www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I have never felt the need to have a cell phone, though I have had employers provide them a couple of times. So I am pretty ignorant about plans, prices, and phones.

Now I have to get a phone and plan for one purpose: so that I can use SMS to do two-factor authentication from both the U.S. and CR. That's the only thing I'll be using this phone for.

I would appreciate any suggestions for phone and plan that would let me get this done as cheaply as possible.

Do a walmart 30$ unlimted data plan
Buy a cheap android phone from walmart
Use Whats App, Viber, tango, line or one of the various free texting apps

http://www.walmart.com/ip/T-Mobile-Micr ... t/24099996

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its easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled- mark twain

I don't think that plan includes international data.

If you have access to wi-fi, many of the text apps use the internet and you will not need a data plan for international messages.

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My English teacher said "I before E except after C". Then she told me to go to science class!

My understanding was that for two-factor authentication to work, the second signal had to come from a phone.

http://lifehacker.com/5938565/heres-everywhere-you-should-enable-two-factor-authentication-right-now

Yes, authentication code is send via a text message. When you set-up the account with google they will ask for a cell phone number for the 2-step verification.

1st step, you log-in to your google account with your user name and password. 2nd step, they will send a text message to your authencation app on your phone. You will need that code to complete the log-in to your google account.

What exactly do you need 2 factor authentication for?

Secured access to websites via https.

Two factor authentication - aka two step verification - is used these days by many corporate, financial and personal data websites to ensure the person logging in is indeed the authorized and not some Chinese hacker. For example, he might need it to access his company's VPN. Or access his US bank account. Or maybe he just wants to connect to Facebook.

As to the original question - you can get an Android smartphone with an international SMS plan. I can't tell you who's the best or cheapest, but I do know Tmobile offers free 3G data and no roaming charges for voice or text on their SimpleChoice plans:

http://www.t-mobile.com/optional-services/roaming.html

I use it and I've been able to send/receive SMS without any problems and without extra charges from both Costa Rica and Colombia.

mh

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mh

Many places allow you to authenticate via email. If you worried about security, you can get a VPN account.

If you really need SMS for this purpose, the cheapest way is to make sure your phone is unlocked and get a local SIM card.

I was wondering about that. If I got an unlocked phone and used a SIM card in U.S., and got another when in CR, would that allow me to get out of signing up for a plan?

Or would that change the signal so that the places I wanted to use two-factor authentication for would read the text as coming from a different phone. Eventually I'll email them with this question, but would appreciate any more feedback. It's all been helpful.

Your two step authentication provider will send the SMS to the original number you signed up with. Even if you have an unlocked phone, once you take out your US SIM and put in your foreign SIM you'll stop receiving the verification SMS UNLESS you change your SMS verification number to the foreign number. This is assuming of course that your authentication provider supports sending verification SMS to a non-US phone.

So to recap - Whatsapp isn't an option for what you need. Putting a foreign SMS in your unlocked phone probably won't work either (see this link for a clearer explanation - it pertains to Gmail but the concept is the same: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/ ... ing-abroad).

Depending on what you're dealing with, some services have alternate methods of two step verification. For example, Google gives you the option of printing out a list of authentication codes you can carry with you when travelling overseas. To use this, you log in as normal, and when prompted for the second authentication code you enter one from your printed list.

mh

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mh

Google's 2 step verifications allows you to change your phone number. Go to the security setting of your google account.

For other service providers you should check their policy.

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