How to place the router antenna correctly? The signal upstairs was poor, so I broke off four antennas all night, and tilted the one at an angle to achieve great results.

My router is an AX3000T with four antennas, which is placed next to the TV cabinet in the living room. After using it for more than half a year, the signal downstairs is full, but the signal upstairs in the second bedroom only has two bars, and the video keeps spinning in circles. My initial thoughts were the same as most people's: If the signal is poor, you'll have to pay extra to either buy a Mesh sub-router or replace it with a high-gain antenna. I didn't give up before starting. One night I squatted in front of the router and played with the antennas. I pulled out the four antennas to create various angle combinations. I asked my wife to use her mobile phone upstairs to check the number of signal grids. After more than an hour of fiddling with it, I actually tried out a set of placement methods that could stabilize the antenna by more than one grid.

The next day, I looked through the information for a long time before I realized where I was wrong.: The antennas are all placed vertically, which is equivalent to covering the home network as a flat surface. A three-dimensional scene such as upstairs and downstairs requires an antenna to be tilted over to take care of it. This is zero cost and can be tried in five minutes. However, nine out of ten articles on the Internet about antenna angles only talk about the conclusions but not the principles. I have written down the rules and principles I have tried out, and you can copy them directly.

Let’s understand one thing first: The antenna is not a light bulb, it is directional

Many people think of router antennas as light bulbs, which emit light evenly in all directions, no matter how they are placed. Not really. For a rod antenna placed vertically, the signal is strongest in the horizontal direction, with the weakest signals directly above and below. The radiation cross section looks like a donut when viewed from the side, with the antenna body passing through the hole in the donut. Therefore, the router is placed in the living room, and all four antennas are vertical. The east, west, north, and south on the same floor are well taken care of. The second floor and the first floor below become the top and bottom of the donut, which are inherently weak areas.

On the other hand, if you want to improve the signal upstairs, you have the idea: Let the "side" of the donut face upwards at an angle. If the antenna is placed at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees, the strong signal area that was originally directed horizontally will move diagonally upward, and the upstairs area will fall right into the strong coverage area. The price is that the signal in a certain direction on the same layer will be weaker, so instead of removing all four antennas, a few vertical ones are left to protect the plane, and one or two oblique ones are used to take care of the three-dimensionality.

There is another detail that is easily overlooked: The mobile phone antenna is vertical. If you hold the phone vertically, the vertical antenna of the router will be parallel to the antenna of the phone, which is the best match. ； Lying on the bed and scrolling through the phone horizontally, what actually matches it is the slanted antenna. This explains why some people think that slanted antennas are ineffective - hold the phone upright when testing, lie down and try again.

Actual test at my house that night: Division of labor among the four antennas

my goal is clear: The living room and dining room downstairs must not deteriorate, and the second bedroom upstairs must be restored. The final division of labor between the four antennas is as follows. You can refer to it directly for fine-tuning.:

The two directions of the slant are not just slanted, they should face the rooms upstairs where the nets are mainly used. The second bedroom in my house is upstairs to the northeast of the router, so the diagonal antenna is tilted toward the northeast. After breaking it off, I used my mobile phone to stand at the original two spaces in the second bedroom. It stabilized three spaces and stopped spinning while watching the video. The 5G frequency band is particularly affected by the angle, because it has high frequency, poor diffraction ability, and relies more on linear coverage. Oblique antennas are more effective in saving 5G than saving 2.4G. The account of bandwidth and gear can be seen How to choose bandwidth ——I actually measured that 2.4G changed from two bars to three bars, and 5G went from one and a half bars to nearly three bars.

By the way, if your home is a duplex or three floors, don't expect to break out the router antenna to cover all floors. The antenna angle is the icing on the cake and can be optimized for free. If the floors are too different, you still have to add nodes. My house is from the first to the second floor, and the attenuated oblique antenna on the first floor can handle it. ； It would be difficult to do anything if it was separated by two floors and all the antennas were removed.

Make sure before breaking up: Is the poor signal really a problem of angle?

Antenna angle can only solve the problem of "misalignment", don't treat it as a panacea. Before you break it off, spend two minutes to rule out other causes, otherwise it will be in vain if you break it off all night.:

The first one to check the channel. In a community with many neighbors, everyone is crowded on 2.4G channels 1, 6, and 11 at night. When the channels are crowded, the number of signal bars is okay but the network speed is terrible. That is not the fault of the antenna. Install a WiFi analysis app on your phone and take a look. If your home channel collides with three or four neighbors, first Change channel Let’s talk about antennas. In my house, the channel was nailed down first before it was the antenna’s turn.

The second one is to check the location. The router is stuffed into a weak current box, attached to a metal set-top box, and blocked behind a load-bearing wall. These inherent positioning problems cannot be compensated for by breaking off the antenna. I have done a separate calculation on the positioning before, and you can read it. Where should I place the router to get the best signal? . The premise of the antenna angle is that the router itself is not too bad. If the location is bad, move it first. A higher open location in the living room is much better than the bottom floor of the TV cabinet.

The third one is to distinguish whether the signal is weak or the network speed is slow. The number of signal bars is small but the network speed is normal. It is acceptably weak and the priority is lowered. ； The signal looks full but is stuck. It means interference or the bandwidth is being robbed. The direction is not towards the antenna at all. Whoever is robbing can take a picture. Speed ​​test troubleshooting Go through that article. Don't pile all the "bad network" on the antenna, this is the time pit I stepped on.

The dual-band antennas are separated, and the placement method is also particular.

If you have disassembled a router, you will know that the four antennas are not exactly the same. Generally, two antennas correspond to 2.4G and two correspond to 5G. The label or manual on the back of the machine will indicate the order. After knowing this, the placement method can be more precise.: 2.4G has strong diffraction and long coverage, and is concerned with "connection」 ； 5G is fast but delicate, and it’s all about “running fast”. Smart devices basically rely on 2.4G, and videos on mobile phones mainly rely on 5G.

My approach is to keep the two corresponding 2.4G cables vertical, so that slow devices such as sweepers and thermometers and hygrometers throughout the house can have signals everywhere. ； The two 5G poles, one vertical for the living room and one diagonally for the upstairs, are designed to save people from swiping their mobile phones. If you can't figure out which cable is in which frequency band, the stupidest and most effective way is to try to arrange and combine them.: Only move one wire at a time. After moving it, go upstairs and check the signal. If it doesn't work, replace it with another wire. You can always try it out overnight. The additional benefit of this stupid method is that you will easily find out the true distribution of signals in your home, which is more useful than any theory.

There is a hidden benefit to placing it vertically: The router antenna is vertical, parallel to the mobile phone held vertically, and parallel to the default antenna direction of signal amplifiers and bridge sub-routers on the market. All antennas in the entire home are parallel to each other, which is the default state that is least likely to go wrong in home scenarios. Slanting should only occur when there is a clear need for three-dimensional coverage. Do not slant for the sake of slanting.

Want to switch to a high-gain antenna? Let’s settle this account first

If the antenna still doesn't work upstairs after breaking it off, the next thought is often to buy a high-gain antenna, which costs a few yuan to dozens of yuan each. My advice is to calm down first. Gain is not about amplifying the signal out of thin air, it is about flattening the donut - a 6dBi antenna is stronger than a 3dBi antenna because the energy originally wasted in the vertical direction is pressed onto the horizontal plane. The horizontal coverage is indeed farther, but the vertical direction is weaker. If the person upstairs with poor signal changes to a high-gain antenna, it is equivalent to making up for the weak point and making it weaker, in the opposite direction.

Whether the antenna can be replaced depends on the interface. Most of the home router antennas are welded or built-in, and the SMA interfaces that can be unscrewed are concentrated on old machines that are used in gaming circles. Mainstream models such as the AX3000T are basically useless. The second-hand market claims to be a "universal gain antenna". First make sure that the interface and frequency band match. It is common for you to buy the wrong antenna and not be able to plug it in.

If you really want to solve the signal problem upstairs immediately, add a Mesh sub-router and place it at the corner of the stairs. It is more stable than any antenna. You can see how to pair the two. Mesh networking article . The value of adjusting the antenna angle is that it is zero cost and immediately verifiable, and it is suitable for everyone to do it before adding money. The conclusion I came to after struggling that night was simple.: After completing the free optimization, you still feel bad, so it’s not too late to spend another hundred or two hundred. Don’t reverse the order.

Finally, give me an operation list that can be copied

Condensate the experience of that night into steps and walk through them in order. All you need is a mobile phone and a little patience.:

The first step is to find a fixed position upstairs where you usually get stuck, and write down the current number of signal grids. This is the benchmark. The second step is to straighten all four antennas and confirm that the baseline has not changed. The third step is to tilt one piece at a time, tilting it about 45 degrees toward the main room upstairs. Every time you move one piece, go upstairs and check the grid number. If there is an improvement, keep it. If there is no change, return to the normal position and replace it with the next one. The fourth step is to decide on the combination of two vertical and two oblique bars, and measure again during the evening peak period. Only when the number of grids is stable does it count. The signal can be confusing during the day. Step 5: If you still have two grids after trying all four, don’t spend any more money on the antenna. Choose one of three channels, locations, and additional nodes. Check in the previous order. If you really don’t want to spend more money, you can go ahead. Wireless bridging Take the old machine and add a layer of it.

The antenna is the cheapest link in the entire link, and it is also the most easily overlooked link. The machine manufacturer's default configuration is all vertical for flat-plan apartments. People who live in duplexes, lofts, or self-built houses can probably pick up one or two signals in vain if they spend five minutes re-dividing the work according to their own structure. Wouldn’t it be nice to use the Mesh money saved to buy two plates of midnight snacks?