How to boost the internet wireless signal

I live in the countryside surrounded by mountains, and there is only one internet provider in this internet hell-hole: WOM, a horrible chilean company. When I am on my computer, the pages frequently stop functioning, and I have to close the page and uploaded it again. This is irritating, but I can live with it, not happily, but I can tolerate it. Video streaming frequently doesn't work. But what really drives me wild is the phone. Nobody can hear me when I call the US using an internet connection, which is the only half-reasonable method of calling to take care of my business. I have called at multiple times, multiple people, and they all say the same thing: they can't hear me or they hear me very poorly, but I hear them clear as a bell. Recently I tried going to a coffe shop that is about a half kilometer away, and I had a somewhat better connection, and they have a different internet service provider, Entel. I think that rather than my phone, it is probably the internet connection, which is causing me these headaches. What do you suggest?

I found this article, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399953,00.asp, but I don't really find it useful, because I don't know if these pages apply to my router which is a chilean router and probably very cheap and poor. It's a Huawei model B310s-518 https://pisapapeles.net/review-router-4g-huawei-b310/ They also have pages that i don't know if they apply to me.

HELP! Pulling my hair out one by one is looking good to me, better than trying to call someone in the US.

Have you looked into satellite service? I have no idea if it's available in Chile, but I know people who live in remote areas of the U.S. and get good Internet by satellite.

Copihue said:

I live in the countryside surrounded by mountains, and there is only one internet provider in this internet hell-hole: WOM, a horrible chilean company. When I am on my computer, the pages frequently stop functioning, and I have to close the page and uploaded it again. This is irritating, but I can live with it, not happily, but I can tolerate it. Video streaming frequently doesn't work. But what really drives me wild is the phone. Nobody can hear me when I call the US using an internet connection, which is the only half-reasonable method of calling to take care of my business. I have called at multiple times, multiple people, and they all say the same thing: they can't hear me or they hear me very poorly, but I hear them clear as a bell. Recently I tried going to a coffe shop that is about a half kilometer away, and I had a somewhat better connection, and they have a different internet service provider, Entel. I think that rather than my phone, it is probably the internet connection, which is causing me these headaches. What do you suggest?

I found this article, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399953,00.asp, but I don't really find it useful, because I don't know if these pages apply to my router which is a chilean router and probably very cheap and poor. It's a Huawei model B310s-518 https://pisapapeles.net/review-router-4g-huawei-b310/ They also have pages that i don't know if they apply to me.

HELP! Pulling my hair out one by one is looking good to me, better than trying to call someone in the US.

I will have to find and research this company. I have an international phone which connects with 158 countries.

I use it in my travels but not within the last couple of years

There are various plans..........such as purchasing or leasing it. Also plans for use............unlimited time

pay by the minute.

Reception is excellent............moderately easy to use........convenient.........the size of a cell phone

and holds a reasonable charge

Comes with a series of voltage converters, although they are easy to find and I have been happy with mine

Try to be back soon with information

I admit that I don't know where the problem lies or what it is. About an hour ago I received a message from my cell phone service that they will send me new software for my phone to connect with their service. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe I have a virus. Maybe it's a weak signal. I just have to go one at a time working with each variable until I reach a solution.

The article I tried reading is about boosting and optimizing the current signal which sounds like a good idea, the optimizing part anyhow, but I don't understand it; I was hoping someone here did and could explain it simply.

The signal is weak. When I lived in Reñaca I had a fiberoptic connection that worked flawlessly, but no more. This month I will be moving to my new house, the one I bought, which is even more remote than this one. I will probably have to contract a satelite service there. I understand that there is a fellow in the condo complex who is a programmer, and he has to send big packages to his company, so I am going to try to talk to him before I do anything.

The message from the cell phone carrier was regarding APN configuration http://www.androidcentral.com/what-apn-and-how-do-i-change-it, so I googled the subject, and I set it myself, since the promised message never got to me. Do you folks also have to reconfigure your cell phones?

However, though the cell phone has a different configuration, people still can't hear me when I call the US, though i hear them clear as a bell.

I use a Nobelcom application on my cell phone to call the US. It connects into a wi-fi connection to make inexpensive calls overseas. It is because my cell phone taps into the internet to make the call that I surmised that the problem with the calls is a weak internet connection. But I no longer believe this is the problem. I have tried three separate locations to make calls, and I have also tried calling multiple different people at different times, and it is very consistent. Nobody can hear me other than an occasional word every one or two sentences.

I called Tech Support at Nobelcom, and they can't hear me. So I remembered that before there was a Nobelcom app for the cell phone, we used to call into an access phone to make calls. That number was wrong on the app, so I called it through the normal phone connection, and I did get through to someone who will report the problem to tech support. This avenue does sound hopeful. The support person I spoke to said that I should try making a call in two hours time.

While I hope you can fix the issue with your cellphone, have you tried using Skype with a headset? (Don't use a video cam if you're internet is weak).

I thought about Skype. I don't know how to use it, but do I have the facility to use it. The problem is that I am not calling friends, but business offices and I don't think that you can call them through skype, can you? HR, banks, insurance cos. etc. who don't have skype accounts.

Copihue said:

I thought about Skype. I don't know how to use it, but do I have the facility to use it. The problem is that I am not calling friends, but business offices and I don't think that you can call them through skype, can you? HR, banks, insurance cos. etc. who don't have skype accounts.

Yes, you can call telephone numbers using Skype. Calling a telephone is not free, but it is cheap. Calling Skype-to-Skype (all internet, no phones) is free.

You can just download the Skype app to your computer & set up your account. In order to call Skype-to-telephone, you'll have to put some money in your Skype account.

Good deal! Thanks.

I like having the ability to call internationally from my cell phone without any other gadgets, all I have to do is to go to a cafe and connect to a wi-fi network wherever i am, but Skype is an excellent back up for jams like the one I am experiencing now.

The fact that you can hear the others and they can't hear you well means that your downloads are decent but your uploads are not. This is typical, because both good ISPs and bad ISPs put more resources into downloads for consumers. You should buy a calling plan for your phone line, landline or cell. If skype can use your phone connection, then you're in business.

So you think that it is an internet connection problem? the application did it work only three weeks ago, and then it went dead. I think it is too drastic a change for it to be a poor connection problem. The signal is weak, for sure, but the problem became serious overnight. I have called Nobelcom multiple times, and they say that they have switched the carrier for me three times, but the problem is not any better; changing the carrier is not the solution. Besides the problem is happening in all sorts of locations, even in the city where there are cell phone towers everywhere.

I have a local phone service, Entel, and it works well -- not great -- in this rural community; in the city it is flawless. (Well, there are problems, but they are not connection problems, but something else that I am not getting into, because they are irrelevant to this issue, they are contract issues). I want a means to call the US using the internet, so that the calls are reasonably priced. I tried installing Skype, but it seems to be wi-fi internet service which I don't need. I have that with Entel. I need phone services to the US on my cell phone. I prefer not using the computer, because I don't walk around with a computer; a cell phone is enough. Calling from my cell phone using my Entel account is prohibitively expensive.

Yes, it's your internet connection. When you say it's weak, are you speaking of the cellular service signal as indicated on your cell phone or your wifi signal as indicated on whatever you're using, cell phone, laptop, whatever?

Maybe Flynumber would work well for you. I don't have any experience with it.

The way to call out of your country is to use a good phone line, whether that's a good cellular connection or a landline and call a local number that has a "gateway" to skype or Flynumber or one of many similar services. From their equipment which is ostensibly near you, they have a good connection over the internet to the rest of the world. Your internet connection from you to then is substandard, but maybe your phone connection is adequate. This inadequate connection will be inadequate for all voice-calling apps.

IDT Latinamerica might also be worth looking into.

Tom_Reingold said:

Yes, it's your internet connection. When you say it's weak, are you speaking of the cellular service signal as indicated on your cell phone or your wifi signal as indicated on whatever you're using, cell phone, laptop, whatever?

Maybe Flynumber would work well for you. I don't have any experience with it.

The way to call out of your country is to use a good phone line, whether that's a good cellular connection or a landline and call a local number that has a "gateway" to skype or Flynumber or one of many similar services. From their equipment which is ostensibly near you, they have a good connection over the internet to the rest of the world. Your internet connection from you to then is substandard, but maybe your phone connection is adequate. This inadequate connection will be inadequate for all voice-calling apps.

My wi-fi signal is weak, and so is my cell phone signal, but the cell phone is actually better. Because I am in the countryside, my choices of phone services are poor. For example, right now I have just one option for internet carrier, WOM, which is pretty awful; it is simply a router, no fiber optic cable. Where I am going to live next month, the house that I am buying, it is going to be even worse, so i am going to have to buy a signal booster or to get satellite service. I may not have a landline telephone service choice in Hijuelas, not many people have landline phones, because the cable lines have never been laid, even in the cities. Everyone has cell phones.

What do you know about signal boosters? it's the cheaper way to go, but will it do the job?

I switched to Skype, and I can get through to the US; what a relief! Physically I live in Chile, but a part of me lives in Jersey, and I have to get through via telecommunications networks.

I'm glad you got something good working. I hope the following is useful in some way.

The wired signal coming into your home is the best signal. The wireless signal that emanates from your home router can't give you better service than the wired connection because it is downstream of the wired connection. Wireless has more things to interfere with, and we tolerate that in exchange for the convenience of wifi, but the potential is limited by two factors: 1. the wired connection and 2. the nature of wireless.

A signal booster can help only in situations where being near the router things are working well and being far from the router things get worse. You can't use a signal booster to make a bad thing good. Think of making a photocopy of an image and hoping it to get a result that is better than the original. It's not going to happen. The best use of a signal booster is to position it halfway between your router and your device (phone, laptop, etc). In theory, that's the place where the signal from the router is decent and also the place where the booster's signal reaches your work location well. That's because it is a repeater. It takes the signal from the router and repeats it to your device. If it can't "hear" well, whatever is repeated won't come through well, either.

Internet protocols rely on error correction. Data is broken down into "packets," and the packets are reassembled at the receiving end. If the receiver receives packets 1, 2, and 4, it requests a resend of packet 3. Packet 3 might have been lost from radio interference. Upon receiving the retransmission of packet 3, the receiver can reassemble packets 1 through 4, making sense of it. If it's an audio stream, the retransmission may be useless, maybe because it arrives too late, so it ends up being a portion when the audio drops out, which comes in the form of distortion. Think of water balloons coming through your pipes rather than a stream of water. Some of the balloons get lost or punctured along the way if the signal is weak.

I am rereading your explanation; very clear.  Thanks.

I wrote that? Wow, I don't remember it, but it's pretty good.