I started my journey to unlock Mee’s SE V630i last night but suffered some setback. First of all, before I unlock the phone, I tried flashing the phone firmware to SE W660i with Chinese Simplified language pack which I downloaded from 4Shared. And before flashing the firmware, I will need to update the phone using Sony Ericsson Update Service. The installation was simple and once installed, it will connect to the internet and download the required information.

The update service started and I just follow the screen instructions. Easy. After the update was completed, the mobile phone becomes CID52 instead of CID49 previously. One of the requirements to update firmware from V630i to W660i is to ensure that the EROM CID is 52.

I proceeded to flashing the firmware, following the instructions given by a forum poster named solisnake204 with the post titled Converting K610/K618/V630 to W660. Full Guide! Once flashed, I continued with the patches and unlock. Everything seemed to be fine. I happily inserted my 3 network sim card into the phone and switch it on. Sadly, a message stating configuration error and asked me to contact the operator prompted on the screen.

Immediately, I googled for some information regarding configuration error during patching or flashing. I found out that one user stated that he also had the same error but he found out that the custom pack he downloaded was the wrong version. I was quite confused as I am sure that my firmware and custom pack are the same kind according to the filenames.

Thus, I used another firmware and custom pack files which was uploaded by one of the poster. Flashed again, and still the same configuration error. It was 0130 hours already and I believe that I should be sleeping as I couldn’t think of solutions.

Today, I had a sudden thought. The custom pack folder might be incorrect. When I reached the office, I started googling for custom pack installation and it’s true that the folder which I had created for the custom pack was wrong. Well, I will have to leave it till tonight, or tomorrow then.

To those experts, I am like a fool. After all, it’s my first time flashing firmware on SE phones.

As promised, this post is about Sentry® Safe, Fire-Safe® Data & Document Security products. Two of the products range can be connected to the computer as backup and external devices via USB. In addition to it, it can also protect the hard drives from water and fire. I wouldn’t consider them to be expensive as they use Maxtor technology and the safety features that the products provide. They are basically around $300 – $500, for each different model.

However, my point of view is that these products will only be suitable for small business as they offer no RAID control and only serve as backup and safe box. Wouldn’t it be nice to have NAS or WiFi functions too? I believe, the products do have selling points and popularity and demands will have Sentry® Safe increase their target audience range to larger organizations.

As I googled, I saw an article with the topic, ‘The Three Most Important Security Steps The Small Business Should Take’. It started by saying that a lot of people will start disagreeing and suggesting more steps should be taken. I wouldn’t say that it is some kind of good IT stuffs because it’s something which I know and I don’t quite agree. Actually, it’s not even steps. It’s just three things to consider.

Alright. The three ‘steps’ are Antivirus Software, Firewalls and OS Patching.

I will start my point now. The reasons to state some topic like this and even provided the three steps should have pointed out the most important steps or things, I would call it. However, I wouldn’t comment anything as every mind thinks differently. But I would like to state my three important things too.

Wikipedia – Small Business

A small business may be defined as a business with a small number of employees. The legal definition of ‘small’ often varies by country and industry, but is generally under 100 employees in the United States while under 50 employees in the European Union.

I do feel that the small business should be categorized into different categories like Category A – Less than 15 employees and so on. Or maybe they already have.

Here it comes. My three important things would be a server, backup and security tools.

Backup
I treat my home network (even though it’s just Mee and me) as important as managing a small business network because we have our own important data such as pictures, mp3s and some documents. It would be headache should I lost all the data or get involve with some viruses.

I have two hard drives; 40GB and 80GB respectively. The 40GB is used for OS while the 80GB is used for data and games. There was once when I decided to switch my XP over to Vista by formatting my existing OS drive and partitioned it into two. However, I tried using FDISK but only to realize that it doesn’t recognize NTFS file system. Thus, I used Hiren’s BootCD, recommended by my previous manager, to boot up the system and used some DOS NTFS tools to partition the drive. Unfortunately, I deleted all of my partitions including the 80GB which contain all important data. I had previously backup some of the data on DVDs but not the photos and mp3s.

However, I do know that even though I deleted the partition, the data inside the drive is not deleted yet. Thus, after hours of fiddling, I managed to retrieve the partition and make two partitions too. I’ve been long-winded but the point is to say that data is very important, therefore, I had changed my way of managing my system ever since.

Now, I have a 250GB external hard disk that manages all my backup data while the 80GB keeps part of it as extra copy. Thus, backup is considered one of my security steps. At least I wouldn’t be that worried should I happen to delete my existing partition again. Even though I had mentioned that deleting partition, doesn’t mean the data is deleted. However, I will need to take extra care trying to restore the data by creating the right partition. My next mission is to format the 40GB and 80GB hard drives and install dual boot of XP and Vista into the 80GB. Having a backup on the 250GB means having a peace of mind.

Server
A server could help managing the user accounts and acts as a file server. Giving certain privileges and permissions to certain people would restrain employees to install irrelevant programs or copy data from other sources which may bring viruses. As all the files would be stored in the server, backup will become easier by performing on the server rather than each computer in the network.

The version of Vista that I have is Vista Ultimate. It is considered the most functionalities and most secured version of Vista. As I only have one computer, it is not possible for me to setup Server 2003 on my computer. However, I restricted my own account from having the full administrator rights. This could prevent spyware or adware from installing automatically. As a normal user account, each software installation will be notified or even blocked without notification.

Security Tools
I considered myself lucky as my computer was often attacked harmless by spyware and adware which were removed successfully without any damage of data or system files. My memory card was infected by virus once when I used it in the previous college where I studied. Fortunately, it’s only the memory card.

Security tools that I would recommend are McAfee VirusScan, McAfee SiteAdvisor, and Windows Defender. Windows Defender comes loaded in Vista and so far, it has been able to detect all sorts of spyware and adware which are trying to attack my system. McAfee SiteAdvisor is free for download for both Internet Explorer and Firefox. After installed, there will be a short bar indicator on the right-bottom of the browser. When googling, there will also be an indicator besides each link. By looking at the indicator, we will know whether the site is harmful or safe to visit. As the old saying, ‘Prevention is better than cure’.

McAfee VirusScan is by far the best antivirus tool that I had used. It’s definitely better than Norton Antivirus. From my own experience, each and every files going in and out from my computer will be scan and any harmful files will be automatically deleted or quarantined. My previous experience with Norton Antivirus is that a message box will always come out when a file is infected but most of the time; it can do nothing, not even deleting the file.

As far as I heard the comments from other IT people that I had converse before, software firewall is not recommended and hardware technologies are much better. I had used ZoneAlarm before and find that it is not that kind of software that I would expect. The message prompts each and everytime a file or a program tries to access the internet is irritating. Right now, I have a Linksys Wireless Router with simple firewall but I do believe that backup, server control and security tools would be enough to secure my system.

Today’s weather is much better compared to yesterday which seems to be cold and freezing. It seems like most of my posts started with weather. I believe that is because weather is the factor that we always felt surrounding us. Another factor which has the top priority would be the body system. Likewise, if I feel unwell, I will be talking about headache or stomach-ache and stuffs like that before I talk about weather. Or maybe, I haven’t got anything to talk about. HAHA… Anyway, who cares?

I’ve been trying to do some task on the system with regarding to the security issues. … It’s been sometime and I still couldn’t figure it out. Maybe it couldn’t be configured that way. Anyway, I will give it a go again after lunch; otherwise, I will need to talk to my colleague already.

Intermittently, I also searched at some forums regarding my plan on unlocking Mee’s SE V630 to ensure that everything will be done correctly and properly. Last night, I wanted to update the phone with SE original patch but it gave a warning message saying that the phone must be fully charged. Guess that I will have to do it again tonight.

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I read on the newspaper Metro just now and found an interesting article. It’s about a sports car made from wood. It claimed to be 4.6litre V8 engine which reached 240mph; faster than Porsche and Lamborghini. I wonder how the test crash would look like.

It’s 1541 hours and the sun is out. From morning until a few hours back, it was foggy. The visibility is only about 50 meters to 100 meters. Undeniably, it was freezing.

Just a sudden thought and after my lunch, I had been looking for firmware and unlocking methods for Mee Vodafone’s mobile phone; Sony Ericsson V630. After some thorough search and visiting a few popular Sony forums, I finally found some links as to unlock and update the firmware. And actually, there are quite a lot of people changing the firmware to W660i firmware and I found APAC (Asia Pacific) language firmware and will try it either this weekend or tonight. However, the firmware only enable the phone to view Chinese wordings but not type. But I guess it’s better than nothing.

Searching at these firmware is kind of headache coz it’s not as straightforward as Nokia phones which has only one file. SE phones have 3 types of file; 1 main firmware, 1 FS file, and the need for custom pack files. Last time, when I tried to get software called MobyToday that needs permission to run on SE phones, it took me hours to search on the internet and about 2 hours just to get some files like certificate to upload into SE W850i. Hopefully, this unlocking and updating of firmware for SE V630 would be faster.

Update to W660i firmware

Another Simple Guide to Update onto W660i firmware

Unlock SE Phones

File Server

CJ7
Hmm… I forgot to mention that Mee and I watched CJ7 directed and casted by Stephen Chow. Initially, I had thought that Stephen Chow would be directing one film a year, but the last film was Kung Fu in 2004. So, CJ7 is considered a film which is much anticipated by most people. However, Mee and I were quite disappointed. There wasn’t any high and low in the film except weird things and old jokes. The animated alien looked and the child’s acting was good. Overall, there were nothing new and it looked boring. Even so, I will be anticipating Kung Fu 2; probably out in 2010.

This morning was freezing. I was like a chimney. As I walked to the bus stop, I saw a guy whom I never saw before, waiting for bus. The bus came minutes later. Upon getting onboard, the people in the bus were not those familiar faces whom I had seen before. I was even thinking that I am in the wrong bus.

When I alight from the bus, the town is quiet. As I walked to my work place, I missed all the familiar faces which I would normally see everyday. I was thinking again. Did just a weekend change everything in the town? Am I in a drama kind of thing? The next thing I saw was a lady driving a Volkswagen crashed into a van stationed at the side of the road. When I walked past it, the Volkswagen suffered a serious damage compared to its victim. But the lady was fine, just sad.

Luckily, I saw my familiar colleague in the office. The first thing she asked me was whether I had notice something different today. I said yes and she told me that it is school holiday this week. HAHAHA … If I tell this to Mee, she would have stopped me from watching movies in the future. I do realize that I get a lot of inspiration from movies and drama.

I am happy today as I talk a lot with my colleague today. Not really a lot, but more than my usual self in the office. In fact, I like talking anyway.

It’s hot now, and we have our air-con in working right now. It’s funny that one moment it’s freezing cold and hours later, it’s baking hot. Just had our training today postponed to don’t know when. I would have thought to spend my rest of the day training rather than thinking.

While I was having my lunch, I saw two news that have my attention. One is about the population of the Earth is to many and we will have to find ways to reduce it; if not, it could be very serious. Another thing is that Virgin Media has offered free upgrade for its users from 4MB to 10MB connection. FOC. Mine is 2MB and obviously, I don’t get such offer. Anyway, since mine is cheap package, I will just stick to it first for the rest of 9 months. In addition, Virgin Media is going to introduce a whopping 50MB connection soon. Imagine download a song with just a click.