signal – TruXter Tech

Cricket Wireless Mass Outages

Posted on2016/06/032016/06/03AuthorTruXterLeave a comment

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Yes Cricket users you have no signal.
People are reporting outages to the Cricket network across the country on a website called ” isdownrightnow.net”
If you just go to the site and search for Cricket, and when you find the page for reporting outages, just sit there and hit refresh and look at all of the people reporting in they have an outage, and look at where they are reporting from.

Doesn’t look like Cricket to AT&T switching is going all that smooth.

the Cricket website is also going in and out and forcing you to re-log in. The amount of time you stay logged in is about 1/5th the amount of time it takes for Cricket’s website to accept your password.

From New York to Texas to California, all of Cricket cell phone serviceis down.
Nation wide cell phone outages.
since 4pm Central, Cricket has been out of service. No calls in or out. If you call your voicemail from another phone, you can log in and check your voice mails. You can even delete them. Nothing much after that. Your phone will still show that you have voicemails that have not been deleted or heard.

Odd that this happens right after TeamViewer gets hacked then Myspace gets hacked.
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How To Set up EnGenius ENH500

Posted on2015/08/272016/10/08AuthorTruXter8 Comments

Tried for over a week to get two ENH500 devices to to connect with each other so I could test out their capabilities and put them in tough positions for upcoming projects with the company I work for.
Found a few videos on youtube that showed me how to set up static I.p. addresses on my pc. Which is exactly what’s in the pdf and brochure from the manufacture.
I had to turn to the tech support and see if they can get me the information I need for Setting up my ENH500 devices.

Device #1

Step 1: Log into device #1 (192.168.1.1, both user name and password are admin). You will need
to set your computer to a static IP address in the same subnet like 192.168.1.10

Step 2: Go to “Operation Mode” and change mode to “WDS Bridge” and also select Country code and Accept change.

Step 3: In “WDS Link Settings” set security type and key (we recommend AES). Then below on the same page, enable
ID field 1 and enter the Wireless MAC address of device #2 (the other device). The Wireless MAC address can be found
by looking at the serial label on the back of the unit. It will be the one on the top. After you’re done, hit “Accept”.
Note: You can also find the Wireless MAC address of a unit on the “Main” page when logged into the unit.

Step 4: Go to “Wireless Network” and change channel to 149, 153, 157, or 161 (USA) and Accept change.

Step 5: In “Administration” change the default user name and password (if desired).

Sept 7: In “IP Settings” change the IP address to a new, unused, static IP address on the same subnet and also
enter the default gateway (example 192.168.1.5 if router is 192.168.1.1).

Step 8: Apply all changes by selecting “Save/Reload” (IP address, user name and password and all other changes will
now actually take effect).

Step 9: Leave this unit powered on and move to device #2 (see next page).

Device #2 (Do this while device #1 is on and next to you, not installed at the remote location yet).

Step 1: Log into device #2 (192.168.1.1, both user name and password are admin). You will need
to set your computer to a static IP address in the same subnet like 192.168.1.10

Step 2: Go to “Operation Mode” and change mode to “WDS Bridge” and also select Country code and Accept change.

Step 3: In “WDS Link Settings” set security type and key (we recommend AES). Then below on the same page, enable
ID field 1 and enter the Wireless MAC address of device #1 (the other device). The Wireless MAC address can be found
by looking at the serial label on the back of the unit. It will be the one on the top. After you’re done, hit “Accept”.
Note: You can also find the Wireless MAC address of a unit on the “Main” page when logged into the unit.

Step 4: Go to “Wireless Network” and change channel to the same channel as device #1 and Accept change.

Step 5: In “Administration” change the default user name and password (if desired).

Sept 7: In “IP Settings” change the IP address to a new, unused, static IP address on the same subnet and also
enter the default gateway (example 192.168.1.5 if router is 192.168.1.1). Do not use the same IP address as device #1.

Step 8: Apply all changes by selecting “Save/Reload”. All changes will now actually take effect.

Step 9: Go to “WDS Link List” and verify link is UP.

Step 10: Install unit at remote location. Go to “WDS Link List” again and verify link is UP and RSSI signal.
-59dBm or better = excellent, -60dBm to -69dBm = good, -70dBm to -79dBm = good, -80dBm or worse = fair to poor.
Verify speed and connectivity etc. If everything tests good, you are done (connect the camera now).

Note: Output power should be the same as device #1. Default power is 20dBm. Turn it up only if RSSI is low
(in “Wireless Advanced Settings”). Add a network switch to connect multiple Ethernet devices at the remote
bridge (if desired). The secondary Ethernet port is “pass through” only, no POE power is available.

Here’s the video from EnGenius
In the test portion of this article I will number the devices by how far from the network they are up to my pc which will be plugged into device #3. So Device 1 is feeding network connection to device #2. Device #2 will be feeding network connection from device #1 to device #3 which my pc is plugged into.

The tests performed
Close Range – Two ENH500 devices sitting less than a foot apart. Signal level was at -3. Which i would have guessed would have been at 0 since there was nothing to interfere.
Line of site – Separated by about 20 feet. Used three EnGenius devices. One connected to the switch next to me to connect to the network, one across the room to receive signal from the first device and one connected to my computer to to connect to the second device. signal strength was -16 and -23.

Obstructed view – Turn all three devices away from each other. No two faced each other. Signal strength -26 and -28.

Very Obstructed view – Took the second ENH500 downstairs and placed it behind a small refrigerator and faced it away from the other devices then the faced the other devices away from that one.Distance about 30 feet. Signal strength -34 -40
Daisy chain around obstruction – Placed device 1 at the office modem down stairs. Device 2 in the storage warehouse area, device three still at my pc. Distance from enh500 #1 to #2 approximately 60 feet, Distance to device #3 from device #2 Approximately 45 feet. Signal strength -47 -52.

Mesh – Turned on all three devices and allowed them all to see and communicate with each other. Had fail to connect. This test is on pause until I figure out where I went wrong.
Worst case Scenario– Took device #2 across the lot into another unit, and plugged in and set it on top of their refrigerator behind a tv. Failed to connect. Distance roughly 120 feet from Device #1 to device #2. Distance from device #2 to Device #3 Roughly 135 feet.

On the final test (worst case scenario) I could not detect device #2. I had to unplug from device #3 and connect myself back into the office network and then log into device #1 to see what the signal was reading. Signal -88. This was through 3 offices,a metal building with brick face and tinted glass, through company vehicles parked in front, across the driveway through more vehicles,brick,tinted glass, an office, a cross path hallway, kitchen wall, to a device laying on a refrigerator behind a tv.

Line of site on a pole, with no obstruction, doesn’t seem like it’s going to be too strict.

If Sprint buys T-mobile what happens?

Posted on2013/12/13AuthorTruXterLeave a comment

What can we expect to happen if Sprint buys T-mobile?

Both companies known for their customer loyalty and fair billing.
They are both known for their loss of signal.
What is also known is that they both are on different networks.
Sprint is CDMA and T-mobile is GSM. Two different networks.

So there is no chance of merging the networks and making a tweak to either one and increasing the size of the cell network.
So it would have to be one or the other. Which means one network is about to take on the load of the other network.

If life had rules maybe. There is a chance they give customers the choice and just maintain both networks. Which sounds like madness if you expect Sprint to fire off every single T-mobile employee. Which lots of companies seem to eventually do. but not if Sprint keep both signals

Increased cell phone signal free

Posted on2011/08/032011/12/15AuthorTips Of Tech

Do you have bad reception with your phone like I do? Do you have issues getting a signal without holding your phone high above your head? Looking for a signal boost? Maybe this will help
We have all seen the ads for the sticker you are supposed to slap on to your battery and it looks kind of like a transformers logo, or the grid on a motherboard, and that sticker is supposed to increase your signal. The sticker usually sells for somewhere between a dollar and ten dollars.
Well. One day I got curious about alternative cell phone signal boosters.
There is the wifi antenna in my old busted up Toshiba laptop. The laptops wifi connector seems about the same size as what is in the cell phone for the external antenna.
but then. Then there is the ultimate hidden right under your nose out in the public jumping in your lap laughing at you, solution. Go buy a cd or dvd from walmart. Crack the case open and pull out the security tag. Peel it into the thin strip that has the motherboard grid looking thing on it. Take a bag tie and peel the outer strip off of it to expose the metal inside. Snip the stripped wire in 1/4.Take a small paneling nail and wrap the wire strip around that nail tightly but leave about 1/8cm sticking straight from one end. poke a pinhole in the security tag grip. Slide straight piece of the coiled sire though the security tag, from under side, then bend the newly exposed wire flat. lower your new device into the hole where the external antenna connects on your phone. Make sure the new spring of wire wraps around the antenna adapter. push all of the way down. Now either glue the new antenna down, or thin tape it, or hold it in place with the battery cover for your phone.
May not give you any reception, may increase your reception by quite a bit. For me, my signal never drops under one bar, in places where I was not getting a signal at all. and my phone usually can place calls with no signal.

Make Shift Antenna

I will have to try the wifi antenna and get back to you on whether it fits, or if the antenna even helps the signal or messes it up. but that will be another post. Will try and remember to link the two.

I love my little cricket phone, but since I am by a major radio tower, It is hard for me to get a signal, heck half the time my wifi is out for my comcast . It’s not comcast’s fault or Cricket’s fault at all. There is lots of disturbance in the area. LOTS.

Oh and one more thing, MAKE SURE THE SECURITY TAG IS DEACTIVATED!! You do not want to get tackled while walking out of Walmart or some other store, just after you shoved your hand in your pocket.

And now for an Android Device. In fact, a ZIO cell phone from Sanyo.

I just took a wire and untwined the metal fibers to get one metal fiber about 10 inches long and made a squiggle, then taped the metal wire to the inside of the battery backing. This actually helped stop the call drops and the internet connection is a considerable bit stronger.

When you have the backing off of the phone, note the antenna addon connectors. Bring the ends of the wire as close to those points as you can get. This should help. Well it works for me.

signal boost on ZIO

This is your Budget Tech Tip

Cricket’s Free Sanyo Zio Phone Android

Posted on2011/07/182011/07/26AuthorTruXter2 Comments

I left T-Mobile.
Yep, I jumped ship. I went back to Cricket.
The phone that I traded my blackberry 8100 in for is a Sanyo/Kyocera zio. AKA KYOCERA M6000.
Since Cricket was giving away the Sanyo Zio if you trade in your working cell phone from your current carrier, I assumed I should.
This phone is not a brand new technology, at all. This phone was originally with Sprint back in early 2010 brought to Cricket in late 2010.
I was on a plan that gave me 300 minutes of talk time at a cost of $49 a month and I still had fave fives. To now, an unlimited everything for $55 a month.
The first thing was to call T-mobile and request my account number. The guy who answered the phone put on a sincere voice and Acknowledge that he knows that typically when people ask for their account number, they are about to leave the company. The guy asked me if there was anything i was in need of, to keep me from leaving. i let the guy know that I was not happy with how I have been treated so i am looking around, and my first step is to get my account number and that I may or may not leave T-mobile. Really, that was exactly true. I could have backed out of getting my phone number ported over to Cricket, at any time. The guy kept asking questions and hesitating, So i had to get stern with him ‘ look, I am considering leaving and you holding out like this is making me want to leave even more, i just need my number and will consider all option”. He said just about everything he could think of just short of “please don’t talk to other people, you will see how good things could be”, what ever he said. I just hung up because I got my account number. and that’s all I needed.

I gave the teller my account number, in less than 3 minutes the phone was in my hand with a temporary number on it. I got a text message and it said for me to text back with a code and my old number will be moved to cricket. I tried and it did not work. After I called the help line, I realized i wasn’t pressing they ‘*’ key first. My bad. Phone number was switched over to T-mobile just like that. Whole deal took less than 20 minutes to complete.

Cricket Splash Screen on The Zio

Ok. Time to grade the phone.
The Sanyo Kyocera ZIO from Cricket, by feel, is a lot like my blackberry, smooth.

Menu on The Sanyo Kyocera Zio Phone

Nice and thin, slick,no buttons to interface, touch Screen, except volume and camera. I have few complaints about
the camera button. Sensitive when I am not trying to touch the camera button, but doesn’t do squat when I hit that button on purpose. Volume buttons are excellent.

Volume Button on Kyocera Sanyo Zio

there is a data/charging connection on the lower left edge.
Headphone jack on the upper left edge, and an SD card slot on the mid right. All have caps.
Large speaker at the upper back
Pin hole mic on bottom edge.
Screen feels like plastic over glass. I could be wrong as to whether it actually is, it’s just the way the Zio feels to me.
Software.
Initial Storage space 180MB
Yes this an Android 2.2.1 system on the sanyo ZIO.

zio software display

But
The pinch zoom feature, does not happen with this phone. Tap and zoom, yes.
Scroll ball, is a bit sticky and sluggish.
Huge Screen Perfect fit for downsized (not re-sized) hd movies
Watched Diggnation, Tekzilla and life Hacker from the revision 3 website and was impressed with the resolution and quality of the images and video, Nearly never a buffer time. sometimes The revision 3 server hiccups.
Camera takes a very high resolution video, even in room lighting. (never great to have just room lighting)
Every application I tried, all work fine.
There is some bloat ware that I had to root the phone to remove. Some bowling game demo and an “uno” game.
Many applications load constantly, you can not go into settings and turn them off like you could with the g1 on android 1.6. So battery life isn’t what it could be.
Nice fade when opening and closing apps. but again, sometimes sluggish. Keyboard seems to be miss calibrated, When you press the Letter ‘o’ you get the letter ‘p’ and so on… If you are a fast texting person, you will get frustrated. Just find the letter that the Zio mistakes you typing, and hit the far corner of the button you intend to pres. Works well that way.

Internet speeds for the Zio – using speed test app from android market
upload 700k
download 400k
That is about what I was seeing on T-mobile with their “Edge”.

Reception
At home and at work, my signal fluctuates between no signal, and two bars. but with that said, I received a call from a friend while I had 0 bars and the phone call sounded fine on my end, and the person on the other end never asked me what I was saying. I never heard anything unusual or anything that would hint of a bad signal, other than the caller’s T-mobile lag. Was sad when we both were on T-mobile, neither knew when to talk.
although I find myself back in 2003, holding the sanyo Zio up in the air to get a signal enough to send a text message. I don’t remember Cricket having this bad of a signal.

Back Of The Zio

internet 10/10
software 8/10
hardware 5/10
reception 5/10 (I gave it a poor score then added some because the phone seemed to work even with no signal)
look 10/10

Full Over all Score is 7/10

And that is enough to make me feel as if I got another great deal.

Another unprofessional review from TruXter Tech Review and the budget Tech review

Things to think about – AT&T Acquisition of T-Mobile

Posted on2011/03/21AuthorTruXter1 Comment

Well we all know by now that AT&T Bought T-Mobile .

Me being a T-mobile user,I have a few questions for the AT&T users.

Do AT&T users expect their internet speeds to increase now that they have T-Mobile hardware providing their services ?

Do AT&T users expect AT&T to scrap all of T-Mobile’s existing Cell phone tech, like towers, phones and such ?

Do any of the AT&T users look forward to any of the T-Mobile phones making it their way?

I know that if AT&T keeps T-Mobile towers and equipment (since both companies use similar technology) , then I am looking at a pretty strong signal in my area. I know that I have 3 bars when my signal is really really bad. and that is very rare. That would lead to a decent signal in the areas that I sometimes have only three bars. Of course that’s if AT&T is strong in that area.

See this is good compared to the purchase of Primeco back in the late nineties in Houston area. I think they still exist elsewhere. AT&T being GSM and Primeco being CDMA, meant we all had to hand in our phones for scrapping. Primeco ran a big sale so I signed a contract with them and spent $139 on a phone that I got at a discount. The best phone signal I have ever had yet to- date. Back when no one had a signal at Fry’s Electronics store, I had signal. When the power was out for 4 days, and all cell towers were down, no one had a signal but me and the three other people in the area that had Primeco.not AT&T not T-Mobile, Not Sprint, Not Verizon. best thing was, that phone was one of the first cell phones to come out with no antenna. I had that dang phone for 2 months when AT&T sent me a notice saying they would give me a new phone to replace my existing CDMA phone. I was excited that the email said I would receive a fair value phone. I did not. I got the $29 Nokia phone that was the size of my shoe. The replacement phone would not fit in my pocket. I had to wear a case with belt loop strap on it to carry that dang thing. I had an excellent signal, until I left the drive way of the AT&T store. I extended the big metal antenna. No help. Wrapped it in aluminum foil, no help. I called the store to see what they could, they suggested I move to another company if I didn’t like the signal, then they assured me they had the strongest signal with the most coverage. So I called the help number. Same thing. They actually told me to try another service if I was unhappy. So a few weeks later i called to cancel my number, they told me they just increased the signal in my area nd if I hang on a bit longer the new tower would be complete and my signal would be even stronger. So i waited almost 3 months. Nothing. I actually had to walk out to the end of the street and extend the antenna out towards downtown Houston to see if I could get a stronger signal while on the complaint line.

After fighting months with AT&T about not having a signal anywhere, I canceled my service and moved on to Voice Stream. Who…… not even a year later got taken over by T-Mobile. Yeah I was mad. but. Voice Stream signal was bad where I was. Well it was ok. It was as bad as AT&T, but the people working there and the help desk was a whole lot more helpful during the switch over. Also the signal got better. and again, I got a new phone. No better than the one I just bought with voice stream, but it was a new phone. Again it was a Nokia.

Now here it is 2011, T-Mobile sold to AT&T. Full freaking circle. I am looking at going back to AT&T again. Because they bought T-mobile.

I am hoping that AT&T does not destroy the existing T-mobile Technology, I hope they implement the towers and the internet service that is currently available with T-Mobile. So that T-mobile users gain AT&T service along with existing service, and AT&T users gain Tmobile Services and signal and internet speed. I can’t imagine all of us using internet service that AT&T provides.

AT&T users, what do you think of the existing service ?

T-Mobile users what do you expect of the impending service?

Hands on with Iphone 4

Posted on2010/07/022011/12/30AuthorTruXter

I got my hands on the IPhone 4. After a week of arguing with the macfaqs at work about how Apple is not super man and the pope rolled into one and how the Iphone really does have a signal issue.
One of the co-workers brought an Iphone 4 in to the office and let me get a hands on.

IPhone 4 With camera on

The camera on it is amazing. (yeah I’m in the background gathering pictures with my G1).

Back Of IPhone 4

You can actually have a full on video chat with someone who has an IPhone 4 also.

Front Camera

The resolution is remarkable. The thing is nice and heavy feeling. Very sturdy. Somehow though it looks like the old nano and a Motorolla birthed an Apple. Video quality is up to 720p 29 fps recording.

screen area

3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
800:1 contrast ratio (typical)
500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical)

512mb Ram 1GHz processor Really impressive. That could play GTA liberty City Stories easily.

Well that’s the best I can do with my limited time with the phone. The co-worker that brought that with him is now as we speak on a plane to somewhere on vacation. HTC needs to build more like that. or Motorolla needs to build more like that. Then again, just be motivated by that to make something better. So if I did not make it clear reception was fine. a room with 7 computers 6 of them running and reception was fine. No matter where I placed my fingers on that phone, the signal was good.

(((((1 video was removed)))))

I really appreciated the chance to check that thing out. It was the feeling of when you are holding a brand new hard drive that you know is fast and has tons of storage. It just felt sturdy very well built and nice and heavy.
I will not be buying one simply because AT&T has chased me away already with their bad signal in my area. Sure wish it was on Tmobile. Not much better but better.