range Do Wifi Antenna Extension Cables Work?

[webshark25]

TLDR;

Has anyone tried using RP-SMA extension cables in order modify the antenna position on their router? Could you strategically place them around your house (assuming your router supports multiple external antennas) in order to significantly maximize the range of your house without having to buy a more expensive solution that supports multiple access points? Are upgraded antennas worth their cost or am I better off using the stock ones that came with my device?

 

Background: I'm in the planning process of reconfiguring my current setup to include a new sit-stand desk. I'm trying to think of better ways I can manage my cables to minimize clutter, especially considering the number of devices I have that are connected to the desk which includes 6 mounted displays, a mounted tablet, amazon echo, router, keyboard, speakers, microphone, webcam, LIFX Z controller, and an HTC Vive Lighthouse. Anyway... I've been thinking about positioning my router somewhere else that's out of sight like maybe mounted underneath the desk. For some irrational reason, I don't like the idea that the antennas won't be mounted upright even though I really don't think it will make any difference considering the room it's located in is probably the worst place in the house the router could go anyway. 

 

So that got me thinking... The antennas are a standard threading (RP-SMA) which can allow me to simply extend where I want the antenna to go (in my case right through to the topside of the tabletop)? Following this thought I did a little bit of research and had an idea... why not go beyond just moving the antennas a couple inches and buy longer extension cables in order to broadcast from multiple areas of my house. My current router has 3 separate external antenna inputs could I move each antenna to a completely different side of my house or are they depended upon each other in order to operate properly?

 

If anyone has tried anything similar to what I posted I would be very interested to hear about your results. 

[AntiTrust]

7 hours ago, webshark25 said:

snip

just an idea, but if your thinking of running cable anyways to different parts of your house, why not run cat6 and plug it into a couple wifi access points. 

[Krystian]

I've got ASUS PCI-E Adapter with three antennas and seems to be much better if I have the external Antenna Base mounted on my desk rather than antennas at the back of my PC.

I am not sure if the antennas are dependant to be close to eachother but if you plan to run wires to place them in different parts of your house then better option to consider is just running ethernet cable to the router.

[Blebekblebek]

it works, but not more than 0.5meter

To make it simplier, the less cable you use, frequency is better.

Depends on your usage, I use to fiddling my router but since everything is so cheap right now I don't do it anymore, I'm not even bother.

 

You can find $10 or even less repeater, spread 2-3 arround the house that's pretty much cover everything.

 

I mod one of internal access point to become point-to-point outdoor access point, and it works fine

but considering ptp access point now also getting cheaper (currently using CPE210) it just waste of time.

[webshark25]

2 minutes ago, AntiTrust said:

just an idea, but if your thinking of running cable anyways to different parts of your house, why not run cat6 and plug it into a couple wifi access points. 

That's definitely the most ideal solution but I think it this has the ability to work for significantly less especially if you already own a modern, mid-ranged router and are looking for a more budget oriented solution that uses what you already own. 

[webshark25]

2 minutes ago, Krystian said:

I've got ASUS PCI-E Adapter with three antennas and seems to be much better if I have the external Antenna Base mounted on my desk rather than antennas at the back of my PC.

I am not sure if the antennas are dependant to be close to eachother but if you plan to run wires to place them in different parts of your house then better option to consider is just running ethernet cable to the router.

Totally agree! To clarify I wasn't intending to actually test this whole-home implementation but the idea interested me and wanted to know if it was even possible. Ethernet is going to give you the most preferred connection over WiFi but I was more interested in seeing if you could increase overall range and essentially mimic an overlapping network of multiple access points strategically placed without investing in more expensive hardware that might potentially make your current $200 router obsolete even though you recently bought it.

[webshark25]

6 minutes ago, Blebekblebek said:

it works, but not more than 0.5meter

To make it simplier, the less cable you use, frequency is better.

Depends on your usage, I use to fiddling my router but since everything is so cheap right now I don't do it anymore, I'm not even bother.

 

You can find $10 or even less repeater, spread 2-3 arround the house that's pretty much cover everything.

 

I mod one of internal access point to become point-to-point outdoor access point, and it works fine

but considering ptp access point now also getting cheaper (currently using CPE210) it just waste of time.

So if I follow this correctly - theoretically... Could you use a signal amplifier to power a giant antenna in order to achieve better range? I think that would be really interesting to see. 

[Blebekblebek]

Just now, webshark25 said:

So if I follow this correctly - theoretically... Could you use a signal amplifier to power a giant antenna in order to achieve better range? I think that would be really interesting to see. 

ofcourse, people do it all the time.

 

[webshark25]

13 minutes ago, Krystian said:

I've got ASUS PCI-E Adapter with three antennas and seems to be much better if I have the external Antenna Base mounted on my desk rather than antennas at the back of my PC.

I am not sure if the antennas are dependant to be close to eachother but if you plan to run wires to place them in different parts of your house then better option to consider is just running ethernet cable to the router.

That makes me wonder what would happen if you plugged one end of the extender from your router to your adapter. If you were able to access the network, I wonder how the speeds would compare to a standard ethernet connection. 

[skywake]

38 minutes ago, webshark25 said:

That's definitely the most ideal solution but I think it this has the ability to work for significantly less especially if you already own a modern, mid-ranged router and are looking for a more budget oriented solution that uses what you already own. 

Except that running Ethernet to an access point gives you more options down the road. It also means that the load across your network is spread across multiple access points. Most of the higher end access points/routers on the market get those high numbers by adding bands together. Having multiple access points is basically the same thing... except spread out across the area you want to cover. Is your option cheaper? Well maybe in the short term. But you'd be going to a lot of effort for something that won't give you the best results now and won't scale going forward

And anyways, the most "expensive" part of running Ethernet is the time required to do it. The cabling is dirt cheap and there's no reason why you can't re-use your existing gear. You don't have to buy a bunch of new access points, you can just use it to improve the placement of your existing access point or add a single new AP in a place you don't have coverage. If you're going to the effort of doing this do it properly.
 

26 minutes ago, webshark25 said:

That makes me wonder what would happen if you plugged one end of the extender from your router to your adapter. If you were able to access the network, I wonder how the speeds would compare to a standard ethernet connection. 

WiFi has more overheads than and is technically slower than Ethernet even in lab conditions. Also the way most routers are wired up the WiFi portion is actually connected internally to an Ethernet port. So I'm not sure how well this would work but even if it worked fantastically well it'd be slower than ethernet.