Alfa Network APA-M25 Dual Band 2.4GHz/5GHz 8 / 10dBi high gain Directional Indoor Panel Antenna with RP-SMA Connector (Compare to Asus WL-ANT-157)

These are amazing. Especially when you need a good antenna for the 5GHz ranges. The gains stated are actually accurate, which is difficult to find when looking for antennae. I doubled the connection strength and quality using these on my computer. They are attached via a low loss wifi antenna extension cable so aiming them is a little finicky, but you only have to do that once. I had to use the cable because two of these won't fit into the antenna plugs that are super close to each other on my system. Also, my computer is on a three level metal stand and the router is directly below it, so I can't aim any directional antenna properly from there. None of these problems actually have anything to do with the antennae themselves, I mention them because even if you have these problems, yourself, these antennae can still be the best thing to do for your wifi. These work amazingly well on the 5GHz ranges, even though obstacles and walls. They also give great improvement in the 2.4GHz ranges, but they do yield a higher gain and improvement in the 5GHz ranges. When pointing them around for fun/out of curiosity, I can get good connections with wifi farther away than I thought would be possible for an antenna of this size. I really wish that my router was capable of using non built in antenna so I could switch all six to these. They do cost more than one would expect, but I have tried many different types and configurations of antennae and just using these yields the best results by far. The directionality also eliminates noise and signal from other sources from other directions, which is also super helpful. My only problem with these is that they don't turn all of the way around and they aren't double jointed so that they can be pointed straight up. As far as I can tell, they can't be pointed in the direction of the plug they are attached to, so they can only point away from the router/computer, making full, 360 degree coverage from a router in the center of a home difficult. This isn't a problem for most household layouts, but for a 2 story dwelling, it is a problem. A directional antenna has to be able to point in any direction

I modified an R/C DX8 gen 2 Spectrum transmitter to use two SMA connectors for high-gain wifi antennas such as this. I'm using this patch antenna as a secondary 2.4GHz antenna, but it works great for receiving videos for 5.8GHz transmitters. I always get great reception with this antenna from both bands, but I've noticed just how small the visibility is for 5.8GHz... the view is insanely limiting which is great for directional finding. I popped this antenna onto my video monitor with dual 5.8GHz receivers and was able to lock onto the video signal from an aircraft that I lost in the wilderness. I followed this trail into the wilderness and within 15 minutes, I was able to find and retrieve my airplane.... this alone was worth the cost of this antenna because of it's dual purpose.... in ham radio, this is called, "Fox Hunting" where you find lost transmitters with a high gain patch antenna... Very useful skill to learn when tracking down radio transmissions... I haven't hooked this antenna to analyze the SWR of this antenna... but I would say that this is a well worth antenna since I never had any brownouts when flying and was able to retrieve my airplane. I would defiantly use this as a wifi antenna where range is a limited factor... just consider the limited viewing angle... more gain... less viewing angle for the antenna. If you noticed why you're not getting a great wifi reception on your computer, keep messing around with the location of the antenna... you would want it to be focused where your computer is in the house or living space you reside in. Ideally, you would want more power output with a low gain omnidirectional antenna or a proper place of your wifi router, but high gain antennas are great if you are limited with power and location of the router.

This antenna worked very well at 2.4GHz. It was the strongest, most directional antenna of the ones I tried. There was a particular corner of my house that I was having trouble reaching, and this antenna was able to blast through to it. It worked very well. However, when I moved to 5GHz, it was a different story. This antenna claims to be dual band, but it seems to be only marginal at 5GHz. That was the opposite of my results with the Asus directional antenna http://www.amazon.com/Asus-WL-ANT-157-Antenna/dp/B005UBNJ48 which wasn't very strong at 2.4GHz, but worked well at 5GHz. Be aware that this is a very directional antenna. It needs to be _AIMED_ at a specific area to get results from it. And be aware that directing it toward one area means that all other directions will be somewhat weakened. Antennas can not increase your total transmit power. Different antennas just allow you to shape what directions your transmit power is going so that you're directing it more where it is needed and less where it isn't.

Meh. Added *two* of these to my router, and I'm still trying to determine if my wireless signal is any better than it was with the factory antennas. Certainly not the boost I was hoping for. [Update] After another day of messing around, testing signals around my house, adjusting antennae position, and swapping antennas multiple times, I've come to the conclusion that these antennas provide WORSE performance that the stock ones. Router is a Linksys WRT1900AC. After that realization, I tried these antennas on my range extender: Linksys RE6500 AC1200. Same result... worse reception than with the stock antennas. Don't waste your money on this product.

This is a well-constructed dual-band wi-fi directional panel antenna. The movement on the connectors makes orientation a breeze even when using multiple antennas on MIMO radios. The solder joints are very clean and the coax runs all the way to the board as it should for proper impedance matching. There are many "fakes" that fail at this. Signal level measurements using an Alfa AWUS052NH 802.11n Dual-Band 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi USB Adapter: - Measured using airodump-ng - the signal level unit is RSSI means Received Signal Strength Indication - The access point was approximately 120' away on the other side of an exterior brick/sheetrock wall. - With the stock antenna, my RSSI values were the following: -- Channel 1: -47 to -48 -- Channel 149: -44 to -46 - With Alfa APA-M25, my RSSI values were the following: -- Channel 1: -37 to -39 -- Channel 149: -33 to -36 Minor cons: - The reflector is just a piece of foil tape. Although this is more than "good enough" as the small wrinkles in the foil are much smaller than the highest wavelength, I replaced the foil with a piece of aluminum flashing cut using sheers. However, I did not see any change in signal levels with this change. (Still made me feel better.) - The case was not glued or screwed closed and is easy to open with a plastic spudger tool. This is nice for teardown reasons but means that it would not be suitable for installation in a wet environment. If that is your use case I would suggest opening the case and then adding a bead of silicone to the perimeter before closing it again or running tape around the seam as a simpler but slightly less effective method. Note: The receiving side (front) is the side with screen printing on the units I received.

I have tried so many gimmicks over the years, trying to make my tv picture clearer, trying to do this or that. Most of the things I have tried seemed to make sense at the moment when I ordered them but when you get it and apply it and it does either nothing at all or even makes things worse. That is kind of what I was expecting from these Alfa antenna. I have looking around at new ac routers (I have an Asus rtn66-u now). My Asus router is a great router but I thought maybe a new ac router would be able to blow it away. I had recently gotten a speed increase from Comcast and it was very evident when using the wired part of the router but my wireless was nowhere near where I thought it should be. As a last resort (because I have tried just about every other thing that was doable. I did several speednet tests downstairs(router is upstairs and other side of the house) on my wife's laptop and was pulling 35Mbs-39Mbs on 5.0 radio band. Then I screwed on the new Alfa paddle-like antenna, adjusted their positions logically and prepared for a minor if any increase. The first was 95Mbs and after a little more fine tuning it is now putting out 135Mbs. I know this review is way long and I apologize but this kind of got me excited. For me this was a huge increase and I love it (only bummer part of this is it kind of blows my justification to my wife for the need of a new router out of the water. Great Product Alfa.

Based on reviews I thought this would be a beneficial antenna upgrade for a NVR security camera system to point at the farthest camera. Does the antenna work? Yes. Did this antenna improve the signal over the stock antenna? No! Is the antenna a more defined directional antenna based on testing and seeing if signal would be lost or weakend? Yes. This is my experience for what I intended to use it for. It may be better suited as a wifi bridge antenna.

This works great for me. I travel a lot for work, and sometimes the wifi in my hotel is not up to par. Using this antenna with my Alfa external Wi-Fi card usually gives me enough signal to get decent performance, even when my laptop's built-in wireless won't connect at all. I highly recommend getting a carrying case for this and your wifi card should you travel a lot like I do. It is flimsy and could break easily. Likely at the hinge of the SMA connector. I am careful with mine, but fear it may break sooner rather than later.