Lazybit

Fixed Dialing Number (FDN) is a feature of a phone's SIM card that can restrict outgoing calls only to a special list of numbers, or to numbers that match a certain template (like 0793519xx or 069xxx906). Incoming and emergency calls are not affected by this option, so 911 and 112 are always reachable.

As a parent, you can control the phone numbers your children can dial. For example, you can configure the SIM such that the kid can call only you, your spouse and your other child.
A business can use FDN as a security measure to prevent employees from dialing numbers outside the company from their corporate-paid account.

Fixed dialing is activated by entering PIN2. This prevents others from changing or disabling the FDN list. This number is usually distributed with the card itself. If you can’t find it, contact the mobile operator.

You can enable FDN on your phone, but editing the list of fixed dialing numbers can be cumbersome if you use the phone’s tiny keypad.


SIM reader with SIM Manager can enable FDN and edit the fixed dialing numbers much faster and easier.

1. The first thing you have to do is add the numbers you want to be able to dial. You can write them from scratch or copy them from your contacts.

   

2. Click Enable FDN feature in the option SIM menu:

   
3. Enter PIN2.
   
   

FDN is now enabled on your SIM card. No outgoing calls can be made to any numbers, other than those in the list of fixed dialing numbers, or emergency numbers. Even if the SIM card is plugged into a different phone - calls to numbers other than the allowed ones are not possible.

Things to keep in mind:

• If you enter an incorrect PIN2 three times in a row, it will be locked. You can unblock PIN2 if you know PUK2. If you’re not sure what these numbers are, contact your mobile operator.
• Even though not all SIM cards support FDN, practically any SIM card issued these days has it. If your card does not, see if your mobile operator can replace it.

Version 3.1 is about to go public, this story provides details about some of the entries in the changelog.

+ improved SIM card write speed, only updated records are written
+ the .manifest file is now embedded into the program
+ notifications about missing readers can be optionally disabled
+ automatically enable and start the smart card service, if possible
+ detect ActivClient and let people disable it, for it renders the reader unusable
+ gracefully handle AT&T cards that have incomplete USIM phonebooks (no email file)
+ added support for PTT (push to talk) records available on some 3G cards
- fixed the problem of pasting contacts to FDN sections
- addressed issue of a limited number of contacts copied from Google
- Facebook deprecated their contacts API, so the feature is removed

Full story »

With the advent of iPhone4, the question How to use a micro-SIM with my phone? became very popular, even though [to the best of my knowledge], there are no other phones that use a micro-SIM. Besides the iPhone4, that is.

As a person who does not own an iPhone, the only reason this captured my attention is the fact that people cannot use their micro-SIM with SIM Reader, unless they employ some clever tricks that involve paper, scissors and rock some scotch tape.

What happens when you have a curious mind, a motivation to help people, a load of old smart-cards and some expensive toys?

This is etched with a laser on a sheet of plastic. Here are some other photos of experimental prototypes of our microSIM adapter:

As soon as we're satisfied with the results, Dekart will offer free microSIM adapters with every purchase of SIM Reader.

This is what it looks like when inside our SIM card reader:

Yes, you can barely see it - that is precisely the point :-)

Stay tuned!

Backing up SIM cards and making copies of your contacts and SMS is the first thing you'd want to do if a SIM reader got into your hands.

However, there may be cases in which destroying data is more important than keeping them. In such cases it becomes a good idea to clear SIM card memory in order to prevent private information from getting into wrong hands. Here are a few examples:

• A distant friend visits you, you give them an old phone of yours and a spare SIM - such that they could keep in touch. You don't want them to look through your SMS or SIM contacts.
• The phone that you use is given to you by your employer, as you change jobs - you have to return the phone, but you don't want them to access your personal information (ex: the phone numbers of your family and friends, kept in the SIM phonebook, or the SMS you've been exchanging with your significant other).

In these circumstances, you should erase SIM card data before giving the card to anyone. This includes wiping SIM contacts, the SMS archive, the list of last dialled numbers, own numbers stored on the SIM card.

To clear SIM card memory, you have to manually go through each entry and delete it. This is a long and boring operation; besides that - there is a risk that you will accidentally miss some of the entries - simply because there are hundreds of records, and a monotonous operation that involves pressing buttons on a tiny key-pad of a mobile phone is error prone.

There is another risk - some phones do not delete the SMS, making deleted SMS recovery possible. So, when clearing a SIM card, the objectives are:

• erase all SIM card data (not just SMS or phone-book);
• wipe SMS, to make it impossible to restore deleted SMS;
• automate the process, to remove the possibility of human error.

The solution to this problem is SIM Manager's Clear SIM card feature, it does all of the above in a few clicks.

Besides that, with SIM Manager you can backup SIM cards before erasing them, thus you get to keep a copy of all the sensitive information from the SIM's memory.

Take a look at this video tutorial, which describes how to clear SIM card data without leaving a trace.