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Signal Boosters??

lindsayanng

lindsayanng

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 4, 2008
1,515
1
East Haven, CT
Anyone use them?? i asked this in my other post, but i think it might have gotten lost in the conversation.. so i figured a new thread would be a good idea..

So i looked at the i-tena which has a video on youtube which is pretty believable, and the griffin clear booster and i kinda trust griffin as a company..

so ANYONE use these things.. i am thinking the ones for .57 on ebay is no different than taping a piece of aluminum foil or copper to the back of my phone.

I'm not trying to get service on the -11th floor basement of a building, or in the middle of the forest, but in a place where i have 1-2 bars that seem to be useless, so there are towers, i just need to get them a little better on my phone..

suggestions?
 
It's not what I think, it's physics. They're just junk wrapped in tech-speak to fleece the gullible, period. Best case, they do nothing (other than lighten your wallet), worst case, because of incredibly poor design, they could reduce your signal, since some of them seem to be designed along the lines of a Faraday cage. Or short your battery depending on placement.

File them next to the metal pellets sold to drop into your gas tank to "oxygenate" the fuel.
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
It's not what I think, it's physics. They're just junk wrapped in tech-speak to fleece the gullible, period. Best case, they do nothing (other than lighten your wallet), worst case, because of incredibly poor design, they could reduce your signal, since some of them seem to be designed along the lines of a Faraday cage. Or short your battery depending on placement.

File them next to the metal pellets sold to drop into your gas tank to "oxygenate" the fuel.
Click to expand...

well they might work, I've never seen them advertised anywhere before... for my iPod touch when I'm in the band room at the way back end of the school I hold a triangle on my antenna and I seem to get better signal lmao
 
its not physics, it all has to do with frequencies, metal conductivity and many other things above my head.. I'm also not just talking about the stickers you add to the back, although having one of those would be great that WORKS.. but those $200+ devices that work as a type of ROUTER.. they sell all sorts of boosters, and i seem to ONLY need it inside of my house which is really weird.
 
lindsayanng said:
its not physics, it all has to do with frequencies, metal conductivity and many other things above my head.
Click to expand...

I hate to be the one to inform you but all of that has everything to do with physics. Physics is the science of matter and energy and their interactions. That's precisely what you're dealing with when dealing with radio waves. That's why I had to study physics before continuing on to get my electrical engineering degree.

You have 1-2 bars which means there is signal there but you could simply have something in your environment that is creating interference with the signal. If the radio in the phone has to keep trying to resend data then your quality of service will suffer.
 
lindsayanng said:
its not physics, it all has to do with frequencies, metal conductivity and many other things above my head.. I'm also not just talking about the stickers you add to the back, although having one of those would be great that WORKS.. but those $200+ devices that work as a type of ROUTER.. they sell all sorts of boosters, and i seem to ONLY need it inside of my house which is really weird.
Click to expand...

The Griffin is essentially the same thing, but has an "antenna" perched on the outside (with the infamous sticker on the inside). Frequencies are physics, and unless Griffin's engineers (or whoever in China made this for them) know something the rest of us don't, I'd be massively skeptical until I saw some real data (not anecdotal reviews) on signal gain, impedance, interference, and the like. Besides, If I have better than one bar, it makes no difference, as 2-5 are the same for all practical purposes if you're not moving from room to room. It's digital, not analog, so you pretty much either have a signal or not. The bars indicate strength, not quality.

You might find this an interesting read, and something that most laypersons can grasp pretty readily.
 
i guess my iphone is broken then because i have 2 bars in places where i can not make a phone call, receive one, send a text or receive one..

and i mis-spoke. I meant to say that an antenna is not only physics, it has to do with the physical make up of the material that is being used as an expander AND the way in which the frequencies move and what they are attracted to.

I can see that an external antenna COULD work, theres no sense saying they are useless if studies of OTHER frequencies similar to cell frequencies show that extending the surface area of an antenna creates a wider band distance. Its just a matter of what these things are made out of.. WHAT is an iphone antenna made out of metal wise.. is it copper or aluminum or something else??

Also, is that SMALL of a difference in surface area actually going to change anything or should i just run some aluminum foil from my roof into my office where my iphone sits and use it there?? j/k - kinda

Anyways.. If there was ANY kind of extender out there, i would buy it.. Something that sits on the room and collects the tower waves and funnels them through a cable into a dock in my house, or something like that.. I just want SOMETHING so i get ONE more bar inside of my house because right now i CAN NOT use the phone capabilities on my phone in my house and its REALLY annoying me.
 
lindsayanng said:
and i mis-spoke. I meant to say that an antenna is not only physics, it has to do with the physical make up of the material that is being used as an expander AND the way in which the frequencies move and what they are attracted to.
Click to expand...

And that is what is called physics.

I can see that an external antenna COULD work, theres no sense saying they are useless if studies of OTHER frequencies similar to cell frequencies show that extending the surface area of an antenna creates a wider band distance. Its just a matter of what these things are made out of.. WHAT is an iphone antenna made out of metal wise.. is it copper or aluminum or something else??
Click to expand...

You're frantically grasping at straws at this point. Sure, an external antenna most certainly could help you but that would require an external SMA antenna connector on the phone like many manufacturers use to have a real antenna connection. Even an inductively coupled antenna is relatively worthless. You're not even afforded that luxury. You're grasping for a little smoke and a mirror or two. If you feel the need to waste your money then feel free to buy one. Just make sure whomever you buy from has a return option.

Anyways.. If there was ANY kind of extender out there, i would buy it.. Something that sits on the room and collects the tower waves and funnels them through a cable into a dock in my house, or something like that.. I just want SOMETHING so i get ONE more bar inside of my house because right now i CAN NOT use the phone capabilities on my phone in my house and its REALLY annoying me.
Click to expand...

That would be called a cellular repeater and if you want to license one and spend immense amounts of money to own one, have at it.
 
What you need is what most cell phones (but not our beloved iPhone) have: an external antenna port. Even if that circuitry were contained in the dock connector, we'd know it by now, as a lot of car kits & the like including external antennas would be around.

I have a few spotty areas in my house as well (mostly the comfortable places!), and what I end up doing is placing the phone in the best possible position for the call and using Bluetooth. I have a bad habit of pacing & turning a lot when I talk, I've killed more calls than I can remember doing that.

If you decide that your need is worth the risk of $35, make sure to let us know how it turns out for you.
 
ok.. i'd rather not argue of the exact definitely of what you call physics.. you can say that the make up of anything is physics.. but the truth is that physics proves that it is POSSIBLE..

I simply wanted to know if anyone had used it and if it worked for them or not.. in theory it should work, but id rather NOT spend my money on something if there is a number of people on here who have USED it and it failed instead of a bunch of nay sayers.. i already know that by adding my USB cable to my iphone and just letting it sit there, that it gained one bar for me.. i KNOW that because i have NO BARS in that particular room, and it went away when disconnected and came back wehn connected.. now the usb is not connected to the antenna, so it was using it as a parasitic antenna extender, and there is lots of proof that a parasitic antenna booster can work if you look up some patents about it.. when you look up GOOD patnents, and not just some rich person's hairbrained idea, there are studies that go along with the claims of the patent.

JohnNotBeatle said:
What you need is what most cell phones (but not our beloved iPhone) have: an external antenna port. Even if that circuitry were contained in the dock connector, we'd know it by now, as a lot of car kits & the like including external antennas would be around.

I have a few spotty areas in my house as well (mostly the comfortable places!), and what I end up doing is placing the phone in the best possible position for the call and using Bluetooth. I have a bad habit of pacing & turning a lot when I talk, I've killed more calls than I can remember doing that.

If you decide that your need is worth the risk of $35, make sure to let us know how it turns out for you.
Click to expand...

well, i can get it cheaper on ebay, so i might just try it.. especially if they have a return policy.. some ebay stores do.. we'll see, but i will definitely report back on it..

i'm also going to talk to the business partners.. they are engineers, some electrical ect so i am just going to see what they have to say..
 
About 6-7 years ago I tried one of them. It was one of them stickers that you put behind the battery or on the battery I cant remember exactly where it glued. I put it on an old nokia phone. There was a spot in town that every time I'd drive by there for a minute all my calls would drop when going by. It seemed to have helped a little, still dropped a few and few made it maybe cause I was speeding by :D
But I dont know, I dont think it made much difference. Years later they must have added coverage cause I get full signal each time now.
 
lindsay, I only came on strongly because thats the kind of thing I worked with a good deal in my last life, antenna & waveguide design, RF propagation & RFI/EMI issues, the whole wheel of cheese. I'm not an engineer, but I know theory and practical application more than well enough to recognize something like this from a mile off. It's one of those thing I don't need to try, because I have enough knowledge in the subject to recognize it for what it is, and not be distracted by any reported placebo effect.

I certainly don't want you to feel dumped on, just tryin' to keep you from walking into something I know already is a losing proposition.
 
its' all good jonnotbeatle.. I didnt feel dumped on by you, i just HATE arguing semantics and people hanging on ONE work or ONE mistake i might have made.. i am NOT an engineer either, but i'm not stupid... i understand the way things work, but not ALL of them..

i did look into a repeater system, $99 for full coverage in my house does NOT seem like a bad deal concidering i did not pay for my actual iphone... right???

and a repeater is guaranteed to work
 
That's $99 total? Not a monthly charge? Money back guarantee? ;)

I'd go for that in a heartbeat if it worked. Reading your other thread, though, I wonder if even the repeater may not have enough signal to regenerate adequately. Worth a try though.
 
i would have 2 bars if i stood on my roof, so i purchased the $99 repeater (no monthly payments) and it has a 20ft cable from the outdoor antenna to the indoor transmitter, i could put that on the roof and the transmitter in the office and it works up to 20 feet form that.. i live in a small house, so i can deal with that.. I'm thinking i would spend teh $149.99 and get the wireless version of the same thing..

here, look at it and tell me what you think about it..i dont know too much about the frequencies and gain of cingular or any cell network for that matter.. i would like to know what you think about it though..

i will probably buy it.. and it has a 30 return policy as long as it is shipped back in good condition with a 15% restocking fee.. but whatever, i might pay the 15% restocking fee if i'm the one bein gpicky

oops.. forgot to post the LINK
REPEATERSTORE.COM
 
If you mean the GSM transponders then, yes they work. If you mean the tape with metal in it then, not so much.

The transponders are $250-$1000
 
Could femtocells be the answer? Can anyone shed any more light on these devices? Seems to be the perfect solution for home use.

If they gave a full signal while at home, and minutes used didn't count against your plan, they could be a very good solution.
 
seenett said:
Could femtocells be the answer? Can anyone shed any more light on these devices? Seems to be the perfect solution for home use.

If they gave a full signal while at home, and minutes used didn't count against your plan, they could be a very good solution.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell

It might just be easier to petition your carrier to see what their coverage is, and to see if they can improve it / when there plans are to do so.

seenett;s article:

AT&T will soon offer to its subscribers an accessory that can significantly improve their cell phone's reception.

According to investment banking firm ThinkPanmure, the wireless network operator has contracted with UK-based firm ip.access Ltd to provide femtocells for sale to AT&T customers.

The carrier reportedly plans to sell up to 7 million units over the next five years, pricing them as low as $100 to its customers.

What Are Femtocells?

Femtocells are tiny cell phone base stations that act much like a Wi-Fi access point, providing independent cellular coverage to a home or small office, while using an existing Internet connection to talk to the rest of the network.

This gives the user cheap or free voice calling, as well as high-speed Internet on their mobile device, regardless of what quality of coverage their location has, and without needing to purchase new phones.

Sprint already has a femtocell pilot program running in three U.S. cities. T-Mobile USA offers a different service using WiFi-enabled handsets instead of a cellular signal.
 
i would like to know this::

i would have 2 bars if i stood on my roof, so i purchased the $99 repeater (no monthly payments) and it has a 20ft cable from the outdoor antenna to the indoor transmitter, i could put that on the roof and the transmitter in the office and it works up to 20 feet form that.. i live in a small house, so i can deal with that.. I'm thinking i would spend teh $149.99 and get the wireless version of the same thing..

here, look at it and tell me what you think about it..i dont know too much about the frequencies and gain of cingular or any cell network for that matter.. i would like to know what you think about it though..

i will probably buy it.. and it has a 30 return policy as long as it is shipped back in good condition with a 15% restocking fee.. but whatever, i might pay the 15% restocking fee if i'm the one bein gpicky

oops.. forgot to post the LINK
REPEATERSTORE.COM
 
lindsayanng said:
here, look at it and tell me what you think about it..i dont know too much about the frequencies and gain of cingular or any cell network for that matter.. i would like to know what you think about it though..
oops.. forgot to post the LINK
REPEATERSTORE.COM
Click to expand...

Note that is says it's been delayed until Summer. Here's a CNet review of one of their other products. They rate it as an exceptional performer but difficult to set up of that particular model is three times the cost of the one you pointed out:

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-and-smart/wi-ex-zboost-yx510/4505-6448_7-32156398.html
 
thanks for that link, i didnt even NOTICE that it was not going to come out until the summer.. that is actually ok for now because as long as i remember to set my call forwarding before i get into a dead zone, i will be just fine.. i dont NEED to text from home, and i have a wireless system to i can send a text from AIM express if needed.. I just cant receive one unless people know to text to my AIM instead.. but anyways....

Has anyone heard of the SPOTWAVE ZEN one? it seems pretty promising, and since i have a bestbuy credit card and they sell them at best buy, i'm thinking that one might not be a bad deal... i'd like to ask the pros though..
 
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