Antennas

You have probably arrived at this page because you are looking for a range extender antenna for your WiFi system. We have written this article to make the complex task of choosing the correct antenna for your system much easier and also to let you know how the different types of antennas perform. The single most important thing you can do to extend the range of your 802.11 system is to install an external antenna with some good gain and directional or omni-directional qualities.

Directional WiFi Antennas

If you are trying to set up a stable high speed wireless network, then we recommend getting two high gain directional antennas. You can easily create a point to point WiFi network by connecting a wireless router to your high speed DSL or cable modem. Then just connect one of our directional antennas to the wireless router and point it at your friend's house. If you have a lot of friends, you could try an Omni, though the gain will never be as much. But please don't alienate any of your friends by sharing your wireless connection flippantly. Anyway...
Remember, line of site works best when you are sending and receiving 802.11, so try to mount the antenna free of trees and buildings if possible. We recommend using two directional antennas if you really want a strong signal. Even if you mount one directional antenna outdoors and connect it with the wireless router, the other computer (or wireless access point, wireless bridge, etc) may not get a strong signal if it is indoors in the other building. So basically, two external directional antennas will allow you to share a high speed wireless network. But if you are really serious, get a wireless amplifier and have those friends throw in on it!

Omni-Directional

This is the common “Base” antenna used for Point-to-Multi-Point or can be an omni-directional antenna for your car. An Omni-Directional antenna would serve as your main antenna to distribute the signal to other computers or devices (such as wireless printers, PDAs, etc) in your workgroup. You can use 2 Omni-Directional antennas for a point to point system, but this is usually not recommended because there is no real point to distributing your signal all over the place when you only want to going from point A to point B. Please refer to Directional antennas above. Typical Omni-Directional WiFi antennas consist of Vertical Omnis, Ceiling Domes, Rubber ducks, Small Desktops and Mobile vertical