Network extender doesnt work with Turbo - Verizon Motorola Droid Turbo General

I bought a business class Verizon extender for $400 because the Turbo has less reception than my LG G2 did, but there seems to be a serious flaw in the Turbos programming (or maybe it's the antenna). I can be right next to the extender with only a couple bars, if I go to make a phone call it suddenly jumps to full bars. The issue could be battery saving? Because if I walk 30 feet from the extender I will lose the extender connection all together. I can then walk back to the extender and have no connection even when right next to it. Basically the extender is useless at 30ft because it will always lose connection.
Before anyone says, it's a defective extender. It's not, this is the replacement extender for the first one that had the same issue (and a burnt out power LED).

Can you post a picture of the extender? The first two photos show its connected to the extender. The third is 3g and it won't connect to it on 3g.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Free mobile app

extender in background
mobrules777 said:
Can you post a picture of the extender? The first two photos show its connected to the extender. The third is 3g and it won't connect to it on 3g.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Free mobile app
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Click to collapse
The extender is the 4 blue lights in the background. It is the new business class one made by Samsung. It's supposed to have a range of 60ft.

The icon above your signal strength in the pictures shows that you are connected to the extender. It looks like a little house. Barely noticeable but its there. I have three to four bars at one end of my house but the other end only one. The one I have is the residential one but I have very bad 4g reception at my house. I dont really know anything about the business class one. The one I have has a range of about 100 ft. I can walk about half way into the back property without losing connection. I wonder If the materials of the building is causing an issue. I know a local government that bought these for several of its buildings. They didnt work for them because the buildings were concrete and brick. A phone could be 10 ft away from the extender but a wall between them and there was no connection at all.
Im sure this is stuff you already know but I would talk to verizon tier one support about it. They seeem to be a little more knowledgeable.

1 bar and I'm 1ft from extender.
It is showing 1 bar and I'm 1ft from the extender. So I walk 30ft and I got nothing.

The turbo can't do simultaneous voice and data because it has one radio, so whenever I make a call it shows 1x with no bars. I guess when you're on the extender and make a call, it switches to full bars like you said. I don't know anything about these extenders though.

If you place a call, you should see it go up to full strength.
You're seeing the 4G indicator, which is the 4G signal coming in from the network. The Network Extenders are 1X/EV-DO only.

Look at Settings-> About Phone-> Status-> Network Type and Strength and see what it says for 1x (or maybe 3g) strength.
I think digitaloutsider is right- when you're not on a call, and you're in 4G coverage, you'll see your 4G strength on the signal meter (or, at least, the low bar between the two). You can verify that you're going through the network extender by either dialing #48 or listening for a double beep immediately after you dial a number.
I don't have a business extender, but my consumer device doesn't have a great range. When I'm 30 feet away in my house (depending on exactly where I am), I'll see a noticeable drop in signal strength from the extender. It certainly still works anywhere in my house, though.

tested
reggie14 said:
Look at Settings-> About Phone-> Status-> Network Type and Strength and see what it says for 1x (or maybe 3g) strength.
I think digitaloutsider is right- when you're not on a call, and you're in 4G coverage, you'll see your 4G strength on the signal meter (or, at least, the low bar between the two). You can verify that you're going through the network extender by either dialing #48 or listening for a double beep immediately after you dial a number.
I don't have a business extender, but my consumer device doesn't have a great range. When I'm 30 feet away in my house (depending on exactly where I am), I'll see a noticeable drop in signal strength from the extender. It certainly still works anywhere in my house, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you guys are correct. It is showing the tower signal, even when the little house extender icon is on. I took several screen shots and they seem to verify the bars are the tower signal. The one issue seems to be that I still am completely losing connection to the extender when I am not far away (45ft), as seen in one of the screens. Certainly not the 60ft range that Verizon claims the business extender can reach.

lukester01 said:
I believe you guys are correct. It is showing the tower signal, even when the little house extender icon is on. I took several screen shots and they seem to verify the bars are the tower signal. The one issue seems to be that I still am completely losing connection to the extender when I am not far away (45ft), as seen in one of the screens. Certainly not the 60ft range that Verizon claims the business extender can reach.
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Click to collapse
It looks like your phone is getting a stronger signal from a Verizon tower than your network extender in one of the pictures. Are you getting closer to a window in that case?

file name tells location
reggie14 said:
It looks like your phone is getting a stronger signal from a Verizon tower than your network extender in one of the pictures. Are you getting closer to a window in that case?
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Click to collapse
If you hover over the picture, it will show the file name for the location in relation to the extender. The extender is in an area of better cell tower coverage. I have a serious problem with intermittent cell coverage at this location. One second I'll have an amazing 4G signal, then 10 sec later it will be 1 bar 3G, then seconds after that nothing, then 5 min later great 4G coverage again. I am on the water in Seattle and I have noticed that when it switches to the 3G signal I am actually on a tower 3 miles away across the water. For some reason the signal goes up and down, then switches towers, it's a mess. So I was hoping the extender would give me constant coverage.
The one you are talking about I think is me on the phone, 45ft from the extender (is the phone icon at the top?). But if I get off the phone at that location the signal instantly drops as you can see in another photo labeled 45ft from extender. I honestly think the phone boosts it's reception when on the phone, then lets it drop when not. This would be fine if I only used the phone for phone calls (I use my wifi for data), except that I cannot then get texts when it does this.

lukester01 said:
If you hover over the picture, it will show the file name for the location in relation to the extender. The extender is in an area of better cell tower coverage. I have a serious problem with intermittent cell coverage at this location. One second I'll have an amazing 4G signal, then 10 sec later it will be 1 bar 3G, then seconds after that nothing, then 5 min later great 4G coverage again. I am on the water in Seattle and I have noticed that when it switches to the 3G signal I am actually on a tower 3 miles away across the water. For some reason the signal goes up and down, then switches towers, it's a mess. So I was hoping the extender would give me constant coverage.
The one you are talking about I think is me on the phone, 45ft from the extender (is the phone icon at the top?). But if I get off the phone at that location the signal instantly drops as you can see in another photo labeled 45ft from extender. I honestly think the phone boosts it's reception when on the phone, then lets it drop when not. This would be fine if I only used the phone for phone calls (I use my wifi for data), except that I cannot then get texts when it does this.
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Click to collapse
Use Verizon Messages, you can send+receive SMS over Wi-Fi and you can open your messages in a web portal from your laptop or another device. Verizon apps don't always suck haha

I am gasping at the remark the turbo has worse reception than the g2. My droid maxx definitely has better reception and hand off than my g3 but both work well.
Sent from my Verizon LG G3 using Tapatalk

I really think it depends on your area as far as reception. The Turbo is the first phone I have used that gets cell reception in my neighborhood. That would be better reception than the OG droid, Bionic, Original Nexus, S3, HTC One, Iphone 4, iphone 5 and Verizon Ellipsis.
That said, due to all the reception issues of the past, I also have the business class extender. I have 2 bars of 4g and when I make a call, it goes over to 1x at full strength. As I move away, the bars drop. I live on half an acre and this thing still works out in the yard. You always know when you are using the extender because of the little bo doop sound it makes when you answer or make a call.

Related

cdma signal preference

I know its kind of against how cellular is designed to work but I am in a situation where a sprint signal is only barely(0 bars) available and it decides to roam (with the triangle) to a uscellular signal. The problem is that its constantly trying to stay on the sprint signal, realizing that the connection isn't good enough and goes back to the uscellular signal and is just killing performance and battery. Is there any prl update or fix I can make with the evo to just stay on the uscc signal and forget about the crappy sprint signal at this location instead of hopping between the two? Ideally I'd like something automatic but I would even settle for a toggle. The uscellular signal is a repeater that was installed at my workplace. For example, in battery status my evo; the cell standby is at 39%
I am having the EXACT same issue in my office. The repeater signal in my office (850 MHz so it only repeats Verizon / AT&T / T-Mobile) is -70 dBm (full bars on my phone). The Sprint signal from outside through the foot thick cement walls is -102 or worse dBm (aka 1-0 bars). Why the hell will the phone not consistently stay on the higher power signal??
The techknowfile trick is NOT the solution to this problem. This seems like a problem with the phone itself - the whole point of a multi-band phone with free roaming is it should always pick the best signal (in my opinion).
I tried the techknowfile trick as well with no luck. Maybe a different prl? I used the 40060.prl file suggested.

Bad Reception: T-Mobile or HD2?

I'm in an area that t-mobile maps show should have excellent phone and data coverage. Both are horrible. Data service is almost always edge with very few bars. If I ever do get 3G its usually only momentary and never above one bar.
The problem is reception doesn't seem to improve regardless of where I am. I drove to a neighboring state along freeway that t-mobile showed had full coverage. But the few times I did get a signal, I was roaming.
So, I arrive in Boulder CO thinking I should have excellent coverage, but nothing changes. Hardly any signal strength when I do have a signal. I've tried all the radios, several ROMs... even the stock one. Nothing helps.
The question is:
Does t-mobile coverage general suck? This is my first time with the company. I plan to get someone's version of the Galaxy S, but if t-mobile coverage is this bad, I'm not getting theirs.
Does the Leo radio generally suck?
Do I have a bad phone?
Is there an app that measures and logs signal strength (preferably with GPS)? I've seen them for wifi, but is there one that tracks and logs the voice/data signal on the t-mobile network?
I had a G1 before the HD2 and I usually get the same or one bar less than what I used to get with my G1 in the same places.
Try these
dc41 said:
I'm in an area that t-mobile maps show should have excellent phone and data coverage. Both are horrible. Data service is almost always edge with very few bars. If I ever do get 3G its usually only momentary and never above one bar.
The problem is reception doesn't seem to improve regardless of where I am. I drove to a neighboring state along freeway that t-mobile showed had full coverage. But the few times I did get a signal, I was roaming.
So, I arrive in Boulder CO thinking I should have excellent coverage, but nothing changes. Hardly any signal strength when I do have a signal. I've tried all the radios, several ROMs... even the stock one. Nothing helps.
The question is:
Does t-mobile coverage general suck? This is my first time with the company. I plan to get someone's version of the Galaxy S, but if t-mobile coverage is this bad, I'm not getting theirs.
Does the Leo radio generally suck?
Do I have a bad phone?
Is there an app that measures and logs signal strength (preferably with GPS)? I've seen them for wifi, but is there one that tracks and logs the voice/data signal on the t-mobile network?
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Click to collapse
1: its the reception but they have REALLY good reception around the US are you surround by tress or alot of buildings/businesses?
2: i prefer the 2.10 radio it works really well
3: call t-mobile and tell them bout your problem, but before you call do a hard reset and dont install any apps, if that doesn't work Switch your sim to another phone and see what type of service you get but use a touch screen phone
i have a different problem BUT VERY ODD!
At my house i get 3g but i can't even receive calls or call out but i can text perfectly and use the internet, i switched my sim to another phone and had the same problem i get 3g but wen people call me it goes straight to Voicemail, i found 2.10 works the best for me but i live in VEGAS it still didnt fix it but it kinda made it better...
pakistaniprince said:
1: its the reception but they have REALLY good reception around the US are you surround by tress or alot of buildings/businesses?
2: i prefer the 2.10 radio it works really well
3: call t-mobile and tell them bout your problem, but before you call do a hard reset and dont install any apps, if that doesn't work Switch your sim to another phone and see what type of service you get but use a touch screen phone
i have a different problem BUT VERY ODD!
At my house i get 3g but i can't even receive calls or call out but i can text perfectly and use the internet, i switched my sim to another phone and had the same problem i get 3g but wen people call me it goes straight to Voicemail, i found 2.10 works the best for me but i live in VEGAS it still didnt fix it but it kinda made it better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Home office in an average neighborhood. I tried to find an app that measures the GSM signal strength. I found a demo of MobileGX P3Kit and it did just what I wanted except it doesn't log the signal strength. But, I guess the company went out of business. It only worked once, and the website link is dead.
Does the data connection use a different frequency than the phone signal connection? That's about the only thing I can think of that would cause the problems you have at home. Weird stuff.
I am in a marginal coverage area and the HD2 radio is horrible. I'll go from 3 bars to no bars back to 2 bars then to none in under a minute without moving my phone.
On my Blackberry I would get usable coverage everywere in my house, none in the basement, with the HD2 its pure luck if I can use it on the front porch.
When I'm standing below a T-Mo tower I will often drop a bar of signal... and thats standing under a tower, several other people with HD2's that I have spoken with have the same experience.
Seems like it varies from phone to phone, and from location to location.
I had a Cliq and despite it being a POS, it had excellent coverage, then I got a Nexus One and its coverage would drop regularly at home. It would drop so often that I didnt really use pandora or surf the internet unless I was on WiFi.
Now I have the HD2 and its been somewhere in the middle. Lots of people say changing the radio will fix your issue. I would definitely start there. Just because a radio version works for some doesnt mean it will definitely be the best option for your location.
dc41 said:
So, I arrive in Boulder CO thinking I should have excellent coverage, but nothing changes. Hardly any signal strength when I do have a signal. I've tried all the radios, several ROMs... even the stock one. Nothing helps.
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Click to collapse
Strange, I just left Boulder and I had full 3g signal strength.

Puzzling coverage...

I'm on the Three network, have an unlocked HTC desire HD with 17 m2 radio.
Normally I get terrible signal in the flat that i live in, its a granite building in Aberdeen. Occasional the signal is around 1 bar, sometimes grey, and most of the time its X.. (no service), but i still manage to get 3G or H. When looking at the APN settings and specifically at available networks when doing a manual search, next to 3 is a green star which I assume means it's connected to 3 mobile network. But sometimes i get amazing signal, full bars, which puzzled me! so I looked at the available networks and next to 3, there was no star, so i tried calling a number and it rang and came through. I also tried using mobile internet when in this "good coverage" state, and google would not load (G is displayed in the notifications bar). After a while, the bars would drop to 1 or grey, and i would then get H or 3G, and google loads again. What's going on? and how can i take advantage of this when i have no signal.
try and find the app called open signal maps
that can be used to see where the signal-towers are
and how good the signal is
or use this site and search your adress
http://opensignalmaps.com/
sincere regards,
blokhoofd
The antenna is really wierd.
Normally I only get 2G connection.
But if I completly take my hand off the lower cover and lift the phone up a bit for a better signal, I get a 3Mbps connection, though as soon as I lower my phone back to normal the 3G signal is completly gone or gets really bad (zero bars and lower than EDGE speed)!
The antenna in this phone sucks really bad, my old Nokia phone atleast had a stable connection.
This is very bad news... I was considering DHD, but if there are isseus with gsm signal than I am really worried... Is it also happening on the stock ROM?
As long as network coverege is good you should be okay.
I swaped my SIM card with a friends and with better coverege, 3.5G worked good (solid 2Mbps), only slight drop if SIM cover is completly covered, which doesn't happen in normal use.
I just can't understand how I can get such high speeds with my SIM while on a badly covered area. haven't tested how well other devices pick up the 3G signal (my old phone wasn't 3G yet)
I'm still using stock ROM btw.
Have you tried a different radio?
People are reporting different results with them, so might be an idea to play around and see if anyone of them works better for you
I've tried the new Orange radio and I'm getting better signal, although threes coverage isn't great I would expect the device to seamlessly change between 3.5g and gprs but it doesn't it'll get stuck on hsdpa network until the x appears and sometimes it'll go to gprs and go back to three bars. Before it would be on x all the time and that's probably why the battery was quite ****. 3g doesnt penetrate buildings very well and I live in a granite building so would explain why I get better gprs signal. I just wish the antenna was smart and changed seamlessly.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
So annoying dhd still not selecting the next best connection just no service but if I select to detect network automatically it connects eventually
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

[Q] Sporadic Signal Loss

Okay so i've got an aria rooted and flashed with the Liberated 2.2 rom. I've been using it for the past 3 months and I've noticed that I will go from full service while a phone call is comming in and complete signal loss when I answer it. I have set the phone on a table and watched the network signal strength go from -113 dBm and 0asu to -81 dBm and 16asu and vise versa. I have also noticed that when I lose signal my "H" for the data goes with it and service comes back a few seconds later very strong but showing "G". From there it will go to "E" then back to "H".
Could anyone explain this or have a better reason as to why this is happening? Maybe its just based on the connection where I live but I've used the app Antennas and the tower is about 1/3 mile away.
Any info or help would be awesome
Thanks
i'm not sure why this would happen outside of a poor bit of service where you're living.
i used the various roms for the aria and never had any sort of service loss issue.
as far as the icons switching around, e = edge network (2g), h = hspa (3g). when your phone drops its connection, it tries to reconnect as fast as possible, usually with edge, then after its strong it looks for the 3g connection.

[Q] why do i have no service with reception?

This has been happening often at certain low reception spots in my house. It would lose reception then get it back but still shows no service or emergency calls only. I'm on AOKP with Franco kernel.
Stock, rooted
bump...at least it seems like it not only me. Ive never seen soemthing like this, usually with other phones it can take a long time to get a signal again once it's lost but it never shows signal and then give no service.
Can you make calls or txt when it is like this?
neotekz said:
bump...at least it seems like it not only me. Ive never seen soemthing like this, usually with other phones it can take a long time to get a signal again once it's lost but it never shows signal and then give no service.
Can you make calls or txt when it is like this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had it happen all the time with T-Mobile as the signal was so weak around my house, I was right on the edge of reception from their tower about a mile away. I would get a weak signal in my bedroom then get no signal in the bathroom then I might get a signal for a few seconds in the bathroom then go right back to no signal. Problem was solved when I switched to ST AT&T, now I get a decent signal throughout my house and no longer get no service even in the bathroom.
kzoodroid said:
I had it happen all the time with T-Mobile as the signal was so weak around my house, I was right on the edge of reception from their tower about a mile away. I would get a weak signal in my bedroom then get no signal in the bathroom then I might get a signal for a few seconds in the bathroom then go right back to no signal. Problem was solved when I switched to ST AT&T, now I get a decent signal throughout my house and no longer get no service even in the bathroom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not just the weak signal. It shows no service but at the same time shows that i have reception. If you look at the my screenshot you see i have a signal it's being displayed as a number(-101) next to the wifi icon while at the same time shows i have no service. Kibox screenshot does a better job explaining this than mine, how can you have bars and no service at the same time?
Odds are your phone has picked up signal from another company and is trying to attach. During that time it will show signal but if it's not authorized to roam then it wont compelte the attach.
neotekz said:
Its not just the weak signal. It shows no service but at the same time shows that i have reception. If you look at the my screenshot you see i have a signal it's being displayed as a number(-101) next to the wifi icon while at the same time shows i have no service. Kibox screenshot does a better job explaining this than mine, how can you have bars and no service at the same time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-101 is a very weak signal and is about the same as what I was getting with T-Mobile (-109) when I had my problems with them. My signal strength with ST AT&T is around -90 to -80 and I no longer have the problem of getting no signal.
neotekz said:
This has been happening often at certain low reception spots in my house. It would lose reception then get it back but still shows no service or emergency calls only. I'm on AOKP with Franco kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could it be that you lost signal from your provider and yet your phone is still receiving signal from other providers for emergency calls. So you would think that got your provider's signal back but in reality you don't.
shotta35 said:
Odds are your phone has picked up signal from another company and is trying to attach. During that time it will show signal but if it's not authorized to roam then it wont compelte the attach.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have roaming off so it shouldnt be hopping on a different network. i didnt think to check which network it was when the phone was doing this, i will next time.

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