I visit a coffee shop where there is no wi-fi.
I have trouble geting a signal, which might be because of the concrete
walls and ceiling. However other folks seem to have no problem and my >provider assures me there is a strong signal in the area and indeed
outside the building is fine,
Today, out of frustration I removed my G4 Samsung phone from its
protective, clear plastic cover and ... lo and behold ... a signal which
did not go away.
If I check the ikelyhood of this being the solution, the web tells me
that clear plastic cases do not block the signal.
I have an app which tells me the strength of my wi-fi signal, is there
such an app to test the mobile data signal with wi-fi turned off?
I have an app which tells me the strength of my wi-fi signal, is there
such an app to test the mobile data signal with wi-fi turned off?
I have an app which tells me the strength of my wi-fi signal, is there
such an app to test the mobile data signal with wi-fi turned off?
Jim the Geordie <jim@jimXscott.co.uk> wrote:
I have an app which tells me the strength of my wi-fi signal, is there
such an app to test the mobile data signal with wi-fi turned off?
No app required. Go into Android settings -> General -> About phone -> Network. Navpath differs with different brands of phones. There you
will see signal strength.
VanguardLH wrote:
Jim the Geordie <jim@jimXscott.co.uk> wrote:
I have an app which tells me the strength of my wi-fi signal, is
there such an app to test the mobile data signal with wi-fi turned
off?
No app required. Go into Android settings -> General -> About phone ->
Network. Navpath differs with different brands of phones. There you
will see signal strength.
Pixel2: ...About phone / SIM Status. -110 dBm 30 asu I should know
if that's good or bad, but I don't.
I have an app which tells me the strength of my wi-fi signal, is there
such an app to test the mobile data signal with wi-fi turned off?
No app required. Go into Android settings -> General -> About phone ->
Network. Navpath differs with different brands of phones. There you
will see signal strength.
Pixel2: ...About phone / SIM Status. -110 dBm 30 asu I should know if that's good or bad, but I don't.
The bars on your phone for signal strength are extremely inaccurate.
Plus, there is no standard on how much signal strength each bar
represents.
Besides looking at the phone's signal strength reading (not the bars), I
also use the Network Cell Info app.
Besides showing me (the same)
signal strength reading with green, yellow, red, and black bands
indicating good, okay, poor, and crap strength levels along with the
actual reading value, it shows my wifi signal strength, too which is currently about -35 dBm which is excellent.
That is to my home cable modem with wifi on 5 GHz (for faster bandwidth
but shorter distance) although my phone could also use 2.4 GHz (for
greater distance but slower bandwidth).
I almost exclusively use wifi
while at home to use Google Voice for my phone service. I don't publish
my cell phone number, just my Google Voice number, and all calls to GV
get forwarded to all my phones via wifi/Internet or cellular or telco
(POTS). Even when away from home and off wifi to use cellular, GV is my
main phone number (incoming and outgoing calls use cellular data). A
few times I've had to use cellular voice on outgoing calls when GV could
not sucessfully connect to the other end.
The app also shows a map of nearby cell towers (that contract for
service from your cellular providers). This can show you to which tower
you are connected, and which others are nearby. The app shows a lot
more info, but you'll have to research what all that data means.
https://www.signalboosters.com/blog/how-to-check-your-cell-phone-signal-strength/
Section: What Do I Do with My Signal Strength dBm Reading?
https://www.weboost.com/blog/how-to-test-signal-strength-on-your-phone Section: What is a good signal strength for a cell phone?
In my basement for cellular signal, my phone gets -111 dBm which is a
very poor signal. Elsewhere around home, I get -100 to -105 dBM.
Despite what the carriers claim in their coverage maps, I'm in a low
level area alongside a major river and in a forested area. The cell
towers on my side are attenuated by trees and buildings. The cell
towers on the other side of the river are elevated on cliffs (towers
have poor downward coverage). When I get out of my residential area,
signal goes closer to 90 dBm, but that fluctuates. Coverage is poor
inside buildings away from windows, and in car park ramps due to all the concrete, and the same for GPS. That's why I rely on wifi/Internet via cellular data for GV phone service at home along with voice service from
my ISP (Comcast Voice) which uses a separate channel from those for
Internet access (so it really isn't VOIP). My GV is VOIP at home: GV
via Internet to Obitalk converted to POTS twisted pair in my home to corded/cordless phones.
Some folks will use femtocells at home.
This converts cellular signals
to digital traffic over Internet directed to a specific provider.
Some
major carriers offer femtocells for free, or for lease, because they
want to keep you as a customer instead of you switching to another
carrier that a nearer cell tower contracts for different service.
Cell towers are not owned by cellular providers.
They contract with the
tower to offer their service from there. Several, but not all, carriers contract at the same tower. You can also try a cellular signal booster
aka repeater, but you'll also be helping your neighbors with their poor signal strength.
The problem there is you need a tower or pole to get
higher than the surrounding trees and buildings to capture a stronger
signal. Boosting a weak signal doesn't work well, like using a cup
instead of pressing your ear against a wall to snoop on a conversation.
Since I have both GV (VOIP) and land-line (ISP voice) service at home, I don't need a tower+booster or femtocell. If I didn't have GV, I might consider a femtocell if my cellular provider provided one for free.
However, my cellular provider is an MVNO (Tracfone), so no such perk
from them. I'd have to go with a more expensive major carrier to get a femtocell that works with their service.
With GV, I use an Obitalk to
convert from VOIP to POTS inside my home. If GV ever stops working with Obitalk (their home products entered EOL back on Dec 2021, and they're
going forward with just their commercial products), I'll have to switch
to Ooma.
Both work with other VOIP operators than just GV, but GV is
still free in USA. With both, you have to buy their VOIP converter, but thereafter there are free and paid service tiers. At the time I looked
at Obi and Ooma, the converter box at Obi was half the price of Ooma
(and now Ooma is about half price, $56, at Amazon). Been using
GV+Obitalk for about 9 years. If Obitalk stops working, it'll be due to
some change at GV.
The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote
I have an app which tells me the strength of my wi-fi signal, is there >>>> such an app to test the mobile data signal with wi-fi turned off?
No app required. Go into Android settings -> General -> About phone ->
Network. Navpath differs with different brands of phones. There you
will see signal strength.
Pixel2: ...About phone / SIM Status. -110 dBm 30 asu I should know if
that's good or bad, but I don't.
Hi The Real Bev,
I did some work for you and documented this to help you out on comparisons.
Android 13 > Settings > About phone > Status information > SIM card status The inflection point for cellular signal is somewhere around -105dBm.
It was more work for me but I made this for you "The Real Bev" so that you can compare your signal with mine (I live in the boonies, by the way).
<https://i.postimg.cc/50SwH9Cq/strength01.jpg> Cellular -74 dBm 66 ASU
I took that while the phone was connected by USB to the PC so it's real
world for me in my office inside the house (outside would be better).
It was pretty stable at -74dBM but it fluctuated a bit at startup times:
<https://i.postimg.cc/nVT4pzZn/strength02.jpg> Signal Strength Varies
To get an idea of how the decibels work, they're compared to a standard. Since it's a negative number for the decibels you have to think in reverse.
Each positive change (i.e., -74dBm going to -71dbM) is a doubling of power. Each negative change (i.e., -74dBm going to -77dbM) is a halving of power.
Generally around -110 dBm or more negative is just starting to get crappy, where anything more positive than about 100 dBm is a pretty good signal.
Bear in mind that for Wi-Fi, that inflection point moves to around -50 dBM
or thereabouts (i.e., -40 dBm is about ten times more signal than -50dBM).
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