Thinking of buying a credit to use GSMOnlineTool software to work on your Motorola phone? You'll want to read this. This is not abashing of the software but a review of what it can do and what you won't get that you think you will from reading the some of the ads.

Removing the Service Provider Lock

If you need to remove Service Provider Lock (aka unlock) a large number of Motorola mobile phones and have a USB cable GOT is the most cost effective answer to this situation. For as little as £3.00 for one day access you can hook up and unlock as many phones as you can physically do. It takes less than ten minutes to unlock a phone. That means if you are dedicated you could unlock over fifty handsets in one day. I've unlocked over thirty handsets using GOT and had only one incident where I had to re-unlock the phone. So, 96% rate of success on first attempt is pretty good. I've had 100% success in unlocking my handsets using two attempts.

Flashing Your Handset

Upgrading your firmware? GOT again is a good answer. It can handle it. But, if you are expecting to find the firmware you need on the GOT Motorola server you are going to be out of luck unless you have an A1200. There are no other flex or flash files available as of 26 September 2007.

Finding Firmware, Flexes and MonsterPacks

Firmware is the set of instructions that tells the phone how to work. Think of it as the operating system of your phone. A Flex file is the information that provides the look and feel of the software. The flex will have the icons, menus, themes, languages and the like. If you want to unbrand your phone because you think the Orange theme and skin are ugly it is the flex file you will have to change. You will have to troll the internet to locate the firmware and flex files you want. A MonsterPack is the firmware and a flex file all in one. It allows you to upgrade your software and unbrand your phone in one flashing. These files are out there but it will take some looking and trial and error to locate well behaved and up to date MonsterPacks. Language packs are a different issue. The GOT Motorola server has numerous language packs for a large number of handsets.

Search Terms

When it comes to finding those files I've found the best way to search the internet is to use the initial part of the firmware name as the search term. For example, I work almost exclusively with V635 phones. My search term is R474_G. This does an excellent job of narrowing the returns to reasonable chances of finding what I want or a posting that will direct to me what I want.

For phone flashing try Flash and Backup or RSDLite, both can found by using a search engine. Flash and Backup is well worth the £5.00 it costs to register.

On-line Tool

GOT is an on-line tool. There have been times when I was working and received a lost "server connection" message. I've had to log in again to get back to work.  So far I've not had a handset ruined by the lost server connection issue. This is not a big issue but it does pop up so I mention it.

Other Functionality

GOT also allows you to see the user code, the security code and the subsidy code. It allows you to set these codes to the original default values for the first two and to 00000000 for the subsidy code. It has a PDS repair option, back up and restore of the firmware and other tools. Except for the code reset, handset information and backup/restore I can not speak to the other functions as I have not used them. What I have used has worked well and easily. If I used the other functions I have no doubt they would function at the same level.