Help How to use without activating (an Android newbie)

[Izzytoo]

Bought this baby and want to use it for mobile internet and camera and other non-phone purposes. This is my first smartphone of any sort (or any non-Windows device, for that matter) and I'm a bit afraid and unsure of how to proceed. And I'm having one problem.

When I turn on the phone, should I let it go through the searching for network Activation (does it need this for updates?) or should I cancel that immediately?

After I charged the phone, I turned it on and hit cancel right away on the activating, and chose the wifi-only for data. It found my home router just fine (I have a years-old Linksys B/G using WPA2) and it asked for my password. Then it told me the password was invalid, even though I have checked it and my laptop uses that same password just fine.

Got into the router settings and they say TKIP+AES and Automatic Configuration DHCP

I have not yet taken it into the wild to try it on another wifi spot, but I am headed to the library today and think I'll take it along to see.

I bought the phone directly from VMU website (I had a substantial cash balance from my minute-to-minute flipphone I carry and hardly ever use and this seemed like a good way to recoup it). It shipped on June 19. It has a small Sprint logo on the front and no branding on the back.

I thought about calling customer service, but figured I had a better shot at a good answer here. Thanks.

 

[thesingularity]

It doesn't really matter if you let it try to activate or not. Unless you've added the ESN to a valid account before turning on the phone for the first time, activation will be unsuccessful. So you can cancel if you want. You probably want to do the setup to sync your google account and stuff, but you can do that anytime you want.

Just curious, why would you buy this if you're not going to use it as a phone? You could've gotten a tablet or a netbook for the same price.

 

[Izzytoo]

Update: Seems to be an issue with my particular router / setup. I used a password at two other spots downtown with no problems.

And to answer your question --- By using my cash balance and ebates my out-of-pocket for this was about $80. And a tablet won't fit in my purse.

I guess my one worry about the activation was whether I needed it to get software updates or patches. I am still pretty low on the learning curve here, but I'll get there. As soon as I can log on at home to play with it!

 

[Izzytoo]

I got it working, here's how:

Powered down and then powered back up the router.

Used the passphrase key, case sensitive, instead of the password

I could swear I tried that before unsuccessfully, but it's working for now. Yay!!

 

[RedAnt]

I always said that I would have been just as happy with my Triumph if I wasn't paying for it to be a phone. This is a better hand held computer / tablet / pda than the Triumph ever was.

I can totally see why you would carry this phone around without a monthly service contract. I did setup my Triumph for SIP and Skype when I traveled outside the US. It worked pretty well for me and is nearly free.

The fact is that my phone is a handy computer. I do send an SMS to my wife to coordinate our end of day timing. If I just used email, or an SMS gateway, I wouldn't loose much. My old Tracfone just built up minutes because I used a couple hundred all year.