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Weogo

New Around Here
Hi Folks,

I have N66, AC66 and AC68 routers I use at events for live audio production.
All three are working fine.
These units are set up and taken down regularly.
The antennas on the N66 are starting to fall apart.

Can you please suggest replacement antennas that might be a little sturdier?

Thanks and good health, Weogo
 
I have found the antennas available on Amazon, sold by "Super Power Supply," to be well-made and perform at least as well as the OEM antennas. They also have longer antennas in the same product line. These trade more gain (better range) for a weaker signal in zones that are not at right angles to the axis of the antenna, but work well if your clients are all at about the same height (not basement and third floor!).
 
If anybody is curious, I can report back on how well they do.
I'm curious! :)

But do they actually do any good? I looked at getting some better ants but reviews/discussions I read were a pretty mixed bag with many saying they don't really make any difference to the range or gain because the router pumps out the max it'll pump out and that's yer lot. The only advantage seems to be better directional beamforming.

So yes, I'd be interested in how you get on and whether you notice any difference.
 
I'm curious! :)

But do they actually do any good?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: would require a college course in electromagnetic theory.

Middle-size answer: I am sure you have seen someone make bread. Part way through the process there is a big ball of dough in the middle of the kitchen table.

Imagine that ball as representing the way an infinitely-small antenna ("isotropic") would radiate radio frequency (RF) energy--a sphere centered on the antenna and extending equally in all directions. The amount of radio power is represented by the amount of dough. The extents of the sphere could stand for the usable range of the radio.

Now press your fist down in the middle of that ball. The center will get thinner, representing less energy (lower signal strength) above and below the antenna. But in return, the edges spread farther out--more signal in a horizontal direction (at right angles to the antenna's axis). The amount of bread dough (RF power) has not changed, but more of it re-directed from above and below and spread out sideways instead.

This is independent of the radio power--an antenna with gain does not change the power, but rather "Effective Radiated Power" (ERP) in some favored direction. And the good news is that the same gain applies to received signals as well, certainly an advantage because the remote client has to be able to speak back to the router.

It is also possible to direct the signal into an even smaller area. Think of how a small reflector in a flashlight concentrates the light from that tiny bulb into a brighter beam in the direction you point it. Radio antennas can do the same--parabolic reflectors make it possible for low-powered transmitters in an orbit 22,500 miles above the equator to send TV signals to Earth. The same type of parabolic reflectors have enabled experimenters to send WiFi signals over 100 miles--but of course, only in a tightly managed beam.

"Beam forming" is different, but also takes advantage of antenna design. Multiple antennas fed at different phase angles can accomplish the same kind of focused transmission and reception. The direction is chosen by the phase differences between the antennas instead of increasing the gain of a given antenna.

Here is the point where a few experienced people jump in and say that this theory does not apply because the signal bounces all over the place anyway. But so does the light from a flashlight, and yet the advantage of a directed beam is easy to see. And light is also electromagnetic radiation, at a much shorter wavelength.
 
forget it, all other antennas will kill MiMo as it is optimized for this design.
And they cant do 2G and 5G, most longer antennas only work for 2,4G as advertised.

On the other side I use a directional antenna at my neighbours Wifi-card, so I get there upto 100Mb/s over 2,4G.
I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/Digitus-DN-70103-Netzwerk-Sektorantenne-direktional/dp/B000N45Q7K
So this PC will only see a strong signal from my router (looking directly to it +12dB) and all other surrounding Wifi much weeker, that makes the good result!
With standard antenna I luckily got any connection with few MB/s, as all other Wifi around had same power level or even stronger than mine.
And I dont care about 5G over there, not realistic.
 
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