Force roaming on Samsung Epic 4G

At my work, cell signals have some difficulty getting into the building. As a result, my battery life sucks. My old Sony phone had an option of forcing it to roam which solved this problem.

However, my new phone- the above-mentioned Samsung Epic 4G- does not offer this option. There is an app available in the market called Roam Control, that allows this feature if the phone is rooted. However, if you live in Florida, most of Texas, and a few other places that Verizon doesn't have coverage in the 850mHz band, Samsung won't roam. Damn....

Well, I like a challenge. And I have found a way around this (and it doesn't involve hacking PRLs)

There is an NV item in the phone. 00442- nv_roam_pref. Using QXDM (QPST or NVEditor might work but I didn't try. NVEditor doesn't list it- it'll have to be added, and I didn't check QPST), change the value to 0x0002. And to answer your next question- Google is your friend!

[EDIT on 11/8/2011: QPST doesn't list this NV item, either.]

Here's a screenshot:

My phone is showing 3-4 bars now (0 to maybe 2 before). The roaming indicator is on, I am able to make and receive phone calls, send and receive texts, and browse the web (1xRTT only- showing about 100k). And the change seems to be persistent after reboots. I was able to revert it by changing my Network Preference back to 'Sprint Only'.

Now- if someone can write an widget that does this, that can be repayment to me for the time and effort I wasted trying to figure this out. Here's a middle finger to you, Sprint and Samsung!

First Post

Welcome. There isn't going to be anything 'amazing' or 'awesome'. This is simply a web area that I can permanently store info that I or others may need in the future.

This will be my first nugget of info.

I've been having problems with Google's calendar button for Google toolbar. It stopped refreshing several months ago and I finally got around to troubleshooting it. This was with IE8, several versions of toolbar, and WinXP SP3.

Clicking the button's arrow would result in the message 'Refresh (Incompatible Version)' and nothing else. I tried several refreshes, uninstalling/reinstalling (both toolbar and button) and other various ideas. The solution was more simple than this.

There is an error in the code that google used in writing the button. The code was located in
"C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Toolbar Sync\UJF7R5H77LFM1F2EROHI\Custom Buttons\"

There are several .xml files here. Open each with your favorite file editor until you find the one for the calendar button. It'll be pretty obvious which one it is. Now, scroll down almost to the bottom looking for the line that starts with 'feed'. Now look where it says "http://calendar.google.com/etc/yaddayaddayadda". Simple change http: to https:

That's all it took for me. You may need to restart your browser.

Hope this helps someone else!