Before to make an antenna upgrade you must first distinguish between directional and omnidirectional models. Directional antenna essentially work as that ones provided by default to cover equivalent distance in all directions , while omnidirectional cover specific directions for creating a longer distance bridge.

When you purchase an omni-directional antenna, it can be established its efficiency on the basis of dBi values: antennas typically mounted on the access points or router offer 2 or 5 dBi, while there are models with 6, 8 and even 10 dBi. Consider that an increase of 6 dBi corresponds to a doubling of the range of the coplanar plane.

The higher dbi values mean lower antenna “vertical” efficiency .In practice 8 dBi antenna is less efficient than a 5 dBi if the client is placed at a different elevation from the access point.

Directional antennas are typically used to establish small wireless links of small , therefore rarely they find space in a home wireless environment, these systems focus the issue in a specific direction penalizing all the others. Examples of highly directional antennas are Yagi, Backfire or Satellite Dishes, models that require a precise pointing. For indoor use the best solutions consist in directional panel antennas (prices from 30 up to 150 dollars), providing good coverage in a field angle without requiring specific point.

read also how to direct router antenna for getting the best coverage.

The typical external antenna used by access point is omnidirectional. This term can be misleading since it indicates that antenna can radiate the signal evenly in the direction coplanar to the antenna itself. In simply words, a whip antenna in vertically position radiates along the horizontal plane, while it is inefficient to deviate from it (until to reach almost zero signal on the perfect vertical plane).

The practical consequence is simple: if your router or access points has to serve an apartment or a house on one floor, you have to oriented router antenna vertically.

The discussion becomes more complicated for the multi floors. In these cases it is difficult to find a good compromise to efficiently cover the whole area of interest and if you want to reach also, for example, a notebooks a floor above or below the access point. If you orient the antennas in a horizontal position you will reach other floors but you will significantly reduce the efficiency of the device on the same floot of access point.

For this reason the best way to cover a multi-floor house is to use multiple access points (read how to extend the coverage of your wireless network) .

In any case, the indoor wireless work in the presence of multiple paths and reflections of the signal . Sometimes theoretical considerations vary from situation to situation. The suggestion is to experiment with different orientations of the antenna until you get one that meets your specific case. A final consideration on the access point or router with internal antennas: these devices are designed to optimize coverage in the coplanar direction . For this reason it is important to consult the manual device to locate the right installation recommended by the manufacturer.

Important: WDS is not ratified by the IEEE standard and is therefore it’s not guaranteed a perfect compatibility between devices supporting this technology, so our advice is to use the same equipment manufacturer if you want to install a distributed network. Moreover, in most cases the devices configured in WDS mode not handle WPA encryption but only the old WEP.

A WDS can consist of two or more access points. All elements of access network must be configured in WDS mode; the main access point (the one that provides broadband Internet access and from which terminals are connected, even wired) is vhosts wireless router, while  other devices that use the distributed system to extend the range are called wireless client router.

To recognize each other the devices exploit the MAC addresses of network on each machine ,then you have to indicate the addresses of other access points that make the wireless network.
For repeater network, even an access point operating in WDS mode has to use its radio channel, in part to communicate to other access points and partly to provide connectivity to network clients.

The result is a substantial decrease in performance over the use of a single access point, once again increasing extension of the network is at the expense of network throughput. Remember that all access points of the distributed system must operate on the same wireless channel while it is recommended that you set each device login with a different SSID, since it is not always consumer platforms provide mechanisms for efficient dynamic roaming.

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