Wifi PCI adapter with two antennas, can it run with only one antenna hooked up?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Wifi PCI adapter with two antennas, can it run with only one antenna hooked up?

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek

#92250 29-Oct-2011 23:12

I have a friend with one of these:
Asus PCE-N13, Wireless Adapter, 300Mbps, 802.11b/g/n, PCIe
http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=386560

For some reason they have misplaced (or never had in the first place) the two black antennas that go on the back of it.
I put one antenna I had available to me on one of the RP-SMA connectors on the adapter card at the back of the computer, just to test if it was working. This antenna has a 1 metre lead. And I think it is this antenna - http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=AR3277&form=CAT2&SUBCATID=1043#6

Anyway, it seems to be working, but compared to my laptop, which I was using at exactly the same spot, the signal strength is nowhere near as good. And the connection speed and reliability are so-so when compared to my laptop, which seems to be holding the wireless signal well. So just to clarify, my laptop is picking up the wireless signal a lot better than the wireless card in the back of the desktop.

For reference:
Laptop wireless strength as indicated on inSSIDer is about -60 to -65.
The wireless strength on the desktop card is between -75 to -80.

My question is:
Would it make a difference having a second antenna on the card? Moreover, is the adapter card more or less designed with two antennas in mind, so would be severely hindered by only using one?

Any help/info would be greatly appreciated. :-)

Many thanks.

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek

#539258 30-Oct-2011 12:47

bump

Anyone?

hashbrown

463 posts

Ultimate Geek

#539276 30-Oct-2011 13:45

Take a look in the software settings for your adaptor and see if it has an option to turn diversity off. If you can turn it off, 1 antenna should work okay, particularly if it has higher gain than the ones that came with the card.

Note: With diversity off, only one of the connectors will give you a good signal so you may need to work out which is which.

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek

#539292 30-Oct-2011 14:40

Thanks hashbrown. Much appreciated! :-)
Will give that diversity option a go.

Another quick question:
If I was to put another one of the same antennas on the other RP-SMA connector, would that give a better signal than just the standard small antennas that they are missing?

Has anyone had any experience with these antennas?
Would they work with the wireless card, or do they have 3xRP-SMA connectors at the terminating end for each aerial, making them unsuitable for the Asus wireless card?

hashbrown

463 posts

Ultimate Geek

#539301 30-Oct-2011 15:38

dontpanic42: If I was to put another one of the same antennas on the other RP-SMA connector, would that give a better signal than just the standard small antennas that they are missing?

Diversity helps with multipath effects. So in general yes, two antennas are better than one. Google around as from memory there is a rule about how far apart they should be separated.