Silverstone Releases New Antenna Accessories For DIY Network Upgrades

News
By Mark Endab, Julio Urquidi
published

Silverstone recently released a set of networking accessories to help users who want to upgrade their home networks due to performance and connectivity issues. The WA219 and WAD17 are two of Silverstone’s new high gain Wi-Fi antennas. The WAB1B is a Wi-Fi base made with a gold-plated jack and plug, and according to Silverstone, it's ideal for optimal antenna placement and range extension.

The WA219 high gain antenna offers 2.4~2.5 GHz 9dBi dipole, whereas the WAD17 offers 2.4~2.5 GHz 5dBi and 5.1~5.8 GHz 7dBi dipole. Both antennas use an SMA plug RP connector and are compatible with other antenna-using network devices on the market.

SilverStone's WA219 and WAD17 High Gain Antennas

Additional Specs for the WA219:

  • Polarization -Linear Vertical
  • VSWR - ≤1.6：1
  • Impedance - 50 Ω
  • Net Weight - 40 g
  • Dimension - 18.6 x 14 x 386.4 mm (WxHxD)

Additional Specs for the WAD17:

  • Polarization - Linear Vertical
  • VSWR - 2.5 : 1 Max
  • Impedance - 50 Ω
  • Net Weight - 27.5 g
  • Dimension - 22.1 x 6 x 233.1 mm (WxHxD)

The WAB1B has a 150cm low loss CFL100 cable and includes a black, circular magnetic base to give the user more options for better placement and stronger signal.

SilverStones WAB1B Wi-Fi Base

 Additional specs include:

  • Impedance - 50Ω
  • Weight - 85g
  • Dimension - 48 x 40 x 48 mm (WxHxD)

The WA219, WAD17 high gain antennas and the WAB1B Wi-Fi base can be purchased on Amazon for $9.99.

Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Mark Endab
4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • RCguitarist
    So will these actually help boost the wifi performance of my TP-Link card? It has 3 antennas and uses extenders to bring the antennas to about waist height with nothing blocking their signal path. I am able to max out my provider's available D/L speed, but it kind of floats around the top 300Mb/s. Would these be better to the point of pegging it at max all the time?
    Reply
  • ticker47
    Short answer, probably not. Long answer, it depends.

    I wouldn't count on an internet speed boost, mostly because there are so many factors outside of your control that can cause internet speeds to vary and you've said you can hit the max that your ISP provides. What these are intended for is to increase speeds at further distances. If you're relatively close to the router this likely won't provide you with much boost.

    If you wanted to run some tests, I'd do the following:

    Get some form of network storage device and test the data rates for the following situations:
    1 - Directly plugged into your computer (Ethernet)
    2 - Both the network storage and your computer wired to the router
    3 - Network storage wired to the router with your computer on WiFi.
    Find some data on documented data rates (not manufacturer propaganda) for both your WiFi card and your router and compare them to your results. If you're close to expected rates then you'll likely see no increase with new antennas. If your speeds are off by a fair amount, but your wired and wireless speeds are close then your computer or I/O device may be the bottleneck and it won't really tell you much of anything. If your speeds are way off and your wired connection is higher than wireless I'd look at your signal strength, see if your router or computer shows your connection speed and if they're both low then you may see a speed increase with new antennas.

    You can also connect your computer to your router, via Ethernet, and test internet speeds, but since you're already maxing out on WiFi you'll probably see similar values between the two which is why computer to network storage is a better test.

    Hope that helps.
    Reply
  • firefoxx04
    My most recent build (for a customer) used some wireless card with two over-sized antennas. The things were almost taller than the mATX case. I must say that the card was the best performing wifi device I had in the house in a long time.

    I'm all about it. The bigger the better ;)
    Reply
  • RCguitarist
    17069442 said:
    Short answer, probably not. Long answer, it depends.

    I wouldn't count on an internet speed boost, mostly because there are so many factors outside of your control that can cause internet speeds to vary and you've said you can hit the max that your ISP provides. What these are intended for is to increase speeds at further distances. If you're relatively close to the router this likely won't provide you with much boost.

    If you wanted to run some tests, I'd do the following:

    Get some form of network storage device and test the data rates for the following situations:
    1 - Directly plugged into your computer (Ethernet)
    2 - Both the network storage and your computer wired to the router
    3 - Network storage wired to the router with your computer on WiFi.
    Find some data on documented data rates (not manufacturer propaganda) for both your WiFi card and your router and compare them to your results. If you're close to expected rates then you'll likely see no increase with new antennas. If your speeds are off by a fair amount, but your wired and wireless speeds are close then your computer or I/O device may be the bottleneck and it won't really tell you much of anything. If your speeds are way off and your wired connection is higher than wireless I'd look at your signal strength, see if your router or computer shows your connection speed and if they're both low then you may see a speed increase with new antennas.

    You can also connect your computer to your router, via Ethernet, and test internet speeds, but since you're already maxing out on WiFi you'll probably see similar values between the two which is why computer to network storage is a better test.

    Hope that helps.

    Thanks for the info. Very helpful.
    Reply