I edited this to what I think remains relevant for the Boost section, in some cases it still may say "Nextel", but the point remains the same.


Boost Section Rules and FAQ’s
written and edited by martin_j001 and YoDude. Last updated February, 2007




Below you will find the General Rules of HowardForums. These are the rules that each of you, as users of these forums, agreed to when you signed up for the forums.

Quote Originally Posted by The Main Forum Rules
THE ADMINISTRATORS AND MODERATORS OF HOWARDFORUMS.COM RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MOVE, REMOVE, EDIT, CLOSE POSTS OR BAN MEMBERS (HAVE POSTING PRIVILEGES REVOKED) WHO BREACH THESE RULES OR TERMS OF USE AT OUR SOLE DISCRETION, AND WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR WARNING OR EXPLANATION.

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The General Posting Rules are:

Flaming/Trolling - Any content that is unlawful, harmful, harassing, threatening, defamatory, vulgar, hateful or distasteful in nature are prohibited. Excessive swearing is prohibited as we have a wide age range. This site employs a profanity filter. Please use appropriate language. Character substitutions, spacing, spelling variations or any form of modified spelling in order to get the word to pass through the filter is absolutely prohibited. Continued threats against a member, moderator or administrator will NOT be tolerated. If you disagree with another member, respond to the subject, not the person as the Internet has made it easy to make personal attacks, you must still exercise courtesy and self-restraint here. Please use the PM (Private Messaging) system to resolve personal issues.

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Unlocking posts - We do not allow 'how do I unlock this phone' or 'free unlocking' type posts. Please check the Marketplace forum and see the Advertising/Spamming rule above.

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Bumping - This refers to posting with the deliberate intention to either pad your post count or to keep a thread 'hot' so it appears at the top of the forum. These type of posts can be described as useless information, gibberish, redundant or one-liners. Please try our search tools to see if there has already been a similar discussion first.

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What if I see something on the forums that violates a rule?
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What if I don't understand a rule or not sure if I can post something?
We will not take ignorance of any rules or policies as an excuse for not following them. Please contact us first if you are unsure if the information you wish to post may conflict with our rules or policies.











Below are some rules that are not General forum rules, but rules which you are expected to follow while using the Nextel section of the forums.




Posting in general Please don’t think that it is your right to post, or that your freedom of speech is protected here or anything like that. These are privately owned and run forums. Moderators, Super Moderators and Admin are in place to see that rules are followed—they are not paid, and they are not online 24/7. Before posting, take a look around the sub-forums that would apply to your topic and see if this has been discussed before. Use the search feature and see what you can find. Realize that you are probably not the only person that has asked this question.


Bypassing the swear filter This is covered in the main rules for the whole forum, so don't do it. There's simply no need for it. Type what you want and let the filter take care of it. Bypassing it shows that you are blatantly disregarding the rules of the forum, and there will be reprecussions for doing so. It does not matter if you are not talking to or about another person at all.



Bumping your own posts If you post a question, such as “How do I get ringtones on my phone” and don’t get a reply within two hours, DO NOT post “No one wants to help me” or “someones gotta know” as the next post in that thread. After the initial post, take the time to look around, you’ll probably see that the information isn’t hiding from you.




Reporting posts If you see a post that is offensive or breaks a rule, please use the tools the forum has provided you to report the post to the moderators. Click on the or near the posters name, and a private message will be sent to the moderators of the section. There is no need to post “this is spam” or “this is against the rules”. Simply report the post, and move on. Moderators will get to it as soon as they can.



Closed threads If a thread you started is closed, look at the advice that is already given (before the thread was closed), or that provided by the moderator. This is not an invitation to send a moderator a private message asking to be spoon fed the information you're looking for because you can't seem to figure out how to use the forums properly--as has been stated many times throughout this post, moderators are not paid, and it is not our job to provide you the answers to your questions.




Searching This is one of the most valuable tools available to members of HowardForums. Using the Advanced Search form allows you specify a specific forum and/or sub-forum to search in using a posters name, keywords, within a date range, etc, etc, etc.




Insurance Fraud Discussion of insurance fraud will simply not be tolerated. If your phone is not legitimately broken, lost or stolen, don’t even mention using insurance. Nextel does not provide insurance services to you as an “upgrade program”. If you can’t afford to upgrade without defrauding Nextel and its partners in business, then you don’t need to upgrade. This type of offense will result in bans from now on. This includes, but is not limited to those that start these threads, but those that participate and give advice on how to accomplish this. This type of behavior is why insurance prices continue to rise, and is blatantly illegal.




Discussion of moderator actions This won’t be tolerated in the general forums. If you have an issue with a moderator, feel free to use the private messaging feature. If you expect a response, be respectful, explain yourself, and keep your cool. If you fly off the handle and act a fool, remember that the rules apply to private messages as well. Once again, Moderators, Super Moderators and Admin are not paid “employees” of HowardForums. We devote our own personal time to these forums, so we are not available 24/7. We are here to enforce the rules set forth for this community.




Software discussion There are many programs that HowardForums will not be associated with for legal reasons. Discussion of these programs will be very limited due to the fact that they are illegal to distribute, and often even illegal to have in your personal possession (unless you are emplyed by Motorola). Discussion of Webjal is welcomed and is allowed in the Software sub-forum. RSS discussion is allowed, but links to download this software are not. Please see this thread on illegally obtained and bootleg software as well as this thread, an iDen software/terminology FAQ for more information before posting your question.




Phone release threads If you have proof of a new phone release, feel free to create a new thread including this information. Please check the stickies first though, to be sure a thread has not already been created for what you are wanting to post about. Standard format for phone releases will be a closed sticky that moderators will add important information to, and a single discussion thread on the new phone. If there is a 20 page thread on a phone, don’t start a new thread to ask when the phone is coming out—read the 20 page thread, and feel free to ask in that thread. Once a new phone is released, obviously multiple threads on different issues will be acceptable, but general information (what size is the display, what ringtone format does it use, video format, what type of ringers does it support, etc) will still be found in the larger pre-release thread.




Trolling the forums Posts that do nothing but further incite an argument, posts that provide for no real discussion, and posts that are made simply to bash the topic of the thread will not be tolerated. This is an enthusiasts forum. Threads whose purpose runs counter to that enthusiasm may be deleted. If you have factual information to post as a reason to say what you want to say, then by all means feel free to post what is on your mind along with your FACTS. “Nextel sucks ***” is not a worthwhile post, and adds nothing whatsoever to the discussion. If you see posts like this, don’t bother to respond, just report the post to the Moderators. Responding to this bait can get you in just as much trouble as posting it in the first place.




Sprint Nextel iDen FAQ’s




Nextel phone series information Nextel has three different “series” of phones that require SIM's. The “Condor” series comprised some of Nextel’s earliest phones, the i58, i50, i90, and i95 are a few. The “Falcon” series has three digits, and includes the i730, i530, i830, i860 to name a few. The latest line, the "Phoenix" platform, is the latest series of iDEN phones to be released, and includes the i880/i885, i875, i870, i580.
The iC series are dual mode "hybrid" phones that require a SIM for dispatch (direct connect) that is paired to a CDMA line used for inter-connect (plain ol' cell phone). Currently both services loose some features on these devices.




Nextel Smartphones Nextel has two Windows Mobile based smartphones, the i930 and the i920. The i930 has a camera, the i920 doesn’t, other than that the two are exactly the same. Currently, your only other choice for a “smartphone” with Nextel is a blackberry.




Sim cards There are three types of sim cards that are used in Nextel phones. 32k, 64k, and 128k. 32k cards were used in the Condor series of phones and are grey in color. The 64k sim cards were used in the Falcon series and are yellow. 128k sim cards are used in a few Falcon series phones as well as the latest Phoenix series of phones. For more information on sim card compatibility, please download this .pdf file from Nextel.




Nextel Blackberry If your question is Nextel specific, feel free to post it in the general Nextel section. If it is blackberry specific, please use HowardForums’ dedicated Research in Motion (Blackberry) forum. The Blackberry REQUIRES a blackberry specific data plan for you to be able to use all of its features. There are reports of Nextel adding the data plan to your account for you if you attempt to use a blackberry without the data plan, but these reports do not seem to be all that common. The 7520 and older blackberry’s use a 32k sim card. A 64k sim card may work, but the blackberry does prefer the 32k sim card. The 7100i uses a 64k sim card. While Nextel may tell you that use of a different sim card in your blackberry will “fry” the phone, this is not true. However, some features (reading and writing contacts to the sim, MMS messaging, etc) may not work properly.




Ringtones and Wallpapers To load ringtones and wallpapers on your phone, you will need a program called Webjal. To find more information about this program, please read the stickies in the Software sub-forum, as this is where all discussion of Webjal should take place. With some of the newer phones (PowerSource series, ic402, ic502), Motorola Phone Tools is the software required to load ringtones and wallpapers. For information on this, please see the Ringtones and Wallpapers sub-forum and take a look around—there’s a few tutorials on how to do this. DO NOT POST QUESTIONS ABOUT LOADING RINGTONES OR RINTONE REQUESTS IN THE MAIN NEXTEL FORUM. There are specific places for discussion of these topics, use them. Threads that are posted in the wrong place will be closed, moved or deleted at the discretion of the Moderators. Repeated offenses will result in other actions as well.




Firmware updates for your phone Firmware updates for Nextel phones can be discussed in the Software sub-forum. Firmware updates can be downloaded from Motorola’s iDen support site.




PowerSource Phones These are Sprint Nextel’s hybrid, dual mode phones. These phones use Sprint’s CDMA network for voice and data, and Nextel’s iDen network for PTT/Direct Connect. There are currently 3 known PowerSource phones. The ic402 and ic502 are currently available, and the ic902 is expected out in the next couple months. There are supposedly 3-5 more PowerSource phones that are expected to be launched this year (2007)—keep your eyes on the stickies in the main Nextel section for more information on if and when these phones will be available and for pre-release information.