Antenna for Nighthawk

[wazza69]

Hi,

I have a UK 4 bed detached house about 200sq meters. My BT Infinity router are in the internal access garage with my NAS in a rack and I have CAT6 from there to around the house. My main issue is that I get no WIFI coverage through 90% of the house.

I currently use a Netgear Nighthawk 7000 as a access point connected via CAT6 which gives me about 70% coverage. The idea was that I could use the Netgear as my router with the BT unit as modem due to other issues with the BT unit.

I was wondering if it would be better to buy say two access points for the house and use the Nighthawk 7000 as a router only (four boxes!) or is there some sort of external antenna that I could install in the middle of the house (say the downstairs hall) that I could wire through the ceiling to one of the antenna connections of the Nighthawk? Ideally it would be something that looked like a smoke alarm etc and would be powerful enough for the whole house and garden.

I would really appreciate any thoughts

Thanks

 

[htismaqe]

Go with a couple of standalone access points...

 

[azazel1024]

Go with a couple of standalone access points...

This.

You cannot run coaxial cable for an antenna, back to the nighthawk like you are invisioning. Or, well, you CAN do that, but you'll get no signal.

Analog signal losses at 2.4GHz on even BIG coax cable are on the order of 1-2 decibles per meter of cabling (worse the smaller the coaxial cable).

So if you had to run it 10-15 meters, you'd be looking at a signal loss of at LEAST 10dB and probably more likely ~20-30dB, since you probably would not be able to use really thick coax and the attendant adapters to get to RP-SMA on both ends.

5GHz is even worse (roughly TWICE the signal loss of 2.4GHz on coax, because it is roughly twice the frequency). If you want to run coax to an antenna, you are best off keeping it to a meter or less. If you absolutely HAVE to, you could do a 2-3m run, but it better get that antenna in a really awesome location.

Go with two access points.

 

[wazza69]

Thanks guys, will go for the 2APs

 

[stevech]

right. Coax cable at 2.4GHz, much less 5GHz, is VERY lossy. Max of 1/2m or so. With large diameter coax, a bit less loss.

But really, antennas need to be integral to the AP/router/bridge.