NOTE: This video provides instructions for configuring your router's antennas if you have a non-beamforming router. If you have a router that supports beamforming, I made a separate video detailing how to configure your router's antennas: ruclips.net/video/mah6R8BBUYI/видео.html
@@geogmz8277 technically no one was wrong, people just listen and register things at different speeds. Some people might not want the info so fast. Me personally I'd say 2.0 would be the best speed.
Ham radio operator here. We call this antenna polarization (vertical vs. horizontal vs. sloped). Another factor can be that many routers are multi-band, most are dual (at least older ones) and mine is a tri-band with six antennae. It's hard to know which antenna is on which band. I don't think I've ever seen a label. I'm pretty sure it's one antenna per band (2.4 GHz vs. 5.8 GHz). As you say, experiment, but expect that your first test may not give the best results. I once worked a New Years Eve activation at an EOC (Emergency Operations Center) where an agency stuck a magnetic mount antenna on a steel door (horizontal polarization) and couldn't talk to their dispatch center 6 blocks away. They asked me to look at it and I moved the antenna to a vertical polarization in a better location. Magic! They were solid into the dispatch center because the antennae over there were vertically polarized.
It varies, but individual Wi-Fi antennas that are used for all the different bands are quite common. I think I know the router he showed in the video, I had one once, and in fact I think all three of the external antennas are 5GHz only. For 2.4GHz it uses internal antennas that can't be moved or aimed at all!
Unfortunately, you're just guessing, and you're guessing is incorrect. RF propagation does not work the way you think it does. What you're doing is attempting to change the polarization of the antenna which is not the same as its takeoff angle or its radiation pattern relative to the antenna or its ground plane. Moreover, omnidirectional antennas are not 100% omnidirectional, even in free space, much less the conditions that routers are being used in. There are far too many variables. If you really want to know what's occurring, there are antenna modeling programs. It's a relatively steep learning curve and it's going and it will take time to model the antenna that you have, but that's what you will have to do to even approach understanding what's actually occurring here. And that still will not account for other variables in the environment. I have no doubt that you've had success in reorienting the antennas, but there's a difference between correlation and causation. The good news, outside of the engineering principles here, the prescription is the same. Reorient the antennas until you have better connectivity and bandwidth, but it does not work the way you are claiming it does.
Good answer dude. There is also equiment to generate heatmaps (you can get them on wifi bands specifically) and create an accurate signal map but i guess it's outside the scope of an amateur user.
Yeah, we also have it acting in a phase array to add even more complexity on most newer routers. Finally your smart phone and laptop is unlikely to be perfect polarization.
Gotta say I was hoping it would at least dip into antenna theory and broadcast envelopes. Maybe a little on signal cancellation from pushing power on parallel antennas. Ah well.
Was literally looking for this information for my entire work life, nearly 20 years. Finally I got the information I was looking for. Thank you so much
What I got from this vid is how many people pop up to criticize! From the way you present these tips, to the flaws in your technical knowledge. Your vid is useful and helpful without getting too technical. Keep up your good work!
Thank you very much for the support, I really appreciate it! To your point, my goal was to make a video that wasn’t too technical so it would be useful for anyone that watched it. Everyone will likely have a different antenna configuration that works best for them in their home network, so it’s best to try different configurations and see which one gives you the best performance
it's not a "criticism". it's an involvement, feedback and "giving back something"... if it is taken in, it will improve the reach, and help more people.
It is technically criticism, but that doesn't make it bad. The video is somewhat useful and it's somewhat accurate. What it doesn't say is that if your home is larger than a couple of rooms, to have good coverage you can't really really on a single router's access point (which is often placed in suboptimal locations to boot). The only good way to cover a medium-to-large home is too use multiple access points placed in various locations, ideally centrally controlled, with wired backhaul. A simple ap-on-a-stick survey prior to placement will do wonders. If it's too much, then a simulation based on floorplan can be a poor man's substitute
I am also a HAM with over 40 years experience n radio antennas and NAVY trained in AVIONICS and this guy is just lick he got any results at all. there is no such tech as slopped antenna orientation. Radio waves do well either vertical for omnidirectional and horizontal for directional but radio signals get confused at angles as their orientation is dictated by the magnetic fields of the earth. SO, do what you want but this guy is full of it. he knows noting about electronic engineering.
Also I doubt the polarization is the same after getting bounced all around a house by metallic objects. better luck by installing a WiFi access point in the basement, problem better solved that way
The static magnetic field of the earth has no impact on a Transverse E/M (TEM) wave that the antenna produces, At HF - VHF, the Earth's conductivity plays a part in propagation and for HF the ionospheric bounce is a factor. At WiFi frequencies, altering the antenna orientation may create a more favourable path to a blind spot, but so might putting a reflector behind the antennas or changing the orientation of the whole antenna array. If it's adaptive at all, none of this will likely do much.
I have 40 years land mobile radio experience. The antennas on a router are part of a MIMO or Diversity reception system. Each antenna can receive the signal from a device and diversity reception increases probability of reception. The best orientation for a single story building (in my case) is to place the outer two at plus and minus 45 degrees off center. Like rabbit ears. This because objects in the home like silvered mirrors and refrigerators distort the polarization of the signal as they refract around them. If you are trying to get signal to a basement or third story, adjusting an antenna 45 degrees off vertical also makes sense. The earth's static magnet field has little to do with local propagation.
Even though I'm pretty familiar with how RF works and how power is transmitted, I really enjoyed your video. You did an awesome job breaking it down in a way that's super clear and helpful for everyone. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing that 3 minutes of info in 10 minutes...I actually do appreciate your effort, but you should just hit the summary, we're not engineering satellite coms to Saturn. :)
The video was fine. If you chose this video you probably need to take it at the pace you provided. If people think it was 3 minutes of info in 10, they probably think they know better and should just move on! Pace, content, lighting and audio were better than most. Keep up the good work.
if you grew up in the early years of TV and radio with antennas then you would have probably move them around to get a better picture or sound. Same principle with the router antennas but with different signals. This video gave us mere mortals some clue as what to tinker around for better reception. Some comments are far too advance for the regular folks.
Thank you very much for the support. You absolutely nailed the intent of this video: it is meant to help the everyday internet user without diving too deeply into the technical details
@@network-from-home hi 2 router TP-Link Archer AX73 vs 2 router ASUS RT-AX55 which is better to buy?yes I plan to buy 2 router for big house with 2 floor, in my place is same range price. I look for who can cover more area and stable. I use 100 Mbps from my isp btw
Finally thanks, the basics is what I needed. The router antennas send signals to the nearby devices. The router antennas do not receive wifi signals. Thanks for explaining. I almost bought a $300 lpda antenna that I was going to connect to my TpLink routers antenna jacks.
Great video. Just stopped over because I saw the video listed on the right hand side. One thing I discovered with wi-fi is, placing my wi-fi access point in the middle of my home. I also did this in my friends familys homes and it fixed most of the wi-fi problems. my setup on the antennas is, the left and right are pointed towards the left and right sides of the home. While the two middle ones stay up for the upper floor. My wi-fi ap sits up half way to get the best coverage through the home. The other thing to note is power. How much signal the router or wi-fi access point puts out will determine the range your home will get. The Wi-Fi ap I have installed is TP-Link AC1200 Wireless Gigabit Access Point that you can buy at any electronics site
You are making a great effort to help people and to describe your efforts at getting better connectivity. There several comments here that are not kind and you should not pay attention to them except for the technical parts. My only comments here are that in my setting, in my Wi-Fi setup, I adjusted the antennas straight up and down and didn’t see much difference. So, I put in a big effort to go to an Ethernet wired network and all I have to worry about now is my neighbor trying to sneak into my Wi-Fi network. And yes, it is passworded and I periodically scan connected devices for signal theft. Have a good day.
Thank you very much for your kind words. Everyone will likely have different results when configuring the antennas of their routers, but using Ethernet connections to the internet will undoubtedly give you the best results!
@@network-from-home hi 2 router TP-Link Archer AX73 vs 2 router ASUS RT-AX55 which is better to buy? yes I plan to buy 2 router for big house with 2 floor, in my place is same range price. I look for who can cover more area and stable. I use 100 Mbps from my isp
If you’re going to use 2 routers, have you thought about buying a router and a wireless access point(s)? That might be a better option if you have a large home
Thanks for the video. It got me thinking about whether I'm doing mine right. I had to play at 1.5x just to make it sound normal. Also, please consider looking at the camera when you talk. It would be far more engaging.
You’re welcome! Thank you for the feedback. These are things I have been working to improve in my more recent videos, so hopefully you find them more engaging
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I was having horrible Bluetooth range issues with the wifi/bluetooth card in my desktop computer so I decided to just try the angling the antenna towards specific areas of my home since I figured it might work in a similar way. Turns out it works amazing now, I can walk all the way to the kitchen while still having my Bluetooth headphones stay connected when before it would disconnect!
While I do think that you speak with a slower cadence and some of the info shared was repeated, I welcomed it. I am a novice at this. I've subscribed, I look fwd to checking out more from the channel, thanks for the content!
Thanks! I've kept my modem and antennas in the same position for years. But lately I've been having streaming dropouts, and was seeking a solution. I'll try these tips and see how I go.
Thank you thats great but i have a question.. Ihave a poor coverage in my apartment and my router goes from 0.5mbs to 600mbs!! Because i live kinda in the border of the 5G tower..so which cheap router option with high catching signal do you offer? I even don’t know how to measure and compare different routers in catching signals and I prefer to change router instead of trying antennas
@l3zoxl thanks for reaching out. One thing I want to make clear is that a 5g cellular tower shouldn't have any impact on your internet connection. It sounds like you may just want to adjust the antennas on your router to ensure the areas in your home where you access the internet get a strong internet signal. Another option you might want to look at here is a mesh WiFi router. These routers allow you to place multiple router endpoints throughout your home to ensure you get a strong WiFi signal everywhere. I hope this helps!
Thank you for the feedback. I have been working on making my videos more concise, so hopefully my more recent videos are more useful. Thanks for checking out the video as well!
I live in one floor house and had my 2 side antennas 45 degrees outwards (rabbit ears) and center one strait up. I set them all strait up and tested both ways. With them all up I am getting instant full speed instead of slowly building up speed. Also with them all strait up I get a higher max at end of test. My ping is also a bit lower. So, the antennas definitely do seem to work together if it's on one flat plane (MIMO perhaps?). But if it's signal reach that's needed to upper or low areas, then I'd move one strait up, one at 45, and and one laying down flat. This is just my findings after testing.... Do what you want, don't argue
I think this is a great point: the ideal router antenna will likely be different for everyone. You just need to test different configurations to see which one has the best performance in your home. Thank you for sharing!
Antenna signal direction as described in the video is important, but probably less important than the polarization when using WiFi indoors. This is because you also have to take into account the polarization of the receiving antenna which will be widely affected by the indoor transmissions because of reflections and diffraction effects. This is what you referred to when you explained how the radio signal is emitted from the antenna. If your receiving antenna has a horizontal orientation and the transmitting antenna is vertically oriented then the coupling between the transmit and receive antenna is not very good (and vice versa). This is further complicated because of the many reflections indoors. Generally reflections and diffractions indoors do not change the vertical or horizontal polarization of a radio signal. A good rule of thumb is to arrange the antennas in a diagonal orientation so the antenna will produce a radio signal with a good horizontal and vertical polarization. That way the antenna on your device whether oriented vertically or horizontally will get a better signal. So you'll get a better signal whether you use your phone sitting up or lying down. Most notebook computers a vertical antenna embedded in the screen and most people will not use their notebook screen at a vertical angle. This is why you get a better reception with old TVs with rabbit ear antennas when you try to adjust the angle of the "rabbit ears" in a diagonal manner and then turn them around to look for the best signal. Actually, in the US, television signals are transmitted in a horizontal orientation that's why the old outdoor TV antennas were oriented in a horizontal orientation. But when the TV signal enters a house, the signals get diffracted, refracted and reflected so they are almost never horizontal when the signal gets indoors. The TV signals acquire a vertical and horizontal orientation and so the best adjustments for a TV antenna usually happen when the antenna is arranged in a diagonal angle to catch the best of both worlds. Arranging your WiFi antenna in a diagonal direction will give you the best intermediate signal level for most devices you will connect to the WiFi router. Of course this is just a rule of thumb and actual fiddling with the antenna angles can increase or decrease signals for specific devices, especially if the device does not move around much, like your PS2. Final note, arranging your antenna to look downwards at an angle aimed at the basement will probably not help much unless you only have wooden floors. WiFi signals don't do well going through concrete. You would be better off leaving the basement door open or putting the router close to the basement door.
@brucefay5126 yes, the signal on most WiFi antennas is linearly polarized, which is why the signals come out horizontally from the length of the antenna.
Rather than tilting your antenna, put a separate WiFi router to the basement (unless your walls are made of wood). 5GHz does not penetrate building structures very well at all in the first place. Also, those particular multiple antennas are meant to facilitate multiple users (several separate RX/TX pairs), not just different directions. You want the Sending and receiving antennas to be in the same direction (polarization) in order to maximize your signal. Multiple antennas also make use of antenna diversity to counter small-scale fading. Of course, nothing wrong in using it the way you did.
For routers without antennas, they will have internal antennas, much like your cell phone does. In these cases, the device will emit WiFi signal equally in all directions. I hope this helps!
Left out of this magic pile is the orientation of the client device. With newer standards, beam steering and forming is a thing which would require antennas to be oriented per the instructions!
It is not so simple as you presented. In theory yes, but especially nowadays when routers use phase shifting to different antennas to direct the signal, you might get in trouble by doing that. And there are different antennas for the two WiFi bands...
Thank you for the feedback! In my case, my router sends 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi signals out of each antenna. I realize that may not be the case with all routers, however
Clarification: my ISP states in their ads that the maximum speed of this particular subscription package is 50 mbps, but it turns out it can go maximum of 70 mbps My connection is 50 Mbps but on the 2nd floor my wifi extender only got around 20 Mbps, saw this video and I immediately moved my extender antenna horizontally and the other one at 45 degree angle and IT JUMPED TO 70 MBPS IMMEDIATELY??? WHAT KIND OF BLACK MAGIC IS THIS thank you so much by the way 👍👍👍
@@network-from-home you are very welcome! thank you for this very life-saving-from-frustration video 😂 also a little update, I don't know who messed up with the position of the router so my connection of 2nd floor dropped to 10 Mbps, now this time I put two of my 1st floor antenna horizontally and all of the 2nd floor extender antenna horizontally too and it goes back again at 70 Mbps 👍
Depending on the router antenna positioning and performance can be more complicated than this explanation. Your routers handbook should explain how antennas should be positioned and if it uses MIMO technology it is important to follow those instructions as offsetting antennas will cause beamforming and other MIMO RF techniques to underperform. Beamforming involves coordinating the antennas to send signals in a specific direction towards the receiver rather than broadcasting in all directions. To work all antennas have to be in the same orientation. Instead of signals being sent in all directions, they're directed, electronically, exactly where they need to go. This can increase the signal strength and reduce interference.
This is a great point, thank you for sharing. My router instructs me to orient the antennas as I detailed in the video, but with newer standards this is an important caveat!
beamforming is from phased array, not MIMO, but other than that, yeah. most likely center vertical and the outer ones 45° and directly away from the vertical center one. And with MIMO and phased arrays it is important.
I’m not sure what specific modem you’re referring to, but my guess here is that the manufacturer is recommending this configuration because they feel it will result in a WiFi signal pattern that will work well for most of their customers. I know that’s not the best answer but that’s the explanation that makes the most sense to me
My router has a dedicated spot on the main fuse box which is on the living room wall. The spot is like a sleeve slot so the router base is sideways on the wall vertically. So the antennas can mostly point left, right and straight into the room with some up and down adjustability. It works quite well, the coverage in the bedroom is decent and as I live in an apartment it won't radiate too much outside the front door to the building hallway which is better security wise I guess. But inspired by this video, I was able to get a better signal into the bedroom whic is nice.
Being a home channel we will keep it simple... If the device was centrally located, like it's supposed to be, you wouldn't have had an issue. There's a lot left on the table here. What bands are using the external antennas? Are there also internal antennas? What DBi are the antennas? Do you understand the radiation bubble shape based on DBi? Do you understand the negative impact you've created on beamforming? My best advice, since you're doing it wrong, is to learn some cool stuff and try again.
- Consumer grade wifi antennas are 1.3~1.5 db, which means the transmission profile is spherical in nature and has a range of approximately 100~150 feet. Changing the antennas to a 10 db gives a transmission profile resembling a donut with a range of 1000~1200 feet. The higher the db value of wifi antenna the more directional the transmission profile becomes. Routers with built in antennas do not allow antenna switching. If your wifi setup is experiencing dead zones then bridge a secondary router connected via a cat5 or better ethernet cable between each router and placing them at different placements to enhance the overall wifi signal.
Thank you for this great video! It also helps to have an external Wi-Fi adapter with articulating antennas. They mean more polarization choices and often better signal quality. BTW, routers or modem/routers with internal antennas are way harder to "aim", because who knows how and why and OEM placed (usually) printed circuit antennas inside?
Thank you very much! I’m glad the video was helpful. I agree, it can definitely be frustrating with a router with internal antennas; it just seems like you have one less thing that you have control over with internal antennas
What you do when you angle the antenna like that is increasing coverage but sacrifice performance. Most Wifi routers have signal processing to boost the signal coming in by taking the signal from each antenna and creating one strong signal (When you move the antenna around you will loose that feature). So what you gain in your basement you will loose in the office/living room. But if you only need coverage please go ahead :)
Thank you ever so much !!!! Sound simple, perhaps? but not knowing that I wouldn't solved my issue with smart lights outside my house, who would have thought!!!! Great video!!!!
I tbought you would get into more details on how the antenna actually worked, via diagrams of magnetic and electric fields etc. Isn't therecan issue with constructive and destructive interference between multiple antennas that are parallel with each other? Won't they cause regions with no signal because of that interference? Also radio transmission and reception depend on the antennas on both ends of the connection. So isnt the position and orientation of the remote devices just as important as the orientation of the base station antennas?
Useful subject! I'm trying to improve the signal to downstairs, the router being upstairs; it's a wifi6 xr1000 gaming router. I'm using a signal analyzer on my cell, and I'm not seeing much of a difference moving the antennas. It's a good 5Ghz signal for streaming, but not as strong as I would like. I'm getting a good workout running up and down the stairs, however :P
@jamcdona if moving the antennas does not give you a great boost when it comes to your WiFi signal, you may want to look into moving your router (if possible). With that said, it sounds like you are still getting adequate signal with your router where it is. You might not want to mess with it too much!
I would like to update that I hit the reset button, then installed an update, and now it's working well. I think that it had a botched update last summer and I just got it working enough to limp along by powering it off and on. A lot. LOL. The biggest gain was from my work laptop with a wifi 6E card...I'm ordering one for my home laptop now...thanks again for your videos.@@network-from-home
You want your antennas straight up. Practically any router in the last few years has some form of beamforming. It will direct the signal towards the device sending/receiving data. I've tested this several times and ALWAYS, ALWAYS having all 4x antennas straight up gave me the best signal at the longest ranges. It's good that they CAN move because you may want to mount your router onto a wall.
Thank you for effort. You explained some tricks of the trade that we all need. Perhaps a bit shorter presentation will be beffer as everyone is short of time. Thank you you did good job.
Thank you very much! I have been working on being more concise in my more recent videos. I would love to hear if you think my videos have improved. Any other feedback you have is greatly appreciated!
There no simple solution here unfortunately. Your best bet would be to either position your router or your device so that the WiFi signal doesn’t have to go through the cement walls (I realize this might not be possible in your current situation). I hope this helps!
I watched your video. Set up my router exactly how you explained. My signal to every corner of my house improved at least 40%. (Prev : 40%, Now : 80%) My PC is now gaining sufficient signal even for 5 Ghz band, and I'm getting 99.99% speed and connectivity of my connection plan. Now I came here to type this comment. 5:235:255:255:265:27
What about a device that works via wifi? I bought a wifi security camera, and I mounted it in a pole outside my house. Do you have any advice for how should I position the two antennas in the camera for optimal signal?
@User-jr7vf great question. The rules that apply to your router are the same ones I would apply to your camera. I would position the antennas on your camera so that they are perpendicular to the direction of your router. You need to ensure the camera gets a good WiFi signal, and aligning the antennas this way should do the trick (as long as it is within range of your router's WiFi signal).
I've repaired a few or so wireless security cameras. All of them I've looked at only have on real antenna and one fake antenna. Which one is real or not can sometimes be seen from the back.
I could have watched this all night 🙂 What if your antennas only move from left to right and not back and forth ? I have a TP Link also but it`s a 4G LTE Router with a simcard.
If the movement of your router’s antennas are limited, you’ll just have to do the best you can. Try a few different antenna configurations and see which one gives your devices the best performance. Good luck!
Am a bit into radio amateur stuff and i have studied antennas i orient my wifi anetann so they are perpendicular to each others, so in case of 2 antenna i make them in V shape form if the router have 3 then i would suggest to make them in X Y Z axis having 2 antenna or 3 in the same orientation make them interfer with each other's and make the signal unstable
This sounds like a good approach to me! The important thing to note is that everyone will likely have a different antenna orientation that works best for them
Metal surroundings can definitely have a large impact your WiFi signal. Everyone will likely have a different experience based upon the layout/configuration of their home (and what it's made of). Thank you for sharing that!
There is 'some' logic in this video but as many have already said here, he is not taking into account the polarization of the signal. The dipole antennas usually found on Wi-Fi access points have a vertical polarization. When you have a laptop screen open, it's antennas inside are also vertically polarized. Which means if you rotate your antennas you will in fact lose plenty of signal amplitude because the polarization does not match. Especially diagonal is the worst you can do. People also need to realize that AP's are meant to be used on the floor they are on and if you have multiple floors, you need multiple AP's spreading your signal horizontally with your vertical polarization as it should be done.
"what your going to need to learn first" just tell me what I need to know. "I'm gonna get into that" stop announcing what you're going to do in a 3 minute fucking video and literally JUST GET INTO IT. total waste of time.
Antenna's work with RF electromagnetism, so @90 degrees is best , which means one aerial pointing straight out the back, one aerial horizontally pointing to the side and one straight up would give you the best possible signal strength. x,y,z @ 90
Another Ham operator here. I had to watch this a couple of times to understand EXACTLY what you were saying -- in obvious layman rather than technical terms. You initially threw me when you said that your vertically positioned antennas broadcasted on a horizontal plane (of course i paraphrase). I would guess you understand antenna theory pretty well, yet I don't think I heard the term polarization even once from you. The way you explained it, is adequate and was done well enough, but you can see all the butt-hurt folks (mostly ham radio guys) who ONLY recognize the use of "Vertical" and "Horizontal" (when speaking in antenna terms) as a form of polarization. In their technical world, when an antenna is oriented vertical, it is polarized vertical and the receiving antenna generally receives in the same vertical polarization. You obviously have lots of ham radio guys who watch you so you maybe should make some clarifications for them -- otherwise a lot of those old grumpy SAD HAMS will jump you in a heartbeat, thinking you dont know what you are talking about. You ARE correct (polarization aside) as a vertical antenna transmits it resonates (1/2 of the wave oscillates vertically upward and then the other 1/2 of the wave oscillates vertically downward -- in a wave pattern, perpendicularly away from the orientation of the antenna), if it is a vertically orientated antenna, it does radiate away from the antenna toward the horizon mostly in a horizontal direction as you say, (but for the ham guys somewhere between the presently controversial 5 degrees from the horizon to even near vertical -- nearly straight up). Don't let this ancient, old Ham Radio farts get you down. They know everything and if you don't believe them they will try and tell you again, and again, just in more brusk terms. They are bone-headed, sad, and unable to communicate to anyone under the age of 90. You are pretty darned correct in just what you say. You just use terms that are more modern and able to be understood by the young folks. Keep up the good work.
I have a cell phone app WiFi Analyzer, and it's great. But I can see here another feature is needed. A tone that raises and lowers in pitch the stronger the signal is. So, if the signal is -85 db the tone would be down around 30 Hz. But if the signal is way up at -10 db then the toan would be way up around 5KHz. So you could use the sound to hear the highest strength. Set your phone with the WiFi Analyzer going on your phone with the toan on. Now go into the other room, and mess with the antennas on your router, and you will be able to hear the result coming from your phone in the other room. That would make a cool tool even better. Gotta send some Emails.
Yet another ham radio operator. Although you are correct in saying that all antennas up is not optimal, and indeed, when I switched my angled antennas to all vertical (0°), I got the worst signal to my hard-to-reach location (other end of the house, 1 floor down). Routers used to be advertised with a W configuration (-30°, 0°, +30°), which is the way I've had it. I tried your recommendation and it was not as good as a W configuration. I then tried the antennas at 45 degrees apart (0°, 45°, 90°) so I could put the router perpendicular up against a wall and I got the best signal. I should do another test with (0°, 90°, 90°), as I agree with the ham operator who mentioned vertical/horizontal polarization as being optimal. SpeedTest is what I used to measure the throughput.
I think your experiment and findings lead to a main takeaway: everyone will likely have a different antenna configuration that works best for them depending upon the setup of their home, their router location, etc. Thank you for sharing!
Yes, for sure. Thank you for your feedback. This is something I have been working on in my more recent videos, so hopefully you find those more useful. Thanks again
Not to mention metal A/C Ductwork that might be causing signal reflections or blocking a signal!!! Metal siding/sheathing on buildings can also cause problems as well as metal lathe work used for plastering finishes!!! 😬
You should be able to access your router’s settings and turn on stronger encryption. This will likely help the security of your router. I hope this helps!
Normally I wouldn’t recommend WiFi repeater devices because they can affect WiFi performance and add administrative overhead to your network because it creates separate WiFi networks. Would it be possible to change the location of the router or buy a WiFi access point instead? If these are not good options for you, the WiFi extender is a good option. I hope this helps
Give this guy a break, he's trying to give all the necessary information, and it's very helpful, to people to tell to hurry up, just go comment somewhere else, also i think this is called antenna polarization
8:15 to tell people to set 2 anttenas u and 1 at a 45. In old R/C Modrl Planes on 72 Mhz you would see guys point there Anttenas at the plane when it was farthest away and wonder why it Crashed or just Flew away. Even worse noe with 2.4Ghz Radios point the Antena at the Plane when it farthest away.
NOTE: This video provides instructions for configuring your router's antennas if you have a non-beamforming router. If you have a router that supports beamforming, I made a separate video detailing how to configure your router's antennas: ruclips.net/video/mah6R8BBUYI/видео.html
Why is everyone in such a big hurry. The man is informative. Slow down and smell the roses !
Thank you for the support!
Good information but had to watch the video at 1.5x speed.
@dolan-duk thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it!
Thanks for suggesting the speed😂
Once I saw ur comment I did the same. Thanks for saving me some time.
Wrong 1.75... Got the best results.
@@geogmz8277 technically no one was wrong, people just listen and register things at different speeds. Some people might not want the info so fast. Me personally I'd say 2.0 would be the best speed.
Play at 1.25x for normal speed. Play at 1.75x or more to still have time in your life to catch your kids baseball game
Ham radio operator here. We call this antenna polarization (vertical vs. horizontal vs. sloped). Another factor can be that many routers are multi-band, most are dual (at least older ones) and mine is a tri-band with six antennae. It's hard to know which antenna is on which band. I don't think I've ever seen a label. I'm pretty sure it's one antenna per band (2.4 GHz vs. 5.8 GHz). As you say, experiment, but expect that your first test may not give the best results.
I once worked a New Years Eve activation at an EOC (Emergency Operations Center) where an agency stuck a magnetic mount antenna on a steel door (horizontal polarization) and couldn't talk to their dispatch center 6 blocks away. They asked me to look at it and I moved the antenna to a vertical polarization in a better location. Magic! They were solid into the dispatch center because the antennae over there were vertically polarized.
De AA4SH 👍😉
@@SteveH-TN 73!
It varies, but individual Wi-Fi antennas that are used for all the different bands are quite common.
I think I know the router he showed in the video, I had one once, and in fact I think all three of the external antennas are 5GHz only. For 2.4GHz it uses internal antennas that can't be moved or aimed at all!
Attach only one antenna and test which bands have good signal. Repeat for the rest.
MIMO and phased arrays come into play on newer routers, all antennas are on both bands for this to work. (802.11ac and newer)
Unfortunately, you're just guessing, and you're guessing is incorrect. RF propagation does not work the way you think it does. What you're doing is attempting to change the polarization of the antenna which is not the same as its takeoff angle or its radiation pattern relative to the antenna or its ground plane. Moreover, omnidirectional antennas are not 100% omnidirectional, even in free space, much less the conditions that routers are being used in. There are far too many variables.
If you really want to know what's occurring, there are antenna modeling programs. It's a relatively steep learning curve and it's going and it will take time to model the antenna that you have, but that's what you will have to do to even approach understanding what's actually occurring here. And that still will not account for other variables in the environment.
I have no doubt that you've had success in reorienting the antennas, but there's a difference between correlation and causation. The good news, outside of the engineering principles here, the prescription is the same. Reorient the antennas until you have better connectivity and bandwidth, but it does not work the way you are claiming it does.
Good answer dude. There is also equiment to generate heatmaps (you can get them on wifi bands specifically) and create an accurate signal map but i guess it's outside the scope of an amateur user.
Of course. Indoor use has other factors
Yeah, we also have it acting in a phase array to add even more complexity on most newer routers. Finally your smart phone and laptop is unlikely to be perfect polarization.
Mine doesn't have external antennas.
Gotta say I was hoping it would at least dip into antenna theory and broadcast envelopes. Maybe a little on signal cancellation from pushing power on parallel antennas. Ah well.
Was literally looking for this information for my entire work life, nearly 20 years. Finally I got the information I was looking for. Thank you so much
You’re so welcome! Thank you for checking out the video!
Damn!!!
talking too much .. can you go direct to the point...
he didnt have a point and the point he didnt have was wrong. its just a 10min video to shoe horn adverts in.
It was the slow talking for me.. I just listened to it at x1.25. Still sounds natural but at a normal speaking rhythm.
My goodness! 10:22 to say something that could've been said in two minutes. Play back at 1.75x
i came here to say the same thing 😊 - and you have already said it.
this could have been, at max, a 3 minutes video.
What I got from this vid is how many people pop up to criticize! From the way you present these tips, to the flaws in your technical knowledge. Your vid is useful and helpful without getting too technical. Keep up your good work!
Thank you very much for the support, I really appreciate it! To your point, my goal was to make a video that wasn’t too technical so it would be useful for anyone that watched it. Everyone will likely have a different antenna configuration that works best for them in their home network, so it’s best to try different configurations and see which one gives you the best performance
Thank you for sharing a very useful idea. You already have driven home the point. I don’t understand why many people here are still so fussy?
Thank you for the support!
it's not a "criticism". it's an involvement, feedback and "giving back something"...
if it is taken in, it will improve the reach, and help more people.
It is technically criticism, but that doesn't make it bad.
The video is somewhat useful and it's somewhat accurate.
What it doesn't say is that if your home is larger than a couple of rooms, to have good coverage you can't really really on a single router's access point (which is often placed in suboptimal locations to boot).
The only good way to cover a medium-to-large home is too use multiple access points placed in various locations, ideally centrally controlled, with wired backhaul.
A simple ap-on-a-stick survey prior to placement will do wonders. If it's too much, then a simulation based on floorplan can be a poor man's substitute
I am also a HAM with over 40 years experience n radio antennas and NAVY trained in AVIONICS and this guy is just lick he got any results at all. there is no such tech as slopped antenna orientation. Radio waves do well either vertical for omnidirectional and horizontal for directional but radio signals get confused at angles as their orientation is dictated by the magnetic fields of the earth. SO, do what you want but this guy is full of it. he knows noting about electronic engineering.
Also I doubt the polarization is the same after getting bounced all around a house by metallic objects. better luck by installing a WiFi access point in the basement, problem better solved that way
Those ground station K-Band satelite aerials are in trouble then. . . .
Exactly! It's all about E or H fields. Placing an E field in any other position than vertical reduces mutual coupling. (function of Sine or Cosine)
The static magnetic field of the earth has no impact on a Transverse E/M (TEM) wave that the antenna produces, At HF - VHF, the Earth's conductivity plays a part in propagation and for HF the ionospheric bounce is a factor. At WiFi frequencies, altering the antenna orientation may create a more favourable path to a blind spot, but so might putting a reflector behind the antennas or changing the orientation of the whole antenna array. If it's adaptive at all, none of this will likely do much.
I have 40 years land mobile radio experience. The antennas on a router are part of a MIMO or Diversity reception system. Each antenna can receive the signal from a device and diversity reception increases probability of reception. The best orientation for a single story building (in my case) is to place the outer two at plus and minus 45 degrees off center. Like rabbit ears. This because objects in the home like silvered mirrors and refrigerators distort the polarization of the signal as they refract around them. If you are trying to get signal to a basement or third story, adjusting an antenna 45 degrees off vertical also makes sense. The earth's static magnet field has little to do with local propagation.
Even though I'm pretty familiar with how RF works and how power is transmitted, I really enjoyed your video. You did an awesome job breaking it down in a way that's super clear and helpful for everyone. Thanks!
I’m glad you found this video helpful! Thank you so much!
Glad you explained it so thoroughly, but you went 10 minutes for a 3 minute information. It is really exhausting to listen to.
I’m sorry to hear that. Thank you for the feedback. I have been working on making my more recent videos more precise and to the point
Nah don't listen to this killjoy, great explanation
Thanks for sharing that 3 minutes of info in 10 minutes...I actually do appreciate your effort, but you should just hit the summary, we're not engineering satellite coms to Saturn. :)
Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it!
Yeah...the repetition was painful.
The video was fine. If you chose this video you probably need to take it at the pace you provided. If people think it was 3 minutes of info in 10, they probably think they know better and should just move on! Pace, content, lighting and audio were better than most. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for the feedback! I’m hoping my videos continue to improve moving forward as I continue to work on my pacing 😊
if you grew up in the early years of TV and radio with antennas then you would have probably move them around to get a better picture or sound. Same principle with the router antennas but with different signals. This video gave us mere mortals some clue as what to tinker around for better reception. Some comments are far too advance for the regular folks.
Thank you very much for the support. You absolutely nailed the intent of this video: it is meant to help the everyday internet user without diving too deeply into the technical details
Thanks muchly! I moved two of my 4 antennas to work for downstairs. A very noticeable improvement in speed and signal strength.
I'm happy to hear this was helpful for you. You're welcome!
@@network-from-home hi 2 router TP-Link Archer AX73 vs 2 router ASUS RT-AX55 which is better to buy?yes I plan to buy 2 router for big house with 2 floor, in my place is same range price. I look for who can cover more area and stable. I use 100 Mbps from my isp btw
Finally thanks, the basics is what I needed. The router antennas send signals to the nearby devices. The router antennas do not receive wifi signals. Thanks for explaining. I almost bought a $300 lpda antenna that I was going to connect to my TpLink routers antenna jacks.
I’m glad this video helped. To clarify, your router antennas send and receive WiFi signals during communication with your devices
Great video. Just stopped over because I saw the video listed on the right hand side. One thing I discovered with wi-fi is, placing my wi-fi access point in the middle of my home. I also did this in my friends familys homes and it fixed most of the wi-fi problems. my setup on the antennas is, the left and right are pointed towards the left and right sides of the home. While the two middle ones stay up for the upper floor. My wi-fi ap sits up half way to get the best coverage through the home. The other thing to note is power. How much signal the router or wi-fi access point puts out will determine the range your home will get. The Wi-Fi ap I have installed is TP-Link AC1200 Wireless Gigabit Access Point that you can buy at any electronics site
This is great advice for those setting up their home networks. Thank you for your comment!
@@network-from-home Your Welcome
You are making a great effort to help people and to describe your efforts at getting better connectivity. There several comments here that are not kind and you should not pay attention to them except for the technical parts. My only comments here are that in my setting, in my Wi-Fi setup, I adjusted the antennas straight up and down and didn’t see much difference. So, I put in a big effort to go to an Ethernet wired network and all I have to worry about now is my neighbor trying to sneak into my Wi-Fi network. And yes, it is passworded and I periodically scan connected devices for signal theft. Have a good day.
Thank you very much for your kind words. Everyone will likely have different results when configuring the antennas of their routers, but using Ethernet connections to the internet will undoubtedly give you the best results!
This was incredibly useful and made for easy comprehension. Much appreciated.
Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad this was a helpful video for you!
@@network-from-home really?
I had a similar router and would angle one vertically, one horizontal and one to the side. Worked fine.
Yeah it sounds like with that orientation you would have all directions covered!
He nailed it, others didn't explain it so well, or in depth.
Thank you!
@@network-from-home hi 2 router TP-Link Archer AX73 vs 2 router ASUS RT-AX55 which is better to buy? yes I plan to buy 2 router for big house with 2 floor, in my place is same range price. I look for who can cover more area and stable. I use 100 Mbps from my isp
If you’re going to use 2 routers, have you thought about buying a router and a wireless access point(s)? That might be a better option if you have a large home
Thanks for the video. It got me thinking about whether I'm doing mine right. I had to play at 1.5x just to make it sound normal. Also, please consider looking at the camera when you talk. It would be far more engaging.
You’re welcome! Thank you for the feedback. These are things I have been working to improve in my more recent videos, so hopefully you find them more engaging
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I was having horrible Bluetooth range issues with the wifi/bluetooth card in my desktop computer so I decided to just try the angling the antenna towards specific areas of my home since I figured it might work in a similar way. Turns out it works amazing now, I can walk all the way to the kitchen while still having my Bluetooth headphones stay connected when before it would disconnect!
I'm glad this helped. Thank you for checking out the video!
@network-from-home bro to get best signal in corner of the room
This could have been a 2 minute video without the senseless padding and repetitions. And it still would've been useless for most people.
agree!!
Gold fish
Even just 90 seconds
I agree, understand though, not everyone is as smart as they think they are so they need to hear it 500 times
Guess you couldn't even make a 2 second video about anything in life. 😂
Thanks for the perpendicular explanation - especially with graphics, it made an easy-to-understand “analogy.”
I’m glad that example helped you. Thank you for checking out the video!
While I do think that you speak with a slower cadence and some of the info shared was repeated, I welcomed it. I am a novice at this. I've subscribed, I look fwd to checking out more from the channel, thanks for the content!
Excellent! I’m glad the video helped you. Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it
Thanks! I've kept my modem and antennas in the same position for years. But lately I've been having streaming dropouts, and was seeking a solution. I'll try these tips and see how I go.
Good luck!
Thank you for your explanation.
You're welcome! Thanks for checking out the video
Thank you thats great but i have a question..
Ihave a poor coverage in my apartment and my router goes from 0.5mbs to 600mbs!! Because i live kinda in the border of the 5G tower..so which cheap router option with high catching signal do you offer?
I even don’t know how to measure and compare different routers in catching signals and I prefer to change router instead of trying antennas
@l3zoxl thanks for reaching out. One thing I want to make clear is that a 5g cellular tower shouldn't have any impact on your internet connection. It sounds like you may just want to adjust the antennas on your router to ensure the areas in your home where you access the internet get a strong internet signal. Another option you might want to look at here is a mesh WiFi router. These routers allow you to place multiple router endpoints throughout your home to ensure you get a strong WiFi signal everywhere. I hope this helps!
Another video which could have been 3 slides and one minute presentation - thank you for the effort you put into it though - appreciated
Thank you for the feedback. I have been working on making my videos more concise, so hopefully my more recent videos are more useful. Thanks for checking out the video as well!
Thanks, friends. Simple & practical tips for the average user. Good job!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found the video helpful
I live in one floor house and had my 2 side antennas 45 degrees outwards (rabbit ears) and center one strait up. I set them all strait up and tested both ways. With them all up I am getting instant full speed instead of slowly building up speed. Also with them all strait up I get a higher max at end of test. My ping is also a bit lower. So, the antennas definitely do seem to work together if it's on one flat plane (MIMO perhaps?). But if it's signal reach that's needed to upper or low areas, then I'd move one strait up, one at 45, and and one laying down flat. This is just my findings after testing.... Do what you want, don't argue
I think this is a great point: the ideal router antenna will likely be different for everyone. You just need to test different configurations to see which one has the best performance in your home. Thank you for sharing!
Antenna signal direction as described in the video is important, but probably less important than the polarization when using WiFi indoors. This is because you also have to take into account the polarization of the receiving antenna which will be widely affected by the indoor transmissions because of reflections and diffraction effects. This is what you referred to when you explained how the radio signal is emitted from the antenna. If your receiving antenna has a horizontal orientation and the transmitting antenna is vertically oriented then the coupling between the transmit and receive antenna is not very good (and vice versa). This is further complicated because of the many reflections indoors. Generally reflections and diffractions indoors do not change the vertical or horizontal polarization of a radio signal.
A good rule of thumb is to arrange the antennas in a diagonal orientation so the antenna will produce a radio signal with a good horizontal and vertical polarization. That way the antenna on your device whether oriented vertically or horizontally will get a better signal. So you'll get a better signal whether you use your phone sitting up or lying down. Most notebook computers a vertical antenna embedded in the screen and most people will not use their notebook screen at a vertical angle.
This is why you get a better reception with old TVs with rabbit ear antennas when you try to adjust the angle of the "rabbit ears" in a diagonal manner and then turn them around to look for the best signal. Actually, in the US, television signals are transmitted in a horizontal orientation that's why the old outdoor TV antennas were oriented in a horizontal orientation. But when the TV signal enters a house, the signals get diffracted, refracted and reflected so they are almost never horizontal when the signal gets indoors. The TV signals acquire a vertical and horizontal orientation and so the best adjustments for a TV antenna usually happen when the antenna is arranged in a diagonal angle to catch the best of both worlds.
Arranging your WiFi antenna in a diagonal direction will give you the best intermediate signal level for most devices you will connect to the WiFi router. Of course this is just a rule of thumb and actual fiddling with the antenna angles can increase or decrease signals for specific devices, especially if the device does not move around much, like your PS2.
Final note, arranging your antenna to look downwards at an angle aimed at the basement will probably not help much unless you only have wooden floors. WiFi signals don't do well going through concrete. You would be better off leaving the basement door open or putting the router close to the basement door.
Is the signal from the antenna polarized? If so, that would play into decisions about orientation.
@brucefay5126 yes, the signal on most WiFi antennas is linearly polarized, which is why the signals come out horizontally from the length of the antenna.
Rather than tilting your antenna, put a separate WiFi router to the basement (unless your walls are made of wood). 5GHz does not penetrate building structures very well at all in the first place. Also, those particular multiple antennas are meant to facilitate multiple users (several separate RX/TX pairs), not just different directions. You want the Sending and receiving antennas to be in the same direction (polarization) in order to maximize your signal. Multiple antennas also make use of antenna diversity to counter small-scale fading. Of course, nothing wrong in using it the way you did.
You should make a video about that.
great content mate....kudoos to teaching the viewers how things work rather than jumping into hot fixes
Thank you very much! I’m glad you found the video helpful
thank you very much for this useful video. what about those routers that they do not have any anntenas?
For routers without antennas, they will have internal antennas, much like your cell phone does. In these cases, the device will emit WiFi signal equally in all directions. I hope this helps!
Left out of this magic pile is the orientation of the client device. With newer standards, beam steering and forming is a thing which would require antennas to be oriented per the instructions!
It is not so simple as you presented. In theory yes, but especially nowadays when routers use phase shifting to different antennas to direct the signal, you might get in trouble by doing that. And there are different antennas for the two WiFi bands...
Thank you for the feedback! In my case, my router sends 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi signals out of each antenna. I realize that may not be the case with all routers, however
Clarification: my ISP states in their ads that the maximum speed of this particular subscription package is 50 mbps, but it turns out it can go maximum of 70 mbps
My connection is 50 Mbps but on the 2nd floor my wifi extender only got around 20 Mbps, saw this video and I immediately moved my extender antenna horizontally and the other one at 45 degree angle and IT JUMPED TO 70 MBPS IMMEDIATELY??? WHAT KIND OF BLACK MAGIC IS THIS
thank you so much by the way 👍👍👍
I’m glad you found this video useful! Thank you for checking it out (and for the feedback)
@@network-from-home you are very welcome! thank you for this very life-saving-from-frustration video 😂 also a little update, I don't know who messed up with the position of the router so my connection of 2nd floor dropped to 10 Mbps, now this time I put two of my 1st floor antenna horizontally and all of the 2nd floor extender antenna horizontally too and it goes back again at 70 Mbps 👍
@@exonzigma It sounds like you're a pro now (:
🤣
That defies the laws of physics. 50Mb of throughput can never be 70Mb upstairs. If it had 0% loss, it would 50Mb. Just saying...
My routers are up in the attic. I will be up there with them tomorrow, realigning the antennas. Thank you.
Good luck! I’m glad you found these tips helpful
Depending on the router antenna positioning and performance can be more complicated than this explanation.
Your routers handbook should explain how antennas should be positioned and if it uses MIMO technology it is important to follow those instructions as offsetting antennas will cause beamforming and other MIMO RF techniques to underperform.
Beamforming involves coordinating the antennas to send signals in a specific direction towards the receiver rather than broadcasting in all directions. To work all antennas have to be in the same orientation. Instead of signals being sent in all directions, they're directed, electronically, exactly where they need to go. This can increase the signal strength and reduce interference.
This is a great point, thank you for sharing. My router instructs me to orient the antennas as I detailed in the video, but with newer standards this is an important caveat!
beamforming is from phased array, not MIMO, but other than that, yeah. most likely center vertical and the outer ones 45° and directly away from the vertical center one. And with MIMO and phased arrays it is important.
Why does the 9600 want the antennas configured as a W?
Your explanation make sense.
I’m not sure what specific modem you’re referring to, but my guess here is that the manufacturer is recommending this configuration because they feel it will result in a WiFi signal pattern that will work well for most of their customers. I know that’s not the best answer but that’s the explanation that makes the most sense to me
What about reflectors (metal foil etc) behind the antennas? Does that strengthen the signal and range?
My router has a dedicated spot on the main fuse box which is on the living room wall. The spot is like a sleeve slot so the router base is sideways on the wall vertically. So the antennas can mostly point left, right and straight into the room with some up and down adjustability. It works quite well, the coverage in the bedroom is decent and as I live in an apartment it won't radiate too much outside the front door to the building hallway which is better security wise I guess. But inspired by this video, I was able to get a better signal into the bedroom whic is nice.
This is excellent news! I’m glad you found the video useful 😊
Being a home channel we will keep it simple... If the device was centrally located, like it's supposed to be, you wouldn't have had an issue. There's a lot left on the table here. What bands are using the external antennas? Are there also internal antennas? What DBi are the antennas? Do you understand the radiation bubble shape based on DBi? Do you understand the negative impact you've created on beamforming? My best advice, since you're doing it wrong, is to learn some cool stuff and try again.
- Consumer grade wifi antennas are 1.3~1.5 db, which means the transmission profile is spherical in nature and has a range of approximately 100~150 feet. Changing the antennas to a 10 db gives a transmission profile resembling a donut with a range of 1000~1200 feet. The higher the db value of wifi antenna the more directional the transmission profile becomes. Routers with built in antennas do not allow antenna switching. If your wifi setup is experiencing dead zones then bridge a secondary router connected via a cat5 or better ethernet cable between each router and placing them at different placements to enhance the overall wifi signal.
@johnqpublic6228 this is good information!
do not forget touse spaced channels like 6 and 12
This is what chatgpt also recommendeds
It can't be spherical. It's mathematically impossible. Search isotropic radiator in Wikipedia and read it.
Thank you for this great video!
It also helps to have an external Wi-Fi adapter with articulating antennas. They mean more polarization choices and often better signal quality.
BTW, routers or modem/routers with internal antennas are way harder to "aim", because who knows how and why and OEM placed (usually) printed circuit antennas inside?
Thank you very much! I’m glad the video was helpful. I agree, it can definitely be frustrating with a router with internal antennas; it just seems like you have one less thing that you have control over with internal antennas
What you do when you angle the antenna like that is increasing coverage but sacrifice performance. Most Wifi routers have signal processing to boost the signal coming in by taking the signal from each antenna and creating one strong signal (When you move the antenna around you will loose that feature). So what you gain in your basement you will loose in the office/living room. But if you only need coverage please go ahead :)
Very important technical points has been explained.
Thank you so much sir !!
You’re welcome! Thank you for checking out the video!
Thank you ever so much !!!! Sound simple, perhaps? but not knowing that I wouldn't solved my issue with smart lights outside my house, who would have thought!!!! Great video!!!!
That’s fantastic news! I’m glad you found this video useful!
I tbought you would get into more details on how the antenna actually worked, via diagrams of magnetic and electric fields etc.
Isn't therecan issue with constructive and destructive interference between multiple antennas that are parallel with each other? Won't they cause regions with no signal because of that interference?
Also radio transmission and reception depend on the antennas on both ends of the connection. So isnt the position and orientation of the remote devices just as important as the orientation of the base station antennas?
Never heard about this tip , will try as you suggested , thank you 😊
Hopefully it works out well for you. Good luck and thank you for watching the video!
Useful subject! I'm trying to improve the signal to downstairs, the router being upstairs; it's a wifi6 xr1000 gaming router. I'm using a signal analyzer on my cell, and I'm not seeing much of a difference moving the antennas. It's a good 5Ghz signal for streaming, but not as strong as I would like. I'm getting a good workout running up and down the stairs, however :P
@jamcdona if moving the antennas does not give you a great boost when it comes to your WiFi signal, you may want to look into moving your router (if possible). With that said, it sounds like you are still getting adequate signal with your router where it is. You might not want to mess with it too much!
I would like to update that I hit the reset button, then installed an update, and now it's working well. I think that it had a botched update last summer and I just got it working enough to limp along by powering it off and on. A lot. LOL. The biggest gain was from my work laptop with a wifi 6E card...I'm ordering one for my home laptop now...thanks again for your videos.@@network-from-home
You want your antennas straight up. Practically any router in the last few years has some form of beamforming. It will direct the signal towards the device sending/receiving data. I've tested this several times and ALWAYS, ALWAYS having all 4x antennas straight up gave me the best signal at the longest ranges.
It's good that they CAN move because you may want to mount your router onto a wall.
I finally find out how it works, thank you.
You’re welcome!
Thank you for these useful tips.
You’re welcome!
thanks, but on what level we put our router in the same horizental floor? on the sole? on a table? on a higher place? thanks again
The higher you can put your router, the better signal you will get
Thank you for effort. You explained some tricks of the trade that we all need. Perhaps a bit shorter presentation will be beffer as everyone is short of time. Thank you you did good job.
Thank you very much! I have been working on being more concise in my more recent videos. I would love to hear if you think my videos have improved. Any other feedback you have is greatly appreciated!
Any particular way to overcome penetration have 4 cement block walls to penetrate. Can that be overcomw without a booster or extender
There no simple solution here unfortunately. Your best bet would be to either position your router or your device so that the WiFi signal doesn’t have to go through the cement walls (I realize this might not be possible in your current situation). I hope this helps!
You probably also have steel rebar in them thar block walls, Matey!!! 😂
This video of yours enlightened me and I hope it will help me... Thank you 😊
I’m glad you found this video useful! Thanks for checking it out
I watched your video.
Set up my router exactly how you explained.
My signal to every corner of my house improved at least 40%. (Prev : 40%, Now : 80%)
My PC is now gaining sufficient signal even for 5 Ghz band, and I'm getting 99.99% speed and connectivity of my connection plan.
Now I came here to type this comment. 5:23 5:25 5:25 5:26 5:27
@srj0222jannat I'm glad you found this video useful. Thank you for checking it out!
@samnfstr, why the five timestamps at the end?
What about a device that works via wifi? I bought a wifi security camera, and I mounted it in a pole outside my house. Do you have any advice for how should I position the two antennas in the camera for optimal signal?
@User-jr7vf great question. The rules that apply to your router are the same ones I would apply to your camera. I would position the antennas on your camera so that they are perpendicular to the direction of your router. You need to ensure the camera gets a good WiFi signal, and aligning the antennas this way should do the trick (as long as it is within range of your router's WiFi signal).
I've repaired a few or so wireless security cameras. All of them I've looked at only have on real antenna and one fake antenna. Which one is real or not can sometimes be seen from the back.
Great information bro.
Thank you very much! I’m glad you found the video useful
excellent video. Very helpful, and clearly presented.
TY
Thank you very much! I’m glad it was helpful
You are an excellent educator😊
Thank you very much! Thanks for checking out the video
You just gained a new subscriber bro.. this is really good will try it out
Excellent, thank you for subscribing! I’m glad you enjoyed the video
I could have watched this all night 🙂
What if your antennas only move from left to right and not back and forth ? I have a TP Link also but it`s a 4G LTE Router with a simcard.
If the movement of your router’s antennas are limited, you’ll just have to do the best you can. Try a few different antenna configurations and see which one gives your devices the best performance. Good luck!
Thanks for the information. Will try these. Hoping for more videos like these.
Thank you! Stay tuned, as I will continue to create similar content moving forward
I placed my router was right in the middle of my house, so I actually had my three antennas oriented on each axis. This was before my mesh unit.
It sounds like you had the right idea 😃
Am a bit into radio amateur stuff and i have studied antennas
i orient my wifi anetann so they are perpendicular to each others, so in case of 2 antenna i make them in V shape form
if the router have 3 then i would suggest to make them in X Y Z axis
having 2 antenna or 3 in the same orientation make them interfer with each other's and make the signal unstable
This sounds like a good approach to me! The important thing to note is that everyone will likely have a different antenna orientation that works best for them
Watch on 2x to save 5 mins of your life
2.25 is a better speed. 😊
good information... what about round cyclindrical antena, which side is the face side?
With round antennas the WiFi signal is broadcast in all directions perpendicular to the long side of the antenna. I hope this helps!
I learnt something today .. thanks
You're welcome! I'm glad this video was helpful for you
Thank you. i just subscribed, looking forward to seeing more 😊
Awesome, thank you! I’m glad you found this video useful
Material surroundings are probably going to effect signal more than orientation. Metal and stone can create excellent barriers to good signal.
Metal surroundings can definitely have a large impact your WiFi signal. Everyone will likely have a different experience based upon the layout/configuration of their home (and what it's made of). Thank you for sharing that!
There is 'some' logic in this video but as many have already said here, he is not taking into account the polarization of the signal. The dipole antennas usually found on Wi-Fi access points have a vertical polarization. When you have a laptop screen open, it's antennas inside are also vertically polarized. Which means if you rotate your antennas you will in fact lose plenty of signal amplitude because the polarization does not match. Especially diagonal is the worst you can do.
People also need to realize that AP's are meant to be used on the floor they are on and if you have multiple floors, you need multiple AP's spreading your signal horizontally with your vertical polarization as it should be done.
Consider looking into the camera lens. Thank you for the video
Thanks for the feedback! I have worked to correct this in my more recent videos
Great job to sharing this informations .
My issue I watched a lot of videos RUclips and it keeps reloading most the times.
Thank you very much. I’m glad you found this video useful!
Have learned alot from you info I didn't know thanks ☺️
Thank you for checking out the video!
"what your going to need to learn first" just tell me what I need to know. "I'm gonna get into that" stop announcing what you're going to do in a 3 minute fucking video and literally JUST GET INTO IT. total waste of time.
Thank you 😊 have learned something important didn't know. Lemme check my router antenna
Acrylic is a free signal analyzer for home use...
Excellent video and explanation
I’m glad it helped!
Antenna's work with RF electromagnetism, so @90 degrees is best , which means one aerial pointing straight out the back, one aerial horizontally pointing to the side and one straight up would give you the best possible signal strength.
x,y,z @ 90
thanks a lot.very usefull .why the manuals for users do not mention that fact?
Some manuals will mention or suggest a configuration for your router’s antennas
Another Ham operator here. I had to watch this a couple of times to understand EXACTLY what you were saying -- in obvious layman rather than technical terms. You initially threw me when you said that your vertically positioned antennas broadcasted on a horizontal plane (of course i paraphrase). I would guess you understand antenna theory pretty well, yet I don't think I heard the term polarization even once from you. The way you explained it, is adequate and was done well enough, but you can see all the butt-hurt folks (mostly ham radio guys) who ONLY recognize the use of "Vertical" and "Horizontal" (when speaking in antenna terms) as a form of polarization. In their technical world, when an antenna is oriented vertical, it is polarized vertical and the receiving antenna generally receives in the same vertical polarization. You obviously have lots of ham radio guys who watch you so you maybe should make some clarifications for them -- otherwise a lot of those old grumpy SAD HAMS will jump you in a heartbeat, thinking you dont know what you are talking about. You ARE correct (polarization aside) as a vertical antenna transmits it resonates (1/2 of the wave oscillates vertically upward and then the other 1/2 of the wave oscillates vertically downward -- in a wave pattern, perpendicularly away from the orientation of the antenna), if it is a vertically orientated antenna, it does radiate away from the antenna toward the horizon mostly in a horizontal direction as you say, (but for the ham guys somewhere between the presently controversial 5 degrees from the horizon to even near vertical -- nearly straight up). Don't let this ancient, old Ham Radio farts get you down. They know everything and if you don't believe them they will try and tell you again, and again, just in more brusk terms. They are bone-headed, sad, and unable to communicate to anyone under the age of 90. You are pretty darned correct in just what you say. You just use terms that are more modern and able to be understood by the young folks. Keep up the good work.
Great relaxing video, useful info. Thank you!
Thank you for checking out the video! I’m glad you found it helpful 😃
Amazing explanation, thanks!
No problem! Thanks for checking out the video
I have a cell phone app WiFi Analyzer, and it's great. But I can see here another feature is needed. A tone that raises and lowers in pitch the stronger the signal is. So, if the signal is -85 db the tone would be down around 30 Hz. But if the signal is way up at -10 db then the toan would be way up around 5KHz. So you could use the sound to hear the highest strength. Set your phone with the WiFi Analyzer going on your phone with the toan on. Now go into the other room, and mess with the antennas on your router, and you will be able to hear the result coming from your phone in the other room. That would make a cool tool even better. Gotta send some Emails.
This sounds like an interesting idea!
Thank you for the great info, the negative comments below are unwarranted, great knowledge sharing.
Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you found the video useful!
Yet another ham radio operator. Although you are correct in saying that all antennas up is not optimal, and indeed, when I switched my angled antennas to all vertical (0°), I got the worst signal to my hard-to-reach location (other end of the house, 1 floor down). Routers used to be advertised with a W configuration (-30°, 0°, +30°), which is the way I've had it. I tried your recommendation and it was not as good as a W configuration. I then tried the antennas at 45 degrees apart (0°, 45°, 90°) so I could put the router perpendicular up against a wall and I got the best signal. I should do another test with (0°, 90°, 90°), as I agree with the ham operator who mentioned vertical/horizontal polarization as being optimal. SpeedTest is what I used to measure the throughput.
I think your experiment and findings lead to a main takeaway: everyone will likely have a different antenna configuration that works best for them depending upon the setup of their home, their router location, etc. Thank you for sharing!
at 1.25 speed he sounds normal lol
😂
Thanks for presenting a very useful info...
You’re welcome! Thanks for checking out the video!
I had to adjust the playback speed of this video up by 50%. And then you sounded normal.
Got the hint?
Yes, for sure. Thank you for your feedback. This is something I have been working on in my more recent videos, so hopefully you find those more useful. Thanks again
Just get to the point
MIMO, beamforming, polarization, and so on. Without understanding this, wrong perceptions appear. Modern RF is very complex.
Not to mention metal A/C Ductwork that might be causing signal reflections or blocking a signal!!! Metal siding/sheathing on buildings can also cause problems as well as metal lathe work used for plastering finishes!!! 😬
That’s good to know, I’ll try that. Every time I go into "setting" it always says "weak security". on the wifi section.
You should be able to access your router’s settings and turn on stronger encryption. This will likely help the security of your router. I hope this helps!
With a dual (or tri-) band router, say at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, are the individual antennas each assigned to handle a particular single freq?
@bacca71 each WiFi antenna can handle both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Each antenna is not assigned to a frequency
@@network-from-home Many thanks!
@@bacca71 No problem!
Do you think FENVI 1200mbps Wifi Repeater 2.4G 5ghz Wifi Signal Amplifier Extnd is a good choice/option to recommend? 🤔
Normally I wouldn’t recommend WiFi repeater devices because they can affect WiFi performance and add administrative overhead to your network because it creates separate WiFi networks. Would it be possible to change the location of the router or buy a WiFi access point instead? If these are not good options for you, the WiFi extender is a good option. I hope this helps
Give this guy a break, he's trying to give all the necessary information, and it's very helpful, to people to tell to hurry up, just go comment somewhere else, also i think this is called antenna polarization
Thank you for the support!
Completely incomprehensible
8:15 to tell people to set 2 anttenas u and 1 at a 45. In old R/C Modrl Planes on 72 Mhz you would see guys point there Anttenas at the plane when it was farthest away and wonder why it Crashed or just Flew away. Even worse noe with 2.4Ghz Radios point the Antena at the Plane when it farthest away.