XPost: comp.mobile.android   
   From: Jonas123Schneider@arcor.de   
      
   How have you improved your cellular or WiFi signal (with and without   
   Internet) at home and while away from home connecting to hotspots?   
      
   This was just now posted to comp.mobile.android but maybe people here on   
   alt.internet.wireless have improved solutions to offer since the problem is   
   universal so everyone here has solved it in some way or another.   
      
   On Fri, 24 Feb 2017 16:10:10 -0800, mike  wrote:   
      
   > The cost of a WRT54G is somewhere between zero and $1 depending on your   
   > negotiating skills, ;-)   
   > I'd be interested in hearing about your far better option.   
      
   You have a point in that every house used to have a WRT54G so they are   
   still ubiquitous, and are sold used all over at less than the price of a   
   Starbucks' Caramel Macchiato.   
      
   Like everything, there are pros and cons, where certainly these ubiquitous   
   routers are basically free.   
      
   The cons are that they're not N or ac or 5GHz, but that's not too bad a   
   price to pay.   
      
   They work fine as wired repeaters using the original Linksys firmware, but   
   all the ones I have can't be set up as wireless repeaters due to the   
   default firmware not having that feature.   
      
   Certainly you can reflash with DD-WRT or Tomato firmware, but then it gets   
   problematic in that some WRT54G routers don't carry enough ROM, but by now   
   usually there is a tiny version of the alternative firmware.   
      
   So, the cost here is just in the research effort of figuring out the   
   technical solution that fits your particular version of WRT54G.   
      
   This thread has two separate questions, where that solution above won't fit   
   the op's question but it would fit the wifi part of the secondary question   
   (but not the cellular part of the secondary question).   
      
   Here's my summary of good answers:   
      
   Q: With just a phone on foot or in a car, how can I increase my WiFi or   
   cellular signal strength?   
   A: I don't think there is a good solution that is viable, but you can strap   
   the phone to a parabolic antenna which isn't practical in most cases.   
      
   Q: Is there a wired transceiver I can plug into my phone?   
   A: Nobody seems to be aware of one (they exist for computers but not for   
   phones).   
      
   Q: With just a phone & laptop (but no Internet at home) how can I connect   
   to a hotspot that is just a kilometer or two away?   
   A: Buy a 2.4GHz 802.11 transceiver that plugs into the laptop and is   
   powered either by the laptop or by an external power supply.   
      
   Q: With just a phone & laptop (but no Internet at home) how can I connect   
   to a hotspot that is more than just a kilometer or two away?   
   A: Buy a 2.4GHz 802.11 transceiver that is powered by a POE (power over   
   ethernet) and place it to receive the cellular signal by LOS (line of   
   sight) & set the transceiver up as a router to hand out DHCP addresses.   
   Then plug the one RJ45 outlet on the transceiver to as many laptops as you   
   like.   
      
   Q: At home, how do I increase my phone's cellular signal?   
   A: If you have Internet coming to your WiFi router, you can substitute for   
   low cellular signal by using WiFi calling if your carrier and phone allow   
   it. Some carriers even give you a wifi-calling-optimized router for free.   
      
   Q: What's another way to increase my phone's cellular signal at home?   
   A: You can ask your carrier to send you a signal booster.   
      
   Q: What's another way to increase my phone's cellular signal at home?   
   A: You can ask your carrier to send you a small home tower which connects   
   to your home router.   
      
   Q: At home, how do I increase my WiFi signal to cover the whole house?   
   A: Lots (and lots) of ways, so we have to take them one by one.   
      
   1) Wire an output from the router to your distant location   
   2) Add a powered switch if you have more than four output wires   
   3) Buy a new SOHO router that has 802.11 ac and 5GHZ   
   4) Add a wired SOHO router to the existing router (aka a wired extender)   
   5) Add a wireless repeater to the existing router   
   6) Add a wired transceiver with a directional antenna (usually parabolic)   
   to the existing router.   
   7) ?   
      
   How have you improved your cellular or WiFi signal (with and without   
   Internet) at home and while away from home connecting to hotspots?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)