Are high gain aerials on wireless routers a waste of time?

Question

I want to extend the range of my wireless router. I called my ISP and they said it was a waste of time changing the aerials. I can't see how this could be. Surely changing an aerial of 2-3 dbi for an aerial with 9, 10, or 12 dbi should increase range. Tell me I'm wrong.

Answer 1

Your wireless router should have been good enough for ANY household situation. You either must have a HUGE house, have a basement, or you must be giving your neighbors free wifi.

Yes, If your router has TNC connectors, you can add antennas with more gain, but MOST that you see advertised are SCAMS. As long as you buy a major brand name like buffalo, linksys or dlink you should be fine but again, your router has to have the connections and it isn't going to make a night and day difference.

You can build your own "cantenna" for cheap (less than a buck), but those are HIGHLY directional so they are not good for most home use.



You can also hack the firmware of many routers to give you more gain. Look up ddwrt or tomato in google. They are relatively safe, but of course unsupported by the hardware mfgr so if you "brick your router" there is nothing you can do.



You should also consider adding an "access point". You can buy G routers with "rangebooster" technology for under 50 bucks. For rangebooster to work, BOTH the router and the card must have the same technology. One of the favorites of geeks is the Linksys wrt54gl which can be had for about 20 bucks. Use ddwrt on that baby and you're set!





You can replace your G router with an N router for under a hundred now.. Do NOT get an "el cheapo" brand router, get a good one.

Answer 2

Adding to johntrottier's statement, here's two extreme cases:



Case 1 - you are in a large. open warehouse or barn that is in an isolated area not near any other people or other people using wireless ethernet. Changes in antenna or firmware to increase signal strength should have a noticeable effect extending the range and throughput in the warehouse.



Case 2 - you are in a small apartment in a large high-rise building, surrounded by other apartments in the same building and other high-rises in the neighborhood. All current implementations of wireless ethernet depend on shared media -- a finite number of channels are available, regardless of whether you're using 802.11a, b, g, or n. Increasing your antenna strength has little effect because the likely problem is multiple people attempting to use the same channels at the same time, leading to low throughput due to channel contention and interference.

Answer 3

Your ISP is wrong. Applied correctly, high gain antennas are very useful. Just be aware they are not a cure-all. In some cases and wireless repeater is a better solution. In other cases a wireless access point works best.

You must deal with it on a case by case basis

Answer 4

I tried one to extend the range from a caravan into the house (12db I think) it didnt work. I still got internittent connectivity either with or without. In theory it should work. In practice it didnt for me.

Answer 5

It might help some, but location would help much more.