Signal Booster Thingy

[nervous]

Hello,

I have st signal at my house, so last year I invested in a Vodafone Gateway, as pretty obviously I'm on Vodafone. I'm not boasting, I'm just saying. It's the best way to start this post. Anyway, read on, you'll see.

I'm on Vodafone by the way not because of the immense quality of their customer service- and it is immense, immense in its inability to service its customers needs- but because whilst I get st Vodafone signal here, I get no signal from anyone else.

However, the Gateway caused me nothing but problems and served pretty much only as a signal blocker (much as it has for lots of folks by the looks of it), and now after 6 months of complaining and being on hold to Vodafone, I've finally got my money back.

I am, however, left with no signal still.

So, semi-rant over, what can I use to boost my signal here? Ironically, my old Iphone 3G has good signal, but it's the 3GS that seems to be struggling all the time. Is this common? Can it be turned up or something? If not, what can I do (other than go back to the old phone, you big kidders, you).

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give, Boffins.
N.

[touching cloth]

http://mobile-repeater.co.uk/shop/home.php

This place sell repeaters which may help, about to get one for new house as also have a stey signal here. Just under £200 for the basic home user jobbie which is a bit annoying but worth it if it works. Can't magic a signal from nothing but as long as you have something there, they say it will then be able to boost it.

Ps got your email, will respond and action when I can be arsed find the time.

[nervous]

touching cloth said:

http://mobile-repeater.co.uk/shop/home.php

This place sell repeaters which may help, about to get one for new house as also have a stey signal here. Just under £200 for the basic home user jobbie which is a bit annoying but worth it if it works. Can't magic a signal from nothing but as long as you have something there, they say it will then be able to boost it.

sorry, forgot to say. Please only make suggestions that aren't terrifyingly expensive. I'm not made of money, or as it turns out, quavers, sadly. I love quavers, me.

Anyway, clever people- make more (cheaper) suggestions! Stat!

lipupfatty said:

Ps got your email, will respond and action when I can be arsed find the time.

what-ever.

[ClassicMercs]

3GS iPhone is a bad signal - great to learn that after you have signed up for a £1,000 contract over 2 years. (The things you need to do to keep OH happy).

I got Vodafone to give us a SureSignal free - although they first of all wanted to charge us £50.

Its a certain improvement - but has dropped out a couple of times. But I suppose the question is - is it the Vodafone kit or the ADSL connection. At the best of times our 8Mb connection gets nowhere near 2Mb.

[nervous]

I'm pretty sure that the Sure Signal is the same as the Gateway, and I can't face going back to that I'm afraid. Gateway bad, Vodafone worse.

I'm taking some consolation from your collective misery, mind. Thanks.

Any one suggest anything that isn't a vodafone product or expensive? Oh please oh please.

[nervous]

Ps we consistently have 8mb here. Irony, everywhere.

The voda forum is filled with folks who've had the same signal-blocking issues as me. Looks like they lanched it, then let us test it.

[Morningside]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I found it a pain to setup. Even changed my old trustly workhorse router but all OK in the end.

...Running 2Mb here and it works 100%. Are you doing 1001 other internet things as well? As I find if I do downloading etc then the line does get choppy.

[miniman]

Possible solution: switch to Orange and get a phone that supports UMA (e.g. I have a Blackberry Bold). It then connects to your existing WiFi network. Mine works lovely jubbly. I normally get 0-1bars so it is important to switch to UMA only otherwise it spots a 3G signal from time to time and then drops the call when the signal goes away.

List of UMA phones: http://www.umatoday.com/mobileHandsets.php

Ostensibly it seems like exactly what Vodafone are marketing. However it does seem to work in this case and requires no additional hardware or config.

[Morningside]

One of its problems is the 'plug and play' crap where it attempts go grab the IP etc. and that is where it falls over.
What it should have is a manual setting as well so that you can configure it using html like a router.

Lots of problems are mainly incompatibility to certain routers. All mine were fixed IP and it did not like that AT ALL so I had to change the router.

Yes, I also agree that their helpline is crap with the 'well you have it, you sort it' attitude.

[nervous]

Morningside said:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I found it a pain to setup. Even changed my old trustly workhorse router but all OK in the end.

...Running 2Mb here and it works 100%. Are you doing 1001 other internet things as well? As I find if I do downloading etc then the line does get choppy.

not really, just email.

Thanks for the link, interesting to see folks thoughts.

[nervous]

miniman said:

Possible solution: switch to Orange and get a phone that supports UMA (e.g. I have a Blackberry Bold). It then connects to your existing WiFi network. Mine works lovely jubbly. I normally get 0-1bars so it is important to switch to UMA only otherwise it spots a 3G signal from time to time and then drops the call when the signal goes away.

List of UMA phones: http://www.umatoday.com/mobileHandsets.php

Ostensibly it seems like exactly what Vodafone are marketing. However it does seem to work in this case and requires no additional hardware or config.

sadly, there isn't even a sniff of orange signal within 15 miles of here, so even if I managed this I'd basically be creating a land line, as I wouldn't be able to use it anywhere else. Nice idea though, thanks for suggesting it.

[nervous]

Morningside said:

One of its problems is the 'plug and play' crap where it attempts go grab the IP etc. and that is where it falls over.
What it should have is a manual setting as well so that you can configure it using html like a router.

Lots of problems are mainly incompatibility to certain routers. All mine were fixed IP and it did not like that AT ALL so I had to change the router.

Yes, I also agree that their helpline is crap with the 'well you have it, you sort it' attitude.

any ideas what routers will work? Or what a router is? My thing that the wireless signal falls out of is a netgear dg834g (that's what it says underneath it anyway). Is that one it hates or can stand?

[miniman]

nervous said:

miniman said:

Possible solution: switch to Orange and get a phone that supports UMA (e.g. I have a Blackberry Bold). It then connects to your existing WiFi network. Mine works lovely jubbly. I normally get 0-1bars so it is important to switch to UMA only otherwise it spots a 3G signal from time to time and then drops the call when the signal goes away.

List of UMA phones: http://www.umatoday.com/mobileHandsets.php

Ostensibly it seems like exactly what Vodafone are marketing. However it does seem to work in this case and requires no additional hardware or config.

sadly, there isn't even a sniff of orange signal within 15 miles of here, so even if I managed this I'd basically be creating a land line, as I wouldn't be able to use it anywhere else. Nice idea though, thanks for suggesting it.

We don't call it 0-range at work for nothing...

[Morningside]

nervous said:

Morningside said:

One of its problems is the 'plug and play' crap where it attempts go grab the IP etc. and that is where it falls over.
What it should have is a manual setting as well so that you can configure it using html like a router.

Lots of problems are mainly incompatibility to certain routers. All mine were fixed IP and it did not like that AT ALL so I had to change the router.

Yes, I also agree that their helpline is crap with the 'well you have it, you sort it' attitude.

any ideas what routers will work? Or what a router is? My thing that the wireless signal falls out of is a netgear dg834g (that's what it says underneath it anyway). Is that one it hates or can stand?

They are so hit and miss and I think that really is the main problem with them. Vodafone have tried to make them over friendly (plug/play) and made it worse!

I am using a Vigor 2800G without any trouble. One of the things they DONT mention with the sure signal is that it will ONLY work with later 3g phones - (that annoyed me somewhat as I have an older Nokia Communicator that I use a lot).

When you installed it, did you get the SMS stating that you are now registered with that unit? Do you get flat out 5* signal bar and 3g symbol?

[nervous]

Yep, for a while, but then it would start to block calls and texts without me knowing it, and the only way you could get a line out or calls in would be to unplug it. The phone would look normal, with a full 5 bars, but actually it wasn't working. Brilliant, huh?

[Morningside]

How many other phones do you have attached? What lights are it on at the moment? Have they offered another box?

[Mr E]

Morningside said:

One of the things they DONT mention with the sure signal is that it will ONLY work with later 3g phones - (that annoyed me somewhat as I have an older Nokia Communicator that I use a lot).

Eh? Should work with any UMTS phone on 2100MHz. If the phone you had was a 3G unit, it should camp. There's no basic functionality difference between the first 3G UEs and the most recent when it comes to signalling (old units won't support HSPA and the like, but voice will be identical).

[nervous]

Morningside said:

How many other phones do you have attached? What lights are it on at the moment? Have they offered another box?

Just 2- mine and the wifes- and no they haven't. Today, after many, many months of complaining and being on hold for an average of 40 minutes at a time I've finally argued for my money back (I paid £160 when they first came out, and the gizmos ability to make my phone situation worse twinned with Vodafones attitude about the matter became a >tiny< bit of an obsession).

No concessions or replacements were offered at any point, and I only managed to get this far because I just happened upon a rare almost- english- speaking person at Vodafone who understood that after a recorded 13 complaints I probably wasn't just going to go away.

The lights that are normally on (not flashing, always on) are the top two and bottom one. does this mean anything to anyone?

Edited by nervous on Wednesday 3rd March 04:03

[tragicmagic]

I've got a Vodafone Sure Signal and I have to admit I had a hell of a time getting it to work - lots of tweets, rants on their forum and similar before we eventually concluded that it was actually my router (a D-Link) that was causing the problem. It refused point blank to accept that the Sure Signal should be allowed access to t'internet and kept switching itself off - thus giving me no better mobile signal, and no Internet access either!

A friend has since loaned me a different router and, hey-ho, with no problems at all it let the Sure Signal work and I've had no real problems with it since.

Likewise, I'm with Vodafone because no other provider works properly in my village. There are more femtocells coming to the market later this year though that should work with multiple providers so that might be an option? Unfortunately, though, they're likely to charge more than Vodafone are for subscribing customers...

[tragicmagic]

nervous said:

The lights that are normally on (not flashing, always on) are the top two and bottom one. does this mean anything to anyone?

Edited by nervous on Wednesday 3rd March 04:03

The three lights you mention (top two and bottom one) should all be on to indicate it has got an Internet connection and is configured. The third light is usually out unless a connected phone is in use and using the system (it will flash continuously while an authorised phone is using the connection).

Vodafone state that it works with 'any' router - I eventually pointed out to them that that's a bit of a lie! However, I've been loaned a ZyXEL router (never heard of them!) that worked fine but can't cope easily with all the data being chucked through it so I'm currently on the hunt for a more powerful router that can cope with it. Seems that NetGear routers work reasonably well with the Sure Signal / Gateway device.

You do have to switch UPnP on as well, on the router - Vodafone state it isn't a necessity but it is recommended and once that was switched on all became much easier as well. I agree with one of the previous comments, though: the fact that the device can't be locally configured or forced to have a fixed IP address really is a pain in the bum as I had to change my DHCP window to prevent my machines with fixed IP addresses from getting address conflicts with the Sure Signal!

It wasn't as easy to set up as Vodafone would have you believe but does work very well once it's up and running. Another important note: voice and text messages use very little in the way of data on your broadband, but if you try using the phone's Internet connection, mobile data requests use massive packet sizes and I've had the machine drop the connection several times when I've tried using my phone's web connection over the Sure Signal.