3G Antenna Solution

RedFordBumper

Hi all,

I live in the monaghan area close to the border. I use a Three.ie dongle modem for my internet as opposedto a hard line as the local phone exchange is not broadband enabled and there are no plans to do so. I currently work in saudi arabia and need the internet to contact my family using skype on a daily basis but the three.ie connection drops all the time or is of such bad quality that it makes a coversation impossible. I have looked into an antenna from Solwise, but am unsure as to which model to get. I am also unsure as to weather it will improve the quality of my connection. Also if this was a solution, is there any companies that install these antennas and set them up as I cannot do this myself. Are there any alternatives?

Thanks

raymix

Antenna alone won't do miracles, the cheap metal sticks promising mountains of gold on ebay are not going to help, plus most of antennas on market are misleading with labels, this little article should shed you some light.

The biggest problem is not the antenna, it's the cable. There is resistance in cable, which makes you actually lose more than gain. Basically you need a repeater - an external source of power to amplify the signal, and those things costs.

Cheaper solution i found personally is simply getting a extended USB cable and duct taping the damn dongle to a spot on one of your windows with best reception.

p.s: if you consider antenna, i would suggest getting 2.1Ghz yagi. 2.4Ghz are for WiFi.

RedFordBumper

Hi Raqmix

If i thought that i would get a strong stable signal i would not mind paying for a repeater.

Would I need an antenna with a repeater or just the repeater on its own? What is a good repeater to get?

As i understand it the loss is in the coax aerial from the antenna to the dongle/repeater? could the aerial be put in a loft near a power source, cut the aerial as short as possible. Plug the aerial into the repeater and distribute through the house using something like ethernet through mains?

I might have this incorrect but am trying to put forward ideas that may or may not work.

Cheers

raymix

Hi,
As to which repeater or antenna (or brand in this matter) is the best, I don't know, because I ended up moving house and getting a proper DSL. There is a midband subforum right on top of this forum, guys there are better suited for the answer, sorry. What i know is - you will need both in this case.

As for repeater and cables, it's quite simple. It's not about coaxial or any other type of cable, it's about amount of metal in it, so - the length and width. Repeaters kinda like the ones you use for TV when running long cable across the home, the longer the cable, the worse reception, and yes, coaxials are also shielded, so it is very common to see a small box attached to an areal in attic with external power source.

Afaik there are various repeaters. Ones are hanged outside your home on a pole up high with good reception, simply taking and repeating signal for both 3G and your GSM - they are limited to connections. Others are used in between antenna and receiver, their power depends on length of cable, i assume.

Most of dongles comes with external antenna port, vodafone ones comes, too, but they are hidden inside plastic. You can pop open yours to see the small size of connector it requires before buying anything.

But again, this is simply info I gathered around internet while looking for solution to my 3G dongle. I don't have any actual experience in this, sorry.

Oh and by the way. See if your friend has a 3G dongle or a smartphone that uses 3. They have best 3G coverage to my knowledge. I ended up asking friends for sim cards, put them in my Galaxy S and testing out signal. I was using Vodafone dongle, giving me 2-3 bars, but 3 gave me full 5 bars, meteor and o2 gave me 1-2 bars coverage.
I tried lots of crap i've read online - you name it: foil, cantenna, yagi, parabolic, nothing worked, also I sucked at creating them, the only thing that worked was 1.5 Meters of USB cable and leaving USB dongle hanging on window connected to a laptop running ubuntu acting as a router that was connected to an old ethernet router providing crappy connection for 4 computers. Ahh good times!

Knasher

Putting up a repeater by yourself is illegal, you are rebroadcasting a signal into a licensed band, and you may introduce interference. If you are living in an area that is covered by the NBS scheme then you can get three to legally install a repeater for you, but beyond that it isn't possible.

You don't need a repeater though if you don't need to connect over 3G/GSM (as in not making phone calls over that network), my uncle was in a similar position where 3G just wasn't reliable. I set up a 3G antenna, connected to a small embedded computer which were both in the attic, and connected via ethernet to a wifi router downstairs. As far as I know they are still pretty happy with that setup. How much this would help in your situation is anybodies guess.

RedFordBumper

hi knasher,

Is the repeater referred to above (after doing some research) not something like this:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Mini-70dB-2100MHz-3G-cellphone-signal-booster-mobile-wireless-repeater-amplifier-/150960786203?pt=US_Cell_Phone_Signal_Boosters&hash=item2325f6cb1b#shId

Are these illegal?

siblers

Have you tried placing your laptop in the higher parts of your house near a window facing the antenna/mast that you are connected to? Then if you go to 192.168.1.1 you can see how many bars of reception you have and if you have HSPA+ etc. In my house if I move my router away from the window in my bedroom, my speeds drops big time.

RedFordBumper

Hi Siblers,

Yes I have tried this but the difference is intermittent, sometimes I get better results and sometimes not. What I am trying to achieve is a stable connection but really need good advice on how to do this.

funnyname

Try someone like these rather than mobile

http://www.ardenbroadband.ie/

siblers

RedFordBumper wrote: »

Hi Siblers,

Yes I have tried this but the difference is intermittent, sometimes I get better results and sometimes not. What I am trying to achieve is a stable connection but really need good advice on how to do this.

Have you tried contacting Three? They used to supply repeaters under the NBS but I dunno if they still do.

Or as the poster above me has said, try fixed wireless if you can.

raymix

funnyname has a point tho. 3G is very limited and old technology and even if you get full coverage, it will have problems with any real time application like skype, games etc.
Since you are prepared to dish out money for small chance of better connection, why not simply get proper wireless "broadband" installed? They will provide and install proper antenna for you, directed towards their tower. If the line of sight is good, you might even get quality very close to copper cable. Digiweb should be available around your area. Maybe even Net1, but I had trouble with them few years ago.

http://www.bonkers.ie/compare-tv-broadband-phone/broadband/