Five (5) Antenna setup - Picture of

I recently decided to separate the 2.4Ghz and 5GHz antennas on the Omnia. I purchased a couple of 2.4Ghz specific and was pleased to find that mounting holes in the back of the case already exist for the two extra antennas. 15 minutes later I have the two cards separated and no diplexers.

General coverage has improved as I’m able to adjust the antennas to cover different areas as needed - 2.4Ghz is guests/untrusted/IoT devices, 5GHz is Office/Trusted.

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Care to share more about the antenna specifics? There are reports suggesting that there was nothing gained

And now the most important piece of information: Did it work? Unfortunately, no, I have not seen a significant improvement of signal strength, regardless which band I looked at.

I purchased a pair of 2.4Ghz 9DBi antennas that are stupidly tall and probably too focused. Given that that change is in the mix too, direct comparison wasn’t possible however, I’ve reverted to the dual band antenna’s that came with the unit on the 2.4Ghz radio and I have a pair of Haucom Dual-Band antennas that I was using on the 2/5 card. My only method of testing performance is with WiFi Explorer on my Mac Laptop and desktop downstairs. That, and walking round the house with my iPhone pinging the router. All in all, not very scientific however, looking at the result, here’s what I’ve seen: Parity on 5Ghz, no change in signal level on WiFi Explorer but, coverage appears to be more consistent around the house - no dropt packets on iPhone where once there where reliable black-spots. 2.4Ghz has jumped a clear 7% on both mac’s from mid 80’s% to early 90’s% - and that with the factory antennas.

There’s so many factors that influence the result however, for $10US on a pair of antennas, it was a simple change, and I’ve removed a diplexor - which has to be good - even if the benefits are maybe only in my head :slight_smile:

I was considering some 8dBi or 12dBi antennas and at least dropped the latter for its length of 25 cm.

And then been reading Increasing WiFi Range and that got me thinking that with a omni directional antenna a good portion still gets wasted in areas that do not require coverage but rather may (further) spam on the neighbourhood (same way they intrude my cover area).

Yagi antenna seems overkill for residential deployment and probably cause too much loss in wide angle coverage.

Directional antennas by design seems a bit bulky for direct attachment to the router, like this one https://www.alfadistribution.com/alfa-network-apa-m25-2-4-5ghz-dual-band-indoor-antenna/ but I think I will give a try.

I’ve been able to increase 5Ghz performance by switching frequencies. After playing with both radios and observing signal strength I’ve found that:

2.4Ghz: Band 11
5Ghz: Band 48

These changes appear to have the greatest impact on signal strength raising the percentage by about 4% on each band.

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