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Stuart Sweet
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Pub Member / Supporter Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Solid Signal Blog
Let's get all this right out in the open.

Yes, the cell service in your building stinks. You're probably reading this article on your computer because if you tried to load it up on your phone it would take FOREVER, even though you have the latest and greatest hardware and you probably pay over $100 a month for cell service. How could that be?

Commercial buildings are actually designed that way


For starters, commercial buildings aren't designed for good cell service. Even brand new ones aren't. Every part of your building is working against good service. Got bricks on the outside? Iron oxide in the clay blocks signals. Got energy efficient windows? They block all forms of radiation, not just heat, so cell signals can't get through. How about tall buildings around you? They'll stop cell signals too. Metal pipes for water, network conduits and rails, even the electric fields created by computers can block or cut down on cell signals. When you look at it, it's amazing that you get any reception at all.

So, the real question is, whose fault is it? Who should be responsible for the fact that your phone, an essential tool for business, is unusable while you're actually at your business?

It's not so straightforward.


In the early days of cell phones, carriers would do almost anything to get your business. They'd give you free phones, discounted plans, whatever it took. You know they don't do that stuff anymore. Well, another thing they used to do is take responsibility for the service inside your building. They would come in and place repeaters and other hardware on the roof or in the server closet, as long as you could guarantee a certain number of phones in use. None of that stuff happens for free anymore. If you want a phone, you pay for it. If you want better service, the building owner or tenant has to pay for it.

Think about it this way. You wouldn't expect your internet company to come in and wire your computers. Their responsibility stops with a box on the outside of the building, or sometimes in the server closet. Either way, the responsibility for getting internet to your computers is all on you. The building owner might have pre-wired things, put some cables in the walls, but it's up to the people who work there to do the rest. The same is true with your company's landline phones.

Why would you think cell service would be any different?

What can you do if you have bad cell service at work?


I know that for the entire history of cell phones, we've basically expected everything for free. But face facts, you don't need to be "sold" on using your cell. The era of the free lunch is over my friends, and you can either complain about it or find a way to do something about it.

It's time for business owners and building managers to realize that getting good cellular service inside a building is their responsibility. The cell phone isn't an optional piece of equipment, it's a critical part of people's lives. Providing good cell service is just as important as providing heat or lights. That's why every business owner and building manager needs to start thinking about investing in some sort of cellular signal solution.

The best thing to do in most cases is a large cellular signal booster. Systems can be configured to meet your exact needs with antennas placed to improve coverage throughout the building. A cellular signal booster provides voice and data coverage to every carrier at the same time and improves call quality and data speeds for everyone. This means less time for employees to be away from their desks if critical calls come in, it means more access to critical emergency information without tying up your company's internet, and most of all it means your customers won't think twice because they're afraid of being disconnected.

If you're ready for a quality, professional-level cellular signal booster system, or you think your boss or building manager is, give the people at Solid Signal a call at 888-233-7563 and talk to the professionals. If you wait for your cell phone company to improve service inside your building, you'll be waiting for a long time. Why not take care of the problem now?


The post Who's responsible for getting good cell service inside a commercial building? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.

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1 Replies · 328 views
Juan
It depends on the size of the building and how many potential customers are in the building...if there is a profit to be made..the big telecom companies will do it...but your run of the mill office building has to pay for it
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68657 Replies · 2680157 views
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sdfntx
I Care About Detroit - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
dishstaller
I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith
Bobby
98.6 - Keith
harshness
I'm Easy - Keith Carridine
gms49ers
It's Easy - Boston
R
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.
2 Replies · 37 views
arlo
A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.
dishstaller
That's all I got.
That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks
TRG
TRG
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
5 Replies · 276 views
b4pjoe
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.
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HipKat
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc
  • Like
Reactions: Foxbat
Foxbat
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.
harshness
If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

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Foxbat
Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
2 Replies · 45 views
dishstaller
Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

2 Replies · 49 views
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Reactions: Jimbo
Jimbo
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.
dishstaller
Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.