loads of things that could go wrong and mean you just can't get into the Settings menu to hit Restore Factory Settings! this might just work for you.

When you power on your Android handset you can hold down a combination of the buttons on your phone that will bring you into a restore menu so you can restore the phones factory settings in a matter of seconds. Bare in mind you will lose data on the phones memory and just pull the memory and sim card just in case.

In most cases this is either the Volume up or down key the home button and power on, and then using the volume keys to select your choice and the home button to confirm it.

We have a separate page dedicated to the Combinations that you need to hold down so check what you need to hold down when booting up the phone. This page will be updated frequently to include new handsets but if there is one were missing drop it in the comments and we will add it to the list. We will also add more in-depth guides on some of the more popular handsets so this is really just our starting point.

Nokia Unlock Calculator

We've added a Free Nokia Unlock Calculator to the site it also has a Master Security Code generator as well and works just great for older Nokia Phones. Click Here or Click Free Nokia Unlock on the menu above to jump to the page. Loads of thanks to the nice people at www.findmethatphone.co.uk.

If your looking for other Handsets or your Nokia is not in the Free Unlock Calculator then you can use our Premium Unlock Service that is located off site at the moment and can be found here.

How to find your IMEI

There are lots of places to find your IMEI or International Mobile Equipment Identity, its usually a 15 digit long number that should be unique to your device and there are a few reasons you would need it such as sending your phone for repair or when requesting the Unlock code to remove the sim lock from it, so here are some places to find it.

• Sticker on the side of box for the device.
• The Receipt or Docket if you bought it in a shop
• Dial *#06# in to the Phone and it will display the IMEI 
• Under the Battery you will find a sticker with the IMEI on it.

I know a lot of people reading this will think this is elementary and if you have any more suggestions please drop them in the comments and I'll add them on but seriously I really do get asked this question regularly.

Enter the Unlock Code in a Blackberry 8520 Curve

So you've got you Unlock Code for your Blackberry 8520 Great, Now what!? Just follow these steps to free up that sucker! Make sure to follow step by step.

1. Boot up your Blackberry as normal with your usual sim in it.

2. Select Settings - Options - Advanced options and then Sim Card.

3. In the Sim Card menu hold shift and type mepd

4. Again while holding the shift Key type mep then you will need to hit the alt key to enter 2 Your trying to type MEP2 

5. You should now have a prompt to enter your Unlock code.

6. Enter the code and hit the Return(The one under del key) and you should see Code accepted.

That should be it all going good you can now put in any sim you want.

How to enter a Nokia Unlock Code



It's really easy to enter the Unlock Code on your Nokia Feature Phone.

Once you have your code from your chosen source ie. your network provider, just take out your current sim and switch the Phone on. At the insert sim prompt you have to enter it in the following way.

#PW+Your Code Goes Here+1#



To get the P W and + you need to use the star or * key.

Below I have the number of times to press the star key to get the Letters and + Symbol.

P: Quickly press * [Star Key] 3 Times

W: Quickly press *[Star Key] 4 Times

+: Quickly press *[Star Key] 2 Times

Once you have the code completed the Phone should show "Sim Restriction Off" If it dose not Don't keep entering the code, Double check it as generally you only have 5 Attempts to enter a Code before the Phone will tell you "Cannot Undo Restriction" if this happens you will most likely have to take it to the Unlock Shop!

You should also be aware the final digit after the last + can vary so again double check before you enter.

This method should also work with Nokia Phones that Turn fully on without a sim and the code can be entered in the same way at the Main Screen.

Help! My Lumia 800 will not turn on.

I had this come up today. To soft reset your Lumia 800 which is basically like pulling out the battery on your old frozen feature phone you need to hold down the Volume Down Key and Power button, You should feel the phone vibrating but keep on holding, the phone should vibrate a total of 3 times and then it should power on.

If the above dose not work you can try a full reset this will however wipe the phone and put it back to Original Factory settings meaning you loose everything! To do this you have to hold down the Volume down, Power button and the Camera button, when the phone vibrates release the Power button and keep holding the Volume down and Camera buttons for approx 5 more seconds and you should be good to go. 

If this still dose not work you will need to drop in to Nokia Repair and get them to sort it for you.