highest gain indoor antennas

Jan 15, 2005 3 Replies
A

I'm looking to improve a friends indoor wireless signal. He has a D-Link DI-514 with a PCMCIA card on his laptop. It has a 15dBm antenna. I notice d-link sells a couple of antennas but it doesn't seem to increase range even though it is advertised as doing so. The one antenna is a omni-directional with a gain of 4dBi.



DI-514

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However I see Linksys sells an antenna that I think is compatible (SMA connector) with a 7dBi.
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this work with the D-Link.



Is 7dBi the best gain that can be acheived with this type of antenna?



Would I see any improvement in gains by adding a 7dBi antenna?


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B

Stock dlink antenna is probably about 2db and has a "Reverse SMA" connector, sometimes spec'd as RP-SMA the optional 4db dlink antenna is a mild range extender, very mild. the linksys 7 db is a somewhat healthy boost over the stock antenna yet still a pretty mild antenna as its an Omni.

If he can live with a little directional panel antenna, 6 db focused in one direction is a nice boost. Those are quite popular like Hawkingtech

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which sometimes can be found quite reasonable.

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A

thanks, very helpful information.

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N

I recently bought the SMC flat panel antenna

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And use it through an MC to RP-SMA pigtail with a Proxim/Orinoco gold card.

I'm frankly quite amazed at how well this antenna works. The beam is very directional and the front-to-back ratio and front-to-side ratio is great which may be important in eliminating interfering signals.

Sitting here in my recliner with my laptop, I see about a 15 db boost when going from the Orinoco built-in antenna to the panel. Note that this involves both the added gain and the better location of the panel antenna as opposed to the built-in one buried down in the furniture.

John

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