Indoor & Outdoor antennas on wifi router

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6-8 feet isn't much, so you'd be fine signal-wise with LMR-240. (LMR series cables basically have their outer diameter in the name, so LMR-240 is 0.24 inches in diameter.) I'm getting ready to use LMR-600 to zone some sector antennas in the yard, but it's overkill unless you have hundreds of feet of cabling to run. eBay has a few merchants (Altelix and wifi expert among them) that would offer that much cable with the connectors you need...
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Outdoor antenna inside is likely to be quite okay. Indoor antenna outside probably not okay.

Make and model router?

What antennas are you considering? Match to the router by make if at all possible. Likely to work better and the manufacturer cannot blame the antenna maker and vice versa if there are problems.

May be some limits on the length of the cable to the antenna.

A closed garage may be "inside" to you and me but "outside" with respect to environmental considerations.

Recommend looking at the operational environment specifications and read them carefully. E.g., "water resistant" is not the same as "waterproof".

Temperature changes outside of recommended ranges can also create problems.

 
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jerryandthecats

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vmfantom

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You sure can. There are parabolic wifi antennas, sector antennas that cover around 30-180 degrees horizontal beam widths, boxy little dual polarized antennas that you can hide in a tree, etc. L-Com, Alfa, Altelix, etc. are brands with a good range of choices. (Amazon doesn't tend to have lower prices than eBay, and some of the brands have their own online stores.) You'd shop based on the antenna gain needed in dB, whether you need MIMO or dual polarized MIMO or just SISO, the ruggedness required, and the connector type you need (N, RP-SMA). I'd recommend a putting a lightning arrestor between an outdoor antenna and the cabling run.

Since the appropriate type of cable depends on length, can you explain which distances are involved for the cabling runs, and what you mean by "indoor and outdoor" as opposed to one or the other? Also, which router do you use?
 
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jerryandthecats

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I will buy a new wifi router (am open to suggestions) with appropriate antennas, my current modem/router is from centurylink with internal antennas.

The external antenna will be under a porch, so semi safe from weather.

The length of extension cable wud be 6-8'.

Thanks for your input.

 
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vmfantom

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6-8 feet isn't much, so you'd be fine signal-wise with LMR-240. (LMR series cables basically have their outer diameter in the name, so LMR-240 is 0.24 inches in diameter.) I'm getting ready to use LMR-600 to zone some sector antennas in the yard, but it's overkill unless you have hundreds of feet of cabling to run. eBay has a few merchants (Altelix and wifi expert among them) that would offer that much cable with the connectors you need. Usually, the router antenna port requires a cable with an RP-SMA male connector (no pin, but threads over the antenna port), but a lot of outdoor antennas connect to an N male connector. Impedance is 50 ohms. Also, some outdoor antennas would have 2 or more connectors for dual polarization or MIMO (higher throughput from multiple spatial streams on multiple antennas), so if it's dual polarized, you could get a T-shaped splitter plus jumper cables, or otherwise run 2 cables in that case.

For good all around routers, I came across this list online that's fairly recent.

Routers with 900+ mW output power, 3+ RP-SMA detachable antennas and spatial streams, 256+ MB of RAM, 128+ MB of flash storage, Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, USB 3.0 expansion slots:

ASUS RT-AC1900
ASUS RT-AC1900P
ASUS RT-AC3100
ASUS RT-AC3200
ASUS RT-AC66U B1
ASUS RT-AC68U Extreme
ASUS RT-AC86U
ASUS RT-AC88U
D-Link DIR-880L rev A1
Linksys EA6900 v1.1
Netgear R6700v2
Netgear R6800
Netgear R6900v2
Netgear R7500v2
TP-LINK Archer C2600 & C3150
 
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vmfantom

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If they did that, wouldn't they need to also buy a PoE midspan to power the AP if not also a gateway controller? Also, assuming they want to use a directional antenna to control the beamwidth, wouldn't an AP with omnidirectional antennas just spread half of the radiation pattern back toward the house? It would also be on a separate SSID unless they bought all their gear from Engenius/Ubiquiti/etc. and had fast roaming enabled.
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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Outdoor POE APs usually include a POE injector with the purchase. There are directional and omnidirectional APs. For example the ENS202 and ENS202EXT from Engenius. First one directional, second omnidirectional.
A separate SSID isn't a bad thing IMO. Understanding what WIFI source you are connected to makes debug a whole lot easier.
 
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jerryandthecats

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Thanks for all the input, I will digest & study the list of routers & probably be back with more questions. Thanks again.
 
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