AC68U: Directional antennas?

[carnut65]

Either on line or from an IM chat with ASUS tech suppt, I believe I was told that the antennas are directional (ie, point them towards a client for improved signal). Is that true?....thx

 

[Asmodian]

Not as far as I know, mine came with standard omnidirectional antennas. Maybe they were talking about beamforming?

You can get much better reception in various locations by moving the antennas but it isn't because they are directional antennas.

 

[pete y testing]

Either on line or from an IM chat with ASUS tech suppt, I believe I was told that the antennas are directional (ie, point them towards a client for improved signal). Is that true?....thx

the first issue is you would need dual band directional antennas x 3 and dual band directional antennas aint exactly cheap ( would prob cost you more for the 3 than the price of the ac68u in the first place )

the other thing that would happen is you would reduce you coverage to everywhere else in the house as you are directing most of the signal one way

what is youre actual coverage issue as if the asus signal power cant reach it then its prob time to have a look at other options for extending your lan / wlan

these can include

running ethernet and using a second wireless access point

using ethernet over power adapters

and if nothing else can be done you can look at repeaters and or extenders

but there are a lot of downsides to repeaters so only go this way if there is no other option

pete

 

[RMerlin]

I recently discovered that following Linksys's recommendation of keeping all antennas straight up when on a single floor would increase link rate and performance for me versus Asus's recommendation of putting all three antennas in different directions. My laptop's link rate was typically just above 700 Mbits while in the same room as my router. With all antennas straight up, I now get close to 866 Mbps link rate.

 

[joegreat]

Either on line or from an IM chat with ASUS tech suppt, I believe I was told that the antennas are directional (ie, point them towards a client for improved signal). Is that true?....thx

Hi,

Directional antennas look like the Asus WL-ANT157 or Delock RP-SMA ones.
The standard antennas are omnidirectional but via beamforming they can give the WLAN signal a direction.

I have replaced the central antenna with the Delock one on my two routers:
- The N66U shows better signal (send/receive) and even chatches the devices over the AC68U (even when you are near to it).
- But the AC68U does not really show measurable improvments in signal strenght nor in reception, but still I belive that the directional transmisstion is beneficial to get the good signal to the terrace...

With kind regards
Joe

 

[drabisan]

I recently discovered that following Linksys's recommendation of keeping all antennas straight up when on a single floor would increase link rate and performance for me versus Asus's recommendation of putting all three antennas in different directions. My laptop's link rate was typically just above 700 Mbits while in the same room as my router. With all antennas straight up, I now get close to 866 Mbps link rate.

Cisco recommends the same antennas vertical orientation for their enterprise APs. I came recently to the info Aruba recommends the same orientation.
That's valid even for 3x3 APs.
I don't have a clue why Asus recommends that orientation.

 

[icece]

Asus recommendation makes sense for mobile devices and coverage. In terms of MCS it's not optimal.