Please Help, Push Notifications Not Working

Lol. Sounds like you should've left it alone.

 

The only way to 100% guarantee working (and 100% working) Push is to activate with an original SIM. That is, a SIM from the carrier the phone was originally locked to. All of the "fixes" are shaky at best. Some work, some work only partially, and some don't work at all. I have used Push Doctor in the far past and it worked fairly well, but I did miss some notifications regularly that should have come through.

 

I have the same problem with my 3GS 5.13.04 4.3.1.

What do you need to do with an ATT sim (I'm in the US)? Is it just a matter of popping one in and letting it see the network, or do you need it when restoring the phone?

 

No, you must do it when you initially activate the phone. If you're using PWNage make sure you disable hacktivation (and similar on other tools), and make sure the OEM SIM card is installed. That's the only way you'll get a valid push certificate and not have any issues with them later on.

 

Can this be done with an ATT prepaid SIM? Or would I need a SIM tied to an official iPhone account? Will unlocking after doing this just break it again?

 

Yes, a GoPhone SIM would work just fine. You can still do the unlock, it won't hurt anything. But using an original carrier SIM and doing a normal activation will ensure a genuine push certificate that will always work.