BACKGROUND INFOI was initially introduced to cell boosters at my home where cell phone signal for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon is nearly non-existent. T-Mobile is what our family uses and AT&T or Verizon is what my employers had been providing. T-Mobile confirmed that our home had very poor signal and promised to adjust their antennas to provide a boost. Well, nothing changed in the 8 years we have lived here.Next, I ordered a free cell booster from T-Mobile. Two options were offered: one that would use my Internet service and another that would boost any available cell signal. The first option would allow any T-Mobile phone nearby to connect to my cell booster and use my internet connection. No thanks! COX has a monthly quota on my line AND I did not want to be liable for any illegal traffic that might occur on my internet connection. So, I opted with the second choice. That worked for a few months to give us enough signal to at least get texts, though not reliably.SUPERBARSI previously purchased a Superbars car cell booster and found it to NOT work. Turned out, there were some tricks I could try when technical support reached out. I followed those additional steps, and sure enough, I got about 20-50 dB of additional signal strength while traveling. Technical support was excellent, and when I asked them about my home cell phone issues, they recommended that I would try their 6,000 sq ft home booster. My home is not that big, but I wanted to ensure it would cover the entire home, backyard, front yard, and a bit of the neighborhood so I could still get signal while playing outside with my kids. One should note that Superbars is a sister brand of HiBoost, a highly rated product often compared to the WeBoost company with similar results at a lower price.The Home cell booster supposedly would amplify T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, though not all bands. The maximum gain that could be achieved by that product was 65 dB (compare that to the 50 dB the WeBoost/HiBoost/Superbars car boosters). The higher the dB gain, the stronger the signal could be amplified.HIBOOSTFor my vacation home, I wanted their top-of-the-line product because the property is located in the mountains. I opted to buy and business expense their 15,000 sq ft model when we plan to turn the home into a short-term rental during periods of the year. The results were surprisingly very good.INSTALLATIONThe instruction manual was straight-forward, but I had also previously reached out to technical support for their Superbars booster a few months ago to see if they had any extra tips I could follow so I would not get frustrated. I will share some of those tips here.1. Downloaded three apps: Network Cell Info, CellMapper, and OpenSignal. I used those to measure and try to locate the nearest T-Mobile cell tower.2. Connected the directional antenna to the booster unit's Exterior antenna port. Did NOT connect the interior antenna. The goal is to first find out which signal direction is strongest outside.3. Took the antenna near the roof I was planning to mount it on (specifically, it would be connecting to an abandoned satellite dish from the previous owner)4. Pointed antenna towards the tower with the strongest signal. Had to play a bit with the angle and direction as even just a miniscule amount made a huge difference at times. I did so by setting up a video conference call between my personal and work cell phones while on home WiFi: one had its camera pointed at the LCD of the booster unit while I read on the other phone. The signal strength should read 50 dB or higher for the best results.5. Once I found the best position for the antenna's direction, I connected the interior antenna to the booster to make some speed measurements.6. The internal antenna must be at least a certain number of feet away from the exterior one, both horizontally and vertically, to minimize oscillation interference. I forgot what the numbers were, but they were listed in the manual. The interior antenna boosts the signal directly in front of it, both vertically and horizontally at specific angles (also found in the manual. I think it was 70 degrees vertically and 130 degrees horizontally).7. T-Mobile phone saw a significant UPLOAD speed increase by a factor of 300-400%. DOWNLOAD speed largely remained the same as before.8. AT&T phone -- which only had about 1-4 Mbps down and 0.1-0.8 Mbps up (if speed test could even be run) -- saw a boost to about 5-14 Mbps down and 1.5-4.5 Mbps up.9. Note that a cell booster can ONLY boost EXISTING signal. If there is no signal to begin with, there is nothing it can boost. The stronger the existing signal, the stronger boost you can get. The AT&T result surprised me a LOT in a good way.10. I then mounted the exterior antenna to the satellite dish, routed the cable down the house all the way to our first of three floors, attached the booster unit to a studded wall, and mounted the interior antenna nearby. The included cable was far too long, and so I ordered and used a shorter one.It's worth mentioning again: The stronger the existing signal you get, the stronger of a boost this product can provide. That is key here: if you have 0 or really poor cell service to begin with, you cannot boost non-existent or very poor signals with this product. It's like trying to build a lake with just drops of water. The more water you have flowing to you, the bigger of a lake you can build and swim in. If you have no water (cell signal) available at all, you just cannot build a lake with no water.One should note that voice, text, and data do NOT use the same bands/cell frequencies. So, just because the phone may show 5G or full bars, that does not mean that you would have full data service. You cannot trust the "signal bars" shown on the phone. Use the 2 apps instead that I had previously mentioned: Network Cell Info and/or CellMapper. OpenSignal could be useful too. CellMapper.net also provides good information.PROS- Boosted AT&T and T-Mobile signals very well- Directional antenna can pinpoint exactly at where the strongest source signal comes from. The stronger the source signal, the more the Hiboost can boost and provide better cell signal at home- Worked even with the outdoor, directional antenna being inside the home. Note: the higher the antenna can be placed (with the least amount of obstacles between it and the cell tower), the better the signal can be- Simple installation- Outdoor and indoor antennas look professional enough to somewhat blend into the home decor- Performed better than the booster provided by T-MobileCONS- Pricey- Neighbors can (unknowingly) be connecting to your cell booster too, saturating your line a bit during peak times. There's no way I found to whitelist what phones can connect to the booster so I could keep neighbors out.- Would be nice to have an app from Superbars/HiBoost that could help guide you where to point the antenna to for the best signal- Not a fan of the Black color scheme of the booster unit. Would have preferred it to be all-white to better fit with the home interior color scheme- Your HOA may limit where you can place the antenna at- Although the manual was better than the Superbars one I had previously installed, the instructions could be a bit clearer. Mind you, installing a cell booster could be a very technical exercise. Perhaps the company could produce a YouTube video on how to install its products and how to find the best signals.CONCLUSIONIt works! What can I say? I'm happy to have decent (not the best, but good enough) cell phone signal in the home, especially in case of emergencies when we have to make a phone call. For our vacation home to become a short-term rental unit later, a strong cell signal can be a... boost (see what I did there?) for when cable WiFi is down.