External AP antenna angle placement

N

nbstl68

Getting comfortable
Dec 15, 2015
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Does anyone know anything about AP antenna placement for optimal performance?
I just added a TP-Link EAP225 high up in the middle open section of my attic to be able to get a better WiFi signal throughout and around the house. It works but not the range I was expecting. I have a lot of the usual home barriers to signal, walls, some wood, some brick, multiple floors so I get that.
The AP is an omni-directional but It comes with 2 long antenna attached to the top pointing straight up. They can both be independently rotated 360 deg and folded up to 90 or so degrees to point in almost any direction. I could not find any information in the instructions or much online about optimal direction pointing of the antenna.
When doing a walk around I found my signal is actually better (using an android phone Wifi analyser app, no idea of the quality there) outside of the house near the road 20 yards away than in some areas of the house.

Are there any standard guidelines for how to adjust these for maximum performance, (stronger strength in the house and additional range outside the house) or should I just leave them both straight up?
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Anyone?
Looking for mounting height, antenna direction recommendations for optimizing signal strength and distance in and around the house from the attic.
 
Depends on your antenna specifications, but its an omni antenna so it sends signal in mostly horizontal angle. Vertical too off course but less.
But signals reflect overall in your house, so its hard to say how they go in your house.
Try turning 180 then the antenna is sending more out downwards.
Or install the antenna on the same floor level, thats what's its more for designed.
 
I found that the AP Pro provides better coverage area than the UA-Mesh indoors, they are completely interchangeable on Unifi so you could just add one to the mix. That being said, if you want more consistent coverage I would add APs. Get them in the house and out of the attic(ie ceiling mount), and add one outside if that is a use case for you. Those UA-Mesh are pretty cheap, and having an attic in general makes installs pretty straight forward.

Those antenna are Omni so any meaningful directionality is tough to achieve.
 
I find angling the antennas at 45 deg off vertical helps with coverage; likely helps with polarity mixing while maintaining an omnidirectional pattern. I have one of those type of APs (Ubiquiti Unifi UAP-AC-M) in the house set only for 5.7GHz 802.11AC just for mobiles, laptops, etc. It's in the main floor living room behind the TV which is centrally located in the house, and I get good to fair signals upstairs and in the basement, and very poor signals from it when outside (metal siding on the house) which is exactly what I want.
I have the AP set for minimum power as well so to not irradiate us too badly.. :) I am not the best fan of the on-line GUI/setup system on these; I like the older ones better, but I guess it works. Not really making use of the "mesh" capability but it might be useful in the future. It was cheap and works.
 
there are apps on your phone to measure the throughput of you wifi. pull it up while connected to your AP. move around the house see if it goes up down ..etc move the antennas and see the results.


I got 2x better speed to one area of my house just by adjusting the orientation of an antenna on the nearest AP about 15 degrees.
 
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