adding third antenna to laptop

[aleicgrant]

hi folks,

I have a new Linksys e4200, Acer laptop with a newly installed intel 6300 wifi card.

Laptop came pre wired with 2 antennas. Would like to add a third for max performance.

I see on sites like Oxfortec they have an antenna that can do the trick that does not require routing it up to the lcd. Are these antennas even worth it? anyone add a third antenna to the lcd. scary proposition or doable for the avg joe

thank you

 

[stevech]

Likely, your laptop's WiFi "radios" was designed for two antennas and not three. Most 11b/g/n radios use two antennas in a switched diversity arrangement. Some more expensive 11n radios have real MIMO (not marketing BS) and can use three antennas. The benefit of real MIMO for in-home use is small.

 

[thiggins]

The third antenna will help only to enable three stream operation on the 5 GHz band. This might provide higher throughput under strong signal conditions. But it won't extend range or provide significant benefit for 2.4 GHz.

I wouldn't bother.

 

[Aluminum]

I had success doing something a little different

Swapping the internal antennas for pigtails with SMA bulkheads (easy) and running them out of the frame neatly (not so easy). From there a pair of rubber duck omnis gets great general range. Its actually not even a swap since I left the originals intact, just disconnected.

This has the down(up?)side of announcing to anyone nearby by means of your rabbit eared laptop that you really want your signal, but I'm weird and have been known to carry around directionals on little tripods too.

I've seen some "diy kits" sold for this purpose, if you're willing to open up your laptop enough to run a new antenna you might be willing to do a little permanent modification to the frame as well.

As for the avg joe doing things, as long as you are patient and methodical, working deep inside a laptop is not a problem. (e.g. keep track of all screws by size/location, document the dissembly as you go or use a proper guide for the exact model, never force anything, etc)

 

[aleicgrant]

http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/p120/La...eed-to-open-the-Base-or-LCD/product_info.html


going to give one of these a whirl and just route it inside the base of the laptop

 

[aleicgrant]

settings question

so just an update. I did the surgery and added the third antenna but have some settings questions.

When I am close to the router, I can get the 450mbs easily. When I move 50 t 75 feet away downstairs from my office I can barely get over 50. The router is elevated 6 feet up.

What are the settings needed to make sure I am getting the best performance possible. I expect some loss over that distance but not that much.
Does the 2.4 need to be on auto or 20. The 5.0 needs to be on 40 afaik.
2.4 is set to channel 6

thanks for the help

 

[spooony]

you need to aim the signal rather than adding antennas, Make a cantenna

 

[thiggins]

As noted earlier, you need a strong signal to get a full 450 Mbps link rate. You also need to set the router to Auto 20/40 or 40 MHz bandwidth mode. Also check the client to be sure that it doesn't have 20 MHz mode only set.

With my recent test of three stream routers, I rarely saw a full 450 Mbps link rate in Location A (same room). Link rate fell off quickly when I moved to other rooms.

 

[stevech]

Directional antenna = gain.
The antenna can be directional on the horizontal or vertical. For the latter, this is a doughnut-shaped pattern. For the former, it's often like a flashlight beam, narrow or wide. In both cases, the more directional it is, the more gain.

To offset the distance you speak of, indoors, and attenuation of walls, you'll need quite a bit of antenna gain - like 12dB or more. And this comes at the inconvenience of directionality.

So the best way to get high speed is via wired connections of course. Next best, HomePlug AV pair, feeding a distance PC's ethernet port, or a WiFi access point served via HomePlug AV. Or MoCA over TV cable - essentially the same as HomePlug, functionally.

remember too that 450Mbps you speak of is the air link rate. The net rate (IP layer) will be far less, perhaps 1/2. A wired connection has a lot less overhead than wireless (net yield is higher).

(IMO, not a Cantenna - snake oil)