Wireless test I would love to see

[georgedone]

I'm very impressed with the thoroughness of the tests performed on wireless routers and this contributed to SmallNetBuilder being my almost exclusive site to get information in this area. However, I was long pondering myself a question and I never saw anywhere a test to reflect this: For routers with "omnidirectional" since I know the radiation is not really so but resemble a donut in shape, to what extent I can improve reception if I experiment with antennas positions ? Would Antenna Diversity and a router with three external antennas pointing in different directions help me achieve a more consistent coverage from various points in the house than when having all three antennas parallel placed ? I guess is that is true, routers which still have external movable and removable antennas would get extra points both because can be upgraded to higher gain ones, but also because of the possibility to point them toward the three spatial axes.

 

[thiggins]

802.11n is less sensitive to antenna position because it likes multipath. But omnidirectional antennas are just that, i.e. omni. So router antenna position isn't critical.

Router placement, however, can make a big difference. As central as possible to the area you want to cover and high up away from obstructions.

 

[georgedone]

Thank you Tim,
My problem was that I was using a router integrated with EuroDocsis 3.0 cable modem (Ubee 3200). As such, altough all the house is Cat 6 wired, the placement of the Wireless router was restricted to the point the cable was getting into the house and not optimal. I've ordered a Buffalo WZR-HP-G450H, which I'm going to place centrally, after I disable the wireless radio on Ubee. I'm still thinking if I should configure the Ubee in bridge only mode and use the Buffalo router function, in which case, since my Netgear GS724T is located in the same rack where the Ubee is, I would have to run back a Cat6 cable from a lan port of the Buffalo to the switch.

 

[thiggins]

You can try the configuration that you suggest and see how it works out. You'll get better coverage with two access points than one, though.