Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys High Gain Antenna Kit for TNC Connectors HGA7T

Folks, these antennas, as well as the stock antennas, have an omnidirectional (same in all directions) horizontal radiation pattern. This means that, when installed in a suitable location, the most significant reception gains will be seen with equipment that is on the same level as the router itself. Most of the "these did nothing for me" stories appear to be from people who have the router downstairs and the equipment upstairs, or in the basement. These antennas are NOT designed to improve reception between floors in a home.

2.4GHz signals are heavily attenuated by walls, foil-clad insualtion, and other building materials. Interference can also be present from cordless phones, microwaves, wireless cameras and other gear in this band -- adding an antenna can make these types of issues WORSE. Changing the channel your wireless router uses can help, since chances are most of your neighbors are using the same channel you are. Some routers have a built-in site survey utility to help you locate an unused channel.

If you are having trouble reaching a particular device through several walls, or between floors, try a directional antenna as these will concentrate the radio energy where they are pointed. Some reviewers have pointed to a site that illustrates how to make a directional antenna with index cards, glue and foil -- this is a rudementary directional antenna but will surprisingly provide excellent results in many applications.

In summary: If you purchased these antennas and they did not work or made the problem worse, you need to reconsider the type of installation (multi-floor, multi-wall, etc.), sources of interference, channel selection, blocking materials such as foil-clad insulation, as well as proper antenna selection.

These antennas have been tested in my labs using very sensitive wireless network testing equipment and the perform exactly as specified. The sad thing is that the industry doesn't do a good job of explaining what the "specifications" mean for the average user. Here's the basic foundation you need:

Antennas come in three basic types: omni-directional, semi-directional and high-directional.

Omni-directional antennas, such as these Linksys antennas, radiate the network signal out in all directions around the antenna. Think of it like the ripples in the water when you stick your finger directly down into it. This is the way an omni-directional antenna works.

Now, when you increase the gain of an omni-directional antenna, you flatten the signal or what som have called the doughnut. In other words, you increase the distance "out" from the antenna, but you decrease the distance "up" from the antenna. For example, if you have the antenna in a vertical position (it is pointing up), a higher gain indicates that the signal travel farther out from the antenn in a pattern parallel with the floor/earth and it doesn't travel as far perpendicular to the floor/earth.

The semi-directional antenna is an antenna that transmits the vast majority of the signal in one direction out and up from the antenna. Think of it like placing a speaker against a wall and facing into the room. In the room, you will hear the sounds clearly. Behind the speaker and the wall, they will not be so clear. This is similar to the behavior of a semi-directional antenna.

High-directional antenas usually look like a satellite dish with either a solid or a mesh panel behind the antenna. These antennas, as you might expect, have an extremely narrow signal pattern. There are rarely used in home networks are are mostly used to create links from building to building over greater distances (sometimes many miles).

In the end, the antenna will not have as great an impact on your home wireless network as the wireless router or access point will. If you can get a wireless router or access point that uses greater output power with the lower gain omni antennas, you will likely be more satisfied with the coverage of your wireless network than you will be with a network that includes lower output power and high gain antennas (assuming your clients have semi-directional antennas or equal gain radios). This is a general rule of thumb for home networks.

Sadly, one of the best home wireless routers is now off the market (the Buffalo WZR-RS-G54); however, you may be able to find others with simila specs. Look for devices that offer 100 mW output power and external antennas (in case you want them for tweaking). In the new 802.11n line, the Engenius ESR-9710 offers very good performance in my lab tests and is reasobably priced at under $100. It does feature 100 mW of output power. For this with a little more pocket cash, the EnGenius ENG-ECB-3220 will give you 400 mW of output power; however, I have not had the chance to test the latter.

Happy WiFi-ing!

Tom Carpenter

Very interesting to see how many people aren't having much success with these antennas. I would be interested in how everyone is measuring their signal strength and their placement of the routers.

I'm in an older house where it is long and narrow with hardly any open spaces.

I'm using these antennas on a WRT54G on one side of the house, in conjunction with the WRE54G repeater on the other side of the building.

I used Netstumbler, and the Dell wireless utility that came with the internal wireless card. I get the same readings for signal strength on both programs.

Before adding the antennas, I was getting an average of -50 to
-55 dBi strength 10 feet from the router. After adding the antenna's, I am averaging -36 to -39 dBi.

Sitting 15 feet from the WRE54G repeater the signal gained exactly the same from -50 to -36 dBi after adding the antennas to the router for some reason.

The worse strength I received in my house jumped from -92 dBi to -67 dBi.

I bought these because my Linksys router was disconnecting at the most inopportune time with my Play@TV multimedia wireless receiver downstairs. I keep the router upstairs as that is where my main drydock PC is. I've noticed fewer disconnects since I got the antennas. I also bring my laptop home from work on occasion and when the weather is nice, can use it for browsing even in the garage, which is about 100 feet from the router. This was good for checking a motorcycle part in inventory against what was actually on my bike. Why did I give it 3 stars? Well, maybe they just should have given the antennas to us with the original router. Why as an aftermarket product? I sheepishly handed over the 40 bucks...

First of all, let me say that I don't own one of these and have never used it. You may wonder what kind of an idiot would write a review for something he's never used.

Well, this is why. I was about to buy this unit when I read Mr. Samuel M. Livingston's very knowledgeable review below where he discusses the fact that all antenna's such as this one are horizontally directional, meaning they work best in the plane perpendicular to the direction the antenna is pointing.

Well, my router is in the basement and ALL the computers that use it are on floors above it. Hmmmmm. You know, I had always wondered why my Linksys router had antennas mounted on highly articulated joints that allow them to rotate in any direction.

I went down to my basement and pushed the antennas down so they were parallel to the floor instead of parallel to the wall. POOF! Every computer in my house gained an additional bar of reception. I didn't need a high-gain antenna kit any more.

Thank you very much, Dr. Livingston... I presume?