Searching .... Searching .... No Signal

 

Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

 

Don’t you just hate it when you’re expecting a call or maybe even not expecting a call and notice that your cell phone is searching for a signal.  It wouldn’t matter if someone was trying to call you or not because without a signal you certainly can’t answer.

Recently I have noticed that at night and usually fairly early in the morning my cell phone has issues with that signal.  Having a No Signal message seems to be more the norm lately during the wee hours.  As the morning moves along my phone’s signal does too.  It goes back and forth from No Signal to Searching …. to a few bars. 

I also have an air card with the same carrier and on the same account.  I have service on my air card.  I can get on the internet, write emails and also send them.  Thus, I have answered the question I keep asking myself about why not just switch from the air card to an iPhone hotspot.  I’ve often wondered if the signal was as good, better or worse using the hotspot as the air card.  I think I have my answer.  The answer to that is definitely not.

Others had also come to the same conclusion indicating there was a slower delay in the hotspot and not in the air card.  The biggest advantage for us would be that we’d save about $35 a month to switch over to the hotspot.  However, if  it doesn’t work as well, saving that $35 just wouldn't be worth it.  When we want signal, we want signal.  Well, we also want good bandwidth but don’t have much control over that.

The other morning I received a text at 7:04 AM.  However, that text had been sent the night before at 10:00 PM.    That is just a little bit of a delay … don’t you think?  

There are a couple websites that indicate they will send to any carrier’s text.  One is smseverywhere.com and the other one is Cellphonemessagesender.com.  I’m guessing there are probably more but these two were easy to find.  You can send the text for free.  Free is usually good but not always.  I’m not sure about the speed of the text going out.  I tried both of those and discovered there was a problem.  The problem I found is that it was easy to send but the sample texts were never received.

I also sent a message to my phone using my own email.  I received that text message on my phone almost instantly.  Of course, it just happened to be when I also had a few bars so I could test it.  It can be handy to send a text to someone else's phone especially when you know they don't have access to their computer or internet.  For a Verizon cell signal this is the email address 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com and for an AT&T cell phone, this is the email address 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net. 

It's amazing what you can discover on the internet.  Here's a little tip I found.  The website shows how to boost your WiFi signal with a beer can.   If you’re interested,   check out complete instructions here.

‘Tis life on the road.