Cell phone booster/repeaters anyone?

I'm moving to a new place next week and the cell service is pretty much zero. I have been looking into cell booster/repeater set ups for the house and was wondering if anyone uses one of these and could give a little feedback. I'm looking at omni directional antennae since I want to capture gsm and cdma signals. Using and old direct tv dish to amp the signal I have mounted it facing the split through the mountains and holding my cell by the end of the receiver arm my signal increases 2 bars. I figure I will mount the antenna there to help boost a bit as well. Any thoughts anyone?

k, first do you have Verizon, or AT&T? Verizon is actually the largest and have best coverage, just not speed. That said you may not get the speeds you are used to in more populated areas. There are antennae kits to boost signal inside your house, HOWEVER keep in mind, all it does is boosts and amplifies what is already there. SO, if you have crap outside already, your just going to have boosted crap. All that said, does the house you got have access to DSL or cable internet? IF yes, then Verizon and AT&T offer wireless extenders that plug into you internet connection and use this as backhaul to create a mini wireless tower. You get 4-5 bar of good clear quality. If you only have access to satellite internet, you can still use it, but its going to be mediocre, kinda like amplifying crap, so take your pick. a Verizon extender(hook to your internet) costs around 250, a antennae can go from 200, to 450 for something decent. I have set up about 20 Verizon extenders, and there actually pretty easy to do, big thing is plug it in near a window.

reply to post by camain


We use net 10 and pageplus so were running gsm and cdma. I was looking at getting the wilson 841262 and using the dish to help out the omni antenna. Soon as I can trade out this one pageplus phone to a gsm phone I can go with a directional one for better reception. I know that dish will boost the reception I just have to grab it and repeat it inside. I've looked into the at&t and verizon hook ups but since I don't use them nor have any intention of hoping on a plan I'm trying to avoid that route. Thanks for the reply and let me know what ya think about my homebrew dish idea lol.

Ok I just upgrade to the Blackberry Z10 4G
The tower is about 6 to 7 miles away and my house is in a low area
So I got the Radio Shack here it call the Sourse now
The booster is call Zbooster by Wi-Ex SOHO YX560Y
ZBooster
Now I have 5 bar all the time around the house
Had no problem so far

reply to post by Trillium


I have looked at those as well. But I think I am going to go with the wilson for this experiment. Hopefully I'm not out a couple hundred and it doesnt work out.

reply to post by drivers1492


www.nerdsonsite.ca

Canadian company, but you can order their externals.

Great pricing, great product, I've had mine for about a year now to amplify the cell and wifi signals around the house.

~tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Thanks tenth I will look through the site and see if there is anything I haven't come across.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Well i bought a db pro system for 200 $. I installed the antenna on the direct tv satellite arm at the end and now have 3-4 bars of signal in the house. Surprisingly the dish does amplify the cell signal a bit. according to the ookla speedtest app I'm pulling 2 Mbps downstream which is ok. Am going to order another inside antenna for better indoor coverage in the bedrooms. Cell signal runs at -89dbm which is great considering where I am from the closest tower.

reply to post by drivers1492


Great, I'm glad it gave you some help.

You might find though that there are certain spots of your house that just won't get any assistance, only because of the actual building materials causing interference.

The spring can be taxing as well, all that foliage coming in.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower

Inside dome antennas are only 35 bucks. I'm going to put one in the living room one in the hall and one in the master bedroom. I think that will cover pretty much get it covered.