Computer
Cowboy

Unlock your AT&T Novatel 2372 MiFi

Want to use your 2372 MiFi with Straight Talk or an overseas carrier? Just download this generic firmware from Novatel. It will automatically unlock your device and allow you to change your APN settings.

Once your device is unlocked:

  • The Wifi Password will be: 12345
  • The default login pasword will be: admin

How to get the best AT&T 3G data plan for your laptop.

As you may know AT&T and many other providers have done away with the unlimited data plans. I wanted to add a dedicated data plan to my AT&T account since I have three VAIO laptops that support WWAN. I went to the local AT&T store and picked up their data plan brochure and noticed that the AT&T MiFi plan is priced much better than the Laptop Connect plan. The MiFi plan cost $35 a month for 3GB and it is $10 per GB if you go over. That is not too bad. The Laptop Connect plan is $60 per month for 5GB and 5 cents per megabyte of overage. I did the math and realized that there is a BIG discrepancy in the price for overage. Five cents per megabyte is a whopping fifty dollars per gigabyte! Not to mention you are locked in to $25 more per month for the Laptop Connect plan. If you use 5GB with the MiFi plan it would cost $55. All around the MiFi plan is a much better deal. I really don't understand why the MiFi plan is a better deal, I would think it would be the other way around since the MiFi device gives the customer a lot more potential to use bandwidth. For example a MiFi can support five computers simultaneously connected using data. A single laptop connected directly through built in WWAN, express card, or USB could potentially route the data to other computers in some sort of ADHOC configuration but that is not really a likely setup for most users. I don't really care why AT&T priced their plans like that, the issue becomes convincing them to give me the plan that I want.

So now that I knew that I wanted a MiFi plan I told the service rep that I wanted to get that plan with no contract. He grumbled a little bit and tried to give me the plan but wasn't able to because I didn't have an IMEI number that was “compatible” with that plan. So I ended up going home with a new contract free SIM and a 200MB per month data plan for $35 a month. I searched around on the Internet a little bit and I found an IMEI number for a Novatel MiFi device. Then I called AT&T customer service and told them my story. I told them that I had ordered an unlocked Novatel MiFi from a vendor on eBay. I told them that it wasn't here yet but that I would like to get the SIM and plan configured right now because I was leaving on a trip in the next couple of days and wouldn't have time to deal with it. I gave them the IMEI number 011861000071540 that I found on the Internet and they were immediately able to switch me to the correct plan.

So if you want to get the best priced data plan for your laptop you are more than welcome to try this yourself. This isn't my IMEI number, I found it on some unlocking forum where a user had posted some log file from an unlock program.