WeBoost Multi Room Cell Phone Signal Booster Review - 470144

VIDEO INDEX:
0:00 - Intro
00:33 - Price
01:05 - Hardware Overview
01:19 - Outdoor Antenna
01:59 - Cabling
02:26 - Amplifier
02:50 - Compatibility
03:14 - Test Description
05:14 - Phone Call Test
05:44 - Data Test
06:29 - Lower cost options
06:45 - WiFi Calling as a free alternative
09:09 - Conclusion

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[DrxSlump]

2020 and we're still having problems with using phones at home. I was expecting flying cars instead.

[aelaan]

Could I have ever used something like this in my previous home. Thanks for the reminder about WiFi calling, in the past I had bad experiences with it (distorted, echo, people just could not hear me) while I have some of the fastest services. LTE has never been possible in my home office, and I sit in a room with two large windows in a beautiful, tree surrounded green space. The nearest tower is maybe 400 meters from my home and I started to reminding the umbrella effect when I was using high powered gear and pushed away everyone's TV signal in the early 80's... So if the tower is this close would I actually be in the proper area to receive LTE coming from it, I mean 400 meters is not that close...

[nickf]

Working in the cable TV world I learned some cell providers would provide “micro cells”. mini cell towers that looked like a modem and plugged into your home network. They kinda went away as Wi-Fi calling became more available. As a cable tech I can’t stress enough about making sure all your connections are tight! Both on all your TV connections and any cell boosting equipment. You can expect lots of digital cable and possible internet issues if there is signal ingress.

[marknelson]

Remember all the towers have to be in the same direction for this to work for multiple carriers. It’s not as simple for multiple carriers as it is for a single carrier

[aaaarrrg]

I had a Weboost 4G-X. I turned it on before registering it and the cell towers turned my trailer into a dead zone. I had to turn a Verizon prepay account into a regular account before the FCC would use it to register my "cell repeater". The Weboost did not work well for me. It boosted the wrong signal and my phone kept locking on to 3G instead of 4G.

Stopped trying to use my phone as a hotspot after that and bought a Jetpack plus an external directional antenna. It does an excellent job.

What I've come to understand since my experience is if you live between two towers of competing carriers you might either, need to buy a booster for a specific carrier's signal, or get a unit with squelch controls to calibrate towards the more desirable carrier.

...and at least some models must be registered in California before broadcasting or you might find yourself having to walk 50ft away from your house to get any signal at all until the registration is completed. It was a surreal experience.

[chrispistocco]

i install a similar product in the commercial banking environment. I did not know about the consumer version. Great Video.

[HughD]

Nice review, Lon and right up your alley! With only a 20-watt power requirement you could easily power this for a while with a portable power bank that was a 120 v outlet in case of a power outage as a result of a storm. These power banks are made by a number of familiar companies, like Anker, and would make for another interesting review. I checked to see if you've already done one and don't see it. You have done some on the traditional USB power banks.

[NewAgeDIY]

Good info as always. I’m in Vancouver BC and use WiFi calling for years, no problems so far. My wifi network uses a Mesh network with a number of repeaters that hand off to the one that’s closest.

[OriginalDemGunz]

I live in a rural area and both Sprint and T-Mobile gave me a Signal booster at no cost other than like a 25 or 35 dollar fee then there is Including wifi calling also. I suppose if it is carrier neutral there would be a benefit.

[cggage]

Here's a question: I must presume this is a two-way signal booster? In your example, you did a before/after in your home Faraday cage. If this were signal-in ONLY, then you would receive a signal but be unable to transmit outside. So, may we presume this to be a bi-directional amplifier? I'm not that technical so I'm not sure how all this works.

I have a particular application in mind for my farm up in Maine. We have a hotspot (Netgear MR1100) with "iffy" connection. The tower is block by a hill behind the house. I could get an antenna up high enough to peek over the hill to see the tower. I also could do the same with this repeater device. Not sure which would be the best approach. But, I am presuming this must be bidirectional for this amp to work(?).

[pstreicher]

I happened upon your channel and this video while researching the WeBoost repeater. You did an excellent review and I am convinced this may work out for my brother who lives out in a rural area and often gets dropped calls. I have a question for you. I noticed the framed print of the shuttle behind you. Can you tell me where you got that?

[sat]

What kind of cable did you get to run it longer?

[njmaag]

ATT WiFi calling used to be great no issue but for a long time now every time I tried to make a call it wouldn’t ring through or go through so I end up turning off WiFi and doing it again or while call not going through I turn it off and of course drops but works when I start it off tower. I have low coverage one bar lte. Using synology 2600 ac router.

[hotconductor]

Thank you for doing this video. I tried a few similar devices and was incredibly unimpressed. This one looks like it will work well for those of us using 4G in home wifi boxes as a primary source of Internet in areas with no hard line connection.

[zackharrison]

Hi I have a question! Do I have to really contact Verizon to get them to allow this to work?? I’ve seen something about that and if so, how do I do that?

[johnsmith-vzsk]

That handover from WiFi to cell signal is based on the carrier software on the phone Lon

[BlueNote]

Hi Lon can you link an android box too a nas drive to record tv to watch back later 👎👍😉

[majdijm]

Thank you doing this review, ai have a question out of this one, I'm looking for best cloud storage device, best value and security and ease to use. I have almost 10TB data and I was looking for something similar to google drive in ease of use and able to connect from anywhere but also saved in my HDD, so which NAS storage or device do you recommend!

[RAKRail]

I would caution you on "getting more cable" as it will depend upon your "link budget" for your specific install. Additional cable will bring additional signal loss in the cable and your overall set-up. I suspect the cable lengths are optimal length for that specific device. If you add additional cable, you may see less signal in your home.

As for your Unifi Wi-Fi network, I was having the same issue with my Unifi Home network. It seems to me the recent firmware upgrade has improved that for my home network / devices. If you have not recently upgraded firmware, give it a try. On my network I also confirmed in my AP's under the configuration tab, under radios, I have turned on "allow meshing from other access points" for both channels on both of my AP's and it helped my network. Have a good day.

[Dondeath]

Great video, something like this would be great for Upstate New York. But sadly we have too many trees blocking just about any towers. At least Wi-Fi Calling works like a charm!


Keep up the great work sir!