So very eager to update my iPhone to 2.0, once Pwnage Tool was released, I forgot completely I had disabled my EDGE from BossPrefs (seeing how I was at home, with Wi-Fi) and proceeded with the update. This had the unpleasant effect and completely leaving me without any way of enabling EDGE, post-update. Well, most of ‘any way’. If you have done something similarly stupid (out of, I am sure, excitement) here is my quick and dirty fix for the problem, inspired by some older posts from ModMyIfone.com1
- Install OpenSSH from Cydia.
- Login via an SFTP client into your phone (first time takes longer than subsequent attempts).
- Navigate to
/var/preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plistand copy this file to your system. - Open with “Property List Editor” , if you have XCode installed, or even TextEdit.
- In the plist, under
NetworkServicesexpand each key. Wherever you see that the only children of a key areInterfaceandcom.apple.CommCenter, expand the latter. Make sureAllowNetworkAccessandAvailableare both set to1, and that the APN/user/pass underSetupare correct. Repeat this for all the keys (I had two entries, not sure why but made them both have these values. - Obviously, you could turn the flags to
0(OFF) to disable EDGE completely, if that’s what you want.
And there you have it. Sure, you could just reset the phone, but that doesn’t strike me as a fun thing to do. Plus, it would mean I would lose my custom carrier string, and for some reason I am quite attached to it.
NOTE: If you have issues with Mail on the iPhone, check the next post.
UPDATE: BossPrefs for iPhone 2.0 is now out, and you can enable/disable EDGE from there. Not sure if it will fix all problems, but give it a shot. You can grab it from Cydia.
- You can also simply set-up the phone as a ‘new phone’ after restore, and you should get the same result [↩]
Thank you for the info!
Question though: how do you disable OpenSSH withouy uninstalling so that it doesn’t drain the battery?
Thank you SO SO much for posting this. I needed to turn EDGE off and I tried editing a carrier plist and nothing was fixed. I used this to turn everything to 0 and it worked great!
If I post this anywhere else I will be sure to link to this page. Thanks so much!
@Jarod: Unfortunately, I do not know of anyway to do so right now. I did uninstall after I was done, but I am sure something like UIctl or Services will be updated soon enough — and we’ll be able to turn EDGE on and off on the fly again.
Sounds good! If the above wouldn’t work for some reason, here’s another slightly different way to do it
http://rolf.haynberg.de/?p=42
Regards
hi there…this is great – one point of clarification – you’re on a 2g phone and you’ve upgraded to 2.0 and disabled edge. Are you on a phone bought in the US?
@chris: Phone was bought in the US but it is being used in Canada. Yes, it is an original iPhone, pwned to 2.0.
Could someone please email me there file with EDGE completely turned off? I dont get which string is children and all that talk :(
never mind
Sorry if I sounded rude before. What I meant was that maybe an explanation or a file would be better for us that doesnt understand that kind of language. Expand each key…? With what? How? Children?
@Jesper: I haven’t tried opening the file in TextEdit to see how it looks, but in Property List Editor it is structured as a tree of key-value entries. A child is a subelement of something, and expanding simply means clicking the arrow to see those subelements.
In Text Edit, the easiest way would be to search for things like
com.apple.CommCenterand you should see the things that need changing below that entry. I am not going to post a file because I am not certain what the effects would be, maybe it all works, maybe it seriously messes up the phone.Hi, I had the exact same problem. Just noticed that my iPhone was checking my email every hour via EDGE over this past week after I pwned my original iPhone. The problem is that it used 5.4 megabytes of data. I don’t have a data plan, and here in Canada its 5 cents per kilobyte! I have a huge bill coming!!!
Can you please confirm that the BossPrefs tool completely stops all EDGE traffic?
Also, any tips on how I might get out of paying this bill?
@Axiom: From my tests, yes, BossPrefs kills EDGE. You can also go over SSH and change the information in the carrier.plist file for extra security, but on the few phones I have tried this, EDGE was completely nuked.
As for the bill, usually Rogers will let you sign up for a data plan if you make such a mistake. Not sure if they require a contract for some months or whatnot, and I realise it might not what you are looking for, but it depends what kind of bill you’ll be getting I guess. From what you’re telling me it should run in about $300.
If you do decide to sign up, before the end of August you should be able to get the $30/6GB plan, though it will require a 3 year contract. Tell them you have a first gen iPhone, I know of a few people that signed up successfully for that plan.
However, I have a friend that ran way over his limit, and he received a text from Rogers alerting him of that. If you didn’t get something like that, you could feign complete and utter ignorance and see if they’ll let it slide – let me know how it works out, please!
@INAEQUITAS Thanks, I’m going to call Rogers tonight and see what I can work out. Will post back with the details of what happened.
I called Rogers and told them I had ‘just bought’ a used iPhone and that I noticed it was doing EDGE traffic. I said I was worried about getting charged badly and they told me that you only have to pay charges if you’ve received SMS warnings about your usage. I told them I haven’t received any and they confirmed that none had been sent. This is odd because Rogers sends the first one at $10 usage, then $25 and so on. Anyway, they were sympathetic with me and said if I received a data charge on my bill, I could call in and they would credit my account.
They also offered me the $30/month for 6GB, but I turned it down because it’s a 3 year contract… not exactly the kind of commitment I want to get into.
So basically I got away with it. After I went into the plist files and neutered the EDGE function.
So there you have it. If you’re in my situation, use this post as a reference. Thanks for your help INAEQUITAS.
Cheers, Axiom.
@Axiom: Hey thanks a lot for letting everyone know how that went, much appreciated!
So, on a 3G iphone, how do I configure the wap.voicestream.com settings? There are no settings dialogue available to enter the string.
I have a 3G that is pwned, running on TMobile with a sim chip hack.
@Robert: This thread from MacRumors seems to hint at simply adding the
wap.voicestream.comto thepreferences.plistlisted above.hey inaquitas,
ive tried the above method but its doesnt seem to work on my phone!
pouts
is there another workaround? ive tred reset network settings but it doesnt work ):
thanks
@greg: You should use BossPrefs, it is now working on all firmwares and it doesn’t require SSH access and mucking about with anything on your own. You should be able to find it in Cydia—make sure you read ‘The New Edge Toggle’ pop-up when you first start it.
This was a GREAT article – thanks so much.
My problem was exactly the same, I had disabled my EDGE previously (firmware 1.1.4), then I upgraded my firmware to 2.0.2, then I then I signed up for Rogers Canada’s new $30 / 6 GB / month data plan, where I realized that there was no longer an interface to turn on / off EDGE, except by using the BossPrefs addon.
Even thought BossPrefs has the on / off switch for firmware 2.0.x > you still have to enter the login credentials on some cellular carrier EDGE networks (i.e. Rogers Canada).
Using WinSCP to connect to your iPhone is simple enough…
(there are tons of forums on how to do this out there > http://modmyi.com/wiki/index.php/SSH_on_Windows )
… and then you can navigate pretty easily to the path listed in the original post.
(/var/preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist)
Double clicking on the file ” preferences.plist ” in WinSCP should open it up in your default text viewer (i.e. Notepad). You can use the ” Find ” tool in your text editor to find the test strings mentioned above: (” AllowNetworkAccess ” and ” Available “), making sure they are both set to “1″ to enable EDGE.
Then you can do another ” Find ” to find the strings for:
1) APN
2) User
3) Password
As of the date of this post (09/18/2008), all I needed to add to join the Rogers EDGE network was the ” APN ” string which is:
1) APN = internet.com
If you’re Googling this subject, you might find older articles that mention that you need 3 strings:
1) APN: internet.com
2) User: wapuser1
3) Password: wap
… but I did not need to put the ” User ” or ” Password ” in my preferences.plist file.
After all that, just reboot your phone and you’re ONLINE via EDGE!
P.S. I think it’s funny that the carriers got together with Apple to “hide” the EDGE on / off feature > this way you are ALWAYS on their EDGE internet, so if you or someone else (like a kid) accidentally access the browser / mail > you’ll be racking up that per MB bandwidth charge! warn your friends and / or get a cheap data plan [I've seen some that start as low as $2] just my 2 cents….
@ChrisCharles: Thanks for the info!
Yeah, it’s hard to turn off data on iPhone, even though Rogers will let you buy the phone without a data plan. If you are roaming, the “Cellular Data Network” menu reappears, allowing you to enter the APN, user and password. So maybe there’s a switch someplace to enable it all around, though I haven’t poked after that.
Update of the files worked on my iphone 2.0. BossPref did not. As soon as I turn off edge it will be switched on again.
Updated file (2 entries), rebooted the phone, tested, edge is not longer a problem.
Would be nice to have working tool to do it, but hey, vi file worked as well.
My problem was exactly the same I think, I have (firmware 1.1.4), Read above …and this post>
2. Install OpenSSH <wifi-> ip address) << HOW?
Username is root, pwd is defaulted to “alpine” with openSSH << HOW?
4. Grab the carrier.plist file from rogers.ca carrier folder<<< HOW???
5. Update with AllowEDGEEditing = “yes” <>> as above??? ># Login via an SFTP client into your phone (first time takes longer than subsequent attempts).
# Navigate to /var/preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist and copy this file to your system.
# Open with “Property List Editor” , if you have XCode installed, or even TextEdit.
# In the plist, under Network Services expand each key. Wherever you see that the only children of a key are Interface and com.apple. CommCenter, expand the latter. Make sure AllowNetworkAccess and Available are both set to 1, and that the APN/user/pass under Setup are correct. Repeat this for all the keys (I had two entries, not sure why but made them both have these values.
I don’t for life of me understand barely any of this … help please:(
ps It booted me before I could finish edit my delemah is I have pay as you go talk and text unlimited browsing suposidly / rogers activated sim in Sony Erickson can browse with it fine… but put sim in unlocked iphone no go.. I did the 1) APN: internet.com
2) User: guest wapuser1
3) Password:guest then ” > wap
when I first did it with guest / guest it worked for bout 2mins , i have tried and tried but can’t get it to work again and I’m lost as to all the rest above?