Replacement antennas?

[Muyfa666]

I seem to have broken one of my original antennas for RT-AC68U (the connector screw broke). I took a chance and ordered generic 6dBi 2,4/5Ghz antennas online. Will this work? Are there anything special with the original antennas?

If this doesn't work, are there any brand/kind that would work better?

 

[TheManFromUncle]

Muyafa, if those antennas your ordered don't work, you should contact ASUS and see if they can send you replacements. One more option would be to purchase the set of four antennas Linksys sells for their new WRT's. They are huge and I am unsure if the connectors fit. If they do it should boost wireless for you somewhat.

 

[Muyfa666]

I am still waiting for the antennas, but I also found several people who are selling genuine Asus antennas on Ebay. Worst case, I'll buy there.

Thanks thou.

 

[Savell Martin]

Are there any 3rd party antennas that would be better than stock ones for the ac88u?

 

[Marshalleq]

I personally got the super power supply antennas for my AC-68U's. They gave a remarkable boost in performance on both 2.4 and 5GHz. I can't advocate for them enough. Really really good. Look them up on ebay, and they're actually very cheap.

 

[L&LD]

I personally got the super power supply antennas for my AC-68U's. They gave a remarkable boost in performance on both 2.4 and 5GHz. I can't advocate for them enough. Really really good. Look them up on ebay, and they're actually very cheap.

Can you describe this in more detail? Including links and your environment and network usage?

 

[Marshalleq]

Actually I thought I might write a whole article on it over on my web site I was that impressed. Just not sure how much interest there would be. You basically just go to their web site, choose to search by brand. It will tell you which specific antenna's are correct for your router, and you can then choose how much gain to add. As an example these monstrous ones are available for my router. I personally got the size down as I was worried about the height of them.

My scenario is an apartment of approximately 120 square meters, some very solid doors, fibre comes in at one end of it which doesn't reach well the bedrooms, lounge etc. Reception was non existent on the 5GHz range at the other end, 2.4 was connected but cut out. Simply switching the anntenna's made the signal strength 'full' on 2.4 (didn't record the exact specifics), but it works without a hitch now. 5GHz also is perfectly connectable now, although not full strength, it wasn't far from it.

Unfortunately I can't put my router there now, so I've moved it and now it has even more walls to get to the far corner of my bedroom where my wifi squeezebox is. So now looking at turning my media bridge into a repeater.

But in short summary, go to http://superpowersupply.com then click on antenna's and networking, then on the left click shop by brand, choose ASUS then you're good to go. Scroll down the list til you find your model. They used to have a search specific to model but I can't find it. Hope that helps.

 

[pete y testing]

seeing as the rt-ac68u is already at max eirp you are aware that by changing the antennas to what you have you have gone above the legal transmission rate and may also be effecting your health , the max eirp rules are there for the safety of everyone

imho if you find any of the new wireless AC routers cant fill your coverage needs its prob far better to have ethernet run to another part of the house and run a second wireless access point

 

[Marshalleq]

So that this thread doesn't get sidetracked with what I believe is incorrect information (and a quick search seems to confirm that). Apparently adding a Gain antenna:

Is perfectly legal
Is a core and legitimate part of wireless signal design
Does not require additional licence
Is done all over the world every day
Does not magically create power out of thin air
Will not damage your health (though I recognise this question does come up again and again because people don't accept that it does nothing - neither do I by the way).

TP Link have a fairly good article on it (it was just the first one I clicked on) http://www.tp-link.us/FAQ-3.html

My friend got Stage 4 Hotchinsons Lymphomia and wondered if she should turn her WiFi off. She didn't, and she survived the cancer - 2 years and counting and the WiFi is still on. I don't know, but I'd say if it was a health risk to anyone, it would be more so to someone who already had cancer susceptibility. She's 40.

Read the article, but would be interested in hearing any counter arguments if you think they're valid. I'm pretty open minded on all angles of such things.

 

[Muyfa666]

I would even go so far as in asking ppl to stay on topic. :-/ No offense meant thou.

 

[pete y testing]

I seem to have broken one of my original antennas for RT-AC68U (the connector screw broke). I took a chance and ordered generic 6dBi 2,4/5Ghz antennas online. Will this work? Are there anything special with the original antennas?

If this doesn't work, are there any brand/kind that would work better?

to answer your original question the answer is unknown as most generic type dual band antennas i have purchased and tested are over quoted as to their specifications and usually substandard in quality compared to the original , as to adding a 6db antenna to 2 the other two should not cause any issues or cause any harm but prob wont give any benefit ether

see

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/what-is-the-dbi-value-of-ac68u-antenna.15566/

pete

 

[HallStevenson]

One of the plastic shells around the metal thread on one of my antenna broke a while ago. It didn't really cause a problem but I couldn't position that antenna exactly where I may want to. I bought some stuff from Amazon a week ago and decided to look at replacements again and ended up buying some Super Power Supply 6dBi replacements (http://goo.gl/JiZfxJ). For $10, I wasn't worrying if they were "better" either - if they were equal to stock, I'd be happy.

In the end, on 2.4ghz, they averaged a bit over 5 dBi better throughout our house. I measured the signal strength using a simple app on my phone in (10) locations, including (2) outside.

Here's the actual measured values:

Location      Stock    SPS(6dBi)
Dining room     48      44
Loft            49      37
Master          54      57
Bedroom 2       52      45
Bedroom 3       49      54
Living room     60      47
Bathroom        56      55
Basement        55      41
Driveway        71      68
Patio edge      59      51

On the 5ghz band, the average strength with stock antenna was 65.8 dBi to 66.2 dBi. That difference is negligible.

 

[pete y testing]

im not sure how you are measuring this and i expect its with something like inssider and the figures represent the rssi , unfortunately due to the inaccuracies with this type of testing it doesnt really give any great indication of performance , if you however perform throughput testing be it with ipref of windows transfers you will get a far better indication of actual performance

 

[stevech]

Signal strength is in units called dBm. (decibels relative to 1 milliwatt, where 0 dBm = 1mW)
Antenna gain is commonly measured in units of dBi. (decibels relative to an ideal (isotropic) radiator antenna).
increases or decreases of gain or power are in dB which is simply a log scale.

To matter, an antenna gain improvement of 9+ dB is needed (e.g., stock 2dBi to 9dBi where that is about 20 inches if an omni). A 12dBi omni is about 3 ft. long.
If the shortfall in signal strength at the router (how to view this?) or less so, at the client device, is say 20dB, not unusual, then an omni-directional antenna is not the answer. An added access point is. Don't just look at the from-router signal strength; it's usually better than the other direction.

Marketeers lie about antenna gain.

A dual-band antenna has many gain-reducing compromises.

 

[sfx2000]

High Gain antennas ultimately hurt performance - for one's own WLAN, and it makes things difficult for neighbors as well...

Clients think the AP is closer, and using link balance factors, they think it's closer, so they actually reduce their Transmit power - which results in higher error rates, so the AP reduces speed to compensate until the retry errors are reasonable..

It's just like folks trying to turn up power on certain 3rd party firmware...

Only thing that improves WiFi performance and coverage is location of the AP's...

 

[sfx2000]

i expect its with something like inssider and the figures represent the rssi , unfortunately due to the inaccuracies with this type of testing it doesnt really give any great indication of performance

Bingo - tools like inSSIDer are useful for network discovery, but have little relevance on "quality" of said network... that takes deeper investigation using tools like Wireshark (protocol analysis and traffic stats) and objective performance throughput testing, as you also mentioned, with iPerf or similar...

What's missing - spectrum analysis - using something like WiSPY (which I use) or AirMagnet to get a real feel of the airspace...