GSM boosters

[peterh337]

I live in the countryside where we have virtually no signal. One has to go outdoors to get anything. The least bad is Vodafone on which we get a marginal signal if standing next to a patio door, and that is why I recently moved to Voda (because nowadays a lot of people call your mobile # as a matter of course, rather than your home #) despite them being a lot more pricey than say T-M for a comparable product.

There are quite a few booster products around e.g. (http://www.gsmbooster.co.uk/)

How well do these boosters work?

I tried the Vodafone Suresignal box, £50, which connects to Voda over a VPN. It didn't work. I found loads of posts all over the internet from people who could not it to work either.

Eventually I discovered (Voda's business support is quite good these days) that it works as per the instructions only with a UPNP router, which nobody with any sense will be using. The box otherwise needs five ports opened up in the router, plus some undocumented reconfig to give the box a fixed IP so you can port-forward to it. The open ports will of course be port-scanned and hammered by hackers almost immediately. I sent it back, so I am back to looking at boosters...

The problem is that (I assume the boosters need an outdoor aerial of some sort) even outdoors the signal is marginal - about 2 bars out of 5, on a Nokia phone.

[green granite]

The problem is that (I assume the boosters need an outdoor aerial of some sort) even outdoors the signal is marginal - about 2 bars out of 5, on a Nokia phone.

The aerial on a phone is not particularly efficient, the aerial used with the boosters tend to be high gain Mini Panel or Yagi ones.

A friend has one from here (http://www.gsmbooster.co.uk/index.php) and it works very well (he was lucky to get one bar before)

[mixture]

peterh337,

How about just diverting your mobile calls to your landline ? ( I think Vodafone Business even offer a fancier service than that if you wanted some bells 'n' whistles).

Probably healthier than blasting yourself with increased radiation, and more reliable to boot.

[M.Mouse]

....only with a UPNP router, which nobody with any sense will be using.

Not being particularly knowledgeable on the subject can you explain that statement because a friend of mine has a Vodafone unit both at home and at his isolated studio. They both work seamlessly and well.

[peterh337]

Enabling UPNP means any application (or a virus) can silently open ports in your router.

Green Granite - that is the URL I posted too. They have a dual-band booster (http://www.gsmbooster.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=203&osCsid=88c41567470443bd521f18e1ea07e504) for about £200.

Re diverting Voda calls... I also would like to have a solution for Giffgaff, and Virgin PAYG, used by others in the house.

In fact the booster would not be in the house (due to wiring etc issues). It would be in an outbuilding and, assuming the output aerial is directional, it would be pointed towards the house.

I also don't want to provide a service for a nearby pub, whose customers are having to stand outside to make calls, which I am sure the owners are not unhappy about ;)

[Mike-Bracknell]

Having just picked up a customer with a Vodafone Suresignal box, I can confirm they work well when they're working.

However, their setup process is somewhat temperamental, and they do have the ability to interfere with wifi if the box is too close to your router.

If you have one, i'd suggest resetting it and trying again.

(and upnp is less of an issue than you're making out, especially for a home situation)

[peterh337]

A friend has one from here (http://www.gsmbooster.co.uk/index.php) and it works very well (he was lucky to get one bar before)That company is not replying to emails, or taking calls (ansafone).

The same product is here (http://www.mobilesignalbooster.co.uk/mb-mini-dual-band/) but at 2x the price. Curious!

I guess everybody is playing tricks because these boxes are clearly illegal to use in the UK.

Having just picked up a customer with a Vodafone Suresignal box, I can confirm they work well when they're working.A friend has one too and it works, but he seems to use it just to support his Voda Iphone. Unfortunately most private individuals are not on Voda.

[peterh337]

Update:

I bought this one (http://www.mobilerepeatershop.com/DUAL_BAND_MOBILE_PHONE_SIGNAL_BOOSTERS/cat448879_382199.aspx).

It is perhaps like buying some illicit substance :) It came from Hong Kong, with fake paperwork describing it as some kind of audio mixer and no manuals. After a couple of emails I got a 2-page PDF from the UK end of the operation, which contains nothing of interest except suggesting that the output antenna should be mounted some distance from the booster - but no cable is supplied for the output (rod) antenna whose connector screws directly onto the booster.

My guess is that these products are illegal to sell in the UK and/or illegal to export from wherever they are made, hence the cloak and dagger stuff. Still... who cares if they work.

It does work, but not much. If you are within say 5m of the output antenna, you get a strong signal, but even behind a single breezeblock wall there is very little.

Also it doesn't make a lot of difference if the mains power supply is plugged it :) I am an electronics engineer (though done little RF stuff) and I can see why that is....

It is fairly obvious that unless you live in a bungalow, and mount the output antenna centrally (and pointing up so the radiation goes sideways), it isn't going to work well. A better bet would be to mount it in the loft, with a directional output antenna (not sure where to get those from) radiating downwards.

With the existing rod antenna pointing horizontally, and the unit in the loft, we get 1 bar of signal inside all of the house, whereas previously we got nothing inside.

The input antenna is a directional "plate" type. The booster looks different to the one in the website pic. It looks more like this one (http://www.dinodirect.com/est-dcs980-cell-phone-signal-repeater-dcs-1800.html) but black.

Despite the limited effectiveness, it is a useful solution (for the £170) to the common problem of rubbish GSM signal in the countryside.