Great Data Service and My Cell Phone Now Works!
by
pvreditor
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in Computer Hardware at Epinions.com
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May 14, 2008
Pros:
Easy to set up; works for high-speed wireless data
Cons:
Installation is tricky if you want the best performance
The Bottom Line:
The cell phone repeater is tricky to set up if you want the best performance. However, once set up, it's easy to use and works perfectly.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I have a house in the mountains where cell phone reception is poor and the options for high-speed data are limited. It's too far out in the country for either cable TV or fiber-optic service, so the only choice most people have is a high-speed satellite service such as Wild Blue or HughesNet. I've heard too many negatives about those and the prices are very high, so I really wanted to find an alternative.
Meanwhile, I work for Sprint Nextel and have access to very cheap wireless high-speed data service (called EVDO), but the catch is that there must be reception. Inside the house, the high-speed data modem just got a whisper of EVDO service that resulted in data speeds that were slower than a dial-up line. However, when I took my laptop with the data modem up on the roof of the house, I got data speeds of 100-120 kilobits per second (kbps), which is more than twice what I got at this house on a dial-up line.
What I needed was an external antenna and some way to get the signal into my EVDO data modem. I looked around and found the zBoost YX500-PCS cell phone repeater by Wireless Extenders (Wi-Ex). I bought it from a cell phone repeater specialist on the Internet for about $225.
What It Is
The Wi-Ex zBoost YX500-PCS is a complete system that includes an indoor repeater, outdoor antenna, indoor antenna, cable and some hardware to hook it all up. There is hardware to attach the antenna to the wall of your house (inside or outside) but there is no other antenna mount. The antenna provided with the zBoost YX500-PCS is an omnidirectional model, meaning that it picks up equally well in all directions.
The main part of the YX500-PCS is a base unit that looks a little like a portable CD player. The indoor antenna attaches directly to the back of the YX500-PCS, while the cable to the outdoor antenna attaches to the front of the unit. There is a small external "wall-wart" power supply and the system comes with 35 feet of good quality RG6 coaxial cable with pre-installed "F" connectors. The physical quality of all the components is pretty good -- it all looks like decent homeowner-quality gear.
Wi-Ex makes several versions of this product to cover the two primary cell phone bands. The YX500-PCS that I received operates on the 1,900 MHz PCS band, which is where Sprint, Verizon and some others operate. There is also the YX500-CEL, which covers the 800 MHz cell phone band, which is where T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and some others operate. Finally, Wi-Ex has the YX510-PCS-CEL, which combines 800/1,900 MHz operation into a single box. Please note that Wi-Ex products do not work with Nextel cell phones.
I wanted to be sure to get a good wireless data connection, so I bought an optional hi-gain antenna. Called a "panel antenna," it has 14 dB gain. I bought a chimney mount and a 10-foot mast so that the panel antenna is well above the roof of my house. I then carefully pointed the panel antenna to maximize the number of bars that the EVDO connection window displayed on my computer. Pointing the antenna is a critical part of this process but I'm not going to elaborate on it, since the focus of this review is on the zBoost YX500-PCS cell phone repeater. However, I believe the antenna is now pointed for maximum signal.
How the system operates
The zBoost YX500-PCS is a "repeater," which means that it receives and re-transmits a signal. To make it work, the outdoor antenna has to be vertically separated from the indoor antenna by at least 15 feet. (I have them separated by at least 18 feet.) The antenna receives a signal from the cell phone tower and feeds it on the included coaxial cable to the base unit. The base unit re-transmits the 1,900 MHz PCS signal to my EVDO modem, which feeds data into my computer on a USB port. Data from my computer is fed into the EVDO modem, which transmits the signal to the YX500-PCS base unit. The base unit receives the signal, boosts it, and sends it up to the roof antenna.
Using the system is completely transparent and there is no apparent slowdown in operation or delay. There are no switches to flip or controls to adjust -- I just plugged it in and it worked, sort of.
How does it work for me?
The YX500-PCS was easy to set up. All I had to do was connect the cable to the roof antenna on one side and screw in the indoor antenna on the other side. The only remaining item was to plug in the power supply and attach the power wire. The unit fired right up and its three lights started blinking. I then booted my computer, plugged in the USB EVDO modem and ran the EVDO connection program. At this point, the computer with the EVDO modem was about eight feet from the zBoost YX500-PCS base station.
Where I would previously get a signal level of zero to one bar, I'm now getting 4-5 bars. Nice! As far as connecting through the YX500-PCS repeater, there is no difference between connecting through the repeater and connecting directly to the service. It connects exactly the same way and is used the same way.
When I first got the zBoost YX500-PCS and set it up, I routinely got connection speeds of 110-120 kbps. I found this disappointing, as was the fact that the system showed that it is "roaming" and is not on the Sprint network. I was really hoping to get faster speeds but for several weeks, all I could get was a maximum of 120 kbps. The system would occasionally connect to a Sprint tower and no longer show roaming, but the speeds were even slower.
At the same time, my Sprint cell phone would not work at all with the zBoost YX500-PCS repeater. The cell phone will not recognize the signal from the repeater at all, and would switch into analog roaming mode. Since there are no analog cell towers in the area, the cell phone ultimately would not make a connection. This was very disappointing, as I was hoping the YX500-PCS would also give me solid cell phone reception in this house.
One other thing: The signal level drops off quickly as I move away from the YX500-PCS base station. At 4-6 feet away, I get five bars. At eight feet away, it's at 3-4 bars. At 20 feet away, it's down around one bar. EVDO connection is still solid but I get nervous seeing so few bars of signal level. At 30-40 feet, connection through the YX500-PCS box is lost.
July 12, 2008 Update:
FLASH! Three weeks ago, while I was downloading data at the modest speed of 100 kbps or so, my wireless data service switched to MUCH higher speeds and has stayed there. I am no longer roaming, I get 4-5 solid bars, my Sprint cell phone works perfectly and I routinely get data speeds of 400-525 kbps. I'd love to get faster speeds still but am ecstatic that I now have real high-speed Internet service at my house in the deeply rural Virginia mountains. Yay! As I said, my Sprint cell phone now works perfectly as well.
I don't know what happened but do have a theory. My theory is that the nearest Sprint tower to my home (about 4.5 miles away) was finally upgraded for PCS data service, possibly in advance of the announcement of Sprint's new Instinct phone. After all, the Instinct wouldn't work very well without high-speed service. Therefore, the Sprint tower nearest to my mountain home was upgraded for the Instinct, and this upgrade was just what I was looking for.
The speed I'm getting (400-525 kbps) is nothing special for those of you with cable modem or FiOS service, but it's plenty good. I can watch videos over the Internet, quickly download antivirus or Windows updates, and generally get very pleasing response. I can also get high-speed Internet service AND use the cell phone at the same time, with no apparent degradation. I'm now completely sold on the zBoost YX500-PCS and think I did exactly the right thing.
Summary
I had initially given the zBoost YX500-PCS an average rating of three stars for its ho-hum performance. However, now that the nearest tower to me has ben upgraded, the device is working wonderfully. I can get cell phone service in the farthest corners of my home and data speeds are very good, with the promise of becoming even better.
For these reasons, I'm giving the Wi-Ex zBoost YX500-PCS a five-star rating and a strong recommendation. It is not simple to install, especially if you want the best performance. However, if you're patient and thorough, you can be rewarded with excellent performance.
