Does changing where your router's antenna point give you faster WIFI speed?

Is WiFi Internet speed affected by which way your router’s antennas are pointing? Should the antennas be up or down or perhaps a combination?
Today I put tested various antenna combinations to see what happens to the WiFi speed and signal strength based on the position and direction of the router's antennas.
Interesting results...

0:00 Which way should your antennas point?
0:35 Two types of routers
1:00 How the tests will be run
1:21 Test 1 - Router's Antennas are vertical
2:35 Test 2 - Router's Antennas are horizontal
3:09 Test 3 - Router's Antennas are Combined

#TheTechieGuy
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My name is Liron Segev, aka TheTechieGuy, and I make tech simple for everyone to understand - I answer your technology questions making so you are more productive more efficient and getting more out of your phones, gadgets, and apps

Liron Segev aka TheTechieGuy

[VincentAnzalone]

The wireless signal radiates perpendicular to that of the antenna direction. Think of the antenna going through the hole of a donut. The donut shows the signal direction. Antennas pointing up, have a signal useful for ground level. Horizontal, for upper/lower levels. Also the wireless waves from each antenna interact with each other when they hit (wirelessly) and where these wave hit, they combine to create something called 'constructive interference', which intensifies its strength in a direction between the two radiating waves. In two dimensions it's easy to think of it like this...
🡡 = Antenna vertical pointing up (waves radiate directionally left and right: ⟷)
🡢 = Antenna horizontal pointing right (waves radiate directionally up and down: ↕)
🡥 = Constructive interference (where the waves hit each other and combine resulting in more strength)
🡥 = 🡡 + 🡢 (constructive wave radiates: *⤡* and *⤢* )

It's best to try and have each of the antennas pointed at different angles as to cause more constructive interference between the wireless signals. There are optimal direction/angles to use for each but it depends upon where the signal needs to go. For most cases people can get away with a 3 antenna setup with antenna 1 pointing out 45 degrees from center antenna and bent 45 degrees. Antenna 2 (center) pointing straight up. Antenna 3 pointing out -45 degrees (aka 315 degrees) and bent 45 degrees.

._ *⤣* ____ *↑* ____ *⤤* _.
| I'm a router |

[georgeburns]

The receiving devices also have antennas and if the are in the same orientation as the transmitter the will receive a strong signal and as their orientations diverge, the signal will weaken. So desk top computers, and fixed wife receivers like TV, players, etc will have much different reception than hand held devices like iPads and mobile phones. For interest lookup antenna polizartion. Interesting test by the way.

[RPTORZWIN]

It's nice to know that antenna position makes a difference, depending on geography.

[thaburninator]

It doesn't matter what I think about my router antenna, my cat disagrees.

[PodtrashRadio]

Antenna waves go perpendicular... so wherever the antenna is facing the waves will go out the sides of it. It's best to put the router on the middle floor and attach it to a wall at half wall height, so the antennas are pointing straight out (with slight angle adjustments) and point the sides of the antennas towards rooms in your house. My TP-Link AX6000 has 8 antennas and dual band 5GHz. I have it on the wall in my office and with simply angling them correctly I'm getting 700Mbps Wi-Fi upstairs and downstairs. It only drops off at the furthest point which is the garage that has concrete walls... and still getting 200Mbps there.

[lastebo]

Great! Thank you! What is the WiFi analyzer you used, app/model? Thanks

[lohphat]

The first thing to determine is which band each antenna is broadcasting. Each will be either 2.4GHz or 5GHz but not both. Once you figure that out then you can make better choices.

The signal radiates radially perpendicular from the antenna. In a perfect world the antenna is parallel to the antenna in the remote device so the resonant signal can be picked up.

Ideally you want antennas 90deg off from each other; ideally there are 3 antenna per band and each would be in a 3d 90deg orientation from each other (like the corner of a cube, one in the X one in the Y and one in the Z axis.

[bergZig]

Love the info ❤️💕. btw what app did you use to measure wifi signal?

[jedielder]

Thanks for the video. I used the same signal analyzer you did, then tested like you did and it does make some difference depending on antenna positions. BTW: I also raised the height position of my WiFi router, on a ceramic shelf, approximately 2+ meters above the floor. This also seemed to help my signal by -10 dBm.

[Sharpshooter]

Previous place i router downstairs and 2 antennas, with both antennas verticle almost no signal from my bedroom upstairs, with one antenna 45 deg horizontal much better signal from bedroom. Definitely makes a Also used a longer telephone cable so the router can be repositioned and then test for the best Its all trial and error

[lilafromyoutube]

I have the route thingy on the right. I would not know how to point the antennas if I had one of those. Now I know! Hashtag prepared

[Michael-fngj]

🤔 why didn't I know that but now I do. Thank you!

[cobaltsnet]

Liron: please what app for iPhone for Wi-Fi analyzer do you recommend, Tj

[cattysplat]

I used to have router in upstairs, it reached the whole of the house including downstairs. Now I have it downstairs it only reaches a few rooms away and barely upstairs, I have to use a signal repeater to give my upstairs wifi internet. Not a massive deal but it does show height helps propagate the signal further and if you only have a router with no repeater then any extra height you can give it will make a big difference.

[jessicaallen]

What app are you using to test signal strength/speed? Thanks!

[aqualungs]

have my router mounted (zip tied) to the top back of my flat panel TV. Should I mount it on the wall instead. Other possible spot is on a shelf next to the TV, but will that hinder the signal?

[SeaOfTorment]

Whats that song that plays at around 1:10 and so on?

[edmenz]

Do you have a video about if how will i know if the antennas are really working on the router. It's like i have a plug and play internet connection from a Telecom Company however doesn't have an antenna inclusion when i purchase a plan and they didn't tell me. So i decided to buy 4 antennas because it has 4 slots of it. Before the signal is 1bar on 4G LTE but when i put the 4 antennas, still the same at 1bar. And also i learned to make a different position on the antenna thanks to your video. No matter how troubleshoot it even if i put it on outside, still at 1bar. How will i know if its really working or not? Do you have a video about it? I'll be appreciate it 😊

[marcel]

2 vertical and 2 horizontal is the solution for me... i have 92 mbits instead of my usual 70 to 80

[George-jbcf]

What is the app you are using on your phone??