Security settings explained

The Samsung X820 comes with a range of different settings to protect your phone and SIM card if you are unfortunate enough to lose it or have it stolen.

There are a number of options open to you, which you will need to use differently depending on the level of security you want.

The first item in the menu is ‘PIN check’ (Figure 3). Enabling this feature will mean that the SIM card will require you to enter a PIN number whenever it is used, regardless of which phone it is inserted into. This is about as stringent a security setting as you can get, but the risk is that if you get your PIN wrong more than twice in a row, you’ll have to contact your network operator to get a special unlock code called a PUK before you can use your phone.

To enable PIN checking, highlight ‘PIN check’, press Select then choose ‘Enable’ (Figure 4). You’ll need to enter your PIN to confirm. If you want to change your PIN code, you can do so in the security settings. Highlight the second item in the menu and press select to change you PIN code. You’ll need to enter your old PIN to confirm.

A less strict security measure is the ‘Phone lock’ feature. This is the third item in the security menu (Figure 5) and enabling it will mean you need to enter a password each time the phone is switched on. Highlight ‘Phone lock’ and press Select to enable it (Figure 6). By default, you password will be set to “00000000” but you can set your own four to eight digit password using the ‘Change password’ function in the ‘Security’ menu.

You can also protect message and file folders from being accessed by other people by using privacy settings. The fifth item in the ‘Security’ settings is labelled ‘Privacy’ – highlight it and press Select and you shall see a list of different folders (Figure 7). To apply privacy settings, highlight the folder you want to protect and press the ‘i’ button in the centre of the direction pad. A tick will appear in the check box. Now press Save. You will need to enter the phone password to make changes (default: “00000000”). When you next try to access a protected area of the phone memory, you will be required to enter the password.

You can also use this option to protect the phone from being used by others by checking the ‘Phone privacy’ option. This means that when the handset is in standby, you will need to enter the password to access any of the options. It isn’t secure against theft but it is a great deal more protected than a simple keypad lock.

Finally, you can prevent your phone from accepting any SIM other than your own by enabling ‘SIM lock’. For this feature, you don’t need to know a SIM code or phone password. Highlight SIM lock (Figure 8), the seventh item in the phone menu and press Select (Figure 9); now enter a password of your choice. Confirm, then when you next replace the SIM card, you will be prompted to re-enter the password before being allowed to continue.