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III. Wireless LAN

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Replacing Antennas ( Aerials ) on Routers & Access Points

Products:
Vigor 2620Ln
Vigor 2760
Vigor 2762
Vigor 2763
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Keywords:
5GHz
ANT1005
ANT1107
ANT1207
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All DrayTek routers and access points are supplied with 3dB omni-directional antennas as standard and can be replaced with higher gain antennas to alter the signal or to beam the signal in a specific direction. A common reason for replacing an antenna may be to use a directional antenna for point to point WLAN bridge with a couple of AP's or to direct the signal in a way that's more appropriate for the environmental topology. For further information on Antenna Theory please see here

The sockets for wireless LAN (WiFi) on the back of all of our routers/access points use an RP-SMA connector. The router has the male socket and the aerial or cable has the female connector/plug.  If you have a 3G/4G equipped router, the 4G aerials are the other way around to prevent you connecting aerials to the wrong sockets.

Female RP-SMA

Replacing Antennas


When replacing antennas, it is recommended to replace all antennas (both Transmit and Receive) rather than a Receive Only antenna to make the most difference to signal range and achievable throughput and to maintain the diversity that having multiple antenna offers.

Routers with 2 Antennas

Router ModelAntenna 1Antenna 2

Vigor 2860n
Vigor 2925n
Vigor 2830n V2
Vigor 2832n
Vigor 2760n
Vigor 2760Vn
Vigor 2762n
Vigor 2862n
Vigor 2926n
VigorBX 2000n

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive 2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

Vigor 2762ac
Vigor 2762Vac
Vigor 2927ac

2.4GHz & 5GHz Transmit & Receive 2.4GHz & 5GHz Transmit & Receive
Vigor 2620Ln LTE - SMA fitting1
Transmit & Receive
LTE - SMA fitting1
Transmit & Receive

1 - These antennas are SMA fitting for the LTE radio. More details on replacing LTE antennas can be found here.

Vigor 2620Ln

The 2.4GHz wireless antennas are located inside the router and are non-replaceable.

Routers with 3 Antennas

Router ModelAntenna 1Antenna 2Antenna 3
Vigor 2820n, Vigor 2820Vn
Vigor 2830n, Vigor 2830Vn
Vigor 2920n, Vigor 2920Vn
Vigor 2710n, Vigor 2710Vn
Vigor 2110n, Vigor 2110Vn
Vigor 2130n, Vigor 2130Vn
Vigor 2930n, Vigor 2930Vn
Vigor IPPBX 2820n
2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

2.4GHz Receive Only

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive
Vigor 2830n-Plus, Vigor 2830Vn-Plus
Vigor 2850n, Vigor 2850Vn
Vigor 2750n, Vigor 2750Vn
2.4/5GHz Transmit & Receive (switchable) 2.4/5GHz Receive Only (switchable)

2.4/5GHz Transmit & Receive (switchable)

Vigor 2860n-Plus
Vigor 2925n-Plus
2.4GHz Transmit & Receive 5GHz Transmit & Receive

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

Vigor 2860Vn-Plus
Vigor 2925Vn-Plus

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

Vigor 2860ac
Vigor 2860Vac
Vigor 2925ac
VigorBX 2000ac

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

Routers with 4 Antennas

Router ModelAntenna 1Antenna 2Antenna 3Antenna 4
Vigor 2862ac
Vigor 2862Lac
Vigor 2926ac

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive
5GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive 5GHz Transmit & Receive

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive
5GHz Transmit & Receive

Vigor 2860Ln
Vigor 2862Ln
2.4GHz Transmit & Receive LTE - SMA fitting1 LTE - SMA fitting1 2.4GHz Transmit & Receive
Vigor 2927Lac

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive
5GHz Transmit & Receive

LTE - SMA fitting1 LTE - SMA fitting1 2.4GHz Transmit & Receive
5GHz Transmit & Receive

1 - These antennas are SMA fitting for the LTE radio. More details on replacing LTE antennas can be found here.

VigorAP Access Point Antennas

VigorAP ModelAntenna 1Antenna 2

Vigor AP-700

Vigor AP-800

Vigor AP-710

Vigor AP-810

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive 2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

Vigor AP-900

VigorAP 902

VigorAP 903

VigorAP 920R

VigorAP 918R

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

2.4GHz Transmit & Receive

5GHz Transmit & Receive

VigorAP 910C & 912C

The VigorAP 910C access point has four internal and non-replaceable antennas, with two antennas used for 2.4GHz and two antennas for 5GHz.

VigorAP 1000C

The VigorAP 1000C access point has six internal and non-replaceable antennas, with two antennas used for 2.4GHz and four antennas for 5GHz, two for each radio.

VigorAP 802

The VigorAP 802 access point has two internal and non-replaceable antennas, with both antennas used for 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

Using a single antenna


In some scenarios i.e. when making a point to point wireless link using an antenna such as the DrayTek ANT-2510 10dB directional antenna, it is best to replace the two transmit/receive antennas to retain the MIMO functionality but if replacing just one antenna, using that antenna along with the standard antennas will cause problems with the antenna diversity functionality and could give a less usable wireless connection than with the standard antennas.


To resolve that, the routers can be set to use a single antenna which may give a reduction in speed potentially but can improve range over allowing it to use all three antennas.
Access the router’s telnet interface and enter “wl ht antenna 3” followed by “wl restart” and the router will then use only antenna number 1 (refer to the earlier antenna image).
It can be put back to its original state by entering “wl ht antenna 0” followed by “wl restart”.

On the Vigor Access Points (AP-710, AP-800, AP-810, AP-900), this can be set from the [Wireless LAN] – [General Setup] page by changing the Antenna setting to 1T1R.

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