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I Want add the antennas from my old damaged router TP-LINK (TP-WR841N) to my new router TP-LINK (TP-WR841N) to extend the range. There are already two antennas present also an additional two antennas for a total of four. So I want to know is it possible?

Giacomo1968
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Akhil
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3 Answers3

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If they're the same model router? It dosen't work that way.

Well, even then no. The antennae need to connect to something and your router needs to be designed for 4 antennae in the first place. They might be replacements though if your old antennae fail.

There's a few situations where this makes sense.

  1. You have aftermarket 'better' antennae. But in that case you wouldn't ask this.

  2. Your router was designed for some odd reason with 4 antennae, 2 weren't used so they could reuse the board, and you could just solder connectors over, reflash, and you're good. If this were the case, you'd also want to buy a lottery ticket so I've never seen this happen.

In addition more antennae does not necessarily mean better range. You can use MIMO for more speed, and some cleverness perhaps to do beamforming for better range, but its not just a matter of adding more antennae to an existing router.

Journeyman Geek
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So both routers are exactly the same model? Both are the TP-LINK (TP-WR841N)? According to the specs, that router can only use two 5dBi fixed omni directional antennas at one time. And even looking at a picture of the back of the device from TP-LINK’s website only shows two antenna connectors already populated:

enter image description here

Past any of that, the assumption that you can just add more antennas to increase range is a bit silly. Cramming more antennas onto a device designed to use a certain number of antennas doesn’t mean performance will magically improve. If you are looking for better performance from the existing antennas you would have to replace them completely with larger antennas or more focused antennas. But how and what to get is a whole topic in and of itself.

My advice? Keep the dead router around for spare parts just in case you accidentally break one of the existing antennas and such.

Giacomo1968
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    " But how and what to get is a whole topic in and of itself." Or even positioning them. I tend to joke one needs to know the dark arts of Feng Shui to locate a wifi router correctly. – Journeyman Geek Oct 16 '15 at 06:50
  • @JourneymanGeek Though, it can be largely summed up as "around chest height, in the open, middle of area you want to cover and keep the antennae vertical, and keep away from large solid [metal] objects". There's more smaller adjustments but that'll probably cover >95% of the potential improvement from positioning. – Bob Oct 16 '15 at 07:32
  • More antennas doesn’t mean better performance. In fact it does, first due to higher spatial multiplexing schemes which they would allow and secondly due to diversity reception for the router. So -1 for that. – AndrejaKo Oct 16 '15 at 11:44
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Short answer: your router have only 2 jacks, you can't install more antennas.

Long answer: and even it had 4 jacks:

There are 2 ways several antennas (so called MIMO) may be used in 802.11n (and 11ac):

  • Spatial Multiplexing: Router uses several data streams (one stream per antenna), so you may double your speed. For example with 11n you may have up to 150 Mbit/s if you have 1 antenna, or 300 if you have 2.

  • Spatial diverstiry: Router sends the same data on each antenna. Some data may be lost or corrupted (due to reflection and other troubles), but other will reach its destination. It will make your signal more stable and (probably) extend range.

Both modes should be supported by router to work, and while first one is almost always supported, diverstiry support is rare in SOHO models.

So, your router does not support it unless it is mentioned in router manual.

user996142
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