Few bars.. :(

[Brad Groux]

Have you looked into seeing if other cellular providers offer a better signal in your house? For example, the Sprint Overdrive or the Verizon MiFi might get a better signal and it would allow connectivity to other devices as well. There has to be a better 3G option for you than running tons of coax all over your property.

 

[Wetstuff]

Numb: A call to Wilson finds out the repeater base and the panel antenna are in fact - not compatible. Wilson and Wi-Ex are not friends and do not play well with one/another. The reseller, Solid Signal, does not make mention of this in their ordering system but they are good about returns. I will order the Wi-Ex antenna that should at least match the repeater.

.... length of RG6 has come back to bite me. Both Wilson and SS say don't expect much at that long length. Limit it to about 100'. At least RG6 is dead cheap - about $50 for 500'.

DW & BG: That's the essence of the problem; almost nothing reaches us. Comcast comes nowhere near me and Verizon has our land lines on a very old substation so we cannot even get DSL.

I have Verizon, Net10 .. and had Tracfone cellular (all prepaid because didn't want one of those 24mo contracts for something that did not work) The Verizon tower is closer by 2mi than the AT&T, but their signal is still too weak to get in the house. ..and having dealt with Verizon for a lot of years; I cannot wait for an option.

I had hopes to simply cut the Verizon land line from both my home and business and replace them with iPhones. The iPad would have given me that bonus of internet service at home and where-ever.

My next best hope is AT&T has a new tower nearly ready to light up. It is about equidistant from their other tower but there is hope that the signal overlap will perhaps provide some signal boost.

More soon...

 

[geo]

I have finally accepted the fact that my AT&T tower is not very near and just installed my Wi-Ex base station very near my desk and the primary place where I use my iPad. I get a consistent 4-5 bars and at least as good as dial-up speed using just cellular. It is good enough to allow me constant use of Pandora via AT&T and I can surf the web, although slowly. When I need faster speed I just crank up the wi-fi and can use the iPad anywhere in the house. I used just the cable included and put the outdoor unit on the roof.

One thing I have learned is that Wi-Ex does not play well with anything metallic nearby, even metal blinds.

Good luck Wetstuff.

 

[rowan]

I think you must be doing this because you also don't have good Internet speeds, just given how rural your picture appears. But if your Internet speeds are decent, and you're on AT&T, then the AT&T 3G MicroCell seems like a good solution for $150, no additional charges.

 

[rowan]

Also, you should get the Mark the Spot app to let AT&T know about your spotty coverage. The link is an optimistic note that your feedback doesn't go into some black hole.