Wireless router advice

[hmha83]

Hi;

I need your advice in selecting the suitable wireless router for my house. I have a lot of walls (concrete walls) which block the wireless signal in some rooms. I was told I have to use router with high gain external antenna, now while searching for cost effective router with the high gain external antenna I found the following:
1- Tenda W309R with two 7dBi external anttena
2- Tenda W303R with three 5dBi external antenna

In general, which would be better in terms of signal strength and range?? which one would be suitable for my case??

I really want to avoid using access points or wireless range extenders

kindly advice me

regards

 

[overdrive31]

It takes two to tango..the clients need just as much attention to gain any ground so to speak.

 

[stevech]

Hi;

I need your advice in selecting the suitable wireless router for my house. I have a lot of walls (concrete walls) which block the wireless signal in some rooms. I was told I have to use router with high gain external antenna, now while searching for cost effective router with the high gain external antenna I found the following:
1- Tenda W309R with two 7dBi external anttena
2- Tenda W303R with three 5dBi external antenna

In general, which would be better in terms of signal strength and range?? which one would be suitable for my case??

I really want to avoid using access points or wireless range extenders

kindly advice me

regards

Negligible difference.

 

[hmha83]

Thanks for your reply. Just one more clarification, I have checked the tech. specs of each router, and I noticed that the wireless transmit power for W309R was as follows:
B Mode：
1/2/5.5/11Mbps : 19dbm， +0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
g Mode：
6/9Mbps : 16dbm：+0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
12/18Mbps : 15.5dbm：+0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
24/36Mbps : 15dbm：+0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
48/54Mbps : 15dbm：+0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
n Mode：(Single antenna 20/40M)
MCS0/1_：7.2/15, 14.4/30 Mbps：16dbm: +0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
MCS2/3_：21.7/45, 28.9/60 Mbps：15.5dbm: +0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
MCS4/5_：43.3/90, 57.8/120 Mbps ：15dbm: +0.5dbm/-0.5dbm
MCS6/7_：65/135, 72.2/150 Mbps ：15dbm：+0.5dbm/-0.5dbm

while for W303R the wireless transmit power was as follows:
RMS(no gap)；
B mode：
1/2/5.5/11Mbps : 17dbm， +2/-1dbm
G mode：
6/9Mbps 　: 17dbm，+2/-1dbm
12/18Mbps : 16dbm，+2/-1dbm
24/36Mbps : 16dbm，+2/-1dbm
48/54Mbps : 15dbm，+2/-1dbm
N mode：(20/40Mmode single antenna)
2.4GHz
MCS0/1_：7.2/15/　14.4/30 Mbps　：17dbm，+2/-1dbm
MCS2/3_：21.7/45/ 28.9/60 Mbps　：16dbm，+2/-1dbm
MCS4/5_：43.3/90/ 57.8/120 Mbps ：16dbm，+2/-1dbm
MCS6/7_：65/135/　72.2/150 Mbps ：15dbm，+2/-1dbm

It seems to me that W303R (3x5dBi) delivers wireless signal with higher power than W309R (2x7dBi). Is my observation correct??
please advice

regards

 

[stevech]

Three points

1. 2dB, 5dB, etc. differences need to be taken in view of the end to end attenuation in a 2.4GHz transmission path. That number is on the order of 70, 90 or more dB of loss due to the laws of physics plus walls/floors. So these differences you concentrate on are like 3% or so of the path loss.

2. The consumer WiFi chip sets all have about the same transmitter power, if marketed truthfully. There are a small number of chipset manufacturers selling to the myriad of retail product manufacturers.

3. The client (laptop, etc) device's transmitter power with poor antenna gain is often the weakest link in the bi-directional WiFi link. Antenna gain at the router, when improved by say 6 or 8dBi benefits both directions.

 

[hmha83]

Thanks Stevech and overdrive31, I have bought Tenda W303R, it is really good, I'm now getting signals in places where I was not getting any signal earlier, now my entire house is covered.

 

[stevech]

Thanks Stevech and overdrive31, I have bought Tenda W303R, it is really good, I'm now getting signals in places where I was not getting any signal earlier, now my entire house is covered.

did you evaluate the client to WiFi direction's speed? The signal strength at the router is often weaker than the signal strength at the client.

In older WiFi, this kind of imbalance led to unreliable operation, esp. with heavy upstream traffic. In some forms of the latest WiFi, the data rate on the two directions can differ dynamically according to the signal strength on each direction.

Point being: noting 3 bars everywhere is half the story.

 

[hmha83]

did you evaluate the client to WiFi direction's speed? The signal strength at the router is often weaker than the signal strength at the client.

In older WiFi, this kind of imbalance led to unreliable operation, esp. with heavy upstream traffic. In some forms of the latest WiFi, the data rate on the two directions can differ dynamically according to the signal strength on each direction.

Point being: noting 3 bars everywhere is half the story.

In a matter of fact no, I did do so. My main concern was to get signal at the far end of my house, now I'm getting it. Could you guide me how to do the client to WiFi direction's speed evaluation??