Infuse reception signals

[wagnerslp]

PLEASE HELP!!! Hi everyone, I have been reading your posts on the Infuse. I'm a newbie here. Am also a newbie to android, coming from LG VU. I just got one 2 days ago and I really love it; however, in my house I only get 1 to 2 bars on signal strength, sometimes 3 bars for about 10 seconds, and one or 2 bars with wifi reception. My husbands phone which receives the edge signal gets a nice 4 bars. I bought the small data pack figuring to use mostly wifi on the home signal. Is there anything I can do to the phone to boost reception or should I take it back??? was not on contract, now I am again. dont want to stay on 2 year contract if I get a lousy signal all the time. I know this has been att's problem with everyone running to verizon, and I would like to avoid that, but dont know about living with 1 to 2 bars, more one than 2 . Any nice suggestions?

 

[zhelf]

well his is showing 4 bars of edge so basically your covered better by edge service than 3g and this is a problem for a lot of people as if you drop 3g then you will see 4 bars of edge as well, it appears you may not be in a good coverage area for at&t i would ask neighbors about their recpetion with other carriers always pick a strong carrier before a phone.

how is service outside of your house?

your signal will always be weaker indoors as there is interference but how strong your signal is depends on the phones radio and carrier towers. i average 3-4 bars in my house pending on where i am but never lose signal and it is the same way with verizon in my house.

when you are in your house again go into the settings-> about phone -> and status->and the line that says signal strength there will be a number -xxx dBm x asu for example in my office i have only 2 bars (-109 dBm 2asu) the closer to 0 the better so -80 is better than -100. -150 (i believe) is no service at all. One thing i have noticed in all my years of phone switching is verizon even with 2 bars in the same spot will report a better signal (for example: 2 bars at&t reads -109 on verizon i have seen 2 bars yield - 95.) so you might want to consider a new carrier if you have poor service all over but it becomes much more obvious with smartphones requiring better 3g signal for higher speeds.

the only real way to boost signal in your house is a device called at&t microcell it hooks up to your router and rusn off your broadband connection. (acts as a mini-tower) costs $150 but doesn't give you anything other than better signal sadly it does not work like t-mobiles UMA calling.

 

[wagnerslp]

Thankyou so much for replying! To be honest, I have not been out much since getting the phone, first played with it with glee, then zeroed in on the reception and then started researching that issue like crazy... but the reception I have seen on the Infuse around town has been better, 2 or 3 bars I guess. I have been working 3 jobs and have not paid a lot of attention to my old phone, the LG VU which came on to 3g a few months ago. It has been trying to drop calls in the house lately; otherwise and it is getting one or 2 bars now, too, it was very decent signal wise up until recently..probably until the 3g appeared. The new Infuse does not say 3g, it has that H....signal (fake 4g) showing, but I actually am running the phone on wifi here at home due to wanting to use my wifi signal and not use up data. I will have to check with my neighbors. I do live on the top of a mountain well within the boundaries of a small/moderate sized town.

 

[wagnerslp]

Thank you again for the information on the signal strength. It is jumping around with these numbers: going from -105 dBm 4asu to -109 2 asu, to -107 and 3 asu, to -103 and 5 asu.

 

[zhelf]

Thankyou so much for replying! To be honest, I have not been out much since getting the phone, first played with it with glee, then zeroed in on the reception and then started researching that issue like crazy... but the reception I have seen on the Infuse around town has been better, 2 or 3 bars I guess. I have been working 3 jobs and have not paid a lot of attention to my old phone, the LG VU which came on to 3g a few months ago. It has been trying to drop calls in the house lately; otherwise and it is getting one or 2 bars now, too, it was very decent signal wise up until recently..probably until the 3g appeared. The new Infuse does not say 3g, it has that H....signal (fake 4g) showing, but I actually am running the phone on wifi here at home due to wanting to use my wifi signal and not use up data. I will have to check with my neighbors. I do live on the top of a mountain well within the boundaries of a small/moderate sized town.

well like i said that signal number is more important than your bars.

the h+ is yes at&t's "4g" HSPA+ but isntead of showing 4g to 3g it always displays H+ for 3g even though 4g has not been deployed in most areas. but if you drop to edge it will show an E as it has happened to me as well. you might want to consider a new carrier.

but yes i am the same way i look for minor imperfections and am very OCD ever since my Blackberry days lol.

 

[wagnerslp]

and I guess I dont want the booster, but appreciate the information on it. I just want, like everyone else,
to have a decent cell signal at home. Lots of lots of friends around here have switched to Verizon... I dont have any idea how Sprint is here but their coverage map does not include my area to any great extent. If I have to switch carriers, it will be hard to give up the Infuse, I love it and it will feel like settling now!

 

[zhelf]

Thank you again for the information on the signal strength. It is jumping around with these numbers: going from -105 dBm 4asu to -109 2 asu, to -107 and 3 asu, to -103 and 5 asu.

so it is a relatively low signal you might want to consider a new carrier if your dropping calls the only time i see signal liek that is in my house but i rarely drop to 1 bar. i too have been debating the switch i was tied to at&t for a while because my wife had to have the iphone and i was not paying for 2 seperate lines but now i might be going to verizon.

 

[wagnerslp]

You have been a tremendous help to me! I see mostly one and 2 bars at home, more on the one bar side, in my favorite sitting place. Walking around the house, it does not really get much better, still ones and twos dropping back to ones with an occasional 3 to make me want to curse, which quickly goes away. My husband does not care about phones, he just wants a plain flip phone, so it's me that likes the gadgets, and who has to figure stuff out-LOL-. Could you tell me what a good, decent signal would register? 100?? I guess I will go to verizon and talk to them. I can get out of the upgrade contract. It has been scaring me to think about a 2 yr contract on a signal that is poor.

 

[wagnerslp]

When you have time...Since you are in the know, I dont care much about dual band and all of that, I really would prefer a smaller data plan in a smartphone and to be able to catch home wifi for fun...and would like NOT to have to charge my phone more than once a day....do you have any recommendations on verizon androids? If you are thinking about changing, I bet you have your mind on a few....thanks for your time and assistance, I appreciate it.

 

[zhelf]

and I guess I dont want the booster, but appreciate the information on it. I just want, like everyone else,
to have a decent cell signal at home. Lots of lots of friends around here have switched to Verizon... I dont have any idea how Sprint is here but their coverage map does not include my area to any great extent. If I have to switch carriers, it will be hard to give up the Infuse, I love it and it will feel like settling now!

well verizon has a very good lineup such as the thunderbolt, incredible 2, the charge, and droid x2 are all great new models

the charge is made by samsung and has a similar screen but is 4"

the thunderbolt and DX2 are 4.3" screens

and the incredible 2 is 4"

 

[wagnerslp]

Thankx!

 

[wagnerslp]

Thankx!

 

[zhelf]

good signal is considered -50 to -80 thats around what is ideal but you can get lower if under a tower lol.

for verizon i recommend the ones i listed before the only downside is verizon only has unlimited data at $30 so there is no cheaper data option.

personally if i switch i am eying the thunderbolt, incredible 2, and droid x 2.

The charge is nice but just was not great for me i like samsung screens but i prefer the metal construction of moto and htc.

if you want dual core go droid x 2

big screen droid x 2 or thunderbolt both have 4.3"

4g LTE charge or thunderbolt (not a fan of the revolution)

thin and light the incredible 2

 

[wagnerslp]

Thanks! I went to the V store and saw the models you mentioned. I was drawn to the captivate and the charge...and the thunderbolt..guess I have to think about it a bit, but for now I am going to take the little Infuse back and start all over again.

 

[zhelf]

i wish you luck and hopefully verizon signal will prove better for you! and glad to see you are staying with android!

 

[Acer0158]

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[Terrigno]

Im not understanding the situation to much. Are you haveing dropped calls? Is the wifi signal acting like its not strong because theres possibly a way to fix the wifi issue. But if you live in a spot where AT&T has weak coverage, theres no way to fix that unless AT&T backs that up in the future. Switching to Verizon would be an option. But you might have to make sure that Verizons signal is better then AT&Ts where you live at. I know there are some areas that some people live in where there is just weak coverage. If you can still make calls and arent dropping any then I would think your fine with AT&T. And for wifi, you can always reset everything to restart the connect with all devices. That usually fixes a lot of signal issues with WiFi. Verizon has a stronger coverage I believe for 3G. Where do you live at?

 

[dbesset]

I have mostly 1 bar at home weak signal yes but no problems with Infuse -109bd signal the db signal is more accurate that the bars don't try to compare bars from different phones. to see your dbs go into settings about phone and click on top selection

 

[Terrigno]

I have mostly 1 bar at home weak signal yes but no problems with Infuse -109bd signal the db signal is more accurate that the bars don't try to compare bars from different phones. to see your dbs go into settings about phone and click on top selection

How do you understand what bdm is? I found it under the about phone settings to for the signal of the network. I dont really know what it means. I normally have 3 bars all the time in my house and pretty much 5 bars everywhere else around town. I dont pay attention as much. But Ive never had signal problems in my area. I remember when I first switched to AT&T and I was living in Tennessee at the time. Edge Network constantly but I still had no problems with calls lol. I tried to look for that. I came from Verizon and tried to see how much of a difference there was with there networks. Verizon is strong dont get me wrong. But I havent personally had problems with AT&T. Even though the 4G is a joke, its not bad for hyped up 3G.

 

[zhelf]

How do you understand what bdm is? I found it under the about phone settings to for the signal of the network. I dont really know what it means. I normally have 3 bars all the time in my house and pretty much 5 bars everywhere else around town. I dont pay attention as much. But Ive never had signal problems in my area. I remember when I first switched to AT&T and I was living in Tennessee at the time. Edge Network constantly but I still had no problems with calls lol. I tried to look for that. I came from Verizon and tried to see how much of a difference there was with there networks. Verizon is strong dont get me wrong. But I havent personally had problems with AT&T. Even though the 4G is a joke, its not bad for hyped up 3G.

-dBm is the actual signal strength it ranges from 0 to -150 (0 being perfect and -150 is no signal) so the closer to 0 you are the better. bars are just a guide but not accurate.