Thinking of buying more powerful antennae for my 2820n. Is it worth it and which would you recommend if you have done this?

Thanks.

Laxe wrote: Thinking of buying more powerful antennae for my 2820n. Is it worth it and which would you recommend if you have done this?

Thanks.

It depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Antennas aren't "Powerful" as such - they just focus the available power more precisely where you want it. The "Gain" of the antenna is a guide to the increased signal you will see in the beam width of the antenna (typically 60 degrees or so wide). However - the signal in areas not within the beam of the antenna will actually be REDUCED (you don't get something for nothing !). If you have a well defined area where you want to concentrate the signal, then higher gain antennas will definitely help.

I have two higher gain antennas attached to my 2820n (Draytek ANT-2309) - they are at opposite ends of my home and the beams point inwards towards each other. (This is because I've got thick concrete internal walls which absorb lots of signal). One is connected directly to the router via a 2M cable, but the other is attached via 20M of high-grade low-loss cable run through the eaves of the house. If you want to do this, you will have to be able to terminate the cable with the necessary "SMA" connectors. This is not trivial...

To work effectively, antennas must be mounted in an unobstructed position. You might get improved results simply by moving the router higher above the floor - on the wall ?. Whatever you decide to do, make sure that there are three antennas connected to the router. I had all sorts of timeouts and signal losses when I tried to run with one high gain antenna alone.

I was also considering replacing my 3 antennae's of the 2820, are there any rules of where you can put them i.e. could I run one to my attic if I wanted to ?

coderus wrote: I was also considering replacing my 3 antennae's of the 2820, are there any rules of where you can put them i.e. could I run one to my attic if I wanted to ?

You could certainly do that - as long as the cable run isn't too long, as the cable loss at 2.4GHz is pretty high. I'd aim for less than 20dB. This might sound high, but it's less than you'd get trying to transmit through a couple of concrete walls. You need 50 ohm cable. TV/Satellite feeder WON'T do as it's 75 ohms, and that matters at gigahertz frequencies. The connectors on the router are "Reverse SMA", which is pretty unusual. You can get cable and connectors from people like farnell.co.uk and rswww.co.uk. I'd doubt if you can buy that stuff from consumer outlets. Check out "Antenna extension cables" on Ebay if you don't want the hassle of selecting the appropriate cable type, and soldering connectors on to it....

In terms of positioning, the 2820 uses "MIMO" which is a diversity system. You will get the best results by spacing the antennas well apart to get the best coverage of the area. Mounting one vertically and one horizontally will also help the diversity effect. Mount them in the clear - high up on a wall is ideal.

Thanks for replying livingj2. Yeah I was just wondering if it would be beneficial for me to change the antennas but right now I guess I'll just leave it since my walls aren't that thick and I still get a very strong signal right now.