Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

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Buckeye_V
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Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

Post by Buckeye_V » Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:06 am

Does anybody have any experience using these? Where we live we only can get dial-up and satellite internet. I was hoping I could use a repeater to boost cell covereage in the house which is sketchy at best and then get a mobile broadband card or tether off my smart phone.

Thanks!
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Southwind
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Re: Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

Post by Southwind » Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:28 am

I had a repeater when I lived in the sticks for Sprint cell service. It worked great as long as you can mount it high enough and aim it directly at the nearest tower. Sprint, ATT and verizon were all supposed to work off of this 1900MH repeater I had, but my cousin could not get it to work with Verizon.

I actually thought the satellite internet was faster than the Sprint internet

Good luck, they are handy.

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Buckeye_V
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Re: Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

Post by Buckeye_V » Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:31 am

We are paying $90 per month on sat internet and we don't use it as much any more. I used to work out of the house, but have since changed that.
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Southwind
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Re: Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

Post by Southwind » Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:42 am

Yeah, thats about twice what we were paying for it. That's a lot of coin if you are not using it much.

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jlp8cornell
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Re: Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

Post by jlp8cornell » Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:00 am

I bought the Verizon Network Extender off from Ebay (new). Verizon wants $250 for it and I got it for $95 with free shipping. Works very well at my house. Every now and again calls will be fuzzy but it's not the norm. Easy setup- just call Verizon and they activate it. Very happy with it. (I only use it for cell coverage,not with my computer).
Last edited by jlp8cornell on Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

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SHNOOL
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Re: Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

Post by SHNOOL » Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:01 am

Likely you'll not get the "performance" you are looking for by using a repeater for cell, easy way to tell, go outside and "tether" your computer to your cell phone, and surf. See if you can tolerate the speed.

First you should find your carrier and see what coverage they have, it would tell you if you can get 3G or not.
Verizon check here for 3G coverage:http://opensignalmaps.com/network-cover ... ge-map.php
AT&T check here for 3G coverage (orange): http://www.xti9.com/att/att3gfull.gif
Fogitaboutit with Sprint or T-Mobile (sorry their coverage is tough, but they have maps too).

I submit that you want 3G or better, as the other data services 1xRTT, GSMRT, etc... are pretty slow (less than 128kbps, and or latency out the wazoo).

Most of the cellphone boosters like this: http://tinyurl.com/29q84co Only boost voice signal, and trash data signals pretty horribly. However, this one might work: http://tinyurl.com/7udl8x9

Keep in mind most cellular "unlimited" data plans are 2gig a month or less of data used. Even our corporate "unlimited" Verizon plan is limited to 5gigabytes a month. Stream a movie or 2 or, worse stream Pandora or something for a couple days, and you'll hit that limit pretty quick. If you only do facebook status updates, the infrequent picture, and a few small emails, you'll likely be fine, but be aware they charge you big $, and throttle you for every byte over your limit. If you have kids with computers, they don't have a clue how much data they REALLY use.

As a BLAST from the past, let me submit to you, you may STILL have another alternative, but it wont' be REAL fast. There is always "ISDN." Your Dial-up service provider might be able to hook you up with an ISDN. The same modems they use for "56k" dial-up that isn't 56k ever, can be used with ISDN. What ISDN is (internally by phone companies it is referred to as "It Still Does Nothing," when in reality it was "Integrated Services Digital Network") is a digital circuit provided to your house, using the existing copper wires. It costs roughly the price of 2 phone lines. It's 100% digital. You can STILL plug a phone line into it (it drops throughput for you to use the phone, then doubles it back up once the call is terminated), but it gives you "UP TO 128Kbps, closer to 114Kbps, another story, but still." Most Internet Service providers dont' charge MORE to use it than a dial-up connection, and generally speaking you can be AS FAR AS 18 miles from your phone company switch with it, and it still works (rather with lots of crying you can get them to MAKE it work, again another long story). Telco guys are hard to find who actually STILL know how to set one up, but again, it gives you digital phone call quality to your house, and costs probably $10-$20 more a month than a regular line. You'd pay dial-up rates to get "connected," and there are still a few "routers" that allow you to "share" your ISDN to your whole house like DSL or cable.

Another option, you likely have NEVER heard of, is something called "Wireless Cable." Several years back people tried to create a wireless version of cable (yep cable TV, but wireless) which failed miserably nationwide, but the good news is, it's been reborn in a lot of "rural" areas, to provide high speed internet. What it is, is a 38Ghz or higher "directional fixed" antenna you use to get internet. You have to have "line of sight" to their towers, and not everywhere has it, but it's got close to a 50 mile range, and gives speeds up to 27Mbps (yep you read that right). It literally is WIRELESS Cable TV, and YES there are usually local channels on it as well. Figure about $40/month if you can get it.

As a last resort, you can always get a 56k dedicated line (what the phone company calls a HICAP). Seems crazy... but they used to charge $700+/month for these, now they can be had pretty cheap (I've seen $50/month). It's basically a dedicated pipe to your house, back to the Phone company's internet (using copper pairs), that gives you a TRUE digital 56k (or 64k) connection. It will SEEM faster than dial-up, but they may still want to charge out the wahzoo for it (because phone companies change pricing DOWN over periods of years, and UP over periods of hours).

Hope I gave you some alternatives.

Another source find a local telco lineman, and find out the ACTUAL distance to your nearest switch equipment. I bet you are within the 15k feet you need to be for DSL to work. You also MIGHT be on a remote that could be extended to work, with the right persuasion (case of beer) they MIGHT be able to rehome your phone line to make it work (not that I would ever do that, OK well I did that, and got internet before anyone in my area did, almost 3 years before actually).

Me? - References available upon request (hehehe).
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Buckeye_V
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Re: Cell Phhone Signal Repeaters/Boosters

Post by Buckeye_V » Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:12 am

Thank you!
We have done something with nothing for so long we are now qualified to do everything with anything....

http://www.perfectpedigrees.com/4genview.php?id=275

http://www.perfectpedigrees.com/4genview.php?id=520

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