[Guide] Supercharge Your Router! Enhance Cooling, Overclock, And Extend Wifi Range With External Antennas!

iamdarkyoshi · March 28, 2016

I have a Cisco E3000 router that I got for free, as the wireless was not great and it overheated. I added a fan to it by drilling a hole in the top of the case and wiring an old GPU fan to the 12v rail. I have DDWRT installed, which lets me overclock (not on this router though, others can)

As you can see, it has two antennas sticking out of it, and it did not originally. I stole them from my faulty dlink router, and connected them to the 2.4ghz radio inside where the two internal antennas were. This increases the 2.4ghz range, but not by a huge amount, and the 5ghz one had no change.

So I went on ebay and purchased this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-6dBi-RP-SMA-Dual-Band-WiFi-Antenna-4-U-fl-Cable-Mod-Kit-Netgear-N600-N750/291488832166

My router has six internal antennas, but everyone who antenna mods seems to only replace four.

Anyway, open your router up and see how the antennas are connected. (not my image)

Mine has three little connectors on the left (5ghz), just like a laptop's wifi card, and on the right (the 2.4ghz) they are soldered

So I cut the wires on mine to open it up (this is where my previous antennas were)

After this, I desoldered the top and bottom ones

As you can see, I have used my soldering iron to make holes for the connectors on the side. Dont do this, it wrecks your soldering iron tips. Mine cost basically nothing, so I dont care Then I cut and soldered the wires that came in the ebay purchase.

The 5ghz ones were just screwed into the holes I made earlier and plugged into the sockets on the board. Much easier. Didnt take a photo.

After I got everything connected and lined up, I snapped the case back together and hot glued the side connectors in place. Also I cant hold the camera steady...