A strange consumption habit exists in most consumers. That is, when the prices are almost the same, consumers prefer products with "large quantities". Similarly, when buying a wireless router, most consumers will fall into the "only antenna quantity party", thinking that "the antennas are more wireless signals." So is the number of antennas really the factor that affects the wireless signal?

Why do wireless routers have multiple antennas?

When we open the wireless router product page of the e-commerce website, we can find that the top ten sales of wireless router products, wireless routers with three or more antennas occupy more than half of the positions. This phenomenon reflects that when consumers buy wireless routers, multi-antenna (more than two) wireless routers are very popular among consumers. Although multiple antennas have its advantages, if there are more than three antennas in practical applications, it is generally meaningless in a household scene.

Some friends may say, "I have seen a wireless router with six antennas, how do you explain it? In fact, this is the case. At present, dual-band wireless routers are gradually becoming popular. They have two frequency bands of 2.4GHz and 5GHz, which is the 2.4GHz frequency band. 3 antennas, 5GHz frequency band uses another 3 antennas to achieve a higher wireless rate.

In fact, in addition to the launch technology, the following factors determine whether the router is "powerful"

Wireless transmission power is also the key

In addition to the transmission technology, the decisive factor for the signal quality of the wireless router is actually the transmission power of the wireless router. All countries have regulations on the transmit power of wireless routers, generally not exceeding 100mW, which is 20dBm (2.4GHz band). So we can see that in fact, according to national standards, the signal strength of the transmitter is fixed. The other aspect that determines the strength of the wireless signal lies in the user's receiving device. If its receiving sensitivity is not high, then users will feel that the wireless signal is not good, and the actual experience of surfing the Internet will be poor. In this way, consumers can easily be fooled by manufacturers and even waste money to buy "excess" antennas.

The gain of the router's wireless antenna is equally important to the signal

In the wireless router parameters, we can often see that the gain of the antenna is 3dBi, 5dBi or 7dBi similar to this label, and the unit ending in dBi indicates the gain of the wireless antenna. In theory, the greater the antenna gain, the longer the wireless signal can be transmitted. It can be said that the gain of the antenna plays a role in amplifying the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless router and is closely related to the transmitting direction of the wireless signal.

In daily life, our common wireless router antenna gains are generally 3dBi and 5dBi, and some products with outstanding wall penetration capabilities use wireless antennas with 7dBi gain. To put it simply, when the transmit power is the same, the shape of the wireless signal sent by the 3dBi gain antenna is similar to "()", very much like a semicircle. The 5dBi antenna emits a signal similar to "<>", more like an oval after flattening. From the figure, we can see that the higher the gain, the smaller the vertical angle, and the relationship between the coverage area and the shielding angle can be clearly seen. Therefore, if it is used within a certain range, the gain of 3-5dBi is beneficial to signal reception. It is wrong to think that increasing the antenna will bring better results.

The home environment is complicated, and the signal cannot be transmitted directly

In addition, the use environment in the home is more complicated. Both the household appliances and the wall block the wireless signal, so that there is almost no direct signal from the transmitting end to the receiving end. The wireless signals reflected and transmitted back and forth by various items in the house form a phenomenon of "multipath transmission". The data transmitted to the receiving end by different routes will be delayed, so we intuitively feel that the network has become "card".

The receiving end network card cannot be delayed

I would like to remind the majority of netizens here that, regarding the wireless signal experience, the wireless network card at the receiving end also plays an important role. If the user's wireless network card is not very powerful, no matter how high-end wireless router the user buys, the user will not be able to feel the fast and smooth wireless network, because the wireless network card cannot receive the wireless signal from the router. In addition, wireless routers and wireless network cards also have compatibility issues. The compatibility of wireless products from the same manufacturer is relatively high, and manufacturers will in-depth match and optimize their own brand equipment to bring users a higher performance experience.

Wireless router signal does not depend on the number of antennas to see the actual "efficacy"

From the above introduction, everyone should be able to get the truth: The signal of a wireless router is not that the more antennas the better. Simply piling up the antenna of the wireless router to promote the wireless signal is not only misleading to consumers, but also fraudulent to consumers. Some manufacturers even made a fuss about the solder joints between the antenna and the motherboard on the motherboard, which could not play the role of the antenna at all. Avoid the misunderstanding that the more antennas the better the signal. You can also buy a router that really suits your needs.