I finally did the mod today. Ordered 2 pigtails, and two 12dB antennas from eBay for $11 total shipped. The items came directly from China, the antennas took 2 weeks and the pigtails took 32 days!!! Wasn't too happy with the wait but the price was right and I am very glad I did the mod (which is nearly identical to DoesItMatter's mod)
I am using FW 13525 and my top speed before the mod was 4.5 MB/s (WHR300>Trendnet AP>laptop all N). After the mod is 5.6 MB/s. It's hard to believe these low profile routers are manufactured with such puny and crappy antennas. I understand cost cutting but Jiminy Christmas what a poor way to do it.
Joined: 30 Nov 2009 Posts: 90 Location: Kristiansund, Norway
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 14:16 Post subject:
These routers with great WAF are lousy performers compared with external antennas. Just ordered two pigtails for 3$ on ebay and have some 2$ antennas from DX waiting in a drawer.
Joined: 12 Oct 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Udine, ITALY
Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 9:20 Post subject:
Well, after waiting antennas and pigtail from ebay ( to Europe it took 2 months)
2x 30cm pigtails
2x 16 dBi antennas
I made the mod, I DID take images of SNR in almost 10 places of the house, with different channels, different times of the day...and different tools to monitor the strenght of the signal.
well everything USELESS, since my coverage is pretty much the same...sometimes It seems I have gained 10 db but they are fake
I've also tried to separate antennas 6mt one from each other, but things are getting worse ( remembering that somewhare here I've read that distance between antennas are very important....but maybe the bundled cables with antennas are crap and this is why I'm not using it)
bytheway. disappointed describes pretty much well my feelings
also a note:
The power changing in DD-WRT DOES NOT CHANGE ANYTHING
it simply doesn't work with our WHR-G300n.
The tx/rx antenna selector (left/right) does not work. At least not with the 13525 build. For sure.
Even the auto mode does not work, so only the antenna behind the led panel will ever be used. The other antenna connector (top of router) is totally useless.
Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 1380 Location: Pacific North West, USA
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:21 Post subject:
I've never messed with antenna selection, always left it default.
I DID notice less noice and better signal with my mods.
Sorry you guys did not get the same experience.
I had done before and after testing with the internal and externals.
The externals DO make a difference on the routers I'm using and in my environment.
I don't have a lot of interference in my area though.
As for the power output, I'm not sure on that.
I do have mine set at 130mw on all my WHR-G300N's
I'll try and change the power and see if it affects signal strength. _________________ Soylent Green Is People ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Netgear Nighthawk R7000 - DD-WRT Build R46220
Linksys EA8500 - OpenWRT IPQ806x Trunk R16375 5.4 Kernel
i got some pigtails but they are two small to use with my high gain antennas from my wrt54g. is it possible to still use my highgain antennas with the pigtails on ebay>
Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 1380 Location: Pacific North West, USA
Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 7:55 Post subject:
Yes its possible, just may have to get different adapters to fit the antennas to the pigtails.
E-bay proably has those as well, no idea what they are called though - sorry. _________________ Soylent Green Is People ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Netgear Nighthawk R7000 - DD-WRT Build R46220
Linksys EA8500 - OpenWRT IPQ806x Trunk R16375 5.4 Kernel
Did some google searching and think I found something you can look for.
SMA Jack to TNC Jumper Cable 10CM Antenna WLAN HIGAIN
Looks like the WRT54G's have TNC connectors
Most of the pigtails we were using are RP-SMA connectors
So you need a TNC to SMA adaptor. _________________ Soylent Green Is People ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Netgear Nighthawk R7000 - DD-WRT Build R46220
Linksys EA8500 - OpenWRT IPQ806x Trunk R16375 5.4 Kernel
found some adapters for my tnc antennas....heres the final pics i havent put any high gain antennas yet since i cant get bridging to work. my AP has a set of high gains on.
You can get them for $5 from here http://www.hwtools.net/Buy_It_Now.html plus a bunch of other stuff suitable for modding. Look for RP-SMA IPX 8cm under Accessory. Although their P&P is anything but cheap...
Joined: 22 Oct 2009 Posts: 157 Location: North East - USA
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 18:29 Post subject:
DoesItMatter wrote:
I've never messed with antenna selection, always left it default.
I DID notice less noice and better signal with my mods.
Sorry you guys did not get the same experience.
I had done before and after testing with the internal and externals.
The externals DO make a difference on the routers I'm using and in my environment.
I don't have a lot of interference in my area though.
As for the power output, I'm not sure on that.
I do have mine set at 130mw on all my WHR-G300N's
I'll try and change the power and see if it affects signal strength.
Likewise, antennas make major difference in the signal quality and performance. I see at least 10dB better signal with the antennas and better performance overall (>10MB/s). _________________ WNR3500L DD-WRT-18730-Kong Gateway/Firewall/NAS
WRT54G-TM DD-WRT-14929 Mega (heatsink + 250MHz oc)
WHR-G300N DD-WRT-20548(external antennas)
2x E2000 Tomato-Toastman 0501.2 AP (external antennas)
TEW-652BRP Gargoyle 1.5.9 Client Bridge (antenna upgrade + heatsinks + ventilation)
Thanks for the links guys. At the time I only found 3 for 11 dollars shipped.
I'm still waiting for them. But does anybody can post some screen shots of their configuration for bridged mode. I got a Linksys WRT160n and the buffalo g300n with DD-WRT.
Also which one would it be better to be the main router?
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