Cell phone booster in the shop

[Travis Conner]

I don't get any cell reception inside my shop since it's metal. I'm probably going to setup cable tv and internet, so do I need a second booster antenna for internet too? Or is the cable modem hard wired from the cable line?

[David Bassett]

I don't get any cell reception inside my shop since it's metal. I'm probably going to setup cable tv and internet, so do I need a second booster antenna for internet too? Or is the cable modem hard wired from the cable line?

It depends. (Not a simple answer like you wanted, but it's the truth.)

If you have a separate service installed by your cable / internet provider to your shop, you'll get whatever they use. That's a cable in this area, (but I've seen some ads suggesting some services are wireless.)

But I assume you are extending the footprint of the service you currently have to your house. Then it will be up to you to decide. Wired will always be more reliable, but it's more cost & hassle to trench and bury a cable. There are RF connections to bridge between buildings, but they tend to be subject to interference and would probably need an external antenna on your metal building.

For your cell phone, I've heard of people using passive systems with an external antenna connected to an internal antenna which allows the signal in and out of your metal building. I don't know how well that type works. If you have reliable high('ish) speed internet, T-Mobile, and I assume all others, offer "mini-towers" you plug into your network that uses the internet to connect to their system and receives & generates cell signals inside your building. (T-Mobile calls theirs a "Personal Cellspot".) This device works well for us. They own the box, we had to pay a deposit, and we pay for the Internet bandwidth it uses. But its bandwidth is insignificant compared to our computers, etc.

[Alan Lightstone]

Cell phone repeaters (with omnidirectional antenna on the roof or directional if you need it), work very well, but are pricey. Wilson Amplifiers sells high-end ones (multiple bands, work with multiple carriers). I had one in my last house. It worked extremely well. I don't think any are 5G at the moment, which would kinda suck spending all that money and have it not work with 5G in a couple of years (or more).

The "mini-towers" ( I think the real name for them is network extenders for Verizon, Microcell for ATT, Personal Cellspot for T-Mobile.) Also not cheap, but I have heard of people talking them into providing them for free. Those need a hard-wired internet connection.

Of course, you could talk T-Mobile into providing a 5G tower on your shop. Nevermind. Lost myself there for a minute.

If your shop isn't getting cell phone coverage because its metal and acting as a Faraday cage, then you'll need some sort of external receiving antenna, with an internal broadcasting antenna.

[Jim Becker]

THe "best" way to take care of what you want to do is to run hard cables to your shop for both the network and for TV. That will require two cables...Ethernet and COAX. There is a way to bridge the Ethernet across the COAX using MOCA adapters. In either case, you can use a wireless access point to provide Internet. TV obviously uses the COAX directly. As to your wireless phone...as long as your carrier supports voice over WiFi (majors all do) you can use the WiFi network for calling as well as data.

[Larry Frank]

I agree that running the coax and Ethernet to the shop is the most reliable. My house is spread out and I ran them to it and installed a wireless router. It works great.

[Bruce King]

After getting WiFi.
Go to settings, cellular and turn on wifi calling.
Mine seems to work until the cell gets one bar of signal then it can’t decide what to do.
Somehow it works much better than texting unless using the WhatsApp texting app.

[Alan Lightstone]

WI-FI calling hasn’t worked great for me in the past. FWIW.

[Travis Conner]

THe "best" way to take care of what you want to do is to run hard cables to your shop for both the network and for TV. That will require two cables...Ethernet and COAX. There is a way to bridge the Ethernet across the COAX using MOCA adapters. In either case, you can use a wireless access point to provide Internet. TV obviously uses the COAX directly. As to your wireless phone...as long as your carrier supports voice over WiFi (majors all do) you can use the WiFi network for calling as well as data.

The shop has a cat 5 cable and a COAX cable. I don't see anything about a wifi over phone setting on my phone, but I did buy a cell phone extender antenna for about $300 so that shouldn't be a problem now. I have seen it where people take the router? Modem? and stick the little antenna outside of the building by drilling a hole through the side and I guess this gives you internet both inside and outside of the shop, otherwise I guess you would have a signal inside the shop, but then it would have to change over every time you walk outside.

[Travis Conner]

The building has an antenna on it already connected by a COAX cable, so I think maybe that's some sort of digital TV that the previous owner had? That along with a CAT5 cable goes to the house. There is another COAX cable running from the power pole going into the shop.

[Wayne Cannon]

I have not tried it, but almost all wireless access points (WAPs) have a mode to work as a point-to-point link, e.g., to extend your home internet to your shop.

In addition, the internet-over-power line modules are supposed to work quite well -- as long as both ends are on the same 120 V side of the 240 V service.

If you can't get a signal through the building's metal shell, you could seal a small plexiglass or glass radio frequency "window" in one of the walls, put your WAP inside an existing window or mount it outside the wall in a weatherproof wooden or plexiglass box. Make any window at least twice the width and height of the WAP's antenna length.

If performance is a concern, a hard-wired connection is generally much faster than wireless.

[Jim Becker]

WI-FI calling hasn’t worked great for me in the past. FWIW.

We've been using it for a number of years now...it replaced a micro-cell in our home where cellular reception is pretty much impossible due to building materials and lack of line-of-site to the tower. It works great, both with our previous carrier ATT and our current carrier T-Mobile.

The shop has a cat 5 cable and a COAX cable. I don't see anything about a wifi over phone setting on my phone, but I did buy a cell phone extender antenna for about $300 so that shouldn't be a problem now. I have seen it where people take the router? Modem? and stick the little antenna outside of the building by drilling a hole through the side and I guess this gives you internet both inside and outside of the shop, otherwise I guess you would have a signal inside the shop, but then it would have to change over every time you walk outside.

If you have one of the major carriers, WiFi calling should be supported, but your particular phone must also support it. SmartPhones that are not super old should provide that.

Sticking one of of the antennas on an AP outside through a hole "may" work, but multiple antenna devices have multiple antennas for a reason and there's an expectation that they can work together for best performance. (general statement to avoid getting into the weeds) Some APs can be fitted with actual outdoor antennas, although that often means that the AP is dedicated to that purpose.

I have not tried it, but almost all wireless access points (WAPs) have a mode to work as a point-to-point link, e.g., to extend your home internet to your shop.

Mesh systems typically support wireless backhaul, but many, if not most, consumer grade routers/APs do not support wireless backhaul. There are boosters that do, but they sometimes provide a false sense of "high signal" when in fact, the weak link is between them and the host AP. I use a mesh system now and it's totally fixed out signal issues both in the house, in my shop and on our property. That said, three of the four mesh nodes are hard-wired; the only reason one uses wireless backhaul (which is on different frequencies than WiFI) is because the spot it needs to live isn't accessible to wired Ethernet without major home renovation.

[Travis Conner]

Okay I found it. Looks like it's already setup that way on my phone. I guess all I need is to setup internet in the shop so i can just return that phone booster. I still need to make Sure their is a signal both outside and inside the shop so it's not having to switch back and forth every time I walk outside.

[Travis Conner]

Just fyi I'm not that into electronics so half the names you guys are using I don't understand. Lol I'm assuming AP means access point?

[Jim Becker]

Just fyi I'm not that into electronics so half the names you guys are using I don't understand. Lol I'm assuming AP means access point?

Yup. It does.

[John K Jordan]

I don't get any cell reception inside my shop since it's metal. I'm probably going to setup cable tv and internet, so do I need a second booster antenna for internet too? Or is the cable modem hard wired from the cable line?

Travis, my 2 cents worth. My shop has a metal roof and sits behind a hill which shadows the cell service somewhat. The cell service is excellent otherwise but the metal roof drops the reception to one or zero bars on my phone. If a cell call went through it probably would get dropped. I first tried two different cell boosters and amplifiers, one with a tall antenna, and neither was satisfactory.

I ended up buying a "femtocell" which is registered to the Verizon cellular network. It actually is a miniature public access cell "tower" but the range is limited to only a few yards outside the shop. The reception inside the shop is perfect, full bars. As others mentioned, this requires an ethernet connection which I had already provided underground from the house for WiFi. It also contains a GPS receiver, supposedly so the network knows it's physical location. The Verizon tech told me that prevents people from activating it in one place then moving it to another.

JKJ