Network Extender

[belome]

I have one of these at my house... [actually, mine is the older YX500 model]

Newegg.com - Wireless Extenders YX600-CEL Wireless Cell Phone Extender

Its not perfect but it sure beats not having anything. [I don't have broadband, so thier network extender wasn't an option for me]

My house is fairly small, but I can now talk anywhere in the house without dropping the calls now.

 

[MNTNBKR]

I had the original one for a few days (about a year ago) before returning it. It didn't work or play well with my Droid 1. The Droid would constantly be switching between the NE for service and the nearest tower for data. Often times, even when connecting via the network extender, it would not allow calls to go through. This happened on both my Droid 1 and on my wifes Palm. I sent it back for a refund.

That said, I'm receiving the "new and improved" network extender in the mail today, and hopefully it works better. I was able to talk the customer service reps into giving me $100 off the price bringing the total to $150. My argument was that I have 2 smartphones with unlimited data plans, and they're useless about %80 of the time.

 

[BigMcGuire]

MNTNBKR - I have several people willing to pitch in to get this Network Extender now that it has 3g. Let me know how it goes for you ok? Many thanks!

 

[Bilgediver]

My girlfriend lives on the eastern shore of virginia. The signal is strong on the highway but her house is surrounded by trees. My droid would consistently get -100 to -102 dbs, and my gfs ally would be slightly worse. She has verizon dsl and a wifi router, so I bought the network extender for her birthday. Now she never gets dropped calls. All the network extender is is a voip device, as it uses the broadband internet connection. Once at her house I just turn data off and use wifi for data.

Droidforums.net appified!

 

[danwanna]

I use the original Network Extender and other than some occasional static (not sure why) on the line it works great. I also use WiFi at home, so I'm really not missing the 3G.

The only other issue I have noticed is that if someone calls my Google Voice number which gets forwarded to my Droid2 through my NE, the lag increases. I don't know if that is a GV issue or a NE issue, but I can definitely tell what number they called if I am on the NE.

 

[MNTNBKR]

MNTNBKR - I have several people willing to pitch in to get this Network Extender now that it has 3g. Let me know how it goes for you ok? Many thanks!

Alright! So, I just got home from work and set up the network extender. My initial impression is that this one is done right. Observing my phone behavior while connected to the NE for the last half hour, I haven't noticed and weird activity like I did with the original one. I did have to do a *228 -> option 2 in order to get data flowing through the NE on my wifes Droid 1, but my DX was working straight away.

One HUGE bug fix that seems to have been corrected from the original NE is the GPS location problem described here. My location is now correctly displayed even when connected through the NE.

I have yet to place more then a couple of test calls, so I can't be sure that this one won't have the same connectivity problems that I had with the original one however, I'm pretty confident that that has been fixed too.

I'll report back in a couple days if there are any notable developments.

 

[harrellj]

One HUGE bug fix that seems to have been corrected from the original NE is the GPS location problem described here. My location is now correctly displayed even when connected through the NE.

Gah! This explains so much! I've noticed lately that all my weather apps seem to believe I'm in the northeast corner of my state instead of southwest and couldn't figure out why, especially since I never had a problem with this before. I just shrugged my shoulders and set most of them to the city I'm in instead of having them figure it out for themselves. We have the original NE.

 

[greyghost04]

Mine works great. I have the 1st generation extender and went from no bars to 5 bars throughout my entire house including the basement. Why do you need 3G. Don't you have wi-fi in your house? When you go in your house the Droid will auto switch to wi-fi, so 3G is superfluous. Find a 1st gen model (Ebay?) for $50 and you'll never be sad you did it.

 

[IanG]

I did a post about the range extender... got 0 posts so never really got bumped to the top, but feel free to check it out:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...ss-network-extender-review-no-56k-mobile.html

 

[MNTNBKR]

One HUGE bug fix that seems to have been corrected from the original NE is the GPS location problem described here. My location is now correctly displayed even when connected through the NE.

OK, so I may have jumped the gun on this point just a little bit. I noticed that if I un-check "Use GPS Satellites" under the Location and Security Settings, and leave only the "Use Wireless Networks" enabled, the location will still be determined based on the Network Extender. How the NE places my phone 200 miles from my actual location is a mystery to me though.

However, when BOTH "Use GPS Satellites" & "Use Wireless Networks" are checked, the location is determined from the GPS satellites by default whereas before, it was determined from the NE by default. So, I'm not sure if the network extender was changed, or if the GPS priorities within Android OS were changed since I had my original NE. Either way, I believe it works as it should now because I no longer have to disable the "Use Wireless Networks" in order for proper GPS location to be determined.

I've made a couple of calls and sent some text messages as well as used the 3G connection for some downloads without issues. So far, I'm happy with the device. I think it's worth the $150 that I paid.

 

[Labrat555]

I am on a network extender at home and have no 3/4G signal at my residence. Therefore, I am connected to my WiFi and there in lies the problem. My WiFi keeps disconnecting and I have to reconnect it multiple times daily in order to use data applications, and sometimes I have to restart my phone in order for it to connect again. I keep getting an authentication error when it disconnects. This is only Galaxy Note 2 specific because I have no other problems with other devices that are connected to my WiFi. I can make calls fine, so the network extender is working fine also. I did a factory reset already and that has not resolved my issue. Verizon told me that Samsung is aware of a WiFi connectivity issue and is working on it. My question is:
1: Is anyone else having this issue?
2: Does anyone have a solition that has worked for them?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Miller6386]

I know some had issues based on the router they were using. I guess some of them don't communicate real well with some samsung devices.

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