Shortly after purchasing my Droid Bionic 4G LTE smart phone I was blown away by the results of my data transfer rates on bandwidthplace.com. Depending on my location I was getting speeds between 3Mbps to 32Mbps and no, I’m not joking. This along with the mobile hotspot capabilities of the Droid Bionic is what peaked my interest in finding a way to get a Verizon 4G LTE signal at home which has been a problem since we switched from At&t to big red a couple of years ago.

Our neighborhood apparently is in a Verizon black hole where the force is so strong that no reception can penetrate through. Well, that’s not entirely true, we get a signal but it’s random and jumps from network to network (1x, 3g, 4G LTE occasionally on one side of the house) every few seconds. Bear in mind that the signal we received was never enough to make a call or transfer data. Up until I decided to ditch my home internet and setup a home network using my Bionic we had been using a Verizon (Samsung branded) network extender which worked great for phone calls but required a high speed internet connection and did not function well with data functions like text messages.

Okay, enough with the back story lets get to the meat of what this article is about; Wilson Electronics (WE) 4G LTE signal Booster and the accompanying WE antennas. Considering that I am a rather cheap individual I was not willing to pay retail for a WE all in one kit ($700+) so I decided to piece the system together using several sources which I’ll detail below.

The Review:

The question on your mind is likely, Does it work? YES! Let me start by saying that I went from sporadic signals that lasted no more than 5 seconds to a consistent 4G LTE signal that floats between -82 and -95 depending on the tower I’m receiving the signal from. This provides roughly 4Mbs to 12 Mbs download speeds and upload speeds between 1 ½ Mbs to 5 Mbs. However, your situation may vary for a number of reasons. Careful research and thought must be conducted prior to making the investment. To give the primary and very general requirement for success with WE signal booster here’s what the technical support staff at WE told me, if you can attain a signal from the carrier then this system will work for you. Meaning, if you can lock onto a signal from the carrier even for a brief moment or two this system will likely help you attain a solid and consistent signal. I’m not saying you’ll be sitting with a -65db signal but if you’re situation is similar to mine you could see signals ranging from -82db to -94db depending on several factors; like distance to the tower, broadcast power of the tower, etc…

Negatives:

• Monopoly on Cables: The cables used are WE exclusive which will force you to spend a lot of money on cables for the installation.
• The cable is VERY stiff and not easy to maneuver.
• Price of Coaxial Surge Protector: We had a house hit by lightning so we appreciate the need for this product but $70 is outrageous for what the product is. We’d all probably pass out if we knew the markup on this item.
• Installation Requirements: The distance between the antennas and the being forced to mount the booster inside the home/business makes for an expensive project.

Positives:

• Works as advertised. I’m likely the only resident in a half mile radius with 4GLTE. That comes with bragging rights.
• The booster, surge protector, and antennas all seem very well built.
• WE support staff is very helpful and some of them are very insightful.

Bottom Line:

Depending on how much you pay for the system I would say it’s worth every penny as long as you don’t spend $800 as WE suggested it would cost during my first phone call with them.

The Hardware:

1. WE 4G LTE 700 (801865) Booster (Purchased items 1, 2, and 3 from SolidSignal.com) Product Link: 801865 with 301135 and 301111 or 801865 with 301135 and 304411
2. WE Dual Band Panel Indoor Antenna (301135)
3. WE Wide Band Antenna (304411) NOTE: According to WE Support staff the 301111 Yagi antenna will not work for the 700 MHz band (Stated it’s an 800 MHz) THEY WERE wrong and even the manual that comes with the 301111 states that it works for the 700MHz band. Furthermore it is this antenna that I am using now so I can personally guarantee it works with the LTE network.
4. AT LEAST 50 feet of WE Ultra Low Loss Cable 952350 N male connectors on both sides of the cable. In order to use your amplifier at near full power you need at least 50 feet of separation between the inside and outside antenna. (Bought mine on Rocksignal.com) Product Link: 50ft Ultra Low Loss WE cable
5. AT LEAST two separate 2 foot (longer cables will allow more flexibility when it comes to installation. I recommend at least one of these be a 10 foot cable) WE Ultra Low Loss Cables 952302 N male connectors on both sides. (Only need one if you opt not to use the lightning protection) (Bought mine on Amazon.com) NOTE: I didn’t realize I would need these cables initially so I ended up buying them from Amazon but it would probably be more cost effective to buy these from RockSignal.com as well because shipping may be combined and their price is better.
6. Mounting Hardware: A pole of 1 ½ to 2 inches in diameter to mount the outside antenna on. The pole needs to be AT LEAST four 3 ½ feet long as there has to be at least 3 feet of clearance in all directions of the antenna. (I welded two top posts for chain link fences together and welded a 45 degree angle piece of metal conduit to the top to enable me to elevate the WE 301111 antenna. Found at Home Depot)
7. Optional: WE Coaxial Lightning Surge Protector 859902 (Overstock.com currently has this item for a really good price.) NOTE: We were previously hit by lightning and lost a lot of electronic equipment so let me just say, Don’t be a cheap ass and spend the extra $60 or so to protect your WE amplifier and countless other devices that could be affected if the lightning jumps to another part of your electrical system. Product Link: WE Lightning Surge Protector

The Overall Cost: (Estimated)

1. WE Amplifier (801865) and WE Indoor Antenna (301135) and WE Outside Antenna (304411) – $299.99 plus $12.95 for shipping = $312.94
   See links in the Hardware section #1 for links to the kits that include the 301111 or 304411 antenna.
2. 50 ft cable (952350), 10 ft cable(952310), and 2 foot cable(952302) = $69.79 plus $8.95 for shipping = $78.74
3. WE Lightning Protection (859902) = $46.49 plus $2.99 for shipping = $49.48

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Total = $441.16

Please keep in mind you will need some other materials including a pole to mount the outside antenna to, electrical tape, wire ties, etc… but this should give you a ballpark idea of what you’re looking at for the cost.

Installation:

1. If you have a Android powered phone download an app called “Open Signal” as this will help you find your nearest towers and will help (Somewhat) in the aiming process.
2. Utilize the app above to discover where you nearest towers are. Spend some time walking your property, neighborhood, and even drive down the street to see where the most consistent signal is coming from. Then move to step 3.
3. Evaluate the best mounting area on your property/house while considering the following things; location of the cell tower, where your inside antenna will be mounted knowing the outside antenna can’t aim anywhere near the direction of the inside antenna (oscillation WILL occur), distance the outside antenna is from the inside antenna (50 feet minimum is required for near full power on the amplifier), and finally the most important thing; whether or not your wife will approve of the location because if momma ain’t happy 4glte or not, YOU WILL NOT be happy.
4. Next run the cable to the locations you plotted making sure you’ve met the previously mentioned requirements.
5. Install the antennas: Inside and outside.
6. Install the Coaxial Surge Protector.
7. Mount the Signal Booster and connect the cables. The SB needs to be mounted on the inside of your home away from the extreme temperatures of the attic or outside weather. Unless you opt to buy more than 50 feet of the cable listed above then this takes VERY careful planning. Mine is mount less than a foot from the ceiling behind our plasma tv. Consider whether you have an inside location that will work with only 2 – 2 foot cables to reach the inside antenna and surge protector. If not you will have to buy longer cable.
8. Check all of the connections and then plug it in. If both of the lights are green it’s working as expected, now aim using the Open Signal app as your guide but give the cell phone plenty of time to process the signal before making adjustments to the outside antenna.

Aiming Tips:

Consider your location carefully. If for example like me, you aren’t currently getting a good signal due to hills, trees, or land is blocking the signal you might need to slightly elevate your antenna in addition to mounting it at a higher point. As you can see in the images above I mounted my antenna fairly high (About 20 feet) and have it installed at a slight angle. Also, be patient when checking for signals, cell phone signal meters are not in real time. At points in the aiming process if you drop your signal all together be sure to check the amplifier inside the building, chances are you may have tripped the oscillation protection. This means your antennas signals are coming in contact with each other and need to be separated. Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section below and make sure to sign up on JealousBrother.com and get involved in some rivalries. Thanks.

Software: A1SG (A1 Sitemap Generator)
Current Version: 3.0.9
Price: Standard – $49.00 Professional – $69.00 (1 year of free updates)

(Also offers a Free Fully Functional 30 day trial)

Modes:

A1SG offers two modes of use “Easy Mode” and what I’ll call “Super Advance Mode”. While easy mode may be ideal for smaller websites with excellent url structures it’s not suitable for larger websites or those with structuring issues. I won’t be covering “Easy Mode” in much detail as none of my websites were a suitable choice for crawling in this mode. With that considered it is certainly possible that there are plenty of well structured websites that could very much benefit from the “Easy Mode”.

Before I come off too negative let me open the door to what I’ll refer to as “Super Advanced Mode”. To say the advance mode gives you amazing control over your sitemap analysis and output would be the understatement of the century. I’ve been working with the software for well over two months now and I’ve likely only evaluated 55% – 65% of the options available in this software. Extensive options come with an elevated learning curve which Thomas told me was a trade off he’s willing to make.

User Interface:

A1SG is very powerful but it is also a bit confusing. The large number of features take it’s toll on ease of use which includes attempting to figure out what all of the different filters do and what the appropriate syntax is to make them spring to life. To counter the confusion A1SG offers numerous mouse over tips and a very extensive online help section for all of the different features to help explain the use and sytnax which is a neccessity for people like me who refuse to dive into manuals. To give an example of how extensive the option sets are I’ll list the tabs for scanning a website; Paths, Scan Progress, Crawler Options, Crawler Engine, Crawler Identification, Webmaster Filters, Analysis Filters, Output Filters, and Data Collection. Each one of these tabs has numerous options for the end user to choose from which while very usefull features this does make it a little more challenging to operate but then again it is “Advanced Mode”.
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CoffeeCup SiteMapper vs. InSpyder Sitemap Creator 

Side By Side: InSpyder Sitemap Creator - CoffeeCup SiteMapper

It’s a bit difficult to say just how crucial sitemaps are in search engine algorithms and how much of an increase of indexed pages and crawl rate, if any, you’ll receive by uploading and pinging an xml sitemap to the major players. (Google, Yahoo, Bing) What is definite is that it can’t hurt your site unless it’s done completely wrong (formatting), you delist too many url’s, or you leave too many urls on the list.

Before jumping into the comparative review of SiteMapper and Sitemap Creator I want to give a layman’s term definition to what a sitemap is and what it may or may not do for your website or blog. It is indeed a map but it’s more than that; a good way to explain it would be to say it’s a hybrid map, more like a GPS (Unit that gives directions) set to the shortest and most efficient distance. Let’s say you have a ton of irrelevant or duplicate content urls on your site, to add to the analogy above, these urls could be considered freeway traffic or ice cream stores; things you want to avoid when traveling because it eats up your time.

Let’s think of search engine bots(Those that crawl your website) as impatient kids in the back seat of the family’s station wagon (Does anyone actually still own a station wagon?) on a long family road trip across the country (Country=Your Website). Now wouldn’t it make sense for your GPS (Sitemap) to get you to your destination as quick and efficient as possible so you don’t lose your mind? Yes it would. While a Sitemap is considered to be a suggestion to the search engines I’d be inclined to think they take them fairly seriously, especially when it’s well formatted and the most useful content of your website is added to it. The beautiful thing about sitemaps is that unlike your gps unit on the road trip you can actually remove traffic/obstacles in the road instead of just attempting to avoid them (Suggestively that is because it is up to the search engine on whether it follows the Sitemap path).

There are two types of sitemaps, html and xml. Html is primarily for the benefit of your website visitors while xml (xml’s can be zipped and indexed) is purely for the use of search engine bots. (There are evil bots too)
Now that we have a basic understanding of the sitemaps let look at two pieces of software I purchased and used within the last three weeks.

CoffeeCup SiteMapper:
UPDATE: Before leaving this post please read the update at the end of this review for some updated information regarding the SiteMapper program. This greatly alters the opinion I previously had of this program but doesn’t modify my opinions on InSpyders product.

CoffeeCup SiteMapper was the first program I purchased and at just $29.00 ($26.10 with coupon code: 226STS) it was definitely an easy choice to make the investment. Visually speaking SiteMapper is a beautiful piece of software; functionality wise was a completely different story. It comes packed with a lot of convenient features such as scheduling to automatically update and ping the search engines, built in preview of the sitemap, and of course the ability to create both html and xml sitemaps.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to test the scheduling and pinging features of this program because after five days of attempting to crawl a website I finally gave up. The crawl would start out fine but before too long the software would lock up forcing me to open the task manager to shut it down(I read similar complaints of this on their Support Forum). Now before you think this was computer related, I installed SiteMapper on my desktop and two laptops just to be certain. (All running Vista Home Premium so there is a small chance it was OS related but not likely)

SiteMapper Frozen

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We had been talking about a list of concept iPhone apps that would be pretty killer to have. We broke the post down into a couple pages since it was kinda’ long. Without further adieu, here are the next 4 concept apps on the list.
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Like most iPhone junkies, I cannot stop checking the App Store for updates. I’ve played out all the cool games like Fieldrunners, Blackjack, Bejeweled, Line Rider, Strategic Assault, Lux Touch, and Flashlight. I’ve settled on my core programs like Pandora, Bloomberg, iTrans NYC, BeejiveIM, RTM, AirSharing, and others.

I just can’t want to find the next great App. I understand the App Store is still in its infancy, apps are difficult to monetize, and people are scrambling to get their product out the door even if it’s buggy as hell. But I don’t care – the bottom line is that I’m impatient and so I’ve put together my own fantasy world list of apps that I would like to see. The criteria isn’t extremely objective; some of my apps may seem obvious and for the others I’ll offer up a bit of explanation.

I present to you … THE LIST:
(in no particular order)

Page 1: 
1. Blinksale
2. Cigar Aficionado
3. Any Good Wine App
4. Meeting Place

Page 2:

5. Google Analytics
6. Google AdWords
7. Google AdSense
8. Local Event Schedules

Page 3: (coming soon)

9. HSBC
10. Meetup
11. Barrons News
12. Sim City

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