Why wifi routers have two antennas

Since an antenna does not make power, increasing gain in one direction will decrease propagation in another. Dual-band router has longer range and better signal strength, and despite the broadcasting on two different bands, it is capable of switching automatically when needed.

The 2. The 5 GHz band provides less coverage but transmits data at faster speeds. The range is lower in the 5 GHz band because higher frequencies cannot penetrate solid objects, such as walls and floors. Range : how far your data can travel. Higher frequencies allow faster transmission of data, also known as bandwidth. Therefore, the 5GHz with its higher bandwidth will provide much faster data connections than 2.

The theoretical max speed of With all of the praise given to our AC Ultra Series Wi-Fi Router and its devilishly good looks, we thought we ought to take a moment to talk antennas. How do these high performance external antennas help to keep your devices connected with stronger Wi-Fi coverage? A number of factors play a part. First and foremost, the AC Router features Smart Beam Forming to send focused beams of bandwidth directly to your devices rather than simply emit a donut-shaped ring of bandwidth.

Whether you can see them or not, all Wi-Fi routers have transmit and receive antennas to communicate wirelessly over a radio channel with your laptops, smartphones and other connected devices. Three to transmit and three to receive? While many dynamics play a part in affecting Wi-Fi speed, one of the main factors is the number of antennas a router has, and by extension the number of spacial streams it can communicate over.

Wireless AC routers take it one step farther. This red stallion features Tri-Band Wi-Fi, which means it operates on three wireless bands — two 5GHz bands and one 2. This is called spacial diversity and it helps to improve link reliability.

With your router having 2 antenna , and one of the other posts , does that mean that if we want extended range , you need 2 external antennas? A couple links. A single external directional antenna can extend the range. It seems to have several lobes none of which are directly in-line with where you point it.

There are lots of antennas available for 2. However, there are some expensive routers with internal antennas that out-perform many external antenna routers. This allows it to do beam-forming and dedicate a specific antennas to specific devices in specific directions.

The single most important thing you can do to extend the range of your WiFi is simply a radio, which is used for computer.