Cell phone signal Booster ?

[Taxman2436]

After another frustrating weekend of try to connect to the internet with my phone I am hoping someone has a recommendation for a signal booster for cellphones. I was at a campground and my cell phone service varied from 1 to 2 bars and this was not enough to upload and send a small file.

[George441]

We are using Weboost home multiroom signal booster.
You may try.

[Gulfcoast]

I have the WeBoost Drive Reach as shown in the video, plus a yagi antenna (Amazon) that I use on my own fiberglass painters pole (Lowe's).

[Taxman2436]

Gulfcoast wrote:
I really like the 65 for getting a directional antenna way up in the air and aiming it right at a cell tower.

Here's Weboost's latest RV booster.... but it's your choice.

Weboost Drive Reach

Thanks for that. Looking at the reviews some people found that the mounting brackets for the Pole didn’t work so well, have you had that problem?

[punomatic]

Taxman2436 wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
Was there sufficient bandwidth? Other campers also trying also trying to use their phones for pictures, posts, talking, texting, surfing, streaming etc.?

Not sure how I can measure that. I was using my cell service through the phone and not campground wifi.

Lenny

Here's a tool I like: Speedtest.net I use a Weboost, and it has been a game changer. I used to try to pick up local stations with an OTA TV antenna. Now we can usually find enough signal to stream from our Tablo or Plex server via the cell phone. As someone else posted, if there isn't enough bandwidth, you can't manufacture it, but a signal booster often will let you take advantage of what signal there is.

[Gulfcoast]

I really like the 65 for getting a directional antenna way up in the air and aiming it right at a cell tower.

Here's Weboost's latest RV booster.... but it's your choice.

Weboost Drive Reach

[Taxman2436]

So now I am looking at the Weboost RV 65. Is that what you folks are using or do you have another recommendation?

-Lenny

[coolmom42]

There are 2 different types of boosters, and don't confuse them.

*something that will pick up a wifi signal such as from a campground or other public wifi, and boost it so you have a stronger wifi signal. This will not help speed if the bandwidth is overloaded. They are often called range extenders or repeaters.

*something (like a Weboost or other brand) that will boost a signal from a cell phone tower, so that you have better cell phone signal, and can talk without breaking up.

[Dutch_12078]

For my hotspots, I've been getting better performance from a MiMo configured pair of Yagi antennas than I got from a high end cell booster/repeater. I mounted them on top of my batwing OTA antenna for easy directional aiming. An 8-10 dB RSRP improvement is pretty typical so far.

[Gdetrailer]

rhagfo wrote:


I totally understand the difference between signal strength and bandwidth.
I also have a WeBoost system in our trailer, and it will increase signal strength, but can’t improve bandwidth.
I can get great response time on two bars of signal, or timeouts with four bars due to lack of bandwidth for the particular cell tower and too many users on the tower.
I worked to a major athletic shoe company. If we had issues getting a high speed terrestrial connection installed in time we would use a cellular router to bring the store up and/or operate it on. One store in particular I could not get enough bandwidth during the day to get the computers loaded. I at the end of the second day came back at 10 pm and was able to load multiple systems at the same time, because fewer users meant more available bandwidth.
You can improve cell signal, but you can’t improve bandwidth that is controlled by the carriers.

You are mixing two different issues and calling it a bandwidth problem.

There is no way of you knowing how many "users" there are using the same cell tower service, period.

So in reality absolutely no way you can say without a doubt that you were experiencing not enough bandwidth.

However, what you were experiencing was just not enough signal to work correctly..

This is a problem when you are in a marginal signal area and as I mentioned, using an external booster MAY OR MAY NOT fix said problem even if it gets you a couple of more bars worth of signal.

The reason for this is the booster has to pickup that weak signal which may contain considerable amount of RF noise (RFI Radio Frequency Interference). That booster will AMPLIFY not only the weak cell signal but ALL of the RFI it sees on the input!

To make matters worse, the amplifier ADDS its' own INTERNAL GENERATED RF NOISE to the output. You MUST have enough signal over the noise level (S/N) in order to get a decent Internet speed.

As they say, GARBAGE IN, LOUDER (AMPLIFIED) GARBAGE OUT.

You have to have decent enough signal (with low background noise) to start with, 1 or 2 bars are not really decent for stable Internet use as you have found out, but don't call it not enough bandwidth (IE over crowded).

That in a nutshell is what you have run into, not over congested cell tower with not enough bandwidth.

The cellphone systems have ways to reroute users as long as there are a couple of towers near the users the system will switch between towers automatically and seamlessly. User is never aware of these handoffs.

Heck at my home, I am lucky to get 1 or 2 bars of signal on a sunshiny day using my cell for Internet it just barely works.. Add in rain or snow and the Internet no longer works for me even though the phone still makes and gets calls and still have 1 or 2 bars of signal. I can tell you that there is no way that the cell towers near me are "congested", very rural location, the population in the Borough 2 miles from me is about 1,000 and that is spread out over about .5 square miles. That is where the closest cell tower to me is.

If a cell tower cannot handle 1,000 people then the entire cell system is a total flop which is not true.

In reality, cell towers have multiple "channels", each channel handles multiple cell connections, weak signals to the tower may get moved to different channels as needed to get better S/N, channels can get reused (simultaneous use), how things get determined is how strong the tower receives your signal and the quality of the signal (S/N). Someone else connects and has much stronger signal or better S/N, your connection may get bumped to a different channel or lost.. At the same time the speed of your phone connection goes up or down with the strength of the cell tower signal over the noise level.

Boosters may or may not help, it is a toss up.

Digital RF transmission is finicky and fickle..

I would suggest reading up on how cellphones really work before calling a congestion problem..

Found a good "primer" on cellphone theory..

HERE that you might find enlightening.

[rhagfo]

Gdetrailer wrote:

rhagfo wrote:


Well I don’t have an instrument, but if you have good signal, but response is slow, that is lack of band with. It is basically too many users for the cell towers available band width.
We just came from a situation like that in the Columbia Gorge. Decent signal strength, but constantly timing out, had to use either early in the morning or late in the evening.

First, OP mentions very little signal, that is not a "bandwidth" problem.

Second, speed of Internet is highly dependent on SIGNAL STRENGTH.

Both cellphones and Wifi do something called "auto negotiation" for speed. The connection speed varies with the SIGNAL STRENGTH, less signal and the SLOWER the connection goes, more signal strength and the faster your connection goes.

To get the max speed you NEED the max amount of SIGNAL you can get.

One or Two bars of signal basically brings your Internet to a crawl or even dead stop.

Op is trying to find the best Cell signal booster to help stabilize their Internet speed. It may or may not help, just depends on a lot of factors like terrain, what is between them and cell tower. Cellphones work on "line of sight" signal propagation, a hill, building, trees in between can easily block the signals.

Most boosters will use an outdoor antenna which you need to place high enough to capture the most signal as possible.. Then there will be an indoor antenna which the cellphone will use.. Then you have the booster in between the antennas.. Certain amount of distance needs to be in between the booster antennas. Boosters are not a fix all type of thing, they also amplify any RF noise that may be around you also swamping the cell signal you are trying to boost.

This is much different from a "bandwidth" problem where there is too many people trying to use the same service from the same cell tower.

I totally understand the difference between signal strength and bandwidth.
I also have a WeBoost system in our trailer, and it will increase signal strength, but can’t improve bandwidth.
I can get great response time on two bars of signal, or timeouts with four bars due to lack of bandwidth for the particular cell tower and too many users on the tower.
I worked to a major athletic shoe company. If we had issues getting a high speed terrestrial connection installed in time we would use a cellular router to bring the store up and/or operate it on. One store in particular I could not get enough bandwidth during the day to get the computers loaded. I at the end of the second day came back at 10 pm and was able to load multiple systems at the same time, because fewer users meant more available bandwidth.
You can improve cell signal, but you can’t improve bandwidth that is controlled by the carriers.

[Horsedoc]

Gdetrailer wrote:

rhagfo wrote:


Well I don’t have an instrument, but if you have good signal, but response is slow, that is lack of band with. It is basically too many users for the cell towers available band width.
We just came from a situation like that in the Columbia Gorge. Decent signal strength, but constantly timing out, had to use either early in the morning or late in the evening.

First, OP mentions very little signal, that is not a "bandwidth" problem.

Second, speed of Internet is highly dependent on SIGNAL STRENGTH.

Both cellphones and Wifi do something called "auto negotiation" for speed. The connection speed varies with the SIGNAL STRENGTH, less signal and the SLOWER the connection goes, more signal strength and the faster your connection goes.

To get the max speed you NEED the max amount of SIGNAL you can get.

One or Two bars of signal basically brings your Internet to a crawl or even dead stop.

Op is trying to find the best Cell signal booster to help stabilize their Internet speed. It may or may not help, just depends on a lot of factors like terrain, what is between them and cell tower. Cellphones work on "line of sight" signal propagation, a hill, building, trees in between can easily block the signals.

Most boosters will use an outdoor antenna which you need to place high enough to capture the most signal as possible.. Then there will be an indoor antenna which the cellphone will use.. Then you have the booster in between the antennas.. Certain amount of distance needs to be in between the booster antennas. Boosters are not a fix all type of thing, they also amplify any RF noise that may be around you also swamping the cell signal you are trying to boost.

This is much different from a "bandwidth" problem where there is too many people trying to use the same service from the same cell tower.

[travisc]

Amazon warehouse is a great way to get these

[Etstorm]

Like what has been said, if there is no service a booster will not help.

I have been using Fusion2Go with pretty good success.

[Taxman2436]

Thanks for all your comments, this has been educational for me. I’m glad to hear that for the most part a booster is helping. I understand that if there’s no signal I won’t get anything but it’s encouraging to know that at least in some of the places I go it will help.

Lenny