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The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



Does anyone have experience with signal boosters?

Specifically for cricket.

Not a microcell or whatever but an antennae you put outside and have a broadcaster inside.

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FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

Massasoit posted:

Does anyone have experience with signal boosters?

Specifically for cricket.

Not a microcell or whatever but an antennae you put outside and have a broadcaster inside.

I am not sure if there's anything of that sort, and as far as femtocells go Cricket doesn't support any :smith:

My brother and his wife are sort of institutional foster parents (actual title: family teacher) and the housing they got is a crazy-kid fortress impenetrable by most wireless signals. If anyone has inside word on either the aforementioned repeaters or actual cricket femtocells, speak up. He uses too much data for much of anything else to be feasible and has some reservations about the Catholic church peeking in on the wifi.

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON

FAUXTON posted:

I am not sure if there's anything of that sort, and as far as femtocells go Cricket doesn't support any :smith:

My brother and his wife are sort of institutional foster parents (actual title: family teacher) and the housing they got is a crazy-kid fortress impenetrable by most wireless signals. If anyone has inside word on either the aforementioned repeaters or actual cricket femtocells, speak up. He uses too much data for much of anything else to be feasible and has some reservations about the Catholic church peeking in on the wifi.

There absolutely are cell signal boosters but they're prohibitively expensive (the one I linked is just a hair under $300.) You do have to have some kind of signal outside for them to work. You usually need a directional external antenna to go with it (another $70-100) unless you literally have a good signal outside and you live inside a Faraday cage, in which case the small whip antenna it comes with will work.

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



I have signal outside the house, just not inside. Based on the savings I calculated by switching to cricket the payback by switching and getting a $300 booster would only be like 3-4 months so it may even be worth it still

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

Geoj posted:

There absolutely are cell signal boosters but they're prohibitively expensive (the one I linked is just a hair under $300.) You do have to have some kind of signal outside for them to work. You usually need a directional external antenna to go with it (another $70-100) unless you literally have a good signal outside and you live inside a Faraday cage, in which case the small whip antenna it comes with will work.

The description on that makes it seem like it still would need to be provisioned on or registered with Cricket, which they may not be cool with. Not sure why, though, if it's just a repeater.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

FAUXTON posted:

The description on that makes it seem like it still would need to be provisioned on or registered with Cricket, which they may not be cool with. Not sure why, though, if it's just a repeater.

http://wireless.fcc.gov/signal-boosters/faq.html

Volkerball
Oct 15, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
Does anyone know how to turn off that stupid setting on the Moto e lte that makes your camera turn on if your phone rotates 90 degrees twice?

Boogalo
Jul 8, 2012

Meep Meep




Volkerball posted:

Does anyone know how to turn off that stupid setting on the Moto e lte that makes your camera turn on if your phone rotates 90 degrees twice?

That should be in the Moto app, under settings>actions.

That's where it is on my Moto X. Assuming its the same for the G and E.

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON

FAUXTON posted:

The description on that makes it seem like it still would need to be provisioned on or registered with Cricket, which they may not be cool with. Not sure why, though, if it's just a repeater.

They are just repeaters, you don't provision them...I think the FCC just requires that you notify your carrier that you'll be operating one in case it causes interference. If you don't "register" it with your carrier you're probably just in breach of FCC regulations.

revdrkevind
Dec 15, 2013
ASK:lol: ME:lol: ABOUT:lol: MY :lol:TINY :lol:DICK

also my opinion on :females:
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Geoj posted:

They are just repeaters, you don't provision them...I think the FCC just requires that you notify your carrier that you'll be operating one in case it causes interference. If you don't "register" it with your carrier you're probably just in breach of FCC regulations.

There is no requirement to register but:

FCC posted:

Someone contacted me and said I have to shut down my booster because it’s causing interference. What should I do?

The FCC’s rules prohibit signal booster users from causing interference to wireless networks, even if the user has complied with all the other rules. If you are contacted by the FCC or any wireless provider – yours or any other – and told your signal booster is causing interference, you must shut it down until you can fix the interference problem.

air-
Sep 24, 2007

Who will win the greatest battle of them all?

I will travel to multiple countries in Europe from August to mid September, and I picked up one of these sims, so curious if anyone here's used it, what did you think?

Volkerball
Oct 15, 2009

by FactsAreUseless

Boogalo posted:

That should be in the Moto app, under settings>actions.

That's where it is on my Moto X. Assuming its the same for the G and E.

yesssss. thank you. i've taken 240 pictures on my phone and 1 of them on purpose.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Volkerball posted:

yesssss. thank you. i've taken 240 pictures on my phone and 1 of them on purpose.

What are you doing with your phone? With my Moto X you have to be pretty deliberate to launch the camera.

Tesla Was Robbed
Oct 4, 2002
I AM A LIAR
I've finally switched off of Pageplus. Using GoPhone for a hotspot and Cricket for my phone. What a difference. All those cool things people do with phones suddenly work like advertised. Thanks to Pageplus for the years, but I got my new younger trophy wireless service and I'm not paying alimony.

Volkerball
Oct 15, 2009

by FactsAreUseless

nimper posted:

What are you doing with your phone? With my Moto X you have to be pretty deliberate to launch the camera.

I work outside, so I'm usually in gym shorts. Just walking in those can trigger it.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Volkerball posted:

I work outside, so I'm usually in gym shorts. Just walking in those can trigger it.

Ah, yeah, that would do it. I guess that's why runners and other active folks wear arm bands or whatever.

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



Any of you have a recommendation for a ruggedized phone (basic phone) a LA Rugby 3/4 that would work on cricket?

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Massasoit posted:

Any of you have a recommendation for a ruggedized phone (basic phone) a LA Rugby 3/4 that would work on cricket?

A Rugby 3/4 will work on Cricket

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



nimper posted:

A Rugby 3/4 will work on Cricket

Yea, I was just seeing if there were any other options out there.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Massasoit posted:

Yea, I was just seeing if there were any other options out there.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Sonim-XP5_id9493#tH4CbwS4QIHUx2Wh.97

SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Massasoit posted:

Yea, I was just seeing if there were any other options out there.

The CAT smartphone

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Massasoit posted:

Yea, I was just seeing if there were any other options out there.

any GSM weather proof phone, S4 Active etc.

Syrinxx
Mar 28, 2002

Death is whimsical today

About to just go ahead and pay off my G3 from AT&T NEXT so I can have them switch me to Go Phone's unlimited (1.5GB LTE) plan @ $45.

Is there a better GSM prepaid plan than this? The OP's pretty out of date and I see T-Mo's plans are about the same and would require me to try and get my rooted phone unlocked by ATT which I'm not too sure about.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Syrinxx posted:

About to just go ahead and pay off my G3 from AT&T NEXT so I can have them switch me to Go Phone's unlimited (1.5GB LTE) plan @ $45.

Is there a better GSM prepaid plan than this? The OP's pretty out of date and I see T-Mo's plans are about the same and would require me to try and get my rooted phone unlocked by ATT which I'm not too sure about.

At the $45 level you would want either Cricket or Straight Talk's 5GB LTE plan.

$35 on Cricket gets you 2.5GB of LTE.

TLG James
Jun 5, 2000

Questing ain't easy
It's funny that Cricket's plans are so much better than AT&Ts.

revdrkevind
Dec 15, 2013
ASK:lol: ME:lol: ABOUT:lol: MY :lol:TINY :lol:DICK

also my opinion on :females:
:haw::flaccid: :haw: :flaccid: :haw: :flaccid::haw:

nimper posted:

At the $45 level you would want either Cricket or Straight Talk's 5GB LTE plan.

$35 on Cricket gets you 2.5GB of LTE.

Wow. The only thing AT&T's prepaid has over cricket is rollover data. At a cost of $15+ more.

And AT&T owns Cricket

Syrinxx
Mar 28, 2002

Death is whimsical today

nimper posted:

$35 on Cricket gets you 2.5GB of LTE.
Wow this is pretty amazing. Looks like it'll be Cricket, thanks!

I did notice they cap the LTE speed at 8Mbps which is slightly irritating since I live in an area with 25Mb+ on most of the towers. But the savings is well worth it.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



Syrinxx posted:

About to just go ahead and pay off my G3 from AT&T NEXT so I can have them switch me to Go Phone's unlimited (1.5GB LTE) plan @ $45.

Is there a better GSM prepaid plan than this? The OP's pretty out of date and I see T-Mo's plans are about the same and would require me to try and get my rooted phone unlocked by ATT which I'm not too sure about.

The OP shouldn't be that out of date and not much I've seen has changed. If I need to change T-Mo's plans, I can.

I'm also thinking of dropping the "notable phones" section since people seem to be more interested in the plans.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Syrinxx posted:

Wow this is pretty amazing. Looks like it'll be Cricket, thanks!

I did notice they cap the LTE speed at 8Mbps which is slightly irritating since I live in an area with 25Mb+ on most of the towers. But the savings is well worth it.

Yeah I have Cricket now and the 8mbit cap doesn't bother me a bit.

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



nimper posted:

Yeah I have Cricket now and the 8mbit cap doesn't bother me a bit.

I've gone past my 2.5gb data limit on cricket and it is still fast enough to browse SA get emails and do most web pages.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Massasoit posted:

I've gone past my 2.5gb data limit on cricket and it is still fast enough to browse SA get emails and do most web pages.

Two different speed caps in play here:

There's an 8mbit speed cap for when you're under your 2.5GB limit and then there's a 128kbit cap once you go over.

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



nimper posted:

Two different speed caps in play here:

There's an 8mbit speed cap for when you're under your 2.5GB limit and then there's a 128kbit cap once you go over.

Yep. I didn't do a good job at getting my point across - even going past the high speed data limit, the slower speed is good for most things that aren't streaming, so the 8mbit limit should be more than enough for most people, unless you are a fringe case and need faster internet on your phone than I have at my house.

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

As I've said before, Cricket's overage cap speeds are better than Sprint's 3G speeds.

revdrkevind
Dec 15, 2013
ASK:lol: ME:lol: ABOUT:lol: MY :lol:TINY :lol:DICK

also my opinion on :females:
:haw::flaccid: :haw: :flaccid: :haw: :flaccid::haw:

FAUXTON posted:

As I've said before, Cricket's overage cap speeds are better than Sprint's 3G speeds.

Upgrades exist which can take AT&T's EDGE network all the way up to (technical, like half a meg), although it's not deployed everywhere, and the carrier could choose to throttle it. It would be interesting to see real-world speed results. Either way 128k is perfectly fine for streaming "good enough" quality audio thanks to modern CODECs.

Massasoit posted:

Yep. I didn't do a good job at getting my point across - even going past the high speed data limit, the slower speed is good for most things that aren't streaming, so the 8mbit limit should be more than enough for most people, unless you are a fringe case and need faster internet on your phone than I have at my house.

The only thing that pisses me off is the stupid firmware on my phone won't let me turn off 3g, otherwise I could queue it up as needed and essentially have unlimited internet anytime.

I've randomly used my phone for, for example, tethering due to a worksite where the internet is impossible. Having several gigs available at a moment's notice is a good thing, although yes, using 128k most of the time is perfectly fine.

I need to try rooting this again sometime...

Syrinxx
Mar 28, 2002

Death is whimsical today

Jumped ship from ATT to Cricket today, speeds are just fine and my bill is about half which is rad. Didn't even need to enter my phone's unlock code I got from ATT since they are on the same network.

I don't seem to be able to tether, which I may find a workaround for since I"m rooted but otherwise very happy I made the switch. Now to see how long it'll be before I can move to the Oneplus Two because of their dumbass invite system.

nunsexmonkrock
Apr 13, 2008
Places that sell prepaid phones suck donkey dicks. My phone died so I needed a new one immediately. I went to 3 MetroPCS stores They all kept trying to upsell me. I was looking at $20 phones and everyone I wanted "Oh we don't have that, but we have this one." Then they showed me an $800 phone I told them to gently caress off. I eventually broke down and went to Walmart and got one of their phones. But surprise when I bought it they didn't tell me I needed to purchase a sim card with it (I'm used to using CDMA networks so wasn't thinking about sim cards.) So I biked all the way home, try to set it up and then had to bike half across the city again just to get the card and then biked back and almost fainted from the heat. But all in all. I'm pretty happy with the service. It just was a pain in my nuts to get my phone replaced.

But if anyone cares and wants to write up a review about the service, this is it:

nunsexmonkrock fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jul 27, 2015

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

GALAXY GRAND PRIME CHIC ESCALADE SUPERFINE EXTREME PREMIUM EDITION.

nunsexmonkrock
Apr 13, 2008
HAHA Yeah. I just needed a new phone and grabbed the first thing I saw that was from a half decent brand all the other ones were names from companies I never heard of.

So far it's actually a pretty decent phone and the nicest one I have ever owned. I have been using the Motorala Triumph from Virgin Mobile for the longest time (was grandfathered into their old $25 a month plan) and that was a pain in the rear end. For the past year it has been constantly deciding to shut the ringer off so I never knew when someone was calling me.

Edit: To add to the frustration I was only able to activate the phone (The Samsung Walmart phone) using Internet Explorer. And to set up autopay I had to use Chrome.

nunsexmonkrock fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Jul 28, 2015

tonic
Jan 4, 2003

Hit my 10GB cap on Cricket 8 days before the end of the month, was pleasantly surprised by how usable their throttled data is. Streaming Spotify/podcasts/NPR take a few seconds longer to start, but no stuttering. Win.

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IuniusBrutus
Jul 24, 2010

How reliable is Cricket's service these days? Last time I was looking at switching it seemed like they were having issues with service outages.

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