[Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note II] jlmancuso:
First off go into setting, about phone and give me your baseband/radio info. Depending on what this shows we might have to do a few other things.

Below are the steps to get custom recovery, backup current rom, and install tw 4.3. Although I want you to do some other things first just in case you lose your cricket flash. So read over the steps below and if you feel comfortable doing those then I will PM you with a couple of links to software and steps to make sure you have the needed info to reflash in case you lose your cricket info.

Okay I got the files and links you need.

1. Hope you have the drivers but if not these work on windows7 64bit (if you are using other windows version let me know and I will see what I can find) http://d-h.st/77G

2. CF-Auto root Which contains the Odin version I use. Just extract the files and then place the wifi patch in the same directory. If you need help using odin just ask. http://d-h.st/Twx

3. Wifi patch. You will flash this using Odin (put phone in download mode to use odin, power off then press vol-, menu key, and power at the same time) http://d-h.st/eo8

4. Custom recovery (philz modified cwm recovery) This will flash, backup, and restore every rom available for the note 2 without any issues

http://d-h.st/users/philz_touch/?fld_id=29060#files This is the download site choose philz_touch_6.01.2-l900.tar.md5

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2552653 this is the xda thread for his recovery

Now that you have the base tools time to go through the steps of upgrading. First you want to have 2-10 gigs free on your sdcard (if not backup your sdcard to your pc and then delete till you have 10 gigs free, this is needed to backup all your internal sdcard data)

1. Pick the Touchwiz rom you want. Plain stock 4.3 which you have the choice of odex pure stock or deodex (only known issue is mms, use any 3rd party mms handcent, gosms, hangouts, etc..) http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2541395 or 4.3 with note 3 features (again has mms issues) http://the-plattypus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1&p=1#p1 r3 is the version you want to download.

2. Place the rom you want on your external sdcard (sdext)

3. Power off phone and then enter download mode (press and hold in this order vol-, menu, then power) it will take you to a warning screen press vol+ and continue

4. On PC extract the cf-auto root zip. Place philz_touch_6.01.2-l900.tar.md5 file inside that folder along with the wifi fix file. Now run the Odin3-v1.85.exe

5. Click on the button that is labled PDA then select the philz_touch_6.01.2-l900.tar.md5

6. Connect your phone to your PC and you should see a com port listed in the odin app

7. Click start and it will flash the recovery and reboot your phone.

8. It should reboot into the recovery app if not power off the phone and the press and hold vol+, home, and power. It will boot into recovery.

9. Now you want to backup your phone. Choose backup and restore, then custom, custom backup job, (you want to select ((put X beside)) backup boot, backup recovery, backup system, backup preload, backup and-sec, backup modem, backup /data data, backup /data/media)

10. Now select start custom backup job, backup to /storage/sdcard (this will take a long time)

11. Now go back to backup and restore, custom, custom backup job, and only select efs (now your phone is completely backed up)

12. Now choose Wipe data/factory reset, clean to install new rom

13. Now choose Mounts and Storage, format /data and data/media

14. Now choose Install zip, choose zip from /storage/sdcard then select the rom you decided (lorjays or synergy)

15. After install reboot to system.

16. Once it boots up hold the power button and power off the phone.

17. Reboot into download/odin (vol-, menu, power)

18. Connect to PC and open the odin program again

19. Click on the PDA button and choose wifi fix, then click start

20. Phone will reboot and then you will setup the rom

Now you have a rooted Touchwiz 4.3 rom

If you have any questions please ask before you start the process!!! If anything goes wrong your phone will be unusable till you can get me or someone else to help you. So please ask questions first!!!