Iphone firmware upgrade

So yesterday was an interesting day for me in regards to my phone. I have an iphone - 1G bought it like 2 years ago. Not being in the US actually has prevented me from getting the new 3GS but who cares for a better camera faster OS and stuff...Anywayz...I was stuck on the 1.1.3 firmware - had the the unfortunate experience of a previous upgrade where I forgot to back up all the contacts and lost them, so was a little reluctant to go through that process despite the advantage of the new firmware version of the phone.
For those that are not technically savy, the firmware is the software on the phone that gives you all the hoopla that you use everyday - and on the iPhone thats everythings.
So I had to go through this because my phone started to freeze every so often in the last couple of weeks. However yesterday it started freezing every 30sec so it made it impossible to use the phone as I have to reboot it everytime in order to do anything on it.
So backed up all my contacts - didn't look hard enough on how to back up the text messages, notes and other saves from the different applications - so just wiped those from the phone.

In any case here is a quick how to for anyone that is stuck with older than the 3.0 firmware for the iphone. Hope this helps

Step 1: Download redsn0w. At the moment the latest version of this is 0.7.2. that is a zero in redsn0w. To download just use google as often download links get removed.
Step 2: download two bootloader versions - bl-39 and bl-46
bl-39
bl-46
Step 3: you need to download the latest firmware
Step 4: You need to have iTune 8.2 and to use it to update your firmware on the phone through iTunes. To sellect the file that you want to use for the restore, press shift and than click on upgrade or restore.
Step 5: open redsn0w and through Browse point the program to where the firmware file that you used to upgrade previously on the phone is stored. VERY IMPORTANT - it needs to be the same file. the software modifies the exact version of the firmware in order to hack your phone and unlock it for future use
Step 6: follow the instructions that you get from the program. it does everything you need to complete the process
Step 7: Enjoy your upgrade iPhone