How to direct router antenna to get the best wireless coverage
The antennas affect the coverage area of an access point, many devices offer the opportunities to replace the terminals supplied with antennas more efficient in certain conditions, but before analyzing any system upgrade, it is important to check that the antennas in the your router or access point has to be well oriented.
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.
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