Help OSFII - How I restored my Wi-Fi MAC Address

[Potzynoodle]

First and foremost I would like to thank Android Forums for providing the resource to share expert knowledge in this field. My special thanks go to the numerous clever people who inspired me to attempt my first ever unlock on my Orange San Francisco II (aka ZTE Blade 2).

I'll not bore you with the unlock process (threads elsewhere in this forum tell you how to do that) but I would like to share the process I followed to restore the Wi-Fi MAC Address to my SFII.

I did the whole unlock using ClockworkMOD Recovery (CWM), QPST, Flibblesan's files and XVI32 (HEX Editor) - I carried this out using a Dual Core Windows 7 64-bit Laptop. (I do not own a MAC so not sure if this will work for you)

Before unlocking I took steps to note down all the settings in the Status screen of my original SFII including the 12 character Hexadecimal Wi-Fi MAC address - * without this, you cannot proceed (happy to be proven wrong!)

I'm not saying this is THE definitive solution but it worked for me. I shall assume having come here you know enough to understand what you are about to do.

1. Put your unlocked San Francisco 2 into USB Debugging Mode (Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging)

2. Turn the handset off and restart it in Clockwork Recovery mode by holding down the Volume Down + Power On button - the CWM Menu will appear after a few seconds

3. Connect the phone to your PC or Laptop using the USB Cable which came with the phone and wait for Windows to recognise the attached device (mine came up with something like ZTE BLADE...DFU..)

4. Launch QPST Configuration and click on the Ports tab and then on Add Port

5. Select the ZTE BLADE...DFU.. which may appear on any COM port dependant on number of existing ports in your system (mine was on COM10 for example)

6. Now click on the Start Clients file menu and choose Software Download

7. Ensure the ZTE BLADE...DFU.. is selected in the Port field at the top - if not use the Browse button to find it

8. Now click on the Backup tab and then on the Browse button beside the .QCN filename field

9. Select a location and name for the backup i.e. I saved mine as OSF2.qcn onto my Desktop

10. Now hit the Start button and the download will complete in a few seconds - make sure this file is not 0kb (mine was 158kb)

11. Now open the XVI32 Hex Editor and open the OSF2.qcn file stored on the desktop

12. Using the Search function, enter the current (wrong) MAC Address i.e. 11 22 33 44 55 66 and click on Find/Search

13. Using the Replace function, enter the correct Hexadecimal MAC Address you made a note of earlier before unlocking your phone i.e. A3 45 4B 1E 33 2C and then click on Replace all Occurrences

14. Check this has been successful by searching again for 11 22 33 44 55 66 (repeat steps 12 & 13 if necessary) Once you're happy with the edit - click on SAVE (I chose to overwrite the version saved on the desktop) You can now exit XVI32

15. Go back to QPST Configuration and click on the Restore tab and Browse to the 'fixed' OSF2.qcn file saved on your desktop. When it's loaded click on the Start button to begin overwriting the phones memory with the correct Wi-Fi MAC Address

16. Your phone will reboot itself

17. Disconnect the USB cable and navigate to the Settings screen on your phone

18. Enter the Wireless and Networks sub menu and wait for the phone to detect your wireless router. Enter the passcode or security answer (if prompted) and connection should be made once an IP address has been assigned to your phone

19. If you now look in the About Phone > Status menu you should see your Wi-Fi MAC Address has been safely restored

20. Before pouring yourself a whisky, create a BACKUP on both the phone (using CWM) and on the PC (using QPST Config)

That's all there is to it!

A few good things I have noticed since the unlock:

• I am using a 3 SIM on their 'One Plan'
• I can now Tether/Create a Wi-Fi Hotspot
• I am now connecting via HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access) rather than 3G
• Android 'Gingerbread' seems much faster!

One negative (I am not sure if this is unique to me or a known issue)

• I have lost audible notifications for SMS (despite activating them in Settings)

EDIT: Fixed SMS notifications by installing the free app called SMSPopup

Anyway, I hope you find this useful. I just felt it was worth sharing given all the help others have offered to get me to where I am now

 

[Geekboy]

I was foolish enough not to make a note of my MAC address before starting the unlocking process, I hit a snag during the process and ended up doing some of the steps out of sequence. Bad move, it resulted in the MAC address on my phone being set to the usual default value of 11:22:33:44:55:66 and my phone wouldn't connect to me router

Unfortunately I'd only had the phone for about an hour or so, so I hadn't connected it to my wifi router yet, otherwise it may have been stored on my routers dhcp table.

Long story short I though I knackered my new phone and voided the warranty at the same time, gutted!

On a long shot, having read that the wifi MAC and the bluetooth MAC were usually very similar, I used the above process to set my wifi MAC to my bluetooth MAC. I expected to have to change it a few times, blindly hoping to find the right one, but to my surprise it worked straight away with the bluetooth MAC! It all seems to be working perfectly, I've only connected it to a couple of networks but they seem to be working fine.

I find it strange that the original hardware number cannot be dug out by the OS as it can for any network adapter on a PC, but until that's possible this may be a solution to any who were in a similar position to me.