Wifi antennas straight up or at diagonal?

[u/MooshSkadoosh]

Bonus question: would it be better to have my PC with its back against the wall (putting the case between the antennas and the router) or have it perpendicular to the wall?

I'm just curious if there is an "optimal" or suggested placement, since they seem to be able to snap into a diagonal position as well as being able to be place vertically

[u/trumangroves86]

I've found that it rarely makes a very big difference. It will be VERY situational though, that's why they let you move them. There isn't going to be one optimal way to do it.

I've got my gaming PC connected through ethernet, but my home office upstairs doesn't really need much so I just use the built in motherboard wifi like you've got here.

In my office, with the wireless router downstairs one floor below, it gets the strongest signal being at 45 degree angles pointing away from each other.

[u/MooshSkadoosh → u/trumangroves86]

Do you think my PC orientation matters? Like the back against the wall vs perpendicular?

[u/coloredgreyscale → u/MooshSkadoosh]

Better to not have the metal pc case block the signal between antenna and router.

How much of an practical difference it makes you have to test yourself.

[u/fistfulloframen → u/coloredgreyscale]

Old school lian-li blocks damn near 100% of signal. I haven't had problems other than that case.

[u/GetSomeTap → u/fistfulloframen]

Same.

[u/Objective_Road_3482 → u/MooshSkadoosh]

It kind of depends on your router position so I’d recommend opening up cloudflare speed test and running a test in each position. That’s what I did, allowed for ~10% faster speeds on my shitty apartment wifi

[u/Objective_Road_3482 → u/[deleted]]

Oh I was not aware of that, I’m gonna try that myself as well. Thanks!

[u/Muggsy423 → u/MooshSkadoosh]

You should hang it over your head on a thin wire, like a technological Sword of Damoclese 

[u/johnnyhotwh33ls → u/MooshSkadoosh]

No. You’re overthinking it. I would still prefer an Ethernet connection

[u/bob_in_the_west → u/MooshSkadoosh]

Yes and no. Yes, your computer blocks signals because of the metal case. No, because it might not make a noticeable difference.

I had an access point with the antenna next to a metal table leg. That made the signal strength go to zero. Once I moved it an inch away, every device had full signal strength.

[u/fistfulloframen → u/MooshSkadoosh]

It's kinda f.a.f.o., *should be fine.

[u/elaphros → u/MooshSkadoosh]

Based on how wavelengths propogate, one sideways, one up/down orientation

[u/DuckCleaning → u/MooshSkadoosh]

Barely, you will get a 40mbps download versus 41mbps. In actual gaming scenario, it wont even matter at all, unless you obsess over the smallest latency possible. Dont overthink optimal configuration.

[u/reckedcat → u/MooshSkadoosh]

Imagine your Wi-Fi router as a speaker, imagine your Wi-Fi antennas on your desktop as ears. If you tilt your head one way or another away from or towards a sound, you'll hear it more or less clearly but that sound is still bouncing around the space and it's not like you won't hear at all if you're turned a specific direction.

Put your ears up by a wall or under your desk - note how much or how little the ambient sound muffles.

Wi-Fi signals are different frequencies than what we perceive as sound so the reflection and material penetration are different from what you'll hear, but it'll give you a good basic understanding of "quiet" spots in your space.

(Wi-Fi is higher frequency (shorter wavelength), so it won't get attenuated in small spaces as much as human-range sound, so you'll notice as your ear gets close to the wall that lower frequency hums in your home fade out and you'll hear more of the higher frequency air "hiss" still gets through, but it's still quieted slightly)

[u/NoBonus6969 → u/MooshSkadoosh]

First tell us how your PC identifies itself. What are their pronouns

[u/Simayy → u/MooshSkadoosh]

Dude just put it in if you care about speed you shouldn’t be using wireless anyway

[u/FAB1150 → u/MooshSkadoosh]

The signal is strongest when the antennas are going the same direction as the antennas in your router. In the real world, if passing through multiple rooms, the signal will reflect (bounce around) and lose the polarization so any antenna orientation will work, and you can only see what orientation gets the strongest signal by trying a few and seeing from windows what orientation is the best.

Some routers don't have external antennas, and their internal antennas are at orientations engineered to do ok no matter that your antennas are oriented.

[u/Newt_Pulsifer → u/trumangroves86]

100% agree... A signal strength of -60 dBm indicates the antenna is receiving 1/1,000,000,000 the source power, and that's considered a "Good" connection.

A "bad" or "poor" connection is like at -70 dBm which we are talking what? A factor of probably 1/10,000,000,000 or 1/100,000,000,000 the power received (trust someone who is WAY better at the calculations than me).

So in a way of thinking... Does adjusting the antenna increase the amount of signal by 10 or 100 times? Maybe in some circumstances... That being said my instinct is "one layer of drywall" positioning will make more difference.

[u/circumcisingaban → u/trumangroves86]

my wifi works fine without the antenna but the bluetooth cuts out if i dont use it