Spark not Receiving Two-factor Authentication SMS

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark not Receiving Two-factor Authentication SMS

bravomikewhiskey

11 posts

Geek

#223532 4-Oct-2017 15:47

I know this has been asked before but I'm hoping by now someone has found a solution.

I recently moved to Spark from 2Degrees as that is who my new business is with. I now can't access a number of accounts that use SMS codes for 2FA as I simply don't receive them.

I understand that sms 2FA is not the best solution but for some providers it is the only option (Box.com one example). It is also the only real option for overseas travelers with only one device. If the device is lost, but you still have your nz sim, you can get a replacement phone and get into your accounts.

This happened to me earlier this year while on holiday and without it I would have been locked out of pretty much everything as to recover most accounts I need email and to access email I need 2FA.

I'd like to know if anyone else has had the same problem with Spark and if so how it was resolved as Spark don't want to know.

So far I am having trouble with:

Facebook

Box.com

Google

dfnt

1514 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1877347 4-Oct-2017 15:51

I had delays with 2FA SMS this morning, and this was from a Revera VPN too

I'm on Spark as well, but this is the only time I've had issues with SMS based tokens

I wonder if its a porting issue?

bravomikewhiskey

11 posts

Geek

#1877349 4-Oct-2017 15:53

I wondered about the porting but they say it looks fine at their end and 2Degrees say the same.

It's pretty annoying and I can't be the only person this has ever happened to....

By the way the porting happened Monday morning. Should be sorted by now wouldn't you think?

hio77

12999 posts

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Lizard Networks

#1877351 4-Oct-2017 15:57

2FA is working on my spark sim.

Often there is issues with 2FA systems and porting networks, generally is caused by the 3rd party messaging platform.

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bravomikewhiskey

11 posts

Geek

#1877353 4-Oct-2017 15:59

OK, thanks. So is that something that can be fixed? This is probably the 3rd or fourth time this number has been ported in the past 10 years. Never been a problem before.

Thanks

littlehead

214 posts

Master Geek

#1877369 4-Oct-2017 16:26

For someone I know who this happened to they needed to remove the SMS 2fa from the service and then re-add it back. They had to use the master or temporary off-line codes to remove the 2fa.

Apparently it was due to the SMS service the site was using still sending the messages to the old carrier. Removing and re-adding caused the service to do a check on what the correct carrier is and from then on it went correctly to the phone.

Peppery

919 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1877388 4-Oct-2017 17:37

I actually just ported my 021 number from 2D to Spark and I noticed the same thing - RealMe SMS aren't coming through

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#1877395 4-Oct-2017 17:56

Peppery:

I actually just ported my 021 number from 2D to Spark and I noticed the same thing - RealMe SMS aren't coming through

File a fault is the first step :)

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bravomikewhiskey

11 posts

Geek

#1878431 6-Oct-2017 12:37

littlehead:

For someone I know who this happened to they needed to remove the SMS 2fa from the service and then re-add it back. They had to use the master or temporary off-line codes to remove the 2fa.

Apparently it was due to the SMS service the site was using still sending the messages to the old carrier. Removing and re-adding caused the service to do a check on what the correct carrier is and from then on it went correctly to the phone.

This seems to have worked. So once you are able to get in to your account via some backup method (with Box it required me to email them and provide some details about my account) I was able to remove the 2FA and re-add it and now it seems to work.

Will try with some other accounts and post back if there are any issues.

Thanks!