HowTo: fix Android "Message not sent" problem

Do you immediately received a "Message not sent" notification after trying to send any text message? Try this to fix the problem of an Android phone refusing to send text messages despite being able to receive them.

1. Open the phone dialler and type in the following:  *#*#4636#*#*

   

   Add the SMS Center number

2. A menu should appear, select 'Phone Information'
3. Scroll down to find the empty box named "SMSC:"
4. Discover the SMS message centre number for your mobile provider:
• Either search the internet, e.g. "O2 UK SMSC number"
• Or look it up in a list such as this one: http://smsclist.com/downloads/default.txt
5. Enter this number in the box and click update
6. Press the back button to exit these menus
7. You should now be able to send texts!

I had the problem on a HTC Nexus One running Android 2.3.7, Cyanogenmod 7.1.0-N1 although it may affect other configurations.

Hopefully this helps, let me know in the comments if it fixed your problem!

HowTo: change DNS servers for Thomson SpeedTouch ST510 modem

If you type an incorrect web address you will often be redirected to a page from your ISP (probably plastered in adverts) and you'll have to type the whole address again to correct it. Wouldn't it be nicer if it left the mis-typed URL intact and said "not found" so you could quickly correct the mistake?

This can be achieved by changing the DNS servers you're using to look up website names - this is how to do that for the Thomson SpeedTouch 510 modem/router:

1. First discover the IP address of your modem device (the closest one to the phone line) a common value is 192.168.1.254 or perhaps 192.168.1.1
2. Then you need to log in remotely from a connected computer using 'telnet':
1. If you're on windows download & install PuTTY and use that
2. On linux use the command: telnet [modem IP address]
3. Type the username/password which may be written on the box, or might be "administrator"
4. Once you're sucessfully logged in complete the following steps by typing in the commands.

First get the list of current DNS servers:
 dns server route list
Make a note of these first in case you need to change back.

Then to delete all existing entries:
 dns server route flush

Then add the new DNS servers (examples here are Google's DNS servers):
 dns server route add dns=8.8.8.8 metric=5 intf=Internet
 dns server route add dns=8.8.4.4 metric=10 intf=Internet

Check that these new servers have been registered:
 dns server route list

Finally save your changes to the modem so that it persists:
 saveall