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Tin foil to boost signal??? Fact of Fiction?
I know I'm on the edge of the service because I know where the tower is located. I've tweaked the modem and the best stats I can get (without picking up the house and moving it) are as follows:
2-bars, -85 RSSI & 9 CINR.
Good news is, I'm getting 4mb down and .5mb up which is ok. I've read about placing a folded piece of aluminum foil in the shape of a "V" where the open end faces towards the tower and the modem is nestled within the "V". The idea, is the foil eliminates any outside interference and increases the quality of the signal.
Any better ideas?
2-bars, -85 RSSI & 9 CINR.
Good news is, I'm getting 4mb down and .5mb up which is ok. I've read about placing a folded piece of aluminum foil in the shape of a "V" where the open end faces towards the tower and the modem is nestled within the "V". The idea, is the foil eliminates any outside interference and increases the quality of the signal.
Any better ideas?
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Inappropriate?I have read other posts, where some people have done that with some success. I have attached a link here that shows how someone set theirs up and says that it did help. If you do try that, let us know what the results were, we'd like to know if it helped
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Inappropriate?A few googles later have left me slightly confused. Which end should be pointed towards the tower? The LED indicator side or the Ethernet/power cord side?
(liz - you can pull up my account profile to see which device I have)3 Comments
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This answers the question
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Right now, I have the non-LED side which I'm thinking is backwards. -
You have the series M modem which is omnidirectional so there is no correct way to face it. It should be able to get a signal no matter how it is placed. But does still need line of site to tower. Hope that cleared it up for you.
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Now I have a silly tent around the device and no signal strength change. Good news is, if I use the mobile device and walk to the park, I get full strength signal. Pretty neat.
Liz, can you look at our service address and tell me if you have in the plans another tower to the North of our location? There is quite a large amount of people who I'm sure would love the service, but are "just" out of reach. (also another tower North would eliminate the 2 block dead spot at home) -
Inappropriate?Yes, the antenna is on the side of the modem opposite the cables. When it is placed correctly you should be looking at the cables and the opposite side should be facing the window. The series M Motorolla i725 or Gemtek modems have omnidirectional antennas they they can actually face any direction.
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Inappropriate?Based on your service address, there are not any new towers going up right now. But we are always working on improving our coverage, so new ones will be coming up in the future, we just don't have a date on when that will happen.
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Inappropriate?What is being described here is a (rather poor performing) Yagi antenna. You might get 3db gain out of it, which will help, but probably not much more than that without careful tuning. For the technical, the USB modem acts as the driven element, while the tin foil acts as the reflected element. If you added a director or two, it would probably help. See any issue of the ARRL Antenna Handbook or just Google for "yagi antenna design". -
Inappropriate?Hello! My roommate and I have two things to say about Clear and Tinfoil. First it worked, then immediately it failed. Read this for this for the first :
http://www.disciplesofbloggism.com/20...
We used several different setups, a tinfoil covered umbrella, etc. Pictures are included in the article so go nuts. The theory was there are antenna inside the modem, and tinfoil = antenna, so it should help, right?
However, very quickly our service deteriorated. Our followup article described what happened after that :
http://www.disciplesofbloggism.com/20...
Hopefully this helps! Please pass these around to other people who are interested.
~Disciples
www.disciplesofbloggism.com
I’m amused.
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Inappropriate?
Foil boxes actually work!... looks kinda redneckish but it made my M modem signal go from -75 to -63 now.... however in the winter time my modem went from -54 to -28!.... they work perfectly with the M home modem and also the 4G dock. 4G dock went from RSSI: -76 dBm to - 52 with WiMAX CINR: 38 dB
Not too bad for two used long flat rate boxes and a few sheets of aluminum foil. Easy to make and easy to aim the modem for best signal
I’m happy with it
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Inappropriate?I am in Dallas Texas in the middle of the city and am by at least 2 towers. I am supposed to be getting awesome speeds but no luck. How do I check for dB on my antenna, I have the same one you do.
I’m frustrated
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This answers the question
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go to modem configuration page, type this in the browsers url box, mywimax. or 192.168.15.1
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Inappropriate?USB extention to corner of house closest to signal....there may be a more appropriate antannea material/antennea shape, but this did it for me. I am in a dead zone 0.2 miles away from a weak signal...works fine. movies, music. i need to move it around sometimes...
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Inappropriate?ya i taped a shinny aluminum pie plate from a pie at albertsons(7.99$)to a walmart 9.99 lamp with lower lamp flexible. went from 2 bars (often dropped while on internet) to 5 TOTAL BARS. i place it to bounce the signal off the back of the modem (antenna on both sides) like a satelite dish grabs a signal. see pic
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Inappropriate?i also tried foil but failed. i got the pie plate positioned about 1/4 inch behinde and half plate above modem to get 5 bars. tilted modem back and aimed directly and in directin of clears tower. i had 3 service guys come out and the were stumped on not getting a signal 3/4 mile from their tower.they said now more service calls and i got desparate with all the time i put in finding,resetting moving and f..n with the 3rd now (same as other 2 modems they sent me) modem and had just finished a pie that prior night when boom what about like a satelite dish...ohhya. with all this technolegy and high tech...well what are we back to cave man thinking to master the 4g bugs (service guys said there were bugs in the new system..duhh) of todays invisible waves of communication?? i took several pics of the exact place ment of lamp and modem as bumping my signal to ZERO again my fred flinston solution is still 5 BARS ABOVE THE REST. 30 seconds of trying a desparate tweeked thought gave me so very much satisfaction i out teched em (got fast ass internet and phone) typing right now is only seen by u due to my home service call.
thanx dean for ur time ..i am pretty sure u will try this and suceed......(my pattent # is 2266698675221...) lol wade
I’m crazy happy
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