Your take on wifi antenna upgrades?

[mr_wizard]

I've been looking around at some antenna's for my wifi PCI card lately and it's hard to tell what's good and what's not good. You got dbi of course, the more the better. Omni-directional as opposed to Directional, that's self explanatory. I'm on such a horrible connection right now that I frequently get disconnected. So I was wondering, how effective are these antenna's? I've been looking at some 9dbi omni directional antenna's on eBay, for $10-15 it's hard to beat. I mean, as long as I get a 20% improvement in quality that's all I would really need for a solid connection. Anyone have experience with these things? Do they really give you a decent improvement?

 

[Kharn]

ok quick question, dose it bother you if you might have to do a little signal hunting? if not I suggest a directional antena as you can given a little time point your antena at the router an get a much better signal than an omni directional one can provide.

 

[mr_wizard]

Well I suppose if I could experiment with pointing the directional antenna in different directions finding the strongest point, that's not too much of a big deal. Never really understood why people didn't use this in the first place it's obviously better and about the same price, just aim it at your router and your good. Just curious how effective antenna's in general are...

 

[NetCablesPlus]

I have mostly heard from people who were sorry that they spent any money on wifi signal amplifying antennas. My working theory is that most people with signal problems are experiencing issues of interference, not signal degradation due to distance issues, and so the antennas do not really help in the majority of cases. Caveat: I sell ethernet cables so in these cases I mostly hear from people that are buying cables because the wifi and antennas did not work. So, my view may be slanted by the customers that I hear from. I do not hear from the people for whom it may have worked.

 

[mr_wizard]

I figured antenna's sort of helped with the interference issues as well as distance? The larger dbi should be able to broadcast beyond what was before and grab the signal for a better reception, right? Just like directional antennas should be able to punch through walls better seeing as the broadcast is focused in that direction.

 

[NetCablesPlus]

It is certainly possible that the antennas/repeaters/amplifiers help some with interference, though that help may not be enough to make a difference that is apparent to the user in cases where the interference is quite strong, whereas the help that they provide in increasing signal distance would be easily seen.

 

[mr_wizard]

Yeah right now all I really need is maybe a 5-10% improvement in signal quality. The router is about 3 walls and 75 feet away. My laptop can maintain a good connection, but the crappy PCI card in my PC won't. So I figure a directional antenna should help keep a connection, if those things really make a difference at all. But sounds like they do, I think I'll go ahead and give it a shot.

 

[NetCablesPlus]

It would be interesting to hear how it worked out for you. Good luck.