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How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection?
ganjadude writes "So I am moving to a location where the cell signal is very poor (I don't get signal inside my house), and I have been looking at wireless extenders such as the ones that Sprint and Verizon have. I am brought down by the cost (Sprint charges monthly, Verizon $250 up front, AT&T.... well they are AT&T). Being that this is Slashdot, and a lot of us live in basements (I kid!), I assume that some of the crowd has had this issue in the past. What have you done, or what alternatives are available to someone in such a situation?"
I use google voice, over wifi while at home.
If you have T-Mobile and a blackberry device, you have use UMA over wifi as well.
--alop
Don't move to that location?
This should help
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875995063
Tim Rosco
RTFS. Cell signal, not wifi.
Just a build a parabolic reflector. There's plans online for doing that in the 2.4ghz spectrum that can be adapted for cell phones.
The phone companies do charge upfront/monthly fees for those micro-cells, but when pushed, they will often reduce or wave the charges for them to retain a phone customer. You might call your provider (be it Sprint, Verizon, etc) and talk to the retentions department.
My dad lives in the shadow of a cell tower and gets no reception on his property, but does if he walks to the neighbors house (100 feet or so). I suggested he get a cell phone repeater. He now gets a bar or two, but not a good quality signal. This is the one he got (but not from Thinkgeek, I don't think). It should be noted, he also got a directional antenna that company sells to point at the nearest tower besides the one he lives under.
I live between two hills in a area where Sprint has great coverage but in my house I get either 1 bar or roaming. If I walk 100 yards up either hill its perfect reception. Sprint sent me a Airave ($100 normally) for free and comps me the $5 month fee. With it I get perfect reception. The Airave is not a repeater but a micro cell tower that communicates with Sprints network over a internet connection.
Do you have T-Mobile in your area? You could try their Hotspot@Home service; it lets you use your own home Wi-fi network for voice calls (provided that you have a compatible wi-fi-enabled phone like the BlackBerry Bold 9700)
Tinfoil Suit (colander "astronaut helmet" optional).
crazy dynamite monkey
As long as you have a decent signal somewhere close enough you can run a cable to such as in your attic, or on your roof I can highly recommend the Wi-Ex YX510 from ZBoost (http://wi-ex.com/YX510.aspx). I have one at home and one at my office and they're great — as long as you have a good signal it can repeat for you. If you have no good signal nearby then you're either S.O.L. or stuck with a "mini-cell" thingy from your provider.
I think I heard something about a pill that will extend the range of your hardware...
There was some drawback about a doctor and four hours though.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
-_-;;
I'll just be going over here now ----->
Living With a Nerd
Stan Swan's WokFi site from New Zealand: http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/
Fast european mirror: http://exe64.com/mirror/wokfi/
SeqBox
I haven't found anything that is less than $200, but I have a product from http://www.wi-ex.com/
It is a simple device, that takes some work to get installed correctly, but works for me.
Even at $240, if you are going to be living there for over 2 years, it is less than $10 per month if you choose to look at it that way.
Just comes down to how important is better cell phone signal to you in your basement?
If you get a Blackberry from T-Mobile, it will happily connect via Wifi. The technology is called UMA:
http://www.umatechnology.org/overview/
They may have other phones that do it as well. I don't know.
No femtocell host is required.
They can be hit and miss, especially if you buy low price range versions, but when set up properly these can be a life saver. This is just one of the cheaper ones I found with a quick search. Ive seen the benefits of a little more industrial version and was amazed; especially in the environment I was in. I understand you were looking for affordable, but if you consider a one time investment on an encompassing RF range at least you wont have to ever make the payments to your cell provider if you were to change a plan or change providers. Hope this helps..
Unless you're hooked on a certain plan or whatever try other providers. I can get a solid reception on one carrier and extremely poor on all the others (but if I cross the street they're all full strength). Choice of phone does not seem to matter very much (regardless of the fibbing some do with the bars they show).
OK so I'm from the UK and don't know how the US system works. Here there are several providers and they have their own towers (though some share some towers). Here it's also easy to get a free "pay as you go" sim card that you can use to try them out, though just asking friends around can be a more entertaining approach.
Landline.
If you're concerned that people might have to dial 2 numbers to reach you when you have no signal, set up a Google Voice number to ring both phones, then give out THAT number.
Problem: solved.
An added bonus -- you can configure GV to go straight to voicemail at certain hours. Get a goo night's sleep while still being contactable in an emergency (your phone is still on and anyone who has that number can be told to call it in case of emergency).
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/att-microcell/
There are good plans out there via Google. I made one out of mylar and some left over plastic for a bridging a wifi connection across a canyon. It worked well and it shouldn't be hard to modify it for the cell phone spectrum of your choice.
Also, if you're too far away from the router, you're too far away. Just because it can transmit further out doesn't mean your wireless card can, unless you have utilities that allow you to adjust the transmission power. (Like in the DD-WRT firmware, you can take a Linksys from 71mW to 251mW and I can receive the signal out at the pool. I still can't access it because my laptop card won't transmit that far.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It should work well.
Take a look at them. A little pricey but saved my rear end in a situation just like this. http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/
I get terrible reception inside my house so I ended up getting a Verizon wireless extender. So far it's worked quite well except all location stuff is screwed up due to a bug. It has to sit near a window for GPS reception but now I no longer get dropped calls. Later this year they're coming out with a new one that also supports 3G.
Verizon offered me a discount but it was still $200. I also can take it with me when I travel. All it needs is an Ethernet connection.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
You can almost always talk them down to $150, and mine works flawlessly. Best $150 I ever spent. My (basement!) office now has great cell service, as does the rest of my house.
I use UMA with T-Mobile on 3 different phones (2 blackberry curves, one samsung unknown model, and one Nokia unknown model). Check T-Mob's site for the models.
I'm *very* happy with the results from these phones using wifi/UMA. The voice quality is great and I can definitely live with the occasional dropped call versus the terrible intermittent behavior I was receiving with my former solution.
My former solution involved Verizon Wireless using a CDMA booster that had an external antenna mounted on my roof. Let me tell you from personal experience: that sh*t don't work.
I even dropped my voice services on my landline ever since getting the T-Mobile service. It's terrific.
I'd happily pay you Tuesday for a biopsy today!
http://www.sonic.net/~n6gn/ocar/ocar.html This is essentially what one does with after market cellphone amplifiers, but the link offers more detail of the theory and what it takes to operate them properly. These amplifiers are bi-directional, both uplink and downlink are supported but in opposite directions. Use two isolated antennas and make the one pointed at the cell site (particularly) as directional as possible. I suggest a $50/$75 3' parabolic 'grid' reflector for PCS/850 MHz respectively. The ones offered for WiFi (2.4 GHz) actually work very well on PCS but not at 850 MHz and offer ~24 dBi gain. If you are really cheap, build corner reflectors http://www.sonic.net/~n6gn/corner.pdf.
I am not connected to the company selling these in any way other than I think I may have purchased something from them once.
http://www.solidsignal.com/cview.asp?mc=00&m=Wireless%20Extenders&b=Products&pp=18
Shortly after Orange France started selling Wifi extenders and powerline transmitters, they pushed a new firmware for theire Livebox Sagem3202 and Inventel modems that significantly lowered signal power and then quality.
The all in one box is required if you want to use the services you pay for.
Guess why they pushed this Wifi power reduction and disabled any access to configuration about the transmission power despite these modems can have it tuned otherwise.
Léa Gris
Buy a phone with WiFi and just use UMA?
Go to hyperlinktech.com and get 2 antennas that match to the frequency used by your type of cell phone. One should be highly directional, preferably parabolic and the other should be omnidirectional or, preferably, something with sector coverage.
Mount the highly directional antenna so it is pointed at the strongest source of signal for your phone, preferably with line of sight to the tower. Mount the sector coverage antenna so it is centered on the area you will be using your handset. I've heard having the antennas mounted apart from each other is preferable. You then want to wire them directly together. If you can get complementary connectors on each (one N-Male, one N-Female) you can just screw them together or wire them with an extension.
The directional antenna will act like a large collector and funnel that radio energy across the line and into your sector antenna, boosting the effective power by the sum of the antenna gains minus ~3dB. The energy output from your handset will be picked up by the sector antenna and sent back through that directional antenna toward the tower and see the same overall gain.
I've done something similar before with wifi using parabolic antennas to shoot it around an obstacle - no additional power required.
Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
If what you're after is a cell phone extender, then I can highly recommend the Wireless Extender Cell Phone Signal Booster from SmartHome. They are NOT cheap (> $200 single band. >300 for the dual band unit). But, after laying my money down and running the wireless antenna up into my attic with the repeater system and antenna down in the basement, I can honestly say, I've got a better cell phone signal in my basement than upstairs on the main floor or even the second floor. Be mindful that you get the right unit for your band / service. I got one that works with Sprint and I love it. Works with my 3G data network and data card from them as well (as would be expected - it's just cellular). Comes with enough cable to span two stories up into an attic from a basement.
Works with all 800 MHz cellular phone systems (Verizon)
http://www.smarthome.com/9625C/Wireless-Extender-zBoost-Cell-Phone-Signal-Booster-for-CEL-Phones-YX500-CEL/p.aspx
Works with all 1900 MHz PCS-based phone systems (Sprint, NexTel)
http://www.smarthome.com/9625/Cell-Phone-Signal-Booster-YX500-PCS/p.aspx
Works with both 1900 MHz PCS-based phones AND 800 MHz cell-based phones
http://www.smarthome.com/9631/Wireless-Extender-zBoost-Home-Office-Cell-Phone-Signal-Booster-Unit/p.aspx
http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/
I have installed MANY of these in buildings, and if you have ANY sort of signal outside the house, down to about -90dBm, these boosters will amplify that about 60dBm, coupled with a good 5dBm indoor antenna, and 10-15dBm outdoor antenna, and you get very good signal indoors.
If you have an iphone this might be useful.
get a wired telephone.
-- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
What have you done, or what alternatives are available to someone in such a situation?
Enjoy the peace and quiet?
ERROR: SIG NOT FOUND (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?:
I have dead zones in my apartment, but I also have area's where the reception isn't that bad. I bought a blue tooth head set and put the phone down in one of the good area's. The kitchen is that area, which is pretty much in the center of the apartment. I can walk in there and dial, then am free to move where ever I want through out the rest of the apartment.
Yes, I know it's a pain in the ass. And it will only work if you have area's in the apartment/house where you do have decent reception.
Or, you can bundle a phone package with your internet service. And no, I am not trying to be a smart ass.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
I have a D-Link DI-524 Wireless router and it is place in the middle of the apartment I live in. Unfortunately the signal is unstable at some corners, and often the signal goes below 20% and the link is broken. Does anyone has a useful solution to make the wireless router signal be replicated easier?
V1@6ruh cheep.
And instead of wasting a mod point to let people know about a funny joke, you modded it offtopic. Stellar mod.
It's called a bent pipe....and it works. I installed this, two yagis and RG6. My signal went from -80 dB to -36.
xoviquom, ogdeuns
How on earth will that extend his cell phone range, which is what the question is referring to?
Get a cell phone that can also use your wireless net connection like a lot of today's cell phones do.
...is called a "passive repeater". Essentially, it is two antennas, connected by low-loss coax. You install a Yagi beam antenna in a spot with good signals, and aim it at the tower. Run the coax into the area needing signal, and connect another antenna to it, there. There are no electronics to require power, so it will operate for as long as the antennas survive. Cost is minimal.
The Yagi beam will give gain for both, receive and transmit. This has been done with TV antennas on opposite sides of a hill, to bring signals down into a valley.
Willie...
Nope - you didn't extend your wireless connection far enough.
For the poster - just get another cheap wireless router and use it as a wireless access point. The dlink 615 works fine and will cost you $50.00
Wrong item; he needs a cell phone booster, not a wi-fi booster, and they're about $100 to $200.
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Here is an excellent youtube video that should help. Be sure to follow the directions exactly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA
moving to a location where the cell signal is very poor [ ] looking at wireless extenders [ ] Sprint charges monthly, Verizon $250 up front, AT&T.... well they are AT&T...
I think they're trying to rip you off. Use Google's product lookup service Froogle and do a search for "cell phone booster". There are many types of signal extenders for cell phones from the $20 ones you stick on the battery - and I have no idea if they actually work or are about as useless as Headon - to inexpensive signal retransmitters that plug into the USB port for about $90, to standalone models for maybe $110 all the way to $190 devices and lots of choices.
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Use vonage, set it to ring an IP phone at home as well as your cell phone at the same time. Then you can pick up whichever has reception/is convenient.
AT&T just announced their 3G microcell. According to Electronista it is $150.
Works fine, just do like I said if your local net connection doesn't reach where you want. smartphones CAN make calls through your internet connection, unless your provider has disabled that functionality, in which case it sux 2 b u.
Huh? Since when can you use that functionality for voice, and not just data?
I've found that linksys helpfully installs range extenders in many neighborhoods already. Sometimes I can pick up my WiFi across town! Just look for "linksys" in the SSID. It's a great service.
This seems to be the best and least expensive solution I have found although I cannot vouch for the validity of this claim. http://www.hightech-edge.com/improve-3g-wifi-usb-reception-signal-cooking-pot-video/6285/
Chris Sheppard
Get a cell phone that can also use your wireless net connection like a lot of today's cell phones do.
Or get with AT&T and use their micro Cell (which is actually a femtocell) that uses your broadband to feed a home-cell just for your phones (or any you authorize).
You have to get over the bit about paying them to allow you to provide extensions to their infrastructure, but once you climb off that soap box it provides pretty good service.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0325/AT-T-Microcell-could-help-improve-home-cell-service
It just went nation wide.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Tsk, tsk - you should read slashdot more religiously. Already mentioned here: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/12/30/231217/Boost-a-Weak-3G-Modem-Signal-With-a-Saucepan Give it a go, it'll cost you $0 if it works.
A similar solution is to use a bluetooth to POTS adapter. Xlink makes a few, for instance
the Xlink BT Bluetooth Gateway. Locate the gateway where you get a good signal and
run a landline down to your basement. Never tried it, but it's got passable reviews at Amazon.
http://nyti.ms/d7Aics Interesting that David Pogue runs this story about poor reception indoors and how Line 2 gets around that problem. IPhone App to Sidestep AT&T By DAVID POGUE For a little $1 iPhone app, Line2 sure has the potential to shake up an entire industry. It can save you money. It can make calls where AT&T’s signal is weak, like indoors. It can turn an iPod Touch into a full-blown cellphone.
This may not work in every case - but if you have SOME reception in the house (as in the basement lack of coverage example) I saw something in the store the other day that I thought was a cool idea. Some of the current landline cordless phone systems now support being bluetooth clients. Basically you leave your cell phone next to the base (where you presumably have reception), and use any of the system's phones to answer or place calls.
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
daisy chain the 2 routers together, you are bound to be in range of at least one of them.
DAMPS was 5W max which is why a lot of rural folks were very sad to see AT&T turn it off, I only found one place where I didn't have signal in the 7 years I had my DAMPS phone and that was on a 80,000 acre ranch outside of Zion national park.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Sorry if I'm being dense, but is this not precisely what the original poster means by 'wireless extenders' which he doesn't want to pay the company for? ($250 in Verizon's case, and he has looked at AT&T.)
Uh, the AT&T femtocells most certainly do carry data, that's why they actually require a 3G device.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
gotta have a signal first before the cell phone booster will work. I think the guy with the dual use phone has the right idea. I think t-mobile has a phone that will switch between wifi and cell for voice calls.
If you get any signal outside your house then a cell repeater is the way to go. It takes the strong signal outside, and... repeats... it inside. If you get 3+ bars outside then an omni directional antenna (outside) is the quickest and easiest. Otherwise a directional antenna (or two if the 800 and 1900 band towers are in different directions) is the way to go.
I've put up two of these solutions, one at work to extend the excellent signal outside into our warehouse, and another at a location that barely gets 1 bar outside, using two directional antennas to point at different towers.
Not trying to advertise for anyone, but I got my stuff from http://www.cellantenna.com/ using modified versions of their CAE700-70 system. Granted, that's an expensive and powerful package, you might not need that high end a system for your needs. Give them a call, or try hitting up http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/ as I got some great advice from the folks there.
Good luck!
Someone I know has one in his car because he often goes sailing at the beach where reception is very weak, but he wanted to be able to call people either for "I'm on my way home" or "I need help." The unit has a nearly identical cradle. Hiding behind that foam back is an antenna which couples any phone to the amplifier (this is why nobody makes phones with RF connectors any more.) A fairly large (foot or so high) antenna on the roof of the SUV further helps both reception and transmission compared to the phone- bigger antenna, ground plane from the roof, higher up, and outside the shielding of the car, interior bits, and your head. The general rule I found was that if you had *any* signal with the phone out of the cradle, you were guaranteed a full signal strength display and perfect calls (ie no dropped chunks of the conversation or degraded voice quality.) In some places it'd pull enough signal to make a call where no service existed before.
Please help metamoderate.
The absolute best thing you can do to extend your wireless capability is to buy or make a Bi Quad Antenna, then hook it to a regular wireless USB key.
~don't feel threatened by my pineal~
They do sell extenders and repeaters. http://www.wpsantennas.com/residential-commercial-amplifiers-boosters.aspx While the full kits can get expensive, you can save money by getting just want you need antenna wise.
Soapbox? It's a legitimate gripe. It's nuts that you have to pay AT&T to use your *paid for* net connection to take the load off their network. They should be paying you.
Since the Nokia N95?
(At least, that's where I heard about that: from the manual).
Leave your cellphone where network signal is best, and use this device for talking from remote into the handset.
Seriously, why should *I* pay *THEM* to extend their crappy coverage and ontop of that, piggy back on my broadband connection that I also pay for. If anything, they should be paying *US* to extend their coverage and use our resources. Why should we pay them to suck?
True, you are taking some of the load off of the local air connection, but then you are connecting to their internal routing. To the bigger point, I agree that they are nickel-and-diming us.
He clearly stated that he has a signal outside, this is what boosters are made for and it's a heck of a lot better solution. Using the internet is only viable if you have a data connection and your phone supports it. A cell phone booster is a lot cheaper in the long run, it's paid for in 12 months or less, and that's assuming we are talking about only one person, when compared to your average $30 data plan.
I went a little crazy, never mind my comment above. I would still go with a cell booster myself as its simply a better solution in the long run, but the whole cost effectiveness argument was clearly deluded as he wouldn't be using his phone's data plan and therefore one wouldn't be required.
and it works... http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2009/11/stunning-breakthrough-in-wireless.html
Windows assumes you are an idiot...Linux demands proof.
http://www.repeaterstore.com/
Seriously, did you even look? This is just the first site returned by a Google search for "cell phone repeater".
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
When you use a phone that supports UMA and have TMOBILE you can do this. For example, on my blackberry I can disable the mobile network, and have ONLY the wifi enabled, yet still place calls and send/receive text messages. Look up UMA. Cool stuff. Doesn't cost anything extra either.
Technophile
I have 5 D-Link DWL-3200AP access points with WDS on my property. One of those is connected to the wired LAN, but the units I use also support spanning tree in case I wanted to have a multiple-attached network.
The whole setup works great, although occasionally one of them will lose its mind and need to be reflashed.
Of course it is, but the parent post was saying that he has to get off his soap box, you know the ones that all of us that can't shell out $250 extra for a service we are already paying for are on. I mean god forbid that when you pay for a service and there is a dead zone in an area that you spend most of your time in they couldn't provide those extenders for the time of your contract.
letting an idiot know they are an idiot is not a game... it's a responsibility. - by Kristopeit, M. D. (1892582)
Around here, landlines blow chunks. The physical plant is well over 40 years old and hasn't been maintained properly since AT&T was allowed to buy out Bellsouth a decade or so ago. My line was so noisy I couldn't even use it for dial-up, yet after 8 years they still couldn't (or didn't want to) find the issue. That didn't stop them from continually raising our rates tho. I pulled the plug on them two years ago. IMO landlines are obsolete, and just another monthly bill that gives me a headache. Save your money and put it to better use (like a cell phone antenna for example).
/. Dissent will not be tolerated. Think like us or perish.