This is a nostalgic re-post from my original site, A Pentester’s Journey. Although this post is still relevant for setting up a new phone on Mint Mobile as of today, 3/15/2023, there’s some exciting news: Mint Mobile has been acquired by T-Mobile! As the takeover progresses, these settings may no longer be relevant or necessary. Rest assured, I’ll make sure to update this post accordingly.
However, I won’t remove this post, as it serves as a valuable resource for understanding the basics of how cell phones communicate with their carriers. I believe it could be a helpful stepping stone for others on their own tech journey. So, sit back, enjoy the read, and take a trip down memory lane with me as we explore this key aspect of mobile connectivity! Stay tuned for updates and future developments as T-Mobile and Mint Mobile join forces.
What The APN? Fixing My New Phone
Posted on June 28, 2022
Recently I decided to save some money and switch to Mint mobile, which for the most part was quick and painless. Except for one thing, once I activated my new phone, I could receive regular texts and phone calls, but no OTP texts. OTP texts are text message from a company like a bank with a One Time Pass code (OTP) that you use as a second form of verification when logging in. It is always better to have multi-factor authentication especially on bank accounts, as even with your username and password you cannot access your account without that other form like an OTP. Now I could still get phone calls with these OTPs however, not all of my accounts had that option, and it isn’t as convenient as just getting a text message. So, I knew I needed to fix this issue or return my phone and carry on with my original service provider.
I decided to start by googling the issue and going from there, and what I found was that this is a pretty common issue when you first get your Mint Mobile phone however, there were few helpful solutions. But one solution became very clear through all the others, I needed to update the access point name (APN) I used on my phone. Now an APN on mobile phones establishes a connection to the gateway between your cellphone carrier’s network and the public internet. A Gateway, in turn acts as an aggregator and translator for your device data, where it collects information from all the devices on the carrier’s network then converts that data into IP protocol. With all the devices’ information aggregated and converted the carrier can easily see where things like text messages are supposed to go and send them to the appropriate device. So, if you phone is using an improperly configured APN you can run into issues like mine where I couldn’t receive any OTP texts, or it can even be as severe as not receiving any texts or calls at all.
Now that I knew what needed to be fixed, I then had to search for the correct APN settings to use, I found multiple options, but I couldn’t find one that worked with my phone. One big problem I kept running into was the new APN I set up not saving after I was finished configuring the info, even when using the “correct” settings for my phone provided to me by Mint Mobile. See I could put the information in just fine but once I was done and hit saved everything just disappeared, so I researched why an APN wouldn’t save, the answer I found was simply one or more of the settings I configured were not supported by my phone. So, I decided to go down and save after each option to see which setting caused the issue. I then discovered that the Mint Mobile suggested Mobile Network Code (MNC) of 260 was the issue, as every time I tried changing the MNC to 260 it wouldn’t save it would delete all the other settings I changed. So, I ended up having to leave it as default but change everything else that was suggested by Mint mobile and then restarted my phone. Then when my phone came back up, I was able to receive all normal texts and phone calls along with the OTP texts I couldn’t receive before.
Because I had to piece all this information together myself I thought it would be helpful if also added the work instructions I used/created to this post as well in case someone else is having a similar issue.
Work Instructions
- For Android the APN settings can be found under Settings > Connections > Mobile networks > Access Point Names.
- Then you click ADD and you can the configure the APN settings how you need them.
- Next only fill out these 12 settings from the table below and leave the rest blank.
(Capitalization matters) - After you have filled in all required settings, click the three dots at the top of the screen click and click save
- Lastly, select your newly created APN and then restart your phone.
Name | MINT |
APN | wholesale |
MMSC | http://wholesale.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc |
Multimedia message port | 8080 |
MCC | 310 |
MNC | 240 |
Authentication type | PAP |
APN type | default,supl,mms,ia |
APN Protocol | IPv4/IPv6 |
APN roaming protocol | IPv4 |
Bearer | Unspecified |
Mobile virtual network operator type | None |