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Checking a 2.4 GHz antenna?

I bought a cheap Chinese wireless antenna to boost the WiFi signal to my TP-LINK TL-WN781ND, but don't see any big difference (20 % in Windows 7) between the new antenna, which is marked "12 dBi" (and considering its length (38 cm = about 15 inches), it really should have at least half of this), and the stock one, which is 2 dBi. Is there a do-it-yourself way to check the gain of the antenna (e.g. by some software)? I don't have any other wireless card...

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  • 8 years ago
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    You can use a laptop running a WiFi analyser that shows the signal strength in dBm. Set the laptop and router up on a table, about 5 feet apart. Take a signal reading with the 2 dBm antenna. Change out the antenna and you should see a 12 dB increase. I'm not sure how Window's calculates the signal strength as a percentage, so I'm how much of a difference you would see there.

    http://www.xirrus.com/Products/Wi-Fi-Inspector.asp...

    Source(s): Wireless Admin
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