Catch that signal
August 21, 2015 11:35 AM Subscribe
iPhone reception (especially outdoors) in a very low-signal location: physical OR settings-level tricks to improve my chances?
I'll be spending a week in a cabin that has no internet service or cabling for such service, an analog phone line with normal service, and a small chance of cell signal. It's a "stand outside in just the right place, and you'll probably get one intermittent bar of 2G or 3G" sort of location. High up on a densely wooded mountain.
People have the best luck there with Verizon, and my iPhone 5S is on Verizon already.
(Last time I stayed in this cabin, I let go of trying to use my phone and actually used an analog-to-USB modem with my laptop, for 56K dialup over the phone line. But there might be another tower nearby now, two years later.)
Suggestions I see via googling (that would work outdoors):
- touch foil / metallic objects to phone's exposed metal edges
- put phone inside a drinking glass
- disable 3G and LTE reception, forcing phone to seek 2G signal in case that's stronger (and leave data roaming on, of course)
- turn cell reception off and on to force a refresh
Any input on these, or any suggestions of something I could buy at a hardware store or grocery store to physically improve my chances?
I'll be spending a week in a cabin that has no internet service or cabling for such service, an analog phone line with normal service, and a small chance of cell signal. It's a "stand outside in just the right place, and you'll probably get one intermittent bar of 2G or 3G" sort of location. High up on a densely wooded mountain.
People have the best luck there with Verizon, and my iPhone 5S is on Verizon already.
(Last time I stayed in this cabin, I let go of trying to use my phone and actually used an analog-to-USB modem with my laptop, for 56K dialup over the phone line. But there might be another tower nearby now, two years later.)
Suggestions I see via googling (that would work outdoors):
- touch foil / metallic objects to phone's exposed metal edges
- put phone inside a drinking glass
- disable 3G and LTE reception, forcing phone to seek 2G signal in case that's stronger (and leave data roaming on, of course)
- turn cell reception off and on to force a refresh
Any input on these, or any suggestions of something I could buy at a hardware store or grocery store to physically improve my chances?
Don't disable 3g, just disable LTE.
Not because it carries further, but because no one is using 3g now so the spectrum is way less saturated, and whatever little bandwidth you'll be able to pull down will essentially be all for you.
I've done this is multiple stand-outside locations like you're describing, and always had better luck than people just waving their phones around.
posted by emptythought at 12:39 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Not because it carries further, but because no one is using 3g now so the spectrum is way less saturated, and whatever little bandwidth you'll be able to pull down will essentially be all for you.
I've done this is multiple stand-outside locations like you're describing, and always had better luck than people just waving their phones around.
posted by emptythought at 12:39 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Getting the phone as high off the ground as possible is likely to help; it'll get you closer to line-of-site with the serving cell site. Can you climb a tree or onto the cabin's roof?
posted by Juffo-Wup at 3:06 PM on August 21, 2015
posted by Juffo-Wup at 3:06 PM on August 21, 2015
Depending on your email provider.
Changing the settings in Mail to from IMAP to POP will also help!
IMAP is great but all that syncing and communicating back and forth to the server cost a lot of bandwidth. Sometimes you are better off with old fashioned POP.
posted by Mac-Expert at 4:05 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Changing the settings in Mail to from IMAP to POP will also help!
IMAP is great but all that syncing and communicating back and forth to the server cost a lot of bandwidth. Sometimes you are better off with old fashioned POP.
posted by Mac-Expert at 4:05 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Another question is exactly what data do you need? Something like this might be awesome.
The last time i was in a situation like this i was intrigued to find that apps like facebook would load just the text almost instantly. The images would NEVER load, but the text was basically as fast as it ever was on LTE. I'd investigate various text-only browser options.
posted by emptythought at 4:32 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
The last time i was in a situation like this i was intrigued to find that apps like facebook would load just the text almost instantly. The images would NEVER load, but the text was basically as fast as it ever was on LTE. I'd investigate various text-only browser options.
posted by emptythought at 4:32 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Remove the case if you have one on the phone. Even if it's a thin one.
This little trick often helps catch a bar or two.
posted by artdrectr at 9:27 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
This little trick often helps catch a bar or two.
posted by artdrectr at 9:27 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Go to this site and find the nearest towers for Verizon.
Then, find something metal with a dish-like shape and put the phone in between it and the dish, with the dish pointed in the direction of the closest tower.
While on a trip with similar constraints, I did this for a 3G modem, and was able to change intermittent packet loss into slow but useful service.
posted by tomierna at 10:05 AM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Then, find something metal with a dish-like shape and put the phone in between it and the dish, with the dish pointed in the direction of the closest tower.
While on a trip with similar constraints, I did this for a 3G modem, and was able to change intermittent packet loss into slow but useful service.
posted by tomierna at 10:05 AM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you all! Tomierna, that's a great reference site I'll be using a lot on my travels.
(This year, the only thing that ended up really working was walking higher up on the mountain, but I will try all your physical suggestions again next time I'm there, as I'm sure the conditions -- positions of repeaters/etc. -- will keep changing!)
posted by kalapierson at 12:46 AM on September 2, 2015
(This year, the only thing that ended up really working was walking higher up on the mountain, but I will try all your physical suggestions again next time I'm there, as I'm sure the conditions -- positions of repeaters/etc. -- will keep changing!)
posted by kalapierson at 12:46 AM on September 2, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kalapierson at 11:37 AM on August 21, 2015