Cyanogenmod vs Orange

I've spent quite a few days researching flashing a new OS having rooted using Universal Androot. I had been concerned as I had used Rom Manager to flash my recovery but it kept resetting after every reboot. I had assumed this was due to the fact that Universal Androot doesn't change the bootloader but after talking to some people on forums I discovered it was the Android OS and once Cyanogen is installed the recovery holds.

So... what happened next... *sigh*. I ran Titanium Backup, backed up my launcher pro settings, then used Rom Manager to firstly do a Nandroid backup then to wipe the phone and install Cyanogen.

2 minutes later I have a fully fledged Cyanogen Nexus one, restored my apps and settings using titanium backup and restored my desktop setting for launcher pro. Reboot and my phone is just like I left it, sms, call logs, bluetooth pairings, everything! Totally painless, other than the fact I had to redo all my widgets as the Launcher Pro backup doesn't work with those. Sorted!!!

I loved it! Moving most apps to SD was painless, no partitioning and it worked with 90% of the apps I tried. The boot graphic was awesome, there was just joy to be had everywhere!

Wait a minute... this was too easy.... I switched off wifi and... NO DATA CONNECTION OVER MOBILE NETWORK!!!! Damn it!!!!

Much tinkering and forum searching later I decide to restore back to my previous stock version using the nandroid backup. This was a full image of my system before I buggered with it. Still no mobile network... much more buggering, swearing and frustration until I had to go to bed (approx. 1AM).

Tired, and quite frankly proper pissed off, I went to work and the network returned and then dissapeared again. I messed with the settings for a bit then someone suggested I did a factory reset. Sod it, I have a backup, so I did it, still no joy! I really couldn't understand this as I'd restored the system to the state it was in before then did a factory reset. The good news here is that a Nandroid restore takes 2 minutes so flashing a new rom is easily and swiftly reversable, bad news is it didn't fix it!

Eventually I sought out a colleague on Orange and asked them if they had a data connection. Guess what? it wasn't my tinkering, it was Orange (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/19/orange_down/). A total melt down of the Orange network just so happened to coincide with me screwing with my phone at a fundamental level. My colleagues are convinced I caused this but I'm refusing to incriminate myself.

Where am I now? I got mobile data back on my stock rom late this afternoon. This evening I braved flashing Cyanogen again... no data! Now I'm not sure if Orange suck again or if Cyanogen RC3 doesn't work properly on my phone.

I've done a nandroid backup of my Cyanogen so I can go back to it swiftly if it turns out Orange has jumped on the fail express again.

I'm gonna try Cyanogen's latest nightly build and if that doesn't work go back to stock. If mobile is still missing I may just flush it down the toilet, I'll post a video if I do!