iPhone 3GS- questions about unlocking

[coimbrvs]

I am leaving for Brazil in 3 weeks (for the next 5 months) and before I go want to unlock my 3GS to be able to put in a Brazilian SIM card. I have never jailbroken or unlocked and I've been reading as much as I can but I am a little confused about some things... Any help would be tremendously appreciated

- I have gathered that I cannot unlock my phone without jailbreaking-- is this true? If so, how do I unlock it after jailbreaking it?

- Are there any jailbreaking programs that would allow me to keep iOS5 on my 3GS?

- Which jailbreaking programs are the simplest?

- If I need to restore my phone after jailbreaking it, would I restore it through iTunes like I would usually do?

I don't intend to really do anything with the phone besides use it abroad (aka I don't want to change the themes or access other apps or any of that- I just want the unlocked iPhone and that's pretty much it)

Thank you!

 

[Crystal-RX]

I am leaving for Brazil in 3 weeks (for the next 5 months) and before I go want to unlock my 3GS to be able to put in a Brazilian SIM card. I have never jailbroken or unlocked and I've been reading as much as I can but I am a little confused about some things... Any help would be tremendously appreciated

- I have gathered that I cannot unlock my phone without jailbreaking-- is this true? If so, how do I unlock it after jailbreaking it?

- Are there any jailbreaking programs that would allow me to keep iOS5 on my 3GS?

- Which jailbreaking programs are the simplest?

- If I need to restore my phone after jailbreaking it, would I restore it through iTunes like I would usually do?

I don't intend to really do anything with the phone besides use it abroad (aka I don't want to change the themes or access other apps or any of that- I just want the unlocked iPhone and that's pretty much it)

Thank you!

Here is the answer for your questions above;
1. If your carrier is willing to unlock your phone for you, then you don't need to jailbreak it before unlocking. However, if you use software to unlock it, then you do need to jailbreak your phone before you can unlock it.
2. Use Redsn0w to jailbreak your phone. You do not need to restore your phone to any firmware, just run redsn0w and your phone will remain at OS5. However, it is a tethered jailbreak. Please research on tethered vs untethered so you know what the different. Also, iclarified.com has all the tutorials for you to do this.
3. Base on your phone & firmware, you have only 1 option which is Redsn0w.
4. Yes, just restore it through Itunes and your jailbreak will be gone. However, base on your thread above, your phone has OS5 with 05.16 baseband on it. In order for you to unlock, you will need to put an Ipad baseband 06.15 on it and once it is on, you can't restore with Itunes. Here is the link talking about this baseband which you need to read before you want to proceed with it.

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/1718400992/ultra-recycle

 

[BlueCore]

Crystal

Can you help me on my post this morning, as i have read all that info but am stuck now as how to restore in any format.
Thanks in advance (hopefully)