Connecting Second Antenna to WiFi Card's Main Input for Improved Range?

Question

Hello Today, when I was cleaning my laptop, I noticed the wi-fi card antenna and on it, two inputs: -aux -main the antenna was connected to the aux, my question, if I hook up one more antenna, this time to the main, will the range jump? I attach a photo:

skaktus · Answer

Main - to connect an internal antenna Aux - to connect the socket to an external antenna. If you have one antenna, connect it to Main, or you can buy 2 antennas and connect to Aux, but do not expect a great increase in quality. Currently I have a lapa with a gigabyte card on 1 antenna and it has a better range than the previous gigabyte on 2 antennas. It all depends on the card

Anonymous · Answer

Main is the main antenna and Aux is the auxiliary antenna; It doesn't matter if they are internal or external. A WiFi card will prefer an antenna that provides a stronger signal. And there are two for that. Of course, you can work on one. IBM / Lenovo laptops generally have two WiFi antennas labeled Main and Aux. In these laptops, the cases are usually made of metal alloys, so the location of the antennas is important. In order for the signal from the antennas to go outside the housing, the antenna cable is shielded along its entire length and only the metal part of the antenna, located behind the plastic plug on the matrix housing, acts as a transmitting-receiving surface.

iie · Answer

i.e. on my card there are these two inputs as you can see them, but the antenna is connected only to the auxiliary one. My lapek is FSC amilo li 1718 and the card is atheros 5700eg, or the fact that the antenna is connected to the aux and not to the main may be related to the fact that the card sometimes turns on at system startup and sometimes not? problem always the same

skaktus · Answer

No main and aux have nothing to turn on and off. As for the sockets - in some laptops, aux is used as an input to an external antenna and is intended for this input,

iie · Answer

that is, to sum up, plugging in an additional antenna will do nothing anyway, because the card will choose the stronger one anyway and it will work with it?

skaktus · Answer

I do not really believe that the card chooses a better antenna, but you can always try. As I wrote, a lot depends on the card and not the antennas. Good cards can even catch a net without an antenna.

Anonymous · Answer

How will you know which antenna has the stronger signal at the moment? The strength of the signal received / transmitted by the antenna depends on many factors, including the position of the laptop in space, but also the quality of the antennas. It is impossible to say by eye whether an additional antenna will always improve the quality of WiFi work, or will it be just an additional piece of metal collecting interference. But for something, ThinkPad's two antennas come pre-installed.

iie · Answer

and referring to what I wrote above about turning on the wi fi card, does anyone have any thesis on this topic?

Anonymous · Answer

Or maybe the results from some computer information gathering program to at least know what a WiFi card is? Perhaps after entering the device name in googles, you will see that other people have a similar problem and maybe know the solution to it.

skaktus · Answer

Then why in some Asus, IBM or HP give 1 antenna? Also remember that the antennas come in different sizes. In my Asus, I tested the range and whether it was on the 2nd or the 1st antenna, it also lost the range in the same place. Toshiba and Hasee had the same problem.

Anonymous · Answer

For economic reasons :) The second antenna can be used as an antenna for the BT module, which normally has a dedicated one. This way you have up to three antennas in one laptop that can be connected to the Main and Aux connectors. As a laptop has a plastic housing, the signal can easily pass through it, but if the housing is made of metal, one antenna can be blocked by the housing and two are used. After all, there are plastic plugs on the antennas. For the case under consideration, discussions about the reasons for the multitude of antennas are rather unnecessary, because the colleague has a different problem and you need to see what model of WiFi card he uses. After all, there is a problem, and therefore the topic was assumed.

iie · Answer

the network card is atheros 5007eg, I gave the name above, but unfortunately 7 was not inserted where it is needed =). I called google, I set up a post on a forum dedicated only to Fujitsu siemens laptops and I did not receive an answer, although another user had a similar problem. As for the log, what to generate? I think the hijack falls off =)

skaktus · Answer

In my Asus I have 4 antennas ... 2 connected to WiFi, one to BT and 3 free to GSM. As for the wifi card and no detection. What does it look like when not detected? Can you see her in the manager? Does it just disappear? What socket is the antenna on? It is possible that removing it and reinserting it will solve the case.

iie · Answer

so the card disappears from the manager, it is a random matter, I did not observe any factors that may precede the card's failure to turn on. It was like that with the new laptop, regardless of the system, it is probably not a motherboard fault because it was replaced. As for the system and drivers, as I mentioned before, I checked on xp, viście, and ubuntu (8.04) and only fate decides whether the card will turn on or not. Often, after I close my laptop, it goes into standby mode, and I open it again, the card doesn't turn on anymore. Interestingly, even if it is not visible in the manager, the LED is on, which is responsible for showing whether the wi-fi card is turned on or not. edit: So I think that the patent with the removal and insertion is gone (replacing the motherboard settled this option) edit 2: the antenna is on aux edit 3: Today I needed 5 reboots for the card to surprise, it has not happened to me in a long time.

Anonymous · Answer

You can remove the WiFi card and inspect the connector carefully. I do not know what connector your network card has, such as this one: target=_blank rel=nofollow noopener ugc class=postlink inline title= > This is mPCI as far as I can see correctly. You can remove the card, see the connector and make sure there are no defects, dirt on it. You can also check it on another laptop. Once again, please log from the program that collects data about the current configuration of the laptop. Anyway, does this card use PCI-e or USB directly?

iie · Answer

I put a photo of the card at the top =), it is inside the laptop, I do not know if it is a PCI-e connector but it is definitely not USB. I forgot to write that on the previous motherboard the problem was the same. Can you tell the log of which program would satisfy you? edit: here's the eversta log

Anonymous · Answer

There is also USB 2.0 in the mini PCI-e bus. The connector has a different shape, but the card can communicate via USB 2.0 or directly via PCI. As for the program, I do not have specific preferences, but the point is to show whether you have a PCI or USB card and any conflicts. Edit: 23:05 You have two wired adapters, one of them is reporting itself as a PCI device, why is that? How many mPCI-e slots do you have and is the second one possibly occupied? If you have two and the other is something, then remove this device and see then. I still suggest checking the WiFi card on another laptop. In the Device Manager you can see if your WiFi is on the USB or PCI branch; select the view by connection. Ok, your WiFi is a device PCI , PCI Express x1.

iie · Answer

so the everest log does not match? Unfortunately, I have nowhere to check this card, no other laptops available, do you suggest replacing this card? Do you think this one would be good? edit 2: edit 3 One wired card is hamachi, i.e. a virtual driver, the other is a realtek there, probably it is under pci From what I noticed, I have one such slot, but I did not unscrew the laptop very well, only the flap under which is cpu / ram / wi fi

Anonymous · Answer

This is the mPCI card. Ordinary mini PCI, no express. And there is mPCI-e, or mini PCI Express, in your laptop. The connectors are different. It won't fit. See for yourself here: target=_blank rel=nofollow noopener ugc class=postlink inline title= > and: target=_blank rel=nofollow noopener ugc class=postlink inline title= > The mPCI-e has a separate signal line from the WiFi activity LED. The card may be out of order and the LED has the right to glow anyway. The topic was about antennas, it turns out that the card is dead. The symptoms indicate this. It's a pity that you can't borrow another mPCI-e card from anyone to check, maybe it would turn out that there is still something wrong with the motherboard. Replacing the motherboard is not always successful, there are laptops that have done several such repairs. This is life

iie · Answer

hmm, thanks to the response, I will try to replace the card

iie · Answer

I replaced the card, everything works so far [knock on], thanks for help =)

slawinek · Answer

Let me ask you a question. When a wifi card also has bluetoot, is the aux connector there so that the bt has better range? I have changed the wifi card in my laptop to one with two antenna connectors and I only have one antenna in my laptop (the previous wifi card only had one antenna connection). \I have wifi ok but the bt from this card has such poor range that devices have to be placed on the laptop near the card mount for it to see them. How is it with this antenna and bt?

Connecting Second Antenna to WiFi Card's Main Input for Improved Range?

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