Differenece between InDoor & OutDoor WiFi Antennas?

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Satyajit Mishra

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Apr 11, 2015
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First of all please don't give any links; simple answer will be nice.

Before answering the question consider this scenario, there is a house with 9 rooms in a square 3x3 pattern and the walls are made up off cement & bricks. Suppose I installed 2.4GHz 5dBi Omni-Directional InDoor as well OutDoor WiFi Antennas in the middle room at the center of the room.

Here are my questions,
1. Will the signal from InDoor Antenna travel farther than the OutDoor one or vice versa?
2. Does the signal from InDoor Antenna has better penetrating power than the OutDoor one or vice versa?
3. Are InDoor Antennas better for penetrating multiple walls rather than reaching longer distance?
4. Are OutDoor Antennas better for reaching longer distance rather than penetrating multiple walls?

I have another separate question,
5. Can a 2.4GHz WiFi Antenna broadcast 5GHz signal? (I know this is a dump question & the answer is probably NO, but I would like to be clarified)
 
Solution
giantbucket
power. that's all that matters. more power, more distance in FREE SPACE, or more PENETRATING power through WALLS. they are one and the same - the power is used to either carry the signal far with no obstacles, or just far enough through plenty of obstacles. power is all that matters.

outdoor stuff tends to be more ruggedly built, weatherproofed, etc.

if your setup is a 3x3 grid, why not put the routers in the two diagonally opposite corner rooms? each would then be able to transmit through the empty space that connects one room to the next room, instead of having to try to punch through eight inches of concrete.
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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Indoor vs outdoor is not really relevant to the discussion. Outdoor devices are waterproof and designed for wider temperatures. Otherwise there are similar designs for both indoor and outdoor.

You maybe really talking about omnidirectional vs directional antennas. You specifically identified your "Indoor" antenna as omnidirectional, but you didn't give any description of your "outdoor" antenna. There is NO WAY to discuss your questions because you didn't provide enough information to make a comparison.
 
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Satyajit Mishra

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Sorry for not providing enough information.
Let me clear somethings up,
1. According to my scenario both the antenna are being installed indoor, so weatherproofing is not the point here (The reason behind my entire fiasco is that I wanted to know what will happen if an outdoor antenna is used indoors)
2. I am not talking about Omni-Directional vs Directional antennas. Sorry again on my part for not phrasing my terms properly. What I meant was BOTH THE ANTENNAS ARE 2.4GHz 5dBi OMNI-DIRECTIONAL.
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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Yes. The input power is the same, the gain from the antenna is the same, the directionality is the same. Same amount of radiated energy from either one.
 
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Satyajit Mishra

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So outdoor antennas are just weatherproof & nothing else?
Okay I have one small question, what property of a signal gives it the capacity to penetrate multiple walls?
And what about my #5 question?
 
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kanewolf

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Most outdoor antennas ARE directional. There are omni outdoor antennas, but most of the time you are trying to connect to a signal from a specific location. Omni-directional outdoor access (to clients) is usually handled by outdoor access points rather than just antennas.

I think there are dual band antennas, because the wavelength of 5Ghz is approximately 1/2 the wavelength of 2.4Ghz. The antenna won't be equally efficient for the two frequencies, (say 3dBi on 2.4Ghz but 5dBi on 5Ghz).
 
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Satyajit Mishra

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but you didn't answer my question about penetrating power?
 
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giantbucket

giantbucket

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power. that's all that matters. more power, more distance in FREE SPACE, or more PENETRATING power through WALLS. they are one and the same - the power is used to either carry the signal far with no obstacles, or just far enough through plenty of obstacles. power is all that matters.

outdoor stuff tends to be more ruggedly built, weatherproofed, etc.

if your setup is a 3x3 grid, why not put the routers in the two diagonally opposite corner rooms? each would then be able to transmit through the empty space that connects one room to the next room, instead of having to try to punch through eight inches of concrete.
 
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Solution
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Satyajit Mishra

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Apr 11, 2015
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Finally a straight & simple answer; thank you giantbucket!
Also thank you kanewolf for clarifying many points to me!
BTW the 3x3 setup is a hypothetical. My setup is twice large & has 3 floors. But my question was purely a clarification related query... Thanks anyway for suggesting!
 
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giantbucket

giantbucket

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i'll leave that one unanswered in that thread, but i believe that the power would be cut from each antenna as it goes through the 2-port splitter, so Ant1 would get 50%, Ant2 would get 25%, and Ant3 would get 25%. the only benefit i could think of is that you could place the antenas in a straight line for a long-but-not-wide signal path, or put them in front of obstacles that would "suck up" more power than you lose through a splitter.
 
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