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Forum Discussion
no Repeater mode? RAX49 routers (house-to-house wifi)
I'm a lucky man. Got two houses on a street located 500 feet apart. Been shooting a Wi-Fi beam from house #1 downhill to house #2 for many years now; just bought TWO Nighthawks to "upgrade" my system...
Thanks for all the detailed responses. I've decided to go forward and connect the two RAX49 units on wireless bridge mode.
But it would be really helpful to know about the four antennas. Are all four antennas dual band? Or is each individual antenna dedicated to the 2.4ghz OR the 5ghz band?
At house #1 I would aim the 2.4 signal down the street to bridge, and use the remaining antennas to enjoy 5ghz inside the rooms closest to the Parental unit.
I was talking with this Tech dude at TrendNet, who was suggesting that all manufacturers, and each router model differs in how this radio signal is handled over antennas.
The basic user manual for RAX49 (AX5300), does not feature a detailed schematic of the machine; but obviously such a diagram must exist. Anybody know where I can view it?
Sadly for these specific models, they have not offered detailed info on which antennas handle the 2.4GHz band, thus the only way to really find out, would be to do additional testing such as weighing the antennas to find which are dual band and which are single band, or if you can get access to a luggage x-ray machine, then run the antennas through to see which has ones have 2 differently sized antenna elements. If all are the same then there is a chance that the WiFi router is capable of routing RF signals to any of the antennas, and simply picking the 2 best ones for the 2.4GHz at any given time depending on client location, at which point it will not matter as much on which antennas you choose to angle.
Another method would be trial and error in terms of seeing which antennas can be angled. The antennas have a polar pattern largely shaped like a fat doughnut or bagel for the 5GHz band, and a shape more like an apple for the 2.4GHz band. Roughly 6.6dBi for the 5GHz band (around a 30 degree vertical broadcast angle for the bulk of the RF energy,with smaller amounts going straight up or in steeper angles.), and 3.73 dBi for the 2.4GHz band.
For that WiFi router line, all 4 antennas can handle the 5GHz band, and 2 will handle the 2.4GHz band.
Overall, based on the antennas, it is best to position them where there the center of the doughnut signal pattern is centered around where the client devices will be. The 2.4GHz band will be less sensitive to antenna position given large the vertical polar pattern will be for that band, thus in nearly all situations, they can simply remain perfectly vertical without issue while for 5GHz, depending on the environment, you may need to angle them to match the elevation of the client devices.
If you need more info, you can look at the FCC reports at https://gov.fccid.io/PY319400466