Direction of WiFi antenna

Direction of WiFi antenna I have a Netgear WG311v3 WiFi card. There are ceiling mounted routers in the corridor outside. Some people try to orient the antennas of the router towards their rooms so that they get better signal strength. I am not sure if it makes a difference. Does signal strength have a bearing on the direction/orientation of WiFi antennas?
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 174

Total answers/comments: 2

Comments display order:

Guest [Entry]

"Most routers have omni-directional antennas (which send the signal in all directions except in the direction of the ""stick"" - actually some signal even goes a little up there, but the main part goes ""around""). So, no in most cases.

If the router is equipped with some kind of directional antenna, then the direction would matter.

Some links on the subject:
wifi antenna types
WiFi antenna

Just one other thing ... HeatMapper - check it out (courtesy of Molly). It is a wonderful little application for measuring the signal with very nice visualization properties. Lemon easy to use."

Guest [Entry]

Every antenna has a radiation pattern associated with it. If you can visualise your antenna as a light bulb, you can get an idea of how it works. A directional antenna is sort of like a torch, with a reflector behind the bulb to direct the radiated signal in a a particular direction, resulting in a conical radiation pattern. An omnidirectional antenna usually has a pattern that is more like a toroid or doughnut with good coverage all around the horizontal plane, but weaker spots at the top and bottom. Knowing the type of antenna you have in your device can help you determine whether or not pointing it any direction will help or make things worse. For example, pointing the tip of an omnidirectional antenna to a room that requires good coverage is a bad idea because you are essentially pointing the hole of the doughnut, i.e. the weakest part of the radiation pattern to the room. Hope this helps.