3G Wireless Broadband signals
 

Howdi folks.

I was wondering if anyone has any "home remedies" for signal boosting, in particular a 3G wireless broadband modem/dongle.

I have just moved into Halls of Residence, and unfortunatley, a broadband connection isnt available!? So my flatmates and I have all signed up to 3's 3G mobile broadband service. We were furnished with the shiny wireless modem/dongle required and all the usual stuff.

I havent had any problems with signal, its pretty steady signal and moderate strength. Literally 6 meters and a thin wall away, my neighbour cant get a signal what-so-ever. He has tried hanging the dongle out of his window, wrapping it around his telephone line (inside!) and all sorts, but to no avail.

I was wondering if anyone has any nifty tricks or ideas for boosting his signal?

Any help is appreciated as always

JB

Have you tried your dongle in his room? Might be as simple as he has a duff dongle.

Otherwise, a long USB extension lead and put his dongle through the window and into your room ;)

My 3G Mobile connection is abysmal; downloads take forever and despite the advertised speed of 2.8 kbps, I rarely get better than 67% efficiency (measured on MySpeed broadband analyzer) and the other day my connection dropped to 2%! I'm allegedly in a *turbo area*. Even my dial-up connection when I lived in Africa was better...
Right now, I'm looking into finding an escape path from my contract.

thanks for your replies!

we tried his modem in my room and it received the same signal as mine does, unfortunatley, the out-the-window-idea wont work as our rooms, although next door, are on opposite sides of the building!

steve, sorry to hear about your bad experience! I will be the first to admit it is hardly blisteringly fast, but it is better than nowt! I have just downloaded a ;) 4mb audio file ;) in about 3 mins, so it isnt too shabby.

still, if anyone has any rudimentery signal boosting ideas, let me know! we even tried the wire coat-hanger approach - no success :(

JB

3G is on an extremely high frequency, so the normal antenna tricks won't work.

Moving the antenna around, even just a little bit, can make a world of difference. If it's USB, buy a 5m USB extension lead (a few quid on Ebay) and try moving it around the room till you find a "sweet spot" where you can hang it on the wall or whatever.

If you have a "Three" mobile handset, use that as a "signal tracer" - move around the room with it till you find the most bars of signal. Then put the dongle there.

Check this out.
OPTION 3G data card antenna Globetrotter +3m cable 12db on eBay, also 3G GPRS Data Cards, PCMCIA Cards, Laptop Accessories, Computing (end time 18-Jul-08 23:15:17 BST)

I have recently moved into an old house with rather thick walls and unfortunately, my BT Homehub is tucked away at the back of the house in the study and I couldn't get any signal in most of the other rooms in the house. I am now using a plug in range expander that I've placed in a 'midway' point in the house and this has helped althought the signal is still weak in most other rooms.

My question: Can I use more than one range expander to increase the range and signal still further ie Homehub - expander - expander - laptop?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

If wired networking isn't feasible, I would consider mains networking - ethernet over the electrical supply.

SD

Mains networking?

Not heard of that before! Can you explain how it works and what I need please.

Google it!

SD

Can you extend the BT line in, and put the hub on the roof space? Signal will go up/down through wooden floors quite nicely.