Do mobo antennas ever need to be upgraded?

[Rev. Night]

For the WIFI mobos I am seeing, half have antennas that directly plug into the mobo, and have are the 'movable' type which is attached via wires and you can move it around your desk as needed. I have a strong preference to reduce clutter, and since I'm not all that far from the router, I love the plug in type.

Do mobo antennas -- whether they be plug in or movable -- ever grow obsolete? Right now the current wifi standard is "802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax". Suppose Wifi 6/7/8 comes along, will I need to upgrade the antenna too?

I checked google for reviews, i think all of these mobo antennas are the same right? Couldnt find any brands better or worse than others.

 

[pitingres]

Antenna design depends mostly on the wavelength (frequency), and has little or nothing to do with the encoding. So the answer is no, they don't grow obsolete - unless an entirely new frequency band is opened for wifi, and the chances of that happening are slim.

 

[pendragon1]

Do mobo antennas -- whether they be plug in or movable -- ever grow obsolete? Right now the current wifi standard is "802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax". Suppose Wifi 6/7/8 comes along, will I need to upgrade the antenna too?

no.
youd need a new wifi card for those.
but like pitingres said, unlikely.

 

[Rev. Night]

Awesome thanks. Reason I am asking is that I am about to buy an open box WIFI mobo and it may come with the movable antenna or nothing at all. So if I have to buy something, I want to know what to buy.

$7 antennas it is

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082SHKT3...olid=1VEJJEAAWQDXW&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[pendragon1]

Awesome thanks. Reason I am asking is that I am about to buy an open box WIFI mobo and it may come with the movable antenna or nothing at all. So if I have to buy something, I want to know what to buy.

$7 antennas it is

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082SHKT3...olid=1VEJJEAAWQDXW&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

should be all you need, cheap too!

 

[Rev. Night]

I have it in my budget to pay for an additional $1. Those were 3dbi gain, these are from the same vendor, are 8dbi gain.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VE1XKM...pY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

 

[pendragon1]

you could give it "ears" and get it up to 9db
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081BFZLTC
edit: those say LTE still work with routers/wifi cards

 

[Rev. Night]

ha. Those are huge. I'm like 15 feet from the router, but a bathroom, 2 walls, and a shower seperate us. Dont think I need that much gain. Would love to run an ethernet cable, but thats a job for another time

 

[DanNeely]

Remember TANSTAAFL. Higher gain comes at the price of increased directionality. For dipoles the antenna pattern has maximum performance in a plane perpendicular to the antenna and nulls parallel to it; the higher gain model will a narrower up/down angle before falling off. So with the router and PC on the same floor you want them strait up/down, if they're on different floors tilting them so their high gain plan passes through where the router is becomes more important. If you can't do that more forgiving low gain antennas may actually have better real world performance.

 

[Rev. Night]

they are on the same floor. The linksys router has 3 directional arms, one of which is pointing straight to my room. So I just leave the attennas pointing straight up? That way its perpendicular?

 

[pendragon1]

they are on the same floor. The linksys router has 3 directional arms, one of which is pointing straight to my room. So I just leave the attennas pointing straight up? That way its perpendicular?

yes, they are fine like that

 

[DanNeely]

they are on the same floor. The linksys router has 3 directional arms, one of which is pointing straight to my room. So I just leave the attennas pointing straight up? That way its perpendicular?

for a 1 story building they should all be vertical. Your antennas effectively create a sheet of wifi around them.

 

[Rev. Night]

its 2 stories. Wireless pc/laptops in various rooms around router.