Stronger? Reaches further WiFi signal? Does such a device exist?

Tempest

I have a Virgin Superhub 3, and had a Superhub2 before that.
Before I say anything, generally I found both to have about the same range when it came to wifi signals.

Anyway........

Let's say I put the Superhub into Modem mode and buy a WiFi router with lots of fancy shaped space ship! looking antenna's on it.
Will I actually get any meaningful range increase from it?

Been looking on Amazon and a great variation of mixed reviews, but quite a number say things like, range hardly improved.

Is this simply not possible due to power limit outputs on home WiFi ?
Do long antenna's actually get the signal further?

Life it just easier with one central device. No mesh, no extenders or access points.

I'd just be happy with more range from my central device than the superhub gives me.

Possible or not?

Puntoboy

Are you having wifi signal issues at the moment?

Tempest

Depending on weather, and which way the wind blows! a have a couple of devices, and spots where the signal is borderline not strong enough to be reliable.
External WiFi Security Cams the worst issue due to signal to brick ratio!

If the signal could get thru said brickwork/walls with a bit more power behind it, I would be happier.

I know to some degree long antenna's can do this as there is a YouTube of a guy modding? a superhub2 with 3rd party antenna's to improve things a lot.

However if putting the SH3 into Wifi mode and getting another box to handle the Wifi can give a stronger signal all over then I'd be happy

mickevh

Wi-Fi transmit power is limited by law and most kit is, and always has been, at or close to the permitted max. There's no magic "uber-routers" out there with more power than everyone else's. There are those who assert that SH's are "particularly bad," I've seen that assertion made about evey other ISP's routers also and mostly those making such claims (including some vendors) do not have the facilities to be able to objective test and thusly all such reportage is anecdotal.

Whilst fancy things can be done with antenna design, what you gain in one direction you loose in another - there's no "free" energy out there to be had according to the laws of physics. Think about a typical domestic light bulb which radiates more or less uniformly in all directions. Now image I put a parabolic reflector behind it and direct most of the energy in one direction, like a car headlamp or a torch. Sure, I've now got more energy in one direction, but I've lost it in others. So most "high gain" antenna are highER gain in some direction (or set of directions) at the expense of lower gain in others.

Some more modern kit uses multiple antennas (MIMO) and phased arrays to do something coloquially known as "beamforming" - however that tends to be more about improving the rate at range rather than giving any huge range increase. (It has other uses too.)

Antenna design "fixes" do have the advantage of being bi-directional. In Wi-Fi, all devices are both transmitters and receivers; clients talks to AP's, AP's talk to clients - it's a two-way "conversation" not a one way "lecture." Thus, things like parabolic reflectors, for example, are also more sensitive in the receive direction, but that is also problematic as you might now "hear" more things from further away that didn't before which could paradoxically make things worse.

So, if you are a radio ham, you might get into playing with antenna design and positioning. If not, then the best advice is to deploy more Wi-Fi cells (additional AP's) closer to the problem clients. (You may also get an overall performance gain that way too.) Of course, for kit that is fixed and doesn't move, the absolute best solution is to not use Wi-Fi at all and use mouch more robust and reliable cabled links.

Tempest

Thanks.
What puzzles me, and please correct me if I jump to the wrong conclusions here is that I've seen some video's etc, where people have taken something that performs poorly, but it looks neat in the home, break it open, stick on a 2ft, for example, antenna's onto it, and as if by magic better coverage.

You then look at the original antenna and find out it's about a 1" piece of metal in the original router and think, no wonder it's got a rotten performance.

Leading you to think.... hmmmm, so they know people don't want box's in their home with 1 or 3 2ft antenna's poking out the top, so they are designed to just about be ok, but to look small and neat in the home so they sell.

Totally wrong here?

Old video for a unofficial mod for superhub 2:

mickevh

With the caveat that I'm not a radio expert, but when I first got involved in deploying Wi-Fi, I thought it might be an idea to do some research into how radio works, here's a few things as I understand it:

The size of a simple "stick" radio antenna is not an accident - it's a function of the frequency/wavelength of signal one wishes to transmit/receive. If one ever looks at some of the older "dual band" AP's with external antenna, one can see the 2.4GHz sticks are slightly longer than the 5GHz sticks.

Antenna length is a multiple (2x 4x, 5x, whatever) or fraction (1/2, 1/4, etc.) of the anticipated wavelength. The wavelength of 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi is about 12cm so a "half wave" antenna for this is around 5-6cm. Things like a phone (and my current router with internal antenna) are even smaller to pack them in. IIRC my router's are about 3cm (1/4 wavelength) - I've never opened up a phone!

Stick antenna radiate more energy perpendicular to the stick than along it's axis yielding a torroidal radiation pattern. Imagine a doughnut ("ring" not "jam") perched on your extended index finger. When (say) doubling the antenna length, more energy leaves perpendicular and less along the axis as if you've "squashed" your doughnut a bit flatter - the diameter goes out a bit, but the height goes down as the total volume can't change. This is the effect with so called "high gain" antenna, but these are only highER gain in the azimuth directions (perpendicular), at the expense of less gain axially as compared to a theoretically perfect (Isotropic) antenna that radiates equally in all directions.

Things like parabolic (satellite dish) an Yagi (television aerial) antenna are even more funky. It can be interesting to read about if one is so minded. Wikipedia's articles are quite illuminating, even if one doesn't want to get into the math!

There are some bona fide radio hamms who frequent these parts who might care to correct anything I've got wrong and drill into the details if you want more than a "pop science" exposition.