Fix: Acer Liquid E - SMS working but no Internet

NOTE: do not try the factory reset procedure mentioned in this article without contacting the support team of your mobile carrier. Also the Lookout app recommendation is not a product endorsement.

For the week before April 23, my Acer Liquid E smartphone stopped allowing 2G & 3G data access to the mobile network.

Rebooting didn't work: I'd get 15 seconds of data access, and then it'd stop.

At this point, I decided that my goal is to make my smartphone work with help from my mobile carrier's support team (Basic Support and Tech Support).

After calling my mobile carrier's Basic Support line, I was instructed to reboot my phone and call back on a landline if that did not work.

So I rebooted my smartphone again. No go.

Then I called back on a landline, and was handed over to Tech Support who talked me through the factory reset procedure.

Overall time spent fixing this: about thirty minutes.

Goal attained: a working smartphone!! :)

Note: the mobile carrier support asked for ID information to confirm my ID and to give directions to confirm my ownership of the smartphone (IMEI #). I freely complied with the support team to attain the goal of a working smartphone.

Because Google has an open source policy on Android apps, it's possible for malware to get into the Android Market. This happened recently when 21 apps were removed after Android users complained about the problem.

The Lookout Mobile Security app may be useful for detecting the DroidDream rootkit malware which led to apps being removed.

However, it requires your gmail address and a password (NOT YOUR GMAIL PASSWORD) to backup data (contacts, call history & pictures) and locate a missing phone.

Lookout also gives you the option to use the backup and missing phone features. After using it, I realized that the following security procedures renders the use of Lookout moot, save for the missing phone feature.

A working smartphone must be lean in apps. This especially means NO GAMES. I state this because I used to randomly play a game app for hours until I got bored with it, only to delete that game and randomly pick another game I liked.

As well, website browsing should be limited to safe sites. This means NO PORN SITES because the majority of them may have java malware to compromise Android security.

In order to ensure that my phone keeps working, I can live without games and porn. As well, I will reduce the number of high risk apps on my phone.

To ensure that my smartphone never ends up stolen, I make sure to use it discreetly.