[Success story] Unlock branded ZTE MF60

You can cut the crap by skipping to this page

http://bankie-review.blogspot.se/2013/02/howto-step-by-step-unlock-branded-mf60.html

But it's a probably a good idea to read on my thinking a little bit :D

Hi,

I decided that my first post should be this hack since no one around in Internet is actually know how to do yet.





The idea
The router itself can be unlock with DC-unlocker tool if it can be detected. So what operator do to keep the router branded is to disable the usb mode from the router completely. They also create a firmware which will not allow you to input unlock code(if you can find one) to the router. This firmware is basically a skin on top of the original firmware plus some additional feature, in my case, it allows you to refill/topup your surf sim card directly from the router web base.

So, with some searching around google. There're some confirmed result that if the router can be detected somehow, it can be unlocked. But how can I set up my 3G router to be detected by my Windows? I downloaded this router manual from the ZTE website and found that there's something called "USB mode" which is disabled in my device and I found several articles that mentioned the firmware upgrade of the modem.

It came to my mind that in order to do the firmware upgrade, it must be detected by the host machine somehow. So the search began, I looked up my operator website and try to find the firmware download page, nothing found. I looked further and found some firmware download in some other operator. I downloaded the firmware but I can't upgrade the router since it's not detected by my PC. It's appeared that the operator that I downloaded the firmware from, they didn't disable the USB mode in their product.

It concluded that the firmware I should download must came from branded operator that disabled the USB mode in their MF60 product. I started by searching around the net to see if there's any operator that have MF60 in their 3G router in their product line. I believed that it must be some operators that slip this out somehow and I found it! There's an operator in Norway that actually provided this firmware. The application itself send some special command through USB port and enable the USB mode on your 3G router and probably will disabled it after the upgrade finished. But that doesn't matter, I should always shutdown the program once it enabled the USB mode.

I downloaded the firmware upgrade tool and try immediately. I started the application and after a while, my Windows pop-up told me that new hardware is found! I immediately shutdown the application. By that time, I didn't have the MF60 driver installed. So I download the driver and installed it. And guess what? Now it can be detected by DC-unlocker! With that, I can unlock my branded 3G router to use any sim card I like(even I didn't plan to change the simcard at the moment but I don't like to being restricted, I might want to use this wonderful device abroad once in a while).

Step by step how to