Surely you have noticed that some routers have a visible antenna and others do not. In fact, you may have had a router that had an external antenna and now you have a more recent one that does not and that makes you wonder if it is better or worse. Why is this happening? In this article we are going to explain why some models do have one or more clearly visible antennas, while others do not. Let's talk about whether this really affects the quality of Wi-Fi.
External antenna on the router, is it necessary?
The first thing you should know is that all routers have antennas. Now, not all of them are visible. It is very common to have a router that does not have an external antenna, as is the case with the popular Movistar HGU. But that does not mean that inside the casing it does not have antennas to be able to emit a wireless signal.
Therefore, there are external and internal antennas on the router. For reasons of space and aesthetics, many models decide not to have external antennas. And that is not going to mean that they work worse than one that does have them. The signal will be distributed in a spherical way, everywhere equally. Keep in mind that the vast majority of devices that you use in your day to day and connect to Wi-Fi do not have a visible antenna, such as a mobile phone, tablet, laptop (unless you have an external card), etc.
An external antenna on a router will allow you to direct that signal. That is, we can move the antenna or antennas (if it is a model with several) so that they point to a specific area. In that case, it does not distribute the signal spherically, as in the case of the internal ones, but we will be able to adjust it to a certain extent.
Now, do we need an external antenna? The truth is that in most cases no. The coverage can really be very good without the need for a physical antenna. But it is true that the fact of being able to manipulate the antennas can give us more play in order to boost the signal and, especially, direct it to a certain area.
Router location, more important than antennas
But more important than whether or not the router has antennas, the location that we give it will be the most important thing of all. If we are wrong about this, we will have problems achieving good coverage and connection speed. It is essential to choose very well where we are going to place our device.
Ideally, it should be in a central area of the house, from where it can distribute the signal as well as possible. Avoid low areas, walls and walls, as well as other electronic devices that may interfere. The more isolated from interference you are, the better. This will allow the connection to work optimally.
However, if the coverage of the router falls short you can always opt for other devices that help. For example, installing a repeater, a Mesh or PLC system that carries the signal from one place to another in the house.
