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Signal boosters are a waste of money for full-timers. They boost signal when signal is marginal. Sometimes. They rarely boost data over a weak signal.
FWIW we spent two years traveling all over and working full-time from our RV. We had Verizon and AT&T (tried others, this is the combo that worked) for redundancy. We also used a cheap antenna occasionally, with our Netgear Nighthawk. Once, in Montana along US2, we lost signal and couldn’t use data for 10 miles. That’s the only time in over two years.
My advice, go with the minimum and don’t spend much before you get traveling and work out what your actual needs are. Then talk to the folk at mobilemusthave.com
Thank you so much! Any reason I can't use a splitter like this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08T8YG9JH/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A39XGWEDWDBDR&psc=1
It is much cheaper and already has the proper connections.
I just found THIS on Amazon which comes in 50 or 75ft options. About $15 cheaper when you include shipping.
If you are thinking about a weboost for the car, the main difference between the 2 you mention is the antennas. The specs of the booster itself seem to be the same. If that’s the case I would recommend getting Home Studio. This will mimic a mimo connection on your laptop. Mimo is important to get the most out of any connection as it uses multiple signals not just one. You may need to buy a cheap Wi-Fi adapter so that you can combine 2 Wi-Fi’s but that’s cheap and easy. Regardless of what you do I would get a different antenna than what comes in the box as my experience with magnetic antennas is sub par signal at best.
I assumed there were mimo boosters for commercial application like on cell towers but nothing for the consumer market. I don’t know too many people that would pay $4000-$8000 for a mimo booster when you can pay ~$5/month for Speedify to combine your Wi-Fi and cellular, mimicking a mimo connection. Granted some people like total privacy and an externally hosted vpn is out of the question.
>waveform.com
ok, thank you! Do you know why the Hi boost directional didn't improve anything but the Netgear Mimo did? This is the Mimo antenna we purchased .
LIANSUM DC 12V 2A Car Charger Universal Power Cord 5.5x2.1mm to Cigarette Lighter with 8 Connector for DVD Player, GPS, Bluetooth Speakers, Breast Pump, label maker, Camera, router, CD Player 5FTCable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093P64LZD/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_671X8H2AXW3BJN3ANW2R
>The phones are Samsung,
On Samsung devices you can use this app (or a hidden menu built into the OS, but that's less intuitive) to lock it to specific bands, which is useful for seeing what bands area available.
2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 25, and 29 are the bands that are legal to boost in the US. AT&T doesn't have band 13 or 25 and 29 is SDL, so bands 2, 4, 5, and 12 are the ones to check.
The Netgear LAX20 lacks band 71 support. You iPhone is probably a late model (unspecified), so it probably supports band 71.
That is probably a critical omission for T-mobile services, especially if your trying to get cellular data reception in a basement. Band 71 is around 650MHz and Band 12 is around 720MHz. These bands are considerably better at penetrating walls compared to where most cellular data operates: Band 2/4/66/30 are all around 2000MHz.
Are you in a T-mobile Band 12/700mhz A block market? https://www.tmonews.com/700mhz-lte-map/ If not, then we have probably found the cause: lack of Band 71 on your LTE modem.
Is the storage unit on the same electrical service as your apartment? I'm thinking no, but in the off chance the answer is yes look at AV2 homeplug powerline networking equipment. https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-PowerLINE-1200-Gigabit-PL1200-100PAS/dp/B00S6DBGJM/ This is an excellent way to get your network past several walls that WiFi cannot penetrate, but the power outlets need to be on the same service panel (the technology cannot cross a transformer). I have seen it cross electrical meters in multi-family dwellings before though... so maybe?
Telescoping paint pole might get close. I used to use them to place cat 5 in stadiums without needing a lift truck. Look for something like this (but available) https://www.amazon.com/Telescopic-Multi-Purpose-Extendable-Lightweight-Telescoping/dp/B084G661WS
I’m on Rogers, which uses the same technology backbone as AT&T. Pretty much everything I’m looking at claims compatibility with the Rogers network, and I have no reason to doubt them, given the standardized nature of the system as a whole.
I’m leaning towards something like this one from Amazboost, which consists of an enclosed yagi antenna, booster, and indoor antenna. As long as I can be assured of a reliable cell phone signal with decent but not Netflix-quality network speeds for my mother, I doubt I’d need anything fancier than that, but I’m willing to pay what’s necessary to get the job done. I just need some reassurance from people who know better than I, because I don’t want to install everything only to find that it doesn’t work because I missed something in my research.
i have been thinking along these lines but havent gone there yet. Would something like this work? If it dont curious why it wont. seem fairly stiff "fly two flag up to 3' x 5' ".
https://www.amazon.com/Flagpole-Go-Ultimate-Tailgaters-Portable/dp/B000OWNMRM/
I totally missed the part of this post where you're a technician - nice! Are you on Android or iPhone? I have a great Android app i use to give me details on my LTE connection, we could compare numbers, see if we can figure out whats going on. The app on Android is called Network Cell Info - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wilysis.cellinfolite&hl=en_US&gl=US
I don't know if its on iPhone or not.
​
-Scott
You what my honest opinion and what I do in highly rural situations?
Put your mobile hotspot in a bag/box on your roof rack along with a battery bank. Just keep the sun off it or bring it back in the car when you stop for extended periods of time so it doesnt get BBQed. Get it about 3+ inches away from your metal roof. Very effective.
This is the antenna: https://www.amazon.com/Netgear-6000450-MIMO-Antenna-Connectors/dp/B00DN3J03O/ref=asc_df_B00DN3J03O/ It does exhibit some gain, like 2-3dBi (therefore directional), so I would mount it in the windshield or back glass facing front/back with the suction cups. That is the most useful on highways: cell sites typically follow highways.
They are currently charging a kings ransom for them. I got all of mine around $20. I've got this and the yagi/tripod both in my go bag. I've been in the regions you've referenced. You'll be surprised how often you'll need the yagi's gain if your away from US-287. It's very easy to deploy when your stopped and will eliminate a lot of frustration closing a link.
Have fun. I've always wanted to ride one of these events, but have not done it yet. The alarming popularity of it in recent years doesn't help :)
Are there any obstructions? Outside directional antennas with clear line of sight. I run two of these Wilson antennas on a 25’ mast pointed straight at the cell tower. Each antenna at a 45* angle to each other shaped like an X.
If you have 4 sma ports on your cellular modem it sounds like you can run 4. The thing is though, line of sight is very important, if there are a bunch of trees or a hill or something in the way it’s not gonna work worth a crap.
The reason i went with that is because the netgear antenna i have has the 2 ts-9's, so i figured that 2-into-1 would work:
https://smile.amazon.com/Netgear-6000450-MIMO-Antenna-Connectors/dp/B00DN3J03O/ref=psdc_3015438011_t5_B07M5GBZHB
And, nope i dont have the sma male to F female connector (dang i dropped the ball on this experiment). I'll order the non RP version and a sma male to f female. Thanks for catching that.
That looks like a really nice kit. We are in the city, so 99.9% of the time comcast is working just fine, but it always seems like when it drops we are on time sensitive work stuff. Just thinking about leveraging this wifi hotspot i'm paying for for something other than collecting dust.
My parents have a cabin thats a little more remote and use the same hotspot, i'm going to mention it to them, the little antenna i linked earlier works so-so....a better signal would be nice so we could work from there.
You'll need to drill a hole if you want to do it right. However I've seen people use a flat jumper cable similar to this but I haven't tried myself: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005OEB3IA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_e4CZFb6EEQ9BX
>Hi! I'm installing a Yagi antenna on the outside of our house. We're in a tall two-story home and I'd like to install it under one of our second story windows (for easy access and the signal is good there).
>
>Since it's at least 20 feet from the peak of our roof, do we still need a lightning arrester? Trying to avoid having to run a ground wire from the antenna to a pole buried in the garden.
>
>Thanks!
Thanks Jon. It's a pretty small antenna and the mast is only going to be about 1 foot. The manufacturer says no grounding plane is needed as one is built into the antenna (but I'm not 100% sure what that means). Do you think the mast still needs to be grounded?
Just added this antenna Ultra Wide-Band Cellular Antenna (Long Range) High Gain Parabolic Grid (Weatherproof) Outdoor Cell Phone Booster (26 dBi Gain) T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, LTE, 3G, 4G, 5G, 5Ge, GSM to my Cel-Fi. ATT band 2 went from -108db to -97db and my speeds increased quite a bit.
I have an iphone (I used to have an app that showed where the strongest signal was coming from - it was either opensignal or find tower). I have looked at cellmapper.net, but can find an easy way to pinpoint exact what compass direction I need my antenna to point - just a general idea.
No line of sight to tower, unfortunately.
This is the mimo antenna that went bad, as far as I can tell (or its the rg6 in between): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NBSLNJ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I believe the good ol’ MoFi4500 supports POE. It supports band locking.
You could also look into something like this for any modem that doesn’t support POE. You’d need to make sure that your POE setup can supply the proper power for whatever specific modem. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017J8WJ5E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_hwWvFbKS7Y26X
This one?
GL.iNET GL-MT300N-V2 Wireless Mini Portable Travel Router, Mobile Hotspot in Pocket, WiFi Repeater Bridge, Range Extender, OpenVPN Client, 300Mbps High Performance, 128MB RAM https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TSK26W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_HX9tFbBDBV6SY
I find that PRI-G works so much better than Sta-Bil. But it’s hard to find the small engine formula.
I’ve used 10% EtOH gas in my genny that’s 3+ years on with PRI-G and it runs like the gas is brand new.
PRI 8oz Small Engine 2 BOTTLE PACK https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HUC82S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_B6wnFbPMJDKV3
That particular antenna is dreadful, skip it. Go for this instead:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0001-Cross-Polarised-Antenna/dp/B00C1DGFPS/
Skip the booster altogether and get some SMA to TS9 adapters.
But you have Wifi access right? Wifi calling would be the best and simplest option.
​
Or, you can get a wifi to ethernet bridge, like this one:
TP-Link AC750 Wireless Portable Nano Travel Router - WiFi Bridge/Range Extender/Access Point/Client Modes, Mobile in Pocket(TL-WR902AC)
This device can join the AirBNB wifi as a client (among various other modes of operation) and then share it's connection with Ethernet out which you would then connect to the Cell Spot.
If the best RSSI you can find is -74dBm, you're kind of out of luck with any regular 5-band repeater as their 700MHz gain is limited to 65dB.
If money isn't an issue, I would recommend getting 2x Cel-Fi GO Xs. This is the only consumer grade repeater on the market that has up to 100dB of gain. Assuming you get max separation between indoor and outdoor antennas, you'll get about +12dBm output power for both carriers. I would then combine the outputs of both GO Xs using a 2x2 Hybrid Coupler, giving you 2 antenna outputs with +9dBm
Amazon
MPD Digital 400-n-Straight SMA-7 Times Microwave LMR-400 Coaxial Antenna Cable Line with N Male & Straight SMA Male Connectors, 7' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H9II896/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_SY86EbD5HE5YS
https://www.amazon.com/Cel-Fi-GO-Carrier-Booster-T-Mobile/dp/B07KKZZDTN/
I don't think we do any financing on our own website, but you could try it on Amazon