Wifi Antennas

[OhioYJ]

Can someone confirm that there's nothing really special about a Wifi antenna? I can hookup what I want (within reason)?

 

So one of my motherboards (MSI Z690 Edge Wifi DDR4) came with fixed (removable) antennas, which I don't care for. I want to replace them with the remote style, similar to ones I've had come with other Gigabyte motherboards. (See this eBay link as an example) Some of these auctions claim they are 2.4 Ghz only, some claim they only work with specific motherboards, I'm pretty sure it's an antenna, right? Hook it up to my motherboard, and I'm good to go, on 2.4, 5 Ghz, etc, it's just a wire.

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

Can someone confirm that there's nothing really special about a Wifi antenna? I can hookup what I want (within reason)?

 

So one of my motherboards (MSI Z690 Edge Wifi DDR4) came with fixed (removable) antennas, which I don't care for. I want to replace them with the remote style, similar to ones I've had come with other Gigabyte motherboards. (See this eBay link as an example) Some of these auctions claim they are 2.4 Ghz only, some claim they only work with specific motherboards, I'm pretty sure it's an antenna, right? Hook it up to my motherboard, and I'm good to go, on 2.4, 5 Ghz, etc, it's just a wire.

Its not quite "just a wire" but if its designed for the right frequency bands and not intended for something with much higher power output, then its fine.

[OhioYJ]

18 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Its not quite "just a wire" but if its designed for the right frequency bands and not intended for something with much higher power output, then its fine.

So my limited antenna knowledge would be from CB antennas, and I it's limited. However, I did mean the phrase "just a wire" very loosely.  So it would seem I'm likely ok mix and matching antennas from vendors to get the style I prefer. 

 

Seems back in the day I remember buying "hi-gain" antennas for routers, it seems like that sort of went away. However makes me wonder if there is any difference between antennas, and antenna designs?

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 8/7/2022 at 12:13 AM, OhioYJ said:

So my limited antenna knowledge would be from CB antennas, and I it's limited. However, I did mean the phrase "just a wire" very loosely.  So it would seem I'm likely ok mix and matching antennas from vendors to get the style I prefer. 

 

Seems back in the day I remember buying "hi-gain" antennas for routers, it seems like that sort of went away. However makes me wonder if there is any difference between antennas, and antenna designs?

They still have different gains and beam patterns, they just don't always tell you annoyingly.

You don't want to mix and match different antennas on the same device though as WiFi uses MIMO, so the gain, distance and angle of the antennas can impact the speed and range.