Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

[TheMik]

Hello all, first time posting here, so be gentle haha.

Anyways I am a cheap cheap person, and I love new ideas and trying them for myself. So I am searching around for a solution to my sisters internet/cell phone problems, crap reception inside, and I am finding dropping 500 dollars will solve the problem (mostly). Well to make a long story short she is enrolled in college, with some of her classes being online and like most college students she is broke. So it makes the wilson/others solution impossible. I have looked into wilson/others and have pretty much found if your not within 10 feet of the indoor antenna the signal drops off rapidly anyways.

So I can't help but to keep staring at my router thinking of a way to use the transmitter to do the job. In a nutshell I am thinking, outside antenna, low loss cable screwed into the receiver antenna on the router, and then have the router sent the signal around the house. It would require taking the 2.4 ghz and changing it to 1.9 ghz of course, but beyond that I am not sure what it would require. Could I just strip the transmitter/receiver part out and use it? I am also not sure how it is 2.4 ghz, meaning back in the day it was controlled by crystals. Now what is used, capacitors and transistors?

I have searched high and low to see if anyone has attempted this and come up with nothing, I figured the brains here could help, if it can be done. Thanks to this site I have a free dell for my wife that works beautifully after some cap replacement (shop was going to toss it in the trash). Thanks for bearing with me and any info on the subject.

~Josh

[Newbie2]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

Wi-Fi for wireless Internet and GSM or CDMA for cell phones are completely different.

What you're trying to do will never happen, because it is impossible.

[arneson]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

You're absolutely right about the system of phone repeaters costing $500.
I install those on yachts, with an antenna on the arch.
But there are two types of system depending on your service.
I think it's one for Verizon and the other for everyone else.
It's possible like my older nokia, that there's a base station cradle for that phone.
When I walk in the front door, I drop the phone into the cradle and the whole house becomes a cell. It's called the VoxLink II.
http://www.twacomm.com/catalog/model_VOXLINK-131.htm

[TheMik]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

A digital signal is nothing more then information tied to an analog frequency. I was basically asking if anyone knew a way to alter the freq of a basic wi-fi router. As long as the digital info isn't stripped and the freq matches the router isn't going to care what it's broadcasting. I am not looking to use the router as a access point just a repeater. Thank you for the link, interesting piece of equipment.

[willawake]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

You're absolutely right about the system of phone repeaters costing $500.
I install those on yachts, with an antenna on the arch.

like this?
gsm up the vsat

anyway this what you need
http://www.starmarinedepot.com/Digit...+DA4000MR.html
http://www.digitalantenna.com/prods/...lrepeater.html

[arneson]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

Remember where I am Will, we only have 100 footers here max.
So I use this DA-4000 system. About 60 mile range offshore.
http://www.wmjmarine.com/sda4000.html

[Latoof]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

Heres a thought... use a couple of passive mobile antennas...

get a glass mount mobile phone antenna (like THIS )and put the antenna on a window facing the closest cell tower. Run a low loss coax cable to the preferred location in the house and connect it to another antenna (like THIS ).

Obviously there will be some losses in the system, however it may just work for you.

[ibooster]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

Hello all, first time posting here, so be gentle haha.

Anyways I am a cheap cheap person, and I love new ideas and trying them for myself. So I am searching around for a solution to my sisters internet/cell phone problems, crap reception inside, and I am finding dropping 500 dollars will solve the problem (mostly). Well to make a long story short she is enrolled in college, with some of her classes being online and like most college students she is broke. So it makes the wilson/others solution impossible. I have looked into wilson/others and have pretty much found if your not within 10 feet of the indoor antenna the signal drops off rapidly anyways.

~Josh

Josh,
you are misinformed about the distance these cell phone boosters will cover when installed, the thing is these repeater systems work on the principle that that goes in /get multipled and comes out. So, the sweep in signal coverage is based on that you give at the input (generally +2 bars is prefered) and next factore is the gain in the amplifier, if you get anything over 55dB gain you can cover a comfortable 2000 to 3000 sq ft.

[cellphonebooster]

Re: Turning a wifi router into a cell phone booster...

yehh !
it can happen