How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection? 214
ganjadude writes "So I am moving to a location where the cell signal is very poor (I don't get signal inside my house), and I have been looking at wireless extenders such as the ones that Sprint and Verizon have. I am brought down by the cost (Sprint charges monthly, Verizon $250 up front, AT&T.... well they are AT&T). Being that this is Slashdot, and a lot of us live in basements (I kid!), I assume that some of the crowd has had this issue in the past. What have you done, or what alternatives are available to someone in such a situation?"
Ask to speak to the Retentions Dept. (Score:5, Interesting)
The phone companies do charge upfront/monthly fees for those micro-cells, but when pushed, they will often reduce or wave the charges for them to retain a phone customer. You might call your provider (be it Sprint, Verizon, etc) and talk to the retentions department.
WokFi (Score:2, Interesting)
Stan Swan's WokFi site from New Zealand: http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/ [orconhosting.net.nz]
Fast european mirror: http://exe64.com/mirror/wokfi/ [exe64.com]
home based Cell phone extenders (Score:2, Interesting)
I haven't found anything that is less than $200, but I have a product from http://www.wi-ex.com/
It is a simple device, that takes some work to get installed correctly, but works for me.
Even at $240, if you are going to be living there for over 2 years, it is less than $10 per month if you choose to look at it that way.
Just comes down to how important is better cell phone signal to you in your basement?
Re:Wifi (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't have T-Mobile, but when they released it, it was included in all T-Mobile plans and any calls you START on wifi (even if you transition to cellular mid call) are free, while any calls you START on cellular (even if you go home and transition to wifi mid call) count against your minutes.
So... when you're driving home, hang up and call back, but if you're leaving the house, keep talking.
Re:Wifi (Score:1, Interesting)
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/b32e/
$329.99 it works great!!!
I had one bar now 5
Nothing gets geeks into a seething tech frenzy like poor cellphone reception... and it doesn't help that we love the iPhone and AT&T sucks for cellphone service. Sad. Well quit staring at your one-bar-worth of signal strength and pick up this handy Cellphone Signal Extender for your home or office. Simply mount the included antenna near a window and run the coax cable to the base booster unit. You get 1500 square feet of prime signal area. We went from 1 bar... to 5 at the ThinkGeek secret headquarters and made our iPhones very happy in the process.
Re:Wi-Ex Signal Repeater (Score:3, Interesting)
Umm... that's not really true.
If it wasn't for the curvature of the earth, we could well have a single cell tower serving entire countries. Is there anywhere on the planet that you can't get a cell phone signal while in a jet at cruising altitude?
With an antenna, or a repeater (a proxy antenna...) a few feet of vertical rise can double the signal strength... So while you may have no signal on ground level, getting a signal on your roof-top is quite likely, and the best location for an antenna/repeater.
If you've still got no signal, raising the antenna on a pole, several feet above your roof-top is even more likely, still, to give you a great signal. Frankly, unless your have some MAJOR obstructions in every direction from where you are (mountain, giant sequoias, etc.), I expect it is ALWAYS possible to get a cell phone signal, with some work...
Bluetooth landline phones??? (Score:4, Interesting)
This may not work in every case - but if you have SOME reception in the house (as in the basement lack of coverage example) I saw something in the store the other day that I thought was a cool idea. Some of the current landline cordless phone systems now support being bluetooth clients. Basically you leave your cell phone next to the base (where you presumably have reception), and use any of the system's phones to answer or place calls.
-Em