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[zippoking]

Been awhile since I've posted anything here, can't believe OT conversations thread is still going! 

Anyway, my 4500 has been working great from day one, always on FW 1.14, but now I'm using it to go across the house rather than just one room over for wireless, and the connection is noticeably worse.  I've come across some talking about replacing antennas with high gain ones like mentioned in this thread:

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=15233.0

One thing I noticed with that one is rated for b/g, and not n.  Maybe that's because it's also designed for 2.4GHz, which I use on the 4500 anyway.  So if that's not an issue, my other question is do you need to actually replace all three, or is there a main one that is primarily used?  I know sometimes routers have a main and backup antenna.  Has anyone figured out what each of these antenna do, or just same thing times 3??

[FurryNutz]

I'll I remember is the guy had mentioned that he replaced ALL 3 with those high gain antennas.
I Think on this router, all 3 are used regardless of Freq your on. I could be wrong.
You could maybe test and see. Remove one at a time and check the signal. When it drop way down you know what Ant you pulled.

Also people have been mentioning these and having good luck with them: Edimax EW-7416AP

Let us know what you find out.

[zippoking]

Maybe I should try latest FW?  Whats the consensus been on that?  I haven't seen any major issues or complaints.

[FurryNutz]

First off, how far away are you trying to go to the other side of the house? what kinda of materials are in between? walls and doors and such? If your trying to go a good distance. I would recommend getting relay or extenders. Upgrading FW doesn't improve over all WiFi signals or boost the signals. Mostly for fixing issues seen in the code.

[Hard Harry]

I really don't know how the antenna system works, but its nothing simple. I once sat down for like a hour remove different antenna's and changing settings, and comparing the signal output to a wireless desktop and laptop. I did this because I felt bad after suggesting someone to buy another antenna that worked well for my DGL-4300. But the 4500 is completely different.  I couldn't come to any direct conclusion. What I did find was the antenna closest to the AC adapter has the most drastic effect on G. But even by removing all the antenna's, my signal only dropped 20-30%. Maybe I was too close (10feet same floor and 20+ foot different floor) but it didn't drop anywhere near what I thought. I think it has to do with the antenna connectors still acting as antenna even with them disconnected. Also, unless MIMO is used, I am not sure all the antennas are used, so it could depend on the band, and even the connection rate. If anyone wants to try on their end, maybe more data will help. Or if you do buy antenna's, let us know how it goes?

[zippoking]

Well with no one out there seemingly having tried this, I didn't really want to buy 3 expensive antenna's only to be dissappointed, so I went with a different approach of repositioning.  I knew this was my problem from the get go, but was hoping I wouldn't have to move things and thus have my GF question why everything has to be in not so nice looking places (like the router).  I was on the bottom shelf of a wooden TV stand, that has several inch thick wood on all sides, so I knew this was a big time signal impedance.  I put it out next to that but there's still another built in shelf unit in the wall that also was contributing to signal loss.  To further complicate, the positioning of the router and computer aren't just going through one or several walls, but rather the length of a long wall diagonally.

I did try removing each at one time, I'm using 2.4Ghz N, and it seemed the most important antenna is the one furthest from the AC cord based on signal loss anyway. 

In the end I just put the router in the afore mentioned in wall shelf that minimizes walls between and it seems great now, usually shows above 200Mbps whereas before it was usually below 50 and sometime dropping to getting-kicked-out-of-games levels.

[FurryNutz]

Glad you found better positioning. Maybe later on you could give the relay extender a try if you think you might need one. Might help over longer distanced and get you better signal where you need it from the source.

[Hard Harry]

I did try removing each at one time, I'm using 2.4Ghz N, and it seemed the most important antenna is the one furthest from the AC cord based on signal loss anyway. 

In the end I just put the router in the afore mentioned in wall shelf that minimizes walls between and it seems great now, usually shows above 200Mbps whereas before it was usually below 50 and sometime dropping to getting-kicked-out-of-games levels.

Hmm, odd. Maybe it has something to do with the channel or band? Or the fact I have r/v A2. I did it with a factory reset 4500 too. ::scratch head:: Well just goes to show you we could really go for a engineer level answer on this. Glad you got it to work though, and in the better way too.