Anyone here use a home signal repeater???

[tankerman]

I was thinking about buying a home signal repeater, so I can finally give up the land-line.
Anyone here ever try one of these?
Wi-Ex zBoost YX610-PCS/CEL Dual Band Wireless Extender (YX610-PCS/CEL) - Wireless Extenders - YX610-PCS-CEL - 186639000229 Repeaters&sku=186639000229

 

[daddyzlod]

I bought a whole house system, from cellantenna.com about 5 years ago, and it's still running good.
I also looked at the brand that you posted, but found the cellantenna.com model to have a little bit more
power on the receive side.
This dual band system, has paid for itself over the last 5 years, being out in the boonies.

 

[tankerman]

I know those boonies. I looked at CellAntenna - Cell Booster, Wireless Repeater, Digital Antenna products but their systems seem much more expensive that what I'm looking to spend. If and when I decide, I'll post the results.
BTW... Inside my house, I have 0 to 1 bar. Outside or in the garage, I have 2 or 3 bars.
I'm just tired of paying Verizon $40 a month for that land line.

 

[JrC]

You should look into the femtocell products:

Sprint Airave
Verizon Network Extender
AT&T 3G Microcell

The femtocell products are mini cell towers for inside your home. They connect to your broadband to provide a VOIP connection for your cell phones.

I have the Airave. It works well. Because my cell service is so poor Sprint provided the device free and waves the monthly $6.00 charge. I don't know if the other providers will do this.
For a monthly fee you exclude calls made through the Airave from you anytime minutes.

The problem with the zBoost is that the weaker your single available to your external antenna the small the coverage area the zBoost provides.

 

[Symbol]

I agree, Femtocells are the way to go these days the only downside to them is that you need broadband in your home to use them.

 

[navychop]

I'll be setting up a 3G Microcell at the office in the near future. Anyone have experience with this particular one? I think you can list up to 10 phone numbers to use the system, and it will handle up to 4 simultaneously. Correct?

 

[JrC]

I'll be setting up a 3G Microcell at the office in the near future. Anyone have experience with this particular one? I think you can list up to 10 phone numbers to use the system, and it will handle up to 4 simultaneously. Correct?

That is what I have read. It looks like the Microcell will do 3G data also. Something the Sprint's and Verizon's current femtocell doesn't do.

 

[wa6rht]

That is what I have read. It looks like the Microcell will do 3G data also. Something the Sprint's and Verizon's current femtocell doesn't do.

I have one at home and it works pretty good. Do have some issues with a delay in the audio. Sometimes gets as bad as 1/2 second. It will only work with a 3G phone. My parents have a non-3G phone and it will not use it. From your online ATT account access you can control who can use the MicroCell up to 10 users.

 

[navychop]

That is what I have read. It looks like the Microcell will do 3G data also. Something the Sprint's and Verizon's current femtocell doesn't do.

Good for those of us with iPhones.

I hope the numbers selected don't have to be on one of the company accounts. My cell is a personal one.

 

[Rey]

as already posted above, the sprint airave is an excellent option if you have sprint of course. i recently moved so i no longer have an issue and no longer need it but where i lived the reception was horrible. i mean no reception at all most of the time. with the airave i always had 5 bars (max signal). even though they say its only meant for calls, i did find that for data it did help plenty. sprint gave it to me free and no monthly charges. Thanks to Digiblur who recommended it. and msmith for telling me such item existed for sprint. :up

 

[wa6rht]

No they don't have to be on your account. I have 4 authorized that are not on my account.

 

[navychop]

Thank you. I guess I'll place the order next week.

Funny thing is, one end of our building has problems. The other does not. I suspect two different towers, one "oversubscribed" if you'll excuse the loose language.

 

[duggan]

The Verizon Network Extender has a $100 rebate until the end of August.

 

[wtom24]

I am in the process of setting up a system using a Wilson 50 db repeater and directional 850 Mhz antenna on 50' tower. Our provider is Verizon-when I called them to find out what frequency was in use, the "technical service rep" didn't know there was more than one frequency-finally found it from a FCC website. They also said to call them from that location so they could troubleshoot the problem, after I had told them we have no signal.
The bad part is that we had good signal up untill 2 years ago-don't know what happened.
Anyway, we'll see how it works after the addition of the repeater. I even found some 1/2" heliax that has been in storage since 1977 when I took a tower down. I work at home some, so it's important for the broadband adapter to do it's thing-it's useless with the current signal-takes several minutes to load the home page. Hello to all...

 

[digiblur]

as already posted above, the sprint airave is an excellent option if you have sprint of course. i recently moved so i no longer have an issue and no longer need it but where i lived the reception was horrible. i mean no reception at all most of the time. with the airave i always had 5 bars (max signal). even though they say its only meant for calls, i did find that for data it did help plenty. sprint gave it to me free and no monthly charges. Thanks to Digiblur who recommended it. and msmith for telling me such item existed for sprint. :up

I still love my Airave... I have ok reception where I live now but still keep my Airave as it gives very solid reception no matter what.

 

[digiblur]

I was thinking about buying a home signal repeater, so I can finally give up the land-line.
Anyone here ever try one of these?
Wi-Ex zBoost YX610-PCS/CEL Dual Band Wireless Extender (YX610-PCS/CEL) - Wireless Extenders - YX610-PCS-CEL - 186639000229 Repeaters&sku=186639000229

FYI.. I have one of these that I used to use that only does the PCS band (no 850). I still have all the parts and such and even have the higher gain directional antenna for use outdoors. I had it mounted on my OTA pole with excellent results before I got the Airave. If anyone wants it, let me know.