Query - Stub Mandrel's article on Workshop Power - MEW No.317

.Hi - The article by Stub Mandrel in the current issue of MEW No.317 page 27, discusses how to improve a weak telephone connection from house to workshop by use of a signal booster or network extender. I suffer from this problem but am not sure in what form a signal booster or network extender would take. Could someone please explain exactly what might be required to help resolve the problem and perhaps recommend some suitable hardware.

If you mean a Wi-Fi signal booster I have seen them for sale in Argos and Tesco. UK based stores.

My workshop telephone is one of a BT quin-set, the remaining four handsets being dotted around the house. The workshop handset is in the garage located some 10-12 metres from the base unit and although reception is just about adequate for short exchanges "teas ready" for example but falls off rapidly if you move away from the cradle. Not sure whether a Wi-Fi signal booster is relevant in this instance as I may have simply misunderstood the article, making the assumption that the problem being discussed related to a domestic telephone system.

Re-reading the paragraph in question, there are a few alternatives.

For boosting signal, you can get simple "repeater" devices that simply pick up received wifi signals and rebroadcast them, increasing the coverage range of the original WiFi router. There are more and less sophisticated versions of these and the more expensive ones do work better.

A second alternative is a second router, connected to the first one, either by WiFi, dedicated cable, or via your domestic power lines using special adapter plugs. This is the best option, and for something like a shed the power line option can be very good.

For a pure old-fashioned phone line, distance shouldn't be an issue unless you are running literal miles of cable.

I think the magic search term is DECT, as in this example. I believe the model bought has to match the wireless phone's base-station - you can't fit any old repeater and expect it to work. It's not the same as a computer network wifi extender.

Dave

Greensands

Standard domestic market wireless telephone units are DECT (Digitally Enhanced Cordless Technology) systems which is very different from WiFi.

You can buy range extenders for these but they may take a bit of tracking down. £30 ish for off brand systems when I got mine. A bit more for on brand units designed to pair with specific phone sets.

They work quite well.

The off brand ones I originally bought to use with Siemens Gigaset phones worked fine out to my brothers garden office, about 18 yards, but struggled to reach further than just inside inside my workshop about 30 yards away. Replaced one with a pukka Siemens unit which is fine giving me a signal right to the end of the workshop, call it 40 yards.

Extenders are on second floor of a brick house next to the wall facing the office and workshop which are proper wooden buildings with cavity walls. Open air range is claimed to be over 100 meters.

I'm sure my second off brand one is still around somewhere, I've no use for it so if you fancy giving it a go you are welcome to have it for the price of the postage. Assuming I can find the instructions.

PM me if you are interested.

As I recall matters initial set-up was a bit challenging. Once it was all up and running it was obvious what the instructions for both phone and range extender were banging on about.

But not before.

Doesn't help that some of the things you have to do are time limited and if you over-run your allotted few second it all goes seriously pear shape.

Clive

More favourable siting of the base station might improve things. Installing it in an upstairs room closer to the workshop for instance might work. Access to the 'phone line and mains power might limit this option although there may be some currently redundant 'phone cabling which might allow extending the line from the incoming point to the more favourable base station site.

Dave

That BT repeater looks vey expensive compared to my memory of what I paid.

Assuming the DECT phone has a repeater mode any properly specified DECT repeater is supposed to be able to register and work with any DECT phone system. As far as the base station is concerned the repeater just looks like a handset and as far as the handset is concerned the repeater just looks like a base station so, in principle there are no issues. In practice there is adeal of jiggery pokery involved to ensure that the connection goes through either base station or repeater rather than try to go through both simultaneously. There can be a slight glitch in communications if you are on the move and the phone switches from repeater to base or back.

Summary of things with a short form note in the middle on how the registration process is supposed to work **LINK**

https://www.pmctelecom.co.uk/blog/how-do-dect-repeaters-range-extenders-work/

My no longer used off brand one is an RTX which certainly works with Siemens phones. By implication from that articel it shoild have no issues with BT ones.

Clive

Thanks for the update Clive. My experience of DECT was so long ago I can't remember who wanted it or why! Or even why the IT department was buying telephones, not our gig at all. Back then best advice was to buy matched units because the standard was new and implementations varied due to most makers insisting on adding proprietary features that messed up compatibility. Time marches on, and it's highly likely the problems I worried about then are ancient history!

Dave

Dave

Bit more research suggests its all to do with something called GAP.

According to Panasonic:-

"GAP stands for Generic Access Profile, this means that any GAP compatible handsets can be registered to any of our base systems and will allow you to receive incoming calls and to make outgoing calls. Other features and functions may be limited and cannot be guaranteed."

So I guess that means you can make and receive calls from any mix and match pair of GAP compatible phones and handsets but any other clever stuff may not work.

Sounds OK to me. In my book phones are for talking to folk too far away to hear you shouting.

Clive

Stub says he thinks both phone and wifi extensions have been dealt with admirably by the above responses.