azazel1024
Very Senior Member
I read, hear and understand all that you are saying...but again, I come back to, yes, even a 2dB gain is very small in the grand scheme of things. However, looking at the specs on most Wifi access points, 2-3dB is easily enough to bump an MCS level, which is extra performance.
If you are 30dB in the hole, you are screwed. You need a lot more than some bigger rubber ducks to help you out.
By far what helps the most is location (IE being closer to the AP by moving or seeding more APs).
However, when that isn't an option, bigger antennas can MAYBE help. They can certainly make it worse. They can certain do nothing. Generally we are not talking spending hundreds of dollars. We are talking about spending $6-20. A pretty tiny investment.
If the link was weak, but workable before, I agree, fade is significantly more than any little 2-4dB gain you might get from bigger antennas, but that fade was there before you added bigger antennas. It isn't suddenly bigger now.
In my house, with my router in the far corner of my basement, I could get 2.4GHz over my ENTIRE house (2500sq-ft). It was very, very weak on my main level on the opposite side of my house and null in my garage. That was with the ~2-3dBi antennas on my Archer C8. Swapping on 5dBi antennas that came off my two WDR3600, the performance was boosted a fair amount. Only about 10% or so at the extremes, but it still went up. Still no connection in the garage, but everywhere I had a connection before, if weak, the performance went up. I actually got slightly more usable range on 5GHz, but more importantly there I saw around 10-20% better performance at ALL ranges. From point blank (well, 5 feet) all the way out to where the signal was dropping out.
You say 2-3dB or even 4-5dB is "nothing" when you compare the path loss. I agree, it is tiny in the grand scheme of things. It only takes "tiny" improvements to make meaningful gains however. You also should keep in mind, that 3dB is tiny compared to a path loss of something like 60-80dB...but it still means a DOUBLING of the existing signal. Which means that the radio can operate using a higher character set, and or fewer retransmits because of lost or fractional packets, etc.
Bigger antennas are not the solution for everything. They suck (generally) for multistory residences, which is why I have my router in the basement on one side of my house and an AP on my main level on the other side, but I put 5dBi on my router and 7dBi on my AP, turned down the 2.4GHz radio power slightly and I have overall much better performance, 5-20% 5GHz on the AP and 10-20% on the router, with about 5% better 2.4GHz performance at medium to long range. My outdoor AP is running 7dBi up from 5dBi and I'll probably go 9dBi at some point. That sees about 5% better 5GHz (WDR3600, not an 11ac router which seems to benefit more than 11n does with antenna gain with 5GHz performance) performance and similar 2.4GHz performance at medium to extreme range and extreme range is DIFFINITELY increased. Even with my entire body between my phone and the AP, a usable connection (>5Mbps) increased from about 150ft to about 220ft from the AP. If I contort myself (really just stand with my phone facing the AP), the range is a fair amount more than that, closer to 400ft (across my neighbor's property standing in the street). That I could not do with the 5dBi that had been on there.
Outdoor and indoor performance obviously are very different things.
I get that in the enterprise space and in things like cell deployment that just a couple of dB doesn't make much difference. However, for personal use, it generally makes or breaks nothing, but I'll take cheap increased performance any day of the week.
If you are 30dB in the hole, you are screwed. You need a lot more than some bigger rubber ducks to help you out.
By far what helps the most is location (IE being closer to the AP by moving or seeding more APs).
However, when that isn't an option, bigger antennas can MAYBE help. They can certainly make it worse. They can certain do nothing. Generally we are not talking spending hundreds of dollars. We are talking about spending $6-20. A pretty tiny investment.
If the link was weak, but workable before, I agree, fade is significantly more than any little 2-4dB gain you might get from bigger antennas, but that fade was there before you added bigger antennas. It isn't suddenly bigger now.
In my house, with my router in the far corner of my basement, I could get 2.4GHz over my ENTIRE house (2500sq-ft). It was very, very weak on my main level on the opposite side of my house and null in my garage. That was with the ~2-3dBi antennas on my Archer C8. Swapping on 5dBi antennas that came off my two WDR3600, the performance was boosted a fair amount. Only about 10% or so at the extremes, but it still went up. Still no connection in the garage, but everywhere I had a connection before, if weak, the performance went up. I actually got slightly more usable range on 5GHz, but more importantly there I saw around 10-20% better performance at ALL ranges. From point blank (well, 5 feet) all the way out to where the signal was dropping out.
You say 2-3dB or even 4-5dB is "nothing" when you compare the path loss. I agree, it is tiny in the grand scheme of things. It only takes "tiny" improvements to make meaningful gains however. You also should keep in mind, that 3dB is tiny compared to a path loss of something like 60-80dB...but it still means a DOUBLING of the existing signal. Which means that the radio can operate using a higher character set, and or fewer retransmits because of lost or fractional packets, etc.
Bigger antennas are not the solution for everything. They suck (generally) for multistory residences, which is why I have my router in the basement on one side of my house and an AP on my main level on the other side, but I put 5dBi on my router and 7dBi on my AP, turned down the 2.4GHz radio power slightly and I have overall much better performance, 5-20% 5GHz on the AP and 10-20% on the router, with about 5% better 2.4GHz performance at medium to long range. My outdoor AP is running 7dBi up from 5dBi and I'll probably go 9dBi at some point. That sees about 5% better 5GHz (WDR3600, not an 11ac router which seems to benefit more than 11n does with antenna gain with 5GHz performance) performance and similar 2.4GHz performance at medium to extreme range and extreme range is DIFFINITELY increased. Even with my entire body between my phone and the AP, a usable connection (>5Mbps) increased from about 150ft to about 220ft from the AP. If I contort myself (really just stand with my phone facing the AP), the range is a fair amount more than that, closer to 400ft (across my neighbor's property standing in the street). That I could not do with the 5dBi that had been on there.
Outdoor and indoor performance obviously are very different things.
I get that in the enterprise space and in things like cell deployment that just a couple of dB doesn't make much difference. However, for personal use, it generally makes or breaks nothing, but I'll take cheap increased performance any day of the week.
