Newbie looking for help

[kth262]

I have seen many sets of steps that may or may not pertain to my situation and I would like to double check that I am going to do this right before I get myself in too deep and can't get back out. I just bought a used iphone 3G that was running 3.1.2, never been jailbroken, unlocked or anything. The guy i got the phone from hadn't used it for 2 weeks and when I tried to charge the phone and turn it on it would only boot to the apple and then shut itself down. I was able to get it on in recovery mode but I do not want to update all the way to 4.2.1 in the restore that I will have to complete. I would like to keep the phone running 3.X to avoid any of the slowness issues that the 3g phones seem to have and to make it as easy as possible when i decide to jailbreak/unlock(I am a T-mobile user but I wanted to use this phone like an ipod touch for a while before jailbreaking). How can I get this phone restored to 3.1.2?

[iPittsburgh]

Download a copy of iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw from iPhone Download Blog and put it on your desktop.

Connect your iPhone, open iTunes, while holding down shift key click restore, you can now browse to iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw thats on your desktop, select iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw, iTunes will restore the iPhone to 3.1.3

3.1.3 works best for iPhone 3G and carries a baseband that can be easily unlocked. You will have to activate with an AT&T sim though or hacktivate with redsn0w 0.9.4

[kth262]

It worked beautifully. Thank you!!!

[iPittsburgh]

You're welcome.