Hello y'All!
Not sure where to post this, but I'll x-post in a few other
echos.
I am looking for ideas on how to set up a cantankerous old
Yosemite Sam fellow with a cellphone system that he would use.
What DOESN't work for him are the touch-screen smartphones that
require swiping and tapping. Swiping left for one thing and
right or up or down for other things just confuses him.
A flip-phone was OK. But navigating through the menus was
confusing - especially with previous Alcatel models, I think.
The main problem is that cell signals do not work very well just
50ft from the end of the driveway to his cabin. He claims that
the signal is fine at the end of the driveway (where he parks
his vehicle during the winter) but a phone would not work in his
dwelling.
Personally, I have a feeling that his old phones were configured
to work in 4G LTE only. Perhaps if his previous phones were
switched to 3G/2G, the signals would be better?
I was imagining a solution like this: keep a fully charged
cellphone in the truck (at the end of the driveway) and have a
normal phone in the dwelling that is linked up with the one in
the truck.
Does anyone here employ such a solution and have experience with
such a thing?
Not long ago I was looking to replace an older 2.4G cordless
phone of my own with something else and learned that there are
domestic cordless stations that now have the ability to utilize
a nearby cellphone's service. That way, one can use a regular
handset for answering and making calls. I think my Yosemite Sam
friend would be more comfortable if he could use a larger
handset that is typical for cordless phones. He seems to fumble
with delicate little cellphones and hates them.
The cell-to-cordless distance would be at most 50ft.
It is likely that a pure 2G phone will have better network
connectivity in an area with poor 3G/4G. As long as the
carrier supports it in the area, that is. Legacy networks
are getting decomissioned all around.
It is possible to have a 4G capable router somewhere (for
example, a truck of cabin), and then connect a regular
household phone to it from another location. The household
phone could then interface with some voip provider.
I think that solution would be dirty as hech. It would look
like this:
Household Phone ->VoiP bridge->(wireless access point ||
looooog wire)->4G Router in truck.
My house service is similar but the deployment is:
Household Phone -> VoiP bridge -> Loooong wire -> Mikrotik
Router -> Loooooooooong wire -> Wimax Anthena.
Not sure where to post this, but I'll x-post in a few other
echos.
I am looking for ideas on how to set up a cantankerous old
Yosemite Sam fellow with a cellphone system that he would use.
What DOESN't work for him are the touch-screen smartphones that
require swiping and tapping. Swiping left for one thing and
Household Phone -> VoiP bridge -> Loooong wire -> Mikrotik
Router -> Loooooooooong wire -> Wimax Anthena.
It looks like quite a hack. Why can't you have all the
interconnections wireless?
check out that jitterbug shit. they HAVE to have something that he will use. -+-
Hello Mro!
** On Friday 05.02.21 - 23:11, MRO wrote to Ogg:
check out that jitterbug shit. they HAVE to have something that he will use. -+-
I remember reading about that brand a few years ago.
Apparently, that one does not work here in Canada. ATT seems to
be a different beast and that phone seems to be tied to them
only. For an unlocked phone I find that unusual to read in the
Q&A/Comments sections by buyers on amazon.ca
Ogg wrote to All <=-
Personally, I have a feeling that his old phones were configured
to work in 4G LTE only. Perhaps if his previous phones were
switched to 3G/2G, the signals would be better?
I was imagining a solution like this: keep a fully charged
cellphone in the truck (at the end of the driveway) and have a
normal phone in the dwelling that is linked up with the one in
the truck.
Does he have internet access? Getting a femtocell from the cell provider m be the way to go. Femtocells plug into your network and act like a mini ce tower. It's like getting 5 bars in your house, all the time. Some carriers charge for them, others may send one out if you're in a bad coverage area.
Be aware that carriers are decomissioning their 3G gear to
make room for more 4G equipment (and because they can).
AT&T has already decomissioned their 2G network.
Does he have internet access? Getting a femtocell from the
cell provider may be the way to go. Femtocells plug into
your network and act like a mini cell tower. It's like
getting 5 bars in your house, all the time. Some carriers
charge for them, others may send one out if you're in a bad
coverage area.
He's working on getting a phone line installed to his cabin.
Another thing I failed to mention.. he's off-grid. He relies
on a couple of solar panels to provide the meager battery power
he gets for TV and radio.
Warpslide wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
Does he have internet access? Getting a femtocell from the cell provider m be the way to go. Femtocells plug into your network and act like a mini ce tower. It's like getting 5 bars in your house, all the time. Some carriers charge for them, others may send one out if you're in a bad coverage area.
We had to get a cell booster for my last job. The sales office had
next to no service, so we picked one of these up, put the antenna on
the roof and extender was mounted in their office. No internet
required.
We dealt with Rogers at my last job and they didn't have any
solutions available, so we just bought something like this:
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/weboost-homeroom-
indoor-cell-phone-si gnal- booster-kit-652120-black/14539229
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/weboost-homeroom- indoor-cell-phone-si gnal- booster-kit-652120-black/14539229
That was another consideration, but the price puts the solution
out of reach for me.
Another concern is power consumption. Does that baby run hot?
How many watts does does it need? My friend is off-grid and he
relies on solar to charge a few batteries.
We had to get a cell booster for my last job. The sales office had next to no service, so we picked one of these up, put the antenna on the roof and extender was mounted in their office. No internet required.
I've thought about getting one of those, as I have sketchy cell coverage at my house, but wifi calling, which mostly works.
Re: a phone for someone who
hates phones By: Ogg to
poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Feb 06 2021
09:51 pm
He's working on getting a phone line installed to his
cabin. Another thing I failed to mention.. he's off-
grid...
He won't be off grid for long. They'll track him and steal
his DNA from the phone line. Gotta watch out for that.
Are there no LTE to the home providers there? In the
States you can mount an antenna on your house, it looks
kinda like an overside beer can, and then you can get fixed
4G/LTE for your home.
..Another option would be Sat
internet, or even Elon's Starlink Beta... available if he
lives in the band around the CAN/USA border.
Does he have internet access? Getting a femtocell from the
cell provider may be the way to go. Femtocells plug into
your network and act like a mini cell tower. It's like
getting 5 bars in your house, all the time. Some carriers
charge for them, others may send one out if you're in a bad
coverage area.
Household Phone -> VoiP bridge -> Loooong wire -> Mikrotik
Router -> Loooooooooong wire -> Wimax Anthena.
It looks like quite a hack. Why can't you have all the
interconnections wireless?
I like wires.
I could do something like this:
Household Phone -> VoiP bridge ->Microtik Router -> Wireless Link -> Mikrotik Router II->Wimax Anthena.
In fact I have tested similar deployments elsewhere.
But a second quality router is more expensive than two lo[o]*ng wires.
If your friend wants so solve his problem with a single
comercial phone, I know some providers give you the
possibility of bonding your phone number to a voip service
you can trigger via software. That is, they give you a
program able to make and take calls using your phone number.
He could have a smartphone with that program installed, and
take and make calls via IP. Then use the regular phone line
for travelling.
He has no internet access. No phone lines. No wires. Nothing.
He's off-grid.
BTW.. don't femtocells operate as older CDMA tech? I seem to
recall that it was older tech before 3G came along. And/or it
was specific to certain carriers. Anyway.. a femtocell solution
does not seem to be available in Canada.
A couple of people, myself included, have suggested that he sell
the property so that he could move to a residence that has the
amenities he needs. But he's quite stubborn. The money he could
get for the property (the cabin is practically a tear-down at
this point) would most likely outlast the rest of his life at
Re: Re: a phone for someone who hates phones
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Warpslide on Sun Feb 07 2021 06:55 am
We had to get a cell booster for my last job. The sales office had next to no service, so we picked one of these up, put the antenna on the roof and extender was mounted in their office. No internet required.
I've thought about getting one of those, as I have sketchy cell coverage at my house, but wifi calling, which mostly works.
how can you have sketchy coverage? arent you in one of the most popular cities in the usa?
Hello poindexter FORTRAN!
** On Saturday 06.02.21 - 08:20, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Ogg:
Does he have internet access? Getting a femtocell from the
cell provider may be the way to go. Femtocells plug into
your network and act like a mini cell tower. It's like
getting 5 bars in your house, all the time. Some carriers
charge for them, others may send one out if you're in a bad
coverage area.
He has no internet access. No phone lines. No wires. Nothing.
He's off-grid.
BTW.. don't femtocells operate as older CDMA tech? I seem to
recall that it was older tech before 3G came along. And/or it
was specific to certain carriers. Anyway.. a femtocell solution
does not seem to be available in Canada.
A couple of people, myself included, have suggested that he sell
the property so that he could move to a residence that has the
amenities he needs. But he's quite stubborn. The money he could
get for the property (the cabin is practically a tear-down at
this point) would most likely outlast the rest of his life at
this point.
Hello Arelor!
** On Saturday 06.02.21 - 04:05, Arelor wrote to Ogg:
Household Phone -> VoiP bridge -> Loooong wire -> Mikrotik
Router -> Loooooooooong wire -> Wimax Anthena.
It looks like quite a hack. Why can't you have all the
interconnections wireless?
I like wires.
It's not going to work in my application. A wire from the truck
to the house/cabin is not practical.
I could do something like this:
Household Phone -> VoiP bridge ->Microtik Router -> Wireless Link -> Mikrotik Router II->Wimax Anthena.
WiMax is another older tech. I don't think there is anyone
operating that here in Canada.
In fact I have tested similar deployments elsewhere.
But a second quality router is more expensive than two lo[o]*ng wires.
Noted. I used to have an FM-based intercom set. It used the
household wiring to "transmit" the radio portion. As long as all
the devices were on the same circuit, you could have those
devices anywhere. It actually worked quite well with a 3-device
set here where one was in the house, one was in the barn, and a
3rd one was in a workshop outbuilding. But sadly, since those
devices were not intended for environments with varying
temperatures and humidity, the on/off switches of the devices
used in the barn and the outbuilding started to corrode.
Eventually, those stopped working properly.
But when they worked, it was great. The distance from the barn
to the workshop was over well over 200 meters. The auto-mic
pickup of the device in the barn would activate and broadcast
any ruckus going on (hens being disturbed, by a prowler for
example).
If your friend wants so solve his problem with a single
comercial phone, I know some providers give you the
possibility of bonding your phone number to a voip service
you can trigger via software. That is, they give you a
program able to make and take calls using your phone number.
That would require an internet service at his cabin. For now,
that is not physically nor financially feasible.
He could have a smartphone with that program installed, and
take and make calls via IP. Then use the regular phone line
for travelling.
Yes, a dual-function phone. Sounds good in theory. But too many
different options and changing modes of operation would
frustrate him. Should he "forget" to activate the app for VOIP,
he would miss out in calls.
He's gone through 3 different phone carriers within 2 years.
One had a purely touch-screen based smartphone that he totally
abhorred.
The other two were flip-phones with just buttons and a simple
display when opened. The phones seemed to work well when he was
on the road.
But they failed when he was at home. It turned out that when he
was at home, all his incoming calls would automatically go to v-
mail. He HATED v-mail! (So did I when I needed to call him to
find out if he needed anything from town). At that time, I
suggested that he disable v-mail entirely.
Everytime he took the phones to the support-kiosk, they found
nothing wrong with their operation - and did not receive any
tips or suggestions as to why that was happening.
Later, I realized the auto-to-vmail problem might usually be the
case when the phone is out of range. BUT, none of the support
"experts" before all that suggested it! Meanwhile, from my own
experience, I noticed that if I simply preclude my own phone
from using 4G, and only allow 3G max, I can get more bars of
signal strength. So, maybe that is all the configuration HIS
phones needed!
Anyway, he decided to break the first flip-phone right in front
of the support people. Although he was on contract for the
phone and services, he ignored their concerns. He hasn't been
bothered by that company since.
But the 2nd flip-phone (with another carrier) behaved the same
way - no signal strength in the house - and all incoming calls
just went to vmail.
Had I known his dilema earlier, maybe we could have tested my
"disable 4G" theory.
Another thing the phone yahoo experts did was put him on pay-as-
you-go plans. At first, it sounded great that he would only
spend money on calls that he makes. But, nobody told him that
incoming calls would be chargeable too! From early on in his
plans, he was getting automated calls from the phone service
that he was with! And each of those calls gradually ate away
his quota for each "top-up". So, he couldn't understand why
his $20 phone card only lasted 2 weeks - when he made NO CALLS.
Later, when I learned about his dilemas, I was shocked. I only
pay $40/month to activate my Blackberry, and don't even make any
calls with it. I just use it for the $40 of data for the month.
If he were to sign up with the same service I use, he could have
unlimited voice calls for less than $25/month.
I think there are quite a few other unsuspecting seniors out
there cheated into pay-as-you-go plans and paying far too much
for their "emergency" phones.
Are there no LTE to the home providers there? In the
States you can mount an antenna on your house, it looks
kinda like an overside beer can, and then you can get fixed
4G/LTE for your home.
We can install boosters, like someone here mentioned a few
messages back. But at $500+ that seems not doable.
I was imagining a solution like this: keep a fully charged
cellphone in the truck (at the end of the driveway) and have a
normal phone in the dwelling that is linked up with the one in
the truck.
Does anyone here employ such a solution and have experience with
such a thing?
I was imagining a solution like this: keep a fully charged
cellphone in the truck (at the end of the driveway) and have
a normal phone in the dwelling that is linked up with the
one in the truck.
Something to consider (below), I've heard of others and
can't speak to this company's services. They seem to have
LTE and Broadband options if wanting to connect a POTS phone
to a modern uplink.
https://potsreplacement.com/shop
Just to be clear, what I'm talking about is NOT a booster.
It is fixed LTE. It uses LTE signals, provided by the
carrier, to a fixed point (the house) which connects to a
router to provide Wifi to the surrounding area. The
wireless carrier becomes your home ISP. Typically costs
are around $60/month (US). Both ATT Wireless and Verizon
Wireless provide it in the USA. It appears Bell and Telus
provide it in Canada.
I wonder how bad the lag and delay is in networking trying
to use AM/FM signals to carry your data to a network line.
I would imagine that the regular net just doesn't work
under loads like that. Really limits you to specific
messaging software like IRC, MRC, BBSing.
How else do you get signal out there, other then an LDL
SatComm Array. Maybe one of those StarLinks since that's
the popular brand name these days.
wireless carrier becomes your home ISP. Typically costs
are around $60/month (US). Both ATT Wireless and Verizon
Wireless provide it in the USA. It appears Bell and Telus
provide it in Canada.
They do? Do you have a link?
If you are referring to what they call LTE "hubs", which look
like router boxes.. I'm familiar with those. The ones I've
seen are a combo LTE (cellular) + router. I looked into one of
Bell:
https://www.bell.ca/Bell_Internet/promotions/wireless-home-internet
Telus:
https://www.telus.com/en/bc/internet/smart-hub
Verizon:
https://www.verizon.com/home/lte-home-internet/
ATT Wireless:
https://www.att.com/internet/fixed-wireless/
If you are referring to what they call LTE "hubs", which
look like router boxes.. I'm familiar with those. The ones
I've seen are a combo LTE (cellular) + router. ...
I think you're talking about Mifi type wifi-hotspots. This
is different. It is usually called "Fixed LTE." The router
connects to an external antenna you mount on your home.
And the router then provides Wifi and some Ethernet jacks.
The one I'm not sure of is the Telus offering it might not
have an external antenna.
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