SIM card required?

[LurkingFear]

Is a SIM with an active plan required for RayHunter to work?

Thank....

[Tunas1337]

SIM, yes. Active plan, no.

I am oversimplifying here, but this should still get the point across: The SIM is only necessary to give your modem an identity so that towers can talk to it. Towers do talk to your equipment, even if it isn't a subscriber of that mobile operator.

[untitaker]

I think this is a really straightforward answer and we should add it in the docs.

We have had those questions before but got lost in nuance because technically it depends on providers. For example:

• SIM is definitely required.
• Active plan may be required depending on the region and carrier, but probably not. For example, i have a non-activated sim card here that produces a ton of false positive warnings due to not being activated.
• Sometimes people ask this question for the wrong reason. For example they bought a device with the wrong frequency bands and wonder why it can't connect, thinking a new SIM will help here.

[virtadpt]

Yes, please.

[untitaker]

FAQ is here in case anybody wants to update it https://efforg.github.io/rayhunter/faq.html#do-i-need-an-active-sim-card-to-use-rayhunter

[untitaker]

hm, here is a counterpoint that an active simcard is sometimes required: #517 (reply in thread)

[Tunas1337]

I wonder what changed or initialized after the active SIM was inserted to make the modem output data...

[EnthusedUser]

Rayhunter installed OK on several Verizon Orbic Speed hot spots using un-activated Mint trial sim cards. WiFi installation failed possibly due to trial sims issues but orbic-usb ran fine from a Linux Mint 22.1 system. They appear to operate normally capturing non-warning and test session packets but haven't been used against actual IMSI catchers yet.

[chrisnoonsed]

I installed the latest version via MacOS on an Orbic RC400L with NO SIM. The install was completed OK, no warnings. Green line after reboot. I enabled "Test Heuristic", and did receive a warning (dotted yellow). Logs show a SIB1 message every 4 minutes, with a what appears to be a Verizon (311-480) CID.

The screen shows NO SIM, and there is physical slot is empty. So it is clearly working with no sim to some extent. I would assume that I would miss certain heuristics?