Customer Reviews

+9dBi 15" Booster Antenna for Linksys WET11, WET54G, WMP11 PCI Card, WPS11, WMP54G, WMP54GS, WRT54GC

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Generally, I find external antennas to be a waste of time. Not only do they never live up to their claims of range increases, but they usually provide no noticeable benefit over stock.

This antenna is actually quite a bit better than stock. While it hasn't come close to the listed "up to 4x the signal strength and range", I would say it has probably boosted signal range in the ballpark of 50%. Rated signal "strength" has strangely dropped, which I suspect is related to the base station attempting to cover a wider area, but the actual speeds have increased overall.

Do note that the antennas here actually have SMA connectors, not TNC ones. As such it is compatible with the listed brands of router (which are all SMA) but not other TNC ones.

I ordered two of these for my good old d-link dir-615 wireless n router. It came equipped with two 2dBi antennas included that get the job done but are somewhat lacking in the range department. I simply unscrewed those and screwed these 2 behemoths to the back of my router. The range is much improved at my desktop two floors up and I'm enjoying speed increases up from around 9mbps to speeds in excess of 15-20 Mbps. They definitely work. If you aren't afraid of a funny looking router that looks like it can communicate with other galaxies you will not be disappointed with these antennae.

I had to locate a computer in a rather poor location in terms of WiFi. This antenna replaced the antenna on the Linksys PCI WiFi card. Connectivity went from low to good. Not anywhere near the miracle the advertising seems to promise with its nebulous "4X" promises, but it does do what it promises to do - and that's enough for me. It is also less than half the price of the Linksys antenna.

Jerry

The device is not actually compatible with the WRT54G without a RP-TNC to RP-SMA adapter (or some other brand). It is also in NO way compatible with the WET54G, which has no detachable antenna. You would have to disassemble the WET54G and connect the internal wiring to a SMA adapter.

Great product. Just screw on to replace the antenna of the router, and voila! I used [...] to check the download speeds before and after the installation. The speeds have increased at least 2 times (at least). It is so simple, no configuration needed. DROTH is a great seller too!

The thing about high gain antennas- the higher the gain, the larger the range, right?

Well, yes, but it also means, the larger than range has to be to realize the benefit.

A smaller gain antenna is better for a smaller range requirement.

Here is information from this site:
[...]

"dBi is the amount of focus applied by an antenna with respect to an "Isotropic Radiator" (a dispersion pattern that radiates the energy equally in all directions onto an imaginary sphere surrounding a point source). Thus an antenna with 2.1 dBi of gain focuses the energy so that some areas on an imaginary sphere surrounding the antenna will have 2.1 dB more signal strength than the strength of the strongest spot on the sphere around an Isotropic Radiator.

Because higher gain antennas achieve the extra power by focusing in on a smaller area it is important to remember that the greater the gain, the smaller the area covered as measured in degrees of beam width (think of an adjustable beam flashlight). In many cases a high gain antenna is a detriment to the system performance because the system needs to have reception over a large area"


So many people complaining about poor signal gain. A stronger antenna won't automatically increase coverage, as there are many more factors involved than antenna. A high gain antenna won't increase output power, only increase range, AT RANGE. Overkill on dBi can actually decrease range. I keep 9, 5, and 2 dbi antennas with me for my adapter, depending on how far away the access point is.

The last part of that quote, think about it. 100 metres away, lets say 30 degrees means roughly 57 metres of reception area on the "sphere" with a 9dbi antenna. If you are closer than 100 metres, say in your home where you are at most 10 metres away from the access point, the reception area chunks down to just 5.7 metres on the "sphere."

conversely, a 5dBi antenna that say is designed to work at 20 metres with 60 degrees- at 10 metres you are looking at 17 metres on the sphere. significantly more than the "high gain" antenna.

these are all arbitrary numbers that don't represent actual real world figures- but just designed to illustrate how high gain antennae are better used in situations that require high gain, such as picking a signal from an access point 100 metres away. Use an antenna to match your requirements, and you will be more satisfied.

I replaced the original short antennas on a Linksys/Cisco Dual-Band Wireless N-PCI adapter card, WMP600N. I bought these knowing that there would not be any huge difference, but enough difference that I could put my box where I wanted it, not oriented for best signal with the short OEM antennas. I am getting all bars signal 45 feet away upstairs from a new dual N Linksys/Cisco simultaneous router WRT400N located on the ground floor. With the OEM antenna units the computer box blocked the signal. I used Network Stumbler to check the signal. Best angle on the antennae is a few degrees off 90 vertical in parallel.

The interesting part is that Network Sumbler software picked up a neighbor's network at 92% over 300 feet away. From upstairs I must be positioned at direct line of sight or something. OEM antenna did not pick up the other network at all.

Conclusions: despite the usual carping, bitching, and complaining in a third of the reviews, these antenna units do work better than OEM ones.
They work for me because I wanted them for more choice in positioning the computer. The signal of the WRT400N is in vertical orientation even though the router is flat. Later I am going to mount it high on the wall. The relative strength of the signal of a router varys a whole lot
in distance and position.

Note: I think the eventual answer for antenna a modern version of rabbit ears. I relied on amazon web image of the connectors on these antenna in order to match up to what comes on the Linksys/Cisco card. There is a whole bunch of variety of connectors. The adaptors are expensive.
I've stuck with the Linksys/Cisco branding because I like their software, the Network Magic. It's reasonably easy to setup and makes it easy to
logon new stuff. Network Stumbler is a actually a handy reality check software to give you a look at your network from the outside in.

Installed this on a wrt54g router loaded with tomato. Wireless survey shows approximately 3-5 dB over stock antennas.

I cannot believe any of the positive reviews: I bought 2 sets of different brands of "WiFi booster" antennas (one claimed 9dbi, one 12 dbi) and neither pairs gave me any improvement. Actually THEY DID WORSE than my 2 small stock antennas of my TRENDNET 652 N router. My sincere advice: buy routers with 3 antennas and don't buy any of those "booster" antenna.

Product did not fit my router even if the description says it is compatible to a WRT54G. It is not. Amazon refunded it easily enough, so it's no so bad.