Replacing one Netgear MR814 antenna with a SMC 6dbi Directional antenna

[spoon805]

I've got the ancient Netgear MR814 sitting in the center of my house. For some reason, dropage is more frequent than ever, and I'm assuming there is some new element in the house that I'm not considering that is causing it. I first toyed with the idea of switching routers, but research tells me that I'd be better off just beefing up the signal strength with an antenna upgrade.

For now, I'm chosen to use the SMC 6dbi Directional Panel (Mfg Link). It can be had AR at Outpost.com for $19.99, which is great because I need a out of the box solution that I can buy at a B&M store.

The question is, will I be penalized by the WiFi gods for only upgrading one antenna. Do the two OEM antennaes work together in some fashion? If so, how?

Also, are there any other out-of-the-box-B&M-purchasable options one might suggest of comparable price?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JackMDS]

Are you aware that directional Antenna will ?Beef Up? the signal only to one general direction and repress the Signal the other directions.

My experience shows that in Indoor better Antenna might result in relatively very small distance gain.

For the price you can find a second Wireless Router place it a second location in the House and connect it with one cable.

Link to: Using a Wireless Cable/DSL Router as a Switch with an Access Point

Link to: Extending the Distance of Entry Level Wireless Network.

:sun:

 

[spoon805]

What if one antenna is left as is and the other is replaced with the directional antenna? Will I still get some coverage in the other directions?

Thanks for the links. Those are pretty good solutions. However, I need to provide a solution to this problem remotely. My relatives are pretty non-tech savvy, so I'm a bit reluctant to give them the idea of purchasing a second router/ap/etc and configuring it.