You have a Wi-Fi system which works as you desire but still you feel like having little more range for your Wi-Fi. What will you do? Change your Wi-Fi or try to search an alternative solution? I think searching an alternative solution is a good idea. So, here you can use an antenna for extending the range of your Wi-Fi. The most important thing is choosing an antenna for increasing the range of your Wi-Fi. But, there are various antennas available in market you need to choose the most suitable antenna as per your requirements. You might feel this is the most complex work to do, to choose an appropriate antenna. We will make this much easy for you. In this article you can get every trifling detail about the Wi-Fi antenna.

We will start with a little discussion about this Wi-Fi antenna. You all know that Wi-Fi is like the radio which is used for computers. You can install an external antenna to increase the range of your Wi-Fi. You can consider this antenna as the speaker system of your Wi-Fi card. It works with the simple rule, the bigger the better. If you use bigger antenna you get better Wi-Fi range.

Directional Antennas

Directional antennas are widely used for point-to-point and often for Multi-Point systems. This antenna depends on the setup of the connection. This antenna is apt for those who shift from one location to another. This antenna can provide you better range between two points. Directional antennas are Backfires, Yagi, Panel and dish antennas.

Base Antenna

The base antennas are the omni directional antennas. These are used for point-to-multi-point systems. This is a dedicated antenna which distributes signal to other computers. You can connect multiple devices through your omni directional antenna. It’s not all about computers but you can connect your printers and other devices like PDAs can be connected through this antenna. Some of the typical omni directional antennas are Vertical Omnis, Small Desktops, Ceiling Domes, Mobile vertical and Rubber duck antennas.

Point-to-Point

Point-to-Point usually involves two different points in a wireless connection. This is basically the sharing between the two points, which can be a house, building or anything. But, here involves an exception. If the Wi-Fi owner wants to send the signal to a distant location where there are multiple systems then it will use a directional antenna to send point-to-multi-point connection. Here the sender system has to be sharp and should be using a directional antenna. These antennas help in distributing point-to-multi-point wireless signal.

Point to Multi-Point

Point to Multi-Point is the most commonly used Wi-Fi sharing. You can find this is your office, home and various places. This system is usually to share the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) or Internet Connection. You can also share WAP (Wireless Access Point) through this. WAP is now seen in many airports, coffee shops and stations. Now getting a WAP connection isn’t difficult at all, as you can find them in many places. WAP gives you the freedom to access Internet anywhere. All you need is a Notebook and you are easily connected with the rest of the world.

Range

Range is the most vital part of any wireless signal. Your range of the signal depends on various factors like the power output of your wireless card or router, the receive strength of the wireless card. Many a times the things which fall between the paths of the wireless connection also lower the range of the signal. These are basically the buildings, trees and other hindrances. Believe me there are numerous factors which influence the range of your wireless connection so discussing it without the proper description of the area is little difficult. Hence, always prefer an antenna which is more powerful and which will be able to catch even minimal signals.

Most of the times we are asked to suggest the best Wi-Fi antenna, but suggesting this can be an easy task if we know exactly for what purpose you want else it’s quite difficult to tell about any particular antenna. If you have a strong signal with less noise then your wireless card can perform infallibly with an antenna else a good antenna can also show poor performance. We will now discuss some of the important directional antennas which we had mentioned earlier.

Home Antenna

Home antennas are most easily available antennas. These are cheap, easy to install and widely used. In most cases you need a single antenna for the connection. You should check the connection using a single antenna. This can give you an idea of the signal strength and range.

Office

Offices involve big networks hence the antenna used in office should have strength to support the systems. If you want a wireless office then you need to have a strong wireless card and install the wireless router software and connect the router with your connection. But, this can be little difficult for huge offices with multi storey buildings.

Mobile Wi-Fi Antenna

This is a boon for frequent travelers. You can have a mobile Wi-Fi antenna in your car to access Internet at any place. Now that most of the gas stations and truck-stops are fully Wi-Fi enabled, how can you stay behind?

Yagi Antenna

This is basically a radio antenna which is very directional and is mostly used for extending the range to multi-point system. The best part of these antennas is there signal strength, if you have these antennas in a perfect set up then they can send signal to larger distances.

Backfire Antenna

Backfire is a small directional antenna which has excellent gains. This antenna is quite similar to the parabolic antenna but the strength is not that good. Backfire is a small antenna with a 10 inches diameter.

Parabolic or Dish Antenna

These are the most common antennas. Parabolic antennas are strong and provide good signal quality. Parabolic dish antennas focus the power in a central point and signal to the specific area.