• JimShadypanorama_fish_eye
    2 years ago

    I pay Google a couple of quid a month for 'Google One'. My main use case has always been that it gives me a few hundred GB of extra Google Drive storage (which is shared between my 'family' accounts). Recently they added the Google VPN to my subscription plan, so I've started using it (never used a VPN on my phone before, mea culpa). It just runs in the background and I don't really notice it to be honest. Which I guess is kind of the point. However at home, because (I think?) it is regularly changing my phone MAC address (?) my router keeps notifying me (via the router app on my phone) that a new device has connected. Am I presuming/diagnosing this correctly do you think? I can turn off the notifications easily enough. Just keen to understand what is going on.

  • trickylens
    2 years ago

    MAC addresses don't change. Except in extreme circumstances where you low level refresh a firmware or some such hardware level operation.

    It's almost certainly just a connection from a different ipaddress, based on what the VPN is providing for your phone.

  • JimShadypanorama_fish_eye
    2 years ago

    So is the VPN changing my IP address on the phone regularly, which is then connecting to my WiFi? So it sees it as a new device?

  • trickylens
    2 years ago

    I don't know, but that is likely.

    Although the WiFi connection should be local through your router and not change, the router is looking at something that makes it conclude it's a different device. Without knowing what the router code is looking for to conclude that, it's hard to know.

    The physical MAC address wont be changing. ... but the VPN software could be spoofing the MAC address over all connections. Which it might be doing to obscure the device for privacy reasons.

    If it was documented open source software you could find out what it is doing, and how it works. But it isn't.

  • RCpanorama_fish_eye
    2 years ago

    Someone has snuck in and fiddled with Shady's router.

    The underhand bastards.

  • trickylens
    2 months ago

    Trying to learn how to use nixos. It's making my head hurt.

  • Thornerspanorama_fish_eye
    a month ago

    Does anyone (Tricky) know how to unlock an android phone. Wife has forgotten her pin and we are now up to 8 hours untill the next guess. She has always used face recognition but it demands a pin every now and then.

    Google says we are screwed, factory reset, but can't even power it off. I guess we let the battery die, then power it up into safe mode and hope to reset from there?

  • trickylens
    a month ago

    What is the actual model?

    Different android phones have different firmware, different bootloaders, and access to different boot modes.

    I'm assuming a stock, non-modified phone? I'm assuming USB debugging is not active on the phone?

    What is your objective at this point. Just be able to use the phone hardware once more? ..or do you need too get something off it?

    Generally not being able to get into your phone because you have kicked yourself out is to be avoided.... But it may be possible to get in if the phone storage is not encrypted.

    I'm not saying I can lead you along a path to that. But we need to know more.

  • Thornerspanorama_fish_eye
    a month ago

    Samsung S28. Off the shelf, no modifications as Rachel wouldn't have a clue how too.

    As for firmware, no way to find out, no options available other than power settings, which don't work without the pin.

    I think everything is backed up to Google drive so a reset will be fine. Just hoped there was another way.

  • trickylens
    a month ago

    I assume you have seen guides like this? Read through it, and see what approaches you think are viable in your case.

    Read it again.

    Be sure you know exactly what you are doing to execute your chosen approach.

    If that requires booting your phone into rescue mode you will have to run the battery down to turn it off.

    Spend the time thinking about what you have done, and trying to remember the pin.

    Remember the first rule about stock phones. They are not there for your convenience, they are there for unknown third parties to monitor your activity without fully disclosing what they are doing. If you can't get in, at least you are inconveniencing them!

    Good luck!

  • Thornerspanorama_fish_eye
    a month ago

    Cheers Tricky.

    I will be giving my good lady a talk about backups and security.

    She will ignore me.

Search
  • Enter search query (at least 3 characters).

Your options