3G signal amplifier

hobsonschoice

Hi Guys,
I am thinking of getting the vodaphone 3g service but am aware that it will oly receive 56kbs in my area, Thats still an improvement on the riduclous 28kb that eircom provide.
My question is, does anyone know if i can somehow boost the signal received without having to float the modem on a hot air balloon, Is there some sort of indoor antennae or amplifier that would make a significant difference?
Cheers for any tips.
Dave

Sponge Bob

well the o2 2g service probably does 170k in your area if thats any help.

hobsonschoice

I don't think they do,
I live behind labane nr Gort. If i drive 1 mile in any direction i can get decent broadband, It just seems to be my squre mile that is ignored.
Driving me nuts to be honest. I'll look at 02 again but pretty sure i rang them up and they said they couldn't do it.
Any other ideas folks?

Sponge Bob

wow , 4 miles from gort and 4 miles from ardrahan, bummer . Do you live in a hole or in a turlough with that sort of coverage ???

how about Kinvara group BB ??

bushy...

You can get antennas for the pcmcia card type 3g modems , and dlink etc do a wifi router that takes the card.

bushy...

You can get antennas for the pcmcia card type 3g modems , and dlink etc do a wifi router that takes the card.

hobsonschoice

Right , forgot i had a question here, was expecting a mail to let me know someone had replied.

So heres an update, I have the 02 broadband via the little white dongle.
As expected the signal is still pretty pathetic but better than before.
Inside the house i can get up to max 128kb, ISDN speeds. If i walk to the bottom of the garden i can get around 1mb.
I am thinking of just splicing a usb cable with 40 foot of telephone wire and running the cable back to the house from the garden.( I tested this on a 10 foot piece of 4 core telephone wire and it worked fine so am hoping 40 foot will work as well)but before i perform such extremes was wondering if there was not a way of getting an antennae that would boost the signal?
Any ideas?
cheers

Sponge Bob

yeah its doable but use 2 pairs out of a 4 pair cat V not phone wire .

get 2 x USB A-A extension cables , snip one end off each

you will find the 4 wires are colour coded

crimp them into the 2 orange and 2 blue slots in an rj 45 male and then make up a 15m lead with 2 x rj45 females, only the orange and blue pairs

cover the joins ( rg45-rj45) and (usb - usb ) outside with some really thick gunky weatherproof tape once you actually plug em in and they work , denso tape sez bminish who should know .

you can practise with a short rj45-rj45 female lead indoors before you make up the looooong version of it

hobsonschoice

Hi Spongebob,
wish i'd seen your reply before i messed around with the telephone cable. You're right , phone cable is good for only about 10 foot, after that the wireless device is not found.
Anyway, wanderd hi and low all over the house and grounds yestrerday looking for a signal and on a whim tried it in the middle of my Sky satellite dish and low and behold . Boom, 3g, So that's it now, have it strapped to the LNB loom on the sat dish and a 15ft usb extension leading through the window and downloading at a steady 2mb. actual it shows E1 (2.048 Mbs).
I will try to center it even more this evening and see if i can get even faster.
I'll let you know.

So anyone else out there who has been suffering because of eircom, i recommend sky!

hobsonschoice

Ok guys, On a more serious note , i found a site that offers an amplifier for the 3g huwaii modem. (works out around 100€ i think)

http://www.poyntingdirect.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=K-LPDA-A0020

If anyone gets one before i do , please post any exoperiences with it.
Thanks

godskitchen

hobsonschoice wrote: »

Ok guys, On a more serious note , i found a site that offers an amplifier for the 3g huwaii modem. (works out around 100€ i think)

http://www.poyntingdirect.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=K-LPDA-A0020

If anyone gets one before i do , please post any exoperiences with it.
Thanks

Its not for the USB Modem.

You need a data card and a router, with an external antenna, i have all this stuff for sale if your interested, even if your not feel free to ask me anything, I became quite good at geting 3G/HSDPA signal from as far away as 12 miles with no line of sight.

gerky

godskitchen Could you maybe explain how you got a 3G/HSDPA signal from a distance.I'm using a usb modem.

jor el

hobsonschoice wrote: »

So that's it now, have it strapped to the LNB loom on the sat dish and a 15ft usb extension leading through the window and downloading at a steady 2mb. actual it shows E1 (2.048 Mbs).

You have to get a picture of that. would make some great evidence the next time some plonker from eircom, Comreg or the government make some bullshit argument about there being no problem getting broadband in Ireland.

godskitchen

gerky wrote: »

godskitchen Could you maybe explain how you got a 3G/HSDPA signal from a distance.I'm using a usb modem.

I got my signal via a router and a Pcimca card hooked up to an antenna, which in turn was tied to a ladder and up a tree. Unfortunately there is no antenna available for the USB Modem..............The only way seems to be using the Sat dish or getting a Pcimca card and ditching the modem.

This is something that has been discuessed time and time again and unless I missed it, no one has been able to com up with a good way of increasing signal for the USB Modem.

gerky

Thanks anyway.

Pokes

Does this adapter not fit the Huawei E220 modem ?
http://www.poyntingdirect.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=ADPT-024

godskitchen

Looks like it does work, I would like to see how well it works before I paid for it though.