CELL PHONE GENIUSES HELP ME OUT!!!

[havic626]

OK.......i bought a older house and my cell phone get no reception what so ever inside, when i step outside its not a problem.  Its not just my phone, its who ever has a phone and comes inside my house they have the same problem.  I can really only use my cell phone in the living room, anywere else my phone either says it has no service or says it roaming.  Any one have any idea what could be causing this?  oh yeah i had the same problem when i was living at my parents house, but it wasn't nearly as bad.   Any help or suggestions would be helpful, cause i'm ready to break my phone!

[protokatie]

Tin ceilings? Real wood being part of the structure? Where I work, inside gets at most 2 bars, but once you walk outside it is either 3 or 4 bars. If this "older building" was reinforced with metal members, those might also be interfering. Sounds to me like you are in a faraday cage....

[clanggedin]

Sounds like your house is a Faraday cage. Buying a cellphone signal extender for your home would rectify this problem. They are $170US though.

[havic626]

Thanks guys for your help, i ll have to look into more about the structure of my house and find out whats going on with it and why it hates cell phones

[Donkey_Kong]

My dads house is stucco. The Stucco is held together by a dense and elaborate wire mesh/fence material. The cell phone reception inside of his house is horrible. HORRIBLE! Guess where my dad loves to call you from, and from what phone? YEP!! You guessed it Johnny, in his house and from his cell phone! Don't matter if the reception is horse crap, he doesn't pay normal toll fees.

 

[bleargh]

Had similar problems in a hi-rise I used to live in...

Hi-rise had interior concrete walls with rebar in them... a veritable Faraday Cage.

If you stood next to a window the reception was pretty good, but if you wandered over to where the supporting wall was your connection would drop out.

Made it a whole lot of fun trying to get wifi working in the apartment; the computer room and the room we wanted the wifi in were at opposite ends of the hallway with the supporting wall.  Our first attempt tried putting the wifi router on the ceiling in the middle of the hallway (before we knew how much rebar the walls contained).  How far away did you have to be before the signal dropped to zero?  About two feet.  Needless to say, we rewired the place and strung ethernet throughout.

That said, though, when you get around to wanting to sell the house, DO be sure to mention this in the listing; I can think of several people I know that'd love to live in a Faraday House.  Tin-foil hats et al.

[Vanguard]

We had great cellphone reception in my house until we tinted the windows.  Now we have to step outside to use my cellphone.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

In the UK the device you want is called a femtocell. Not sure if the name applies elsewhere.

I am sure a quick google of Femtocell will solve your prob's.

[gryhnd]

I use one of these.  It works wonders in my house most of the time.

The antenna for this unit is in my attic, and the repeater portion is in my basement. This gives me cell service in my basement office, home theater, etc.

The thing that people seem to forget is that if you don't have coverage outside, you won't get coverage inside, and they ding the product for that 

At home, the outdoor signal is reasonably stable. However I've also tried this up in our cottage in ME where you can only get a signal if you stand in just the right place, in just the right position, and at just the right time. Up there, the signal drifts wildly...so the repeater likewise doesn't do much inside.  You get a good connection, then watch it fall away.

[HaRuMaN]

We had great cellphone reception in my house until we tinted the windows.  Now we have to step outside to use my cellphone.

Really?  Is the tint some sort of metallic film?

[Vanguard]

Yeah, apparently there are some ceramic tints that you can get that don't have this problem but most good tint has a metallic property to it.   The only ones that don't are the ceramic and the cheapo dyed tints that fade/purple.