cell phone booster for the home DIY?

[lexluther]

I have the Wilson booster and a metal roof... still not perfect but I was able to drop the land line... those savings add up quick

 

[boggen]

To the op. I have a wilson DB that was never installed. Switched to carrier with wifi shortly after purchase. Would sell at 50% discount over new. Pm me if interested.

thx for offer. but will pass for now.

mom going to bring over a cell phone booster ties into internet that she has at her house. see if it will work. though looking like most likely cell will be returned. and back to the ugly old land line.

 

[RNeumann]

The wifi calling was offered up top. If that is now the direction you want to go several of us use that and can offer advice and suggestions.

 

[TractorGuy]

If you got into a contract on that deal better get out before the intro time expires. I think it's 14 days or something like that around here.

Me and the wife both have prepaid Verizon phones. We have great service at home and in most locations. Most all carriers have a prepaid deal of some kind. Ours is unlimited talk and text with 2 gigs of data for $48 per month after sales tax. I already had a galaxy S5 given to me by work before I retired and we bought her a Galaxy S4 for $150 at wally world. There are lower price options available. If they ever go sour or piss us off we can just quit any time.

 

[tomplum]

In our world we use the Verizon network extender which does OK. It could be better. They have a new 4G one , but it says it requires 2 Mg upload, which we have 1. In the past , the wifi calling worked only if the person you were calling had the phone that would do the same. It wouldn't work if you called a landline as an example. Has that changed?

 

[jk96]

In our world we use the Verizon network extender which does OK. It could be better. They have a new 4G one , but it says it requires 2 Mg upload, which we have 1. In the past , the wifi calling worked only if the person you were calling had the phone that would do the same. It wouldn't work if you called a landline as an example. Has that changed?

With my sprint account I can call any number via wifi regardless of equipment on the recieving end.

 

[EarPlug]

Since the OP has satellite internet the cell company "network extender" is not going to work very well if at all. What they do is take your cell call and turn it into a VOIP or internet call. They latency (the time it takes the signal to get to the satellite and back) is way to long and will affect call quality.

The only viable option is a cell phone booster (also know as a repeater). These take the existing cell signal, amplifies it, and the rebroadcasts it into your home. To work properly you need an outside antenna that connects to the amplifier/repeater inside the house. The antenna is directional and needs to point at a cell tower. Also, there needs to be some level of cell service at the site to be picked up and amplified.

Minimum cost is going to be about $400 for a 4G amp. weBoost Home 4G | 4G Cell Phone Booster for Home | 471

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I installed a Wilson signal booster. It works great. IIRC it was about $300, which is cheap compared to what a smart phone costs. I put the mobile version in my pickup, which eliminated signal dropout on the freeway, but it's still not hard to find areas on logging roads in the mountains where there is just no signal.

 

[kc5dlo]

I live in a house with metal walls and roof. I use my cell as a hot spot for computer data and streaming video was tedious with lots of buffering. Got the WeBoost system from Wilson and I now stream just fine. Still not super fast but Much better. I would do it again if needed. Even bought a mobile version for my car when on trips. Have not needed it yet.

 

[DennisH]

What about cheap WiFi signal boosters. My neighbor wants to use his Wifi signal from his router out in his man-cave which is about 60-70 feet from the router. The signal has to go thru several inside walls plus 3 brick walls to get to his man cave location. His ATT router wont reach that far thru all the walls.

He needs to install a couple of line of sight Wi-Fi antennas, one acts as the point of access (POA) that is mounted outside the house and the other as the receiver at the man cave location. I had this setup at my house for a bootleg internet a few years ago before I got real internet at the house. I was receiving a Wi-Fi from 1 mile away, the POA antenna was in the top of a pine tree.

There is a line of sight cone you have to operate in for this system to work. PM me if you need more details.