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It's been 2 years since I read your initial comment on using an SMS mule [1], and I'm curious how's it going, you know, that phone you have plugged in at your o

by j1elo 3y ago

It's been 2 years since I read your initial comment on using an SMS mule [1], and I'm curious how's it going, you know, that phone you have plugged in at your office in a corner :) No battery swelling? I copied the idea and did the same, it's essentially free of cost to do so where I live, thanks to having operators that offer a pay-what-you-use tier with no fixed monthly cost. The line is just to act as a 2FA mule, so it means it costs nothing (save causing any kind of expense once every 6 months, but sending a single SMS does it, so I guess it actually costs something like 20cts per year) Apart from the SMS Forwarder app [2] you suggested, an HN commenter [3] provided links to some FOSS alternative which I didn't get to try but should work fine and is ad-free. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107 [2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frzinapps.smsforward https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frzinapps.... [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29711030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29711030

justsomehnguy 3y ago
Not the parent, but I've used some app from F-Droid to fwd SMS to email. What I didn't thought about is what Samsung SW would aggressivly suffocate the app of any chance to wake up on the receive. Which led for it to be quite useless as a 2FA mule (delay is too long) and it requires a reboot every couple of months. It not that seriuous in ghis case, but if I would be in the need of replicating the setup I would do it with the Moto phone.
nickphx 3y ago
I use a 4g device connected via usb with smstools to call a python script that logs the message and sends a push notification.. :D
rsync 3y ago
No, no battery swelling. The only minor hiccup I have had is that at some point the devices decide that enough time has passed that there must be a software update available ... and I ignore the prompts to do so ... which is fine ... ... but then there was a power outage and when they powered back on they were in some update status where they weren't online until I clicked something ? I forget ... might have been an updated google legal agreement with the update ? They are google pixel devices with stock OS load and no apps added (other than that SMSForwarder) but even still, had some logic for software update that produced a minor annoyance.
- j1elo 3y ago
  Good to know! Indeed some hiccups are expected. I don't need 2FA mule most of the time, but when I do, mine is an old phone flashed with LineageOS, no Google services at all, only F-Droid and otherwise manually installed apps. Working well, albeit the Google login tends to give more problems than it should, in smaller and independent apps like these. But I definitely observed that the one time that I left the phone plugged in for the most part of 3 months, the battery never was the same. It lost like a third of its capacity.
  - marci 3y ago
    Futhermore, you can then install ACCA and set it to reduce the risks of battery issues. https://f-droid.org/packages/mattecarra.accapp/ https://f-droid.org/packages/mattecarra.accapp/
    - j1elo 3y ago
      That's interesting, thanks. Have you used it? Do you know if it's only the GUI for ACC (i.e. that ACC must be installed independently), or if it already embeds ACC?

by j1elo 3y ago

justsomehnguy 3y ago

Not the parent, but I've used some app from F-Droid to fwd SMS to email. What I didn't thought about is what Samsung SW would aggressivly suffocate the app of any chance to wake up on the receive. Which led for it to be quite useless as a 2FA mule (delay is too long) and it requires a reboot every couple of months. It not that seriuous in ghis case, but if I would be in the need of replicating the setup I would do it with the Moto phone.

nickphx 3y ago

I use a 4g device connected via usb with smstools to call a python script that logs the message and sends a push notification.. :D

rsync 3y ago

No, no battery swelling. The only minor hiccup I have had is that at some point the devices decide that enough time has passed that there must be a software update available ... and I ignore the prompts to do so ... which is fine ... ... but then there was a power outage and when they powered back on they were in some update status where they weren't online until I clicked something ? I forget ... might have been an updated google legal agreement with the update ? They are google pixel devices with stock OS load and no apps added (other than that SMSForwarder) but even still, had some logic for software update that produced a minor annoyance.

j1elo 3y ago
Good to know! Indeed some hiccups are expected. I don't need 2FA mule most of the time, but when I do, mine is an old phone flashed with LineageOS, no Google services at all, only F-Droid and otherwise manually installed apps. Working well, albeit the Google login tends to give more problems than it should, in smaller and independent apps like these. But I definitely observed that the one time that I left the phone plugged in for the most part of 3 months, the battery never was the same. It lost like a third of its capacity.
- marci 3y ago
  Futhermore, you can then install ACCA and set it to reduce the risks of battery issues. https://f-droid.org/packages/mattecarra.accapp/ https://f-droid.org/packages/mattecarra.accapp/
  - j1elo 3y ago
    That's interesting, thanks. Have you used it? Do you know if it's only the GUI for ACC (i.e. that ACC must be installed independently), or if it already embeds ACC?