What is the difference between an antenna and a booster?
An antenna focuses and concentrates the coverage area into a specific shape depending on the type of antenna. As can be seen below, the Omni-Directional antenna focuses the signal into a flat donut shape, the Uni-Directional antenna into a cone shape, and the Corner antenna into a 90-degree wedge shape. Antennas will give you more range in the direction they are designed to focus in, but less range in other directions, as can be seen in the limited vertical range of the Omni antenna.
An Apple AirPort base station has a signal shaped like a ball. Most wireless routers come with a low gain Omni antenna that gives off a signal that is shaped actually more like an apple than a donut, making them very similar to AirPort base stations. When you add a MacWireless antenna to an AirPort base station or wireless router, it replaces the ball or apple-shaped signal field with the antenna signal shape that corresponds to the added antenna that is.
Omni |
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AirPort Built-In |
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Uni |
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Corner |
In order to pick up the wireless signal, your wireless computer would need to be inside of the donut, cone, wedge or ball.
| Omni-Directional Antennas |
MacWireless' Omni-Directional Antenna physically looks like a pipe or a rod and radiates signals a full circle (360 degrees) around its vertical rod. The shape that an Omni antenna puts out is similar to a donut shape. With very low dBi antennas (3 dBi) this donut becomes more like an apple shape. As the dBi rating increases, the donut becomes wider but also flatter, becoming a sort of donut-pancake shape. An Omni is usually placed in a central location where the computers receiving the wireless signal can be on all sides of the antenna. While Omnis have the advantage of being able to be placed in a central location, they do not have much vertical coverage and will not cover more than one level of a home very well.
MacWireless' Uni-Directional Antenna (sometimes just called 'directional') physically looks like a plate and radiates signals shaped in a cone as narrow as 30º. The higher the dBi rating, the narrower the cone that the signal is concentrated into. Having highly concentrated signals gives Uni antennas the advantage of having the greatest range, especially if used on both the broadcasting base station side and the receiving computer side. Some of our customers have used this technique to achieve a wireless network connection over distances of more than 3 miles.
| Corner-Directional Antennas |
MacWireless's Corner Antenna is actually a Uni-Directional antenna that is specifically designed to fit perfectly into a corner and cover a room or building that is square or rectangular in shape. This is the best antenna choice when you need your AirPort base station positioned in the corner of a room or building.
MacWireless Antenna Signal Coverage
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Horizontal
(degrees*) |
Vertical
(degrees*) |
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Omni-Directional 5dBi |
360
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20
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Omni-Directional 8 dBi |
360
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15
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Uni-Directional 8 dBi |
75
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65
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Uni-Directional 14 dBi |
30
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30
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| Horizontal Coverage |
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| Vertical Coverage |
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