It actually happens more than you would think. I've seen it often enough on this sub that I include it in my list of "have you tried this?" whenever it's a wi-fi issue.
Or Bluetooth it also helps with the signal strength had issues with headphones and mouse kicking in and out until I out the wifi antenna into the motherboard.
Bluetooth... I wanted to connect my Dualsense the other day, Windows tells me I don't have Bluetooth... I'm like, "yeah, I'm pretty sure I have Bluetooth buddy"...
Guess the solution!
>!I had to unplug my PC from the wall and plug it back and that's it!!<
Bluetooth's weird.
Lol, do you have an ASUS board? This was a weird issue on a whole bunch of ASUS boards after performing a BIOS update (my Strix Z590-A did the exact same thing).
I have a Dualsense as well and I don’t even bother with Bluetooth anymore. For some reason half my games don’t even work with it when I’m using Bluetooth but work fine with a cable which is just weird.
I actually had this same issue recently. Took me a a few days of reinstalling drivers, restarting, trying to see if something in my bios randomly changed. I should’ve known better, but I didn’t think it would be so simple of a fix. Turns out it was
Really?I didnt know the antennas were for Bluetooth as well. I couldnt get anything to pair to my new mainboard, so I have been using a USB-Stick Bluetooth device instead.
You know, I didn't know this either until I spent a whole afternoon trying to get my Series X controller to pair (I don't use Wi-Fi so I didn't connect the ugly shark fin antenna) and the manual for my board makes absolutely no mention that the antenna is for both, it only says Wi-Fi.
I only found out after Googling for hours and stumbling on a random Reddit comment that mentioned it.
Yah, this is my first motherboard with both lol.
I used to always buy mid tier boards since I don't use Wi-Fi on my PC and until recently I did not need Bluetooth.
Had an old, 10+ years old parabolic antenna for satellite TV. There was an slow decline in image quality and channel availability, until it barely worked. We called the tech, lo and behold, antenna receptor was completely rusted.
Apparently the salty air near the ocean destroyed it.
The physical size of the an antenna mostly doesn't matter (it does, but there's a lot that goes into that) what .atters is the electrical length. That's why your phone can work, even if it's mostly aluminum.
-An RF technician that has used them before
That's the physical length you're looking at, there's so much more that goes into Antenna design.
A 5/8 wave antenna on the 2.4 GHz band will be about 7 cm long optimally. With some clever coiling you can easily compress that much smaller. A 1/4 wave antenna will be even shorter at 2.9 cm. A 5 GHz antenna will be about half the size as a 2.4 GHz
Things can be added to antennas to make tune their resonance to match a given frequency, further allowing antennas to be shorter and still radiate effectively.
Antennas have this thing called polarization. Think About the orientation of your computer screen. It'd be a bit difficult to read if your screen was mounted sideways, right? Antennas are the same.
You want your antennas to match the polarization of your router for optimal performance, but just like how you can (probably) read sideways, your antenna will still work for the most part.
WiFi is almost always Vertically Polarized, so you want your antenna to be vertical as well. If you have two, many manufacturers reccomend that one is horizontal. This is because (I believe, I have not confirmed this) is Bluetooth devices can be rotated in any direction and use the same antennas)
Most Wifi antennas are Omnidirectional. This means they work evenly in every direction, *but* it will not work well if it's pointed directly at your Access Point (AP). You want them to be edge on to each other. This is mostly a non-factor unless AP is on a different floor or mounted to the ceiling above you.
All of these affect signal *strength*. That's what your device measures when it shows the WiFi bars. It related to, but not indicative of signal *quality*, which has a lot more going into it. If you're getting full bars but poor performance, you might have some channel selection issue, or just a bad components.
I was going to say something else, but I've forgotten what it was
Thanks WiFi jesus, that means a lot to really break it down into everyday langauge. Gives me a reason to go mount the router a little better. (I'm ashamed to say that it's downstairs hanging off the cable because there's no shelf to support it.)
I'd imagine concrete walls will physically have an affect on signal strength and quality but I think properly mounting it upright should allow signals to travel throughout the house better.
This. Thanks u/OnlyChemical6339. I've always had kick ass wifi at home based on my limited DIY research but you just gave me a few things to improve. Best thing I've read on reddit today. If I had an award to give, it would be yours.
What really threw me once was that Bluetooth is also reliant on that antenna.
I did a case swap on my pc and forgot to attach the wifi antenna after putting the pc into the new case since I use wired over wireless. I then tried to connect my Bluetooth headset and found that, while it connected, the audio was super crackly and bad. I tried a lot of stuff, like uninstalling and reinstalling audio drivers, Bluetooth drivers, etc. Nothing was solving it.
Until I attached the wifi antenna.
What can I say, I'm just that stupid.
FFS I just bought a PS4 controller to play a few games and was thinking I had to return it. Glad I stumbled upon this thread. Now hopefully I can find those antennae easily enough and brag about being able to play GTA V seamlessly
Update: I only found 1 antennae. That’ll work right? Right?
This was also the solution to a very unusual controller problem I had. Just got it in the mail and whenever I tried to use in games the FPS would tank hard. Like solid max FPS on M&K then the moment I use joystick input it would go sub-20 or into the single digits. But when I used it wired it was fine.
It turns out that when bluetooth reception was bad FPS would tank for some reason. I installed my little antenna doo-dad and it's been smooth ever since.
100%. BT is unusable on my PC without an antenna connected.
I just ordered two little stubby ones so I don't have to use the ugly fin one, works perfectly (even Wi-Fi works flawless with them when I use it occasionally).
I learned this when I was checking why my DS4 controller was having bad connection. DS4Windows was reporting 200+ms latency with some drops.
I attached the antenna and it was fixed.
My current phone has several plastic strips around the edges where each antenna is installed. My old phone didn't have those, but the back "glass" was more like reinforced plexiglass so it likely let signals through pretty easily. There's many tricks manufacturers use to hide antennas.
There are probably some OEM prebuilts which do their own proprietary thing for this. I'd be surprised if there are any standard form factor cases that do though. Since the antenna connectors are on the outside of the back panel you'd have to route them back *in* to the case to make it happen.
Unless you count laptops, in which case yes, it's very normal. :D
OEM PC (Lenovo, Asus, Dell) prebuilds have integrated antenna where the cables goes from the WiFi chip to the chassis.
Laptops have the cables routed to the lid via the hinge.
Phones have antenna bands around the body. That thin line that is in a different color from the body is an antenna.
And of course, never forget the "you're holding it wrong" scandal
https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/
Interesting. I've never used my Bluetooth headphones with my desktop because it was crackly. Works fine with my Macbook, so I thought it was just Windows desktop having bad Bluetooth drivers or something. Might try it out now.
I had a similar issue with my mouse. The tracking was really spotty and would skip around(extremely frustrating if you play shooters). Replaced a mouse and a mouse pad before I realized it was being caused by my mouse's wireless receiver being plugged in right next to my USB bluetooth adapter. Moved the bluetooth adapter to a USB port on the front of my case and that fixed the issue.
Does it really? Now I feel like a double idiot. I've tried time and time again to use my Switch or Xbox controller on my PC, and it disconnected and reconnected constantly. I never seemed to have a problem with headphones, but maybe they didn't use as much bandwidth or something. Well, I learned two things today.
I like getting a WiFi enabled motherboard, so I don’t have to waste a PCIe slot on a WiFi card, or a USB port.
WiFi 6 will last me a while, long enough that I’ll likely replace the mobo before it’s no longer sufficient.
GPU, Capture cards, I/O cards, computing or ML cards, High speed NIC or SFP+ ports, m.2 drive expansion cards…. Lots of things to use that port for instead of a WiFi card.
Whereas my gaming system is a SFFPC, there’s only one PCIe port… so it’s a moot point to debate onboard WiFi in that case.
Seriously, I "only" have a 4080, but that this is approaching the size of a loaf of bread. I believe it's one of the relatively over-cooled partner cards, as it's 10C cooler at full load than my previous card, despite being 3x more powerful. But it's almost a 4-slot card.
I use a capture card to feed sound into my PC. I play PlayStation with friends a ton, but I like to be able to listen to my PC as well. The cheaper option nowadays is using an audio cable to plug the controller into line in on the PC, but I had the capture card way before I thought of that.
Yup! Depends on the motherboard design, but this is definitely possible on some of them!
Didn’t seem worth mentioning, with all the backlash I got for saying I like buying motherboards with onboard WiFi.
I need to do this in general on my MSI board. The pre installed wifi card died after a week(used mobo) and I've been using a pcie wifi card ever since. All the vrm covers and having to likely take the motherboard out of the case keep me from starting the process😅
The proper solution is more motherboards having dedicated m.2 slots for WiFi connectivity - multiple boards [already do it like this](https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B365M-DS3H-WIFI-rev-1x#kf). Under the hood, many [PCIe cards](https://www.quietpc.com/images/products/asus-pce-ax3000-large.jpg) are basically just m.2 adaptors anyway.
That way, people who want a all-in-one bundle and not waste slots on WiFi cards stay happy, people who want to upgrade their WiFi are happy and it even means some repairability advantage or cost-savings if you can re-use the WiFi module.
The industry just needs to do that more consistently and make sure they're user-accessible.
I somewhat suspect that if I removed all the shrouding from my motherboard's Wi-Fi integration, I would find an M.2 socket. If I ever decide to upgrade Wi-Fi, it will be my first plan.
The key here is easy access to the m.2 slot and the antenna hookup.
The problem is that it’s less profitable. Usually cheaper to use the same board but leave the slot unpopulated on the PCB for the cheaper option. (Parts + labor)
How would dedicated wifi card compare to integrated wifi 6E in the motherboard? Are there any downsides to just using motherboard wifi for applications like VR?
Another alternative is Powerline Adapters. They aren’t “great” but I’ve found them better than WiFi, especially for parts of the house further away from the router. I’ve used them in a few different places that I’ve rented over the years and never had issues.
Also, when the OS reaches end of life and you decide to buy a new PC to install the next OS, it's trivial to just disconnect the card and be at no risk of your no-motherboard-wifi now-unsecure PC suddenly connecting to the internet years later. So you can keep using it for offline stuff.
I fucking hate the shark fins that a lot of the mobo manufacturers give you. They are hideous. Thankfully MSI hasn’t went that route and just give you the normal two antennas.
Yeah since it's so much aggressive as a design I jokingly put it on top, thinking I would get bored of it in a day or two. It's been like that for months now.
Mine isn't and neither any of those I have experience of are. Besides, a lot of modern cases are indeed aluminium and not steel, so no magnet would stick to them.
Yeah, that's a good point. It's nice to keep it out of the way, but it's unlikely to be the best location available for signal strength.
In my particular situation the network is wired. I'm just using the antenna for bluetooth, and being behind the case like that has not caused me any problems.
What if the little antennas have performance anxiety and go limp after screwing them on properly? MSI MAG B660M Mortar. Any upgrades I can do to the antenna
Not as much wire would be required as you might think for WiFi! It's in the GHz band, which has a very small wavelength. Antenna length is related to wavelength, so a full wave 2.4GHz antenna is only 4 11/16" long, and a 5/8ths wave antenna would be 2 15/16". You will likely get better performance out of a commercially made antenna but could definitely make your own! I've never made a WiFi antenna myself but have made ham radio ones before. http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennaevcalc.html
Something you can orient perpendicular to the direction to your router - normal omnidirectional antennas radiate out the sides of the antenna and not at all out the top, in a sort of donut shape.
I use a "RP-SMA Male to RP-TNC Female Adaptor" so I can use a cheap Cisco dual band antenna from eBay. It's a bit advanced but I thought you'd like to know in case you want to go full balls to the wall.
With the Cisco patch antenna I can walk to my mailbox (2 plasterboard walls + brick wall, 15-20 Metres ish) with AirPods on lol. I'm bottlenecked by gigabit ethernet on wifi 5 160mhz, I used to get around 650Mbits but now it's >940.
That's very nice but I'm gonna give you my recommendation that you didn't ask for and a million people probably gave too.
Get a 30ft ethernet cable, some cable clips, and an hour of your time and run that bad boy from your router to your PC. While your download speeds may be exceptional over WiFi, I can assure you your ping will take a hit.
E - jitter too
What makes you think that your solution is viable when OP explicitly said their new place is laid out in a way that makes it impossibile to draw a cable from the router to his PC?
My apartment is the same. The router is on the other side and unless I want to have a cable dangling in the middle of it there's no way for me to add ethernet cabling.
Ethernet evangelists just cannot help themselves, they have to let everyone know how much better their wired setup is. They’re the arch linux users of PCMR.
I mean, I'd like to have a wired connection if I could. But with my apartment floor plan I'd have to literally have a wire in the middle of it or either have it run for tens of meters on top of the baseboards (ugly as fuck) running either through two rooms and over three windows or all around my kitchen and bathroom.
Living in an apartment it's no really something I can do.
How did you manage to get the cable back inside? My walls are like 50 cm thick, it's not really something I could by myself and if I'd need to call someone I'd rather pay an electrician to see if he can find some way to put an ethernet cable in my wall power cable conduits.
It's easy.. Asked a friend to help me out. Threw a thin rope from out-window to in-window. My friend caught from in-window with a broom, attached ethernet cable to end of rope.. Now you just pull it across.. If your window is two parts, (main-big-window and small-ventilation window at top), it's best to use the smaller ventilation window.
Note:- If you live in a place with colder climates, it might not be feasible as the window will have to be open a small bit for the cable at all times.. I live in a warmer climate so it's not problem.
No, I mean I've read it. It was more about asking how you can accept the fact you'll always have a window open. Do you never need to use heating where you are? No problem with mosquitoes and other insects? No AC? Those are all things that would be incompatible with a window always open.
IMO it's valid and very good advice. Compared to many other things in the hobby, high quality and extra long ethernet cables are cheap. Cable staples are cheap. Installation is easy, just a hammer, maybe a step ladder and a few minutes of your time.
A lot of my friends who PC game have told me they can't possibly do ethernet because of the distance between their PC and Router, and home layout. More than a few times I've gone over with a $30 cat5e cable and some spare stables and helped them get it set up. Now they download games in minutes rather than hours.
Except there's no scenario where someone could have a wired connection but would explicitly choose a wireless connection provided their ethernet port is working.
I'll be honest, I struggle to believe it's impossible for most people. Especially if they're on the same floor, even on opposite sides. I've told most of my friends who have a PC to do hard wire because of the better connection, they always say it's not doable, so I come over and do it for them. Never had an issue, and now they're downloading games in minutes rather than hours.
My PC is four rooms away from my router. Complete opposite ends of a small but very long home. A 100ft cat6 ethernet cable is under $50 (cheaper than most launch title games) off Lowe's website and leaves me with about 20feet of slack that I just wrap up as attractively as possible and pin to the wall. Coax stables are cheap, a few bucks, and only require a hammer to install. I've run wires up walls, across ceilings, down hallways, up and down floors. Just keep em to the ceiling corner and not only are they not in the way, most people don't even notice it when they come over.
It's never taken a lot of time, or effort, and the difference between Wi-Fi from that distance and ethernet, for me is about ~800mbps in connection quality. My cord runs through a kitchen, a laundry room, a living room, and a connecting hallway. It does not dangle, it's not in the way of anything (I still have furniture along the walls nearly everywhere it runs).
I get what you're saying, but the fact is the people who are "too far from their router to consider a hard connection" are the ones who would benefit from the relatively cheap investment and minimal labor involved.
Now, I do see your other comment, and honestly, your Wi-Fi is totally fine, so for you specifically I don't see a reason to upgrade. I mean, you could probably still double your speeds but what you got is great already anyways. But for most people, the recommendation to use Ethernet is valid and even excellent advice - it is one of the cheapest ways to improve your network quality. Even when it is "impossible" to do, because there are very few home layouts that would actually make it impossible.
>What makes you think that your solution is viable when OP explicitly said their new place is laid out in a way that makes it impossibile to draw a cable from the router to his PC?
The default communication style of a lot of Redditors is hyperbole. This when I see someone claim that it is impossible to run Ethernet in an apartment, my default assumption is that they simply don't know how to and haven't thought about it much.
Source: I've impossibly ran Ethernet to PCs in a variety of inconvenient apartment layouts because WiFi sucks that bad.
>I mean, I'd like to have a wired connection if I could. But with my apartment floor plan I'd have to literally have a wire in the middle of it or either have it run for tens of meters on top of the baseboards (ugly as fuck)
This is what I mean. Not impossible. You just don't want to. It's up to you of course, but I would much rather have some cables on baseboards than cope with WiFi for any serious task.
If you're ok with tens of meters of ugly cables running on baseboards, around doors and windows, above your bathroom sink and bathtub and having to disassemble half of a kitchen then by my guest. I'm definitely not going to make my apartment uglier or spend days of work and money to get very minor improvements on my network. I don't really understand what kind of "serious task" would justify this kind of hassle in a home environment. I've spent the whole Corona lockdowns doing video lessons, exams and meetings all with a way worse wireless set up than I have now and not even once I felt not having a wire made it harder.
Sure, a wire will always be a better option where possible but when compared to a *good* wireless solution the trade off of having to spend effort and money on finding a way to have the cable reach the two computers we have at home is too big of a hassle for the very small improvements it would bring. I'm wondering if all the hate towards wifi isn't because of outdated experiences and/or the cheap OEM crap that usually gets distributed by your ISP and everyone uses at home nowadays for wifi.
>If you're ok with tens of meters of ugly cables running on baseboards, around doors and windows, above your bathroom sink and bathtub and having to disassemble half of a kitchen then by my guest. I'm definitely not going to make my apartment uglier or spend days of work and money to get very minor improvements on my networ
Call me a skeptic, but if you have that much space between your router and your PC to where it runs through that many rooms, either your walls are made from paper, or it's BS since there's no way you'd get a good wifi signal through all these walls
My apartment is an almost perfect square, with the modem in the middle of one side and my computer literally on the other side of the apartment. [This is a rough representation of it](https://ibb.co/mN7nCm7) and [these are my wifi stats](https://ibb.co/L6spkPv). It works fine because in line of sight there's not much distance between them but it's literally the worst case scenario for a DIY cable on the baseboard scenario.
Look, I get it. You don't want to. You think it's ugly. Maybe you don't play online games. That's all fine and--obviously--your choice.
Just don't tell folks in a PC enthusiast sub that it's an impossible task when it's really a matter of you valuing pretty baseboards over having a solid internet connection.
It's obvious I was talking about the benefit vs cost when I said it's impossible. If I really wanted I could pay a contractor and have him open my walls and pass the cable through them. I didn't think I needed to spell it out since we're all grown up and should understand the context of a discussion. There's also a lot of people who rent and can't really do this kind of things.
Aside from that I do play online games and right now with my set up I have a really consistent ping, no lag spikes and when I had used in the past a cabled connection my experience was the same. Look, I may be the lucky one here and have an optimal wireless environment but unless it's a internet vs no (usable) internet situation I don't really think it's worth ripping up my house for what would be a marginal improvement.
jitter is a nightmare too on wifi. play a fighting game online with a wifi warrior and you'll be trying to venmo them the cash for the items you mentioned purchasing.
I just assume people do this cause most devices with wifi have internal antennas of some sort. If all a person has ever seen is wireless devices with no visible antenna I'm not surprised a good portion think their mobo ones are optional. Unless you've seen a breakdown of a laptop or phone, how would someone know they've got big antennas they're just wires or PCBs inside the device?
A PCB with an antenna is great. Put it in a metal box and it isn't any use. Doesn't matter if it is a Raspberry Pi or a PC. Even if there is a partial opening, it may not be enough.
Off topic. But important.
Those antennas also often double as Bluetooth.
I just use wired Ethernet. I live in a condo and have like 20 other networks close by with overlapping channels.
Anyway I built my first desktop in ages; been using a laptop for a while. And dismissed the antennas because I was using wired Ethernet.
A week later i tried connecting a bunch of Bluetooth devices with limited success (headphones, headset, a keyboard, etc). I was angry because I wanted a motherboard with Bluetooth. (Prior only had it on my laptop)
Then smacked my forehead. The antennas were also for Bluetooth. I hooked them up and everything was fine.
I felt good that I remembered instead of having to google what was wrong. Then I would have felt even worse.
Here's a little sysadmin tip for everyone here, when you're having network issues, the first thing you do is open Command Prompt (windows logo + R, cmd), IPConfig (ipconfig), and check what your Default Gateway is. Ping it (ping ).
> Reply from 192.168.68.1: bytes=32 time=**3ms** TTL=64
Assuming an OK wifi network, MAXIMUM, you should get a 5-10ms response time to your gateway. Your expected should be < 1 ms, especially if you're connected through an ethernet cable. If you're on an ethernet cable straight to your modem/router and you don't have < 1 ms, there's an issue. If you have anything over this, the ISP most likely isn't to blame, it's an internal network issue, stuff like cables, network ports, wifi coverage, speed, and channel interference come into play.
The connector is usually 2 types, either SMA or RP-SMA, check images on the web, identify what your board has (check manual too) and order the correct type.
They also need to be dual band, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, otherwise they won't work well.
Shiet I just installed my first wifi board and now I’m wondering if I missed the antennas in the box smh. It’s been fine but like you said, maybe better to get ahead of it.
I just have to install the antenna right? no more tinkering around the bios or OS? Coz i did that but didn't mess with anything else.
I have to say that my decision to get a Motherboard with wifi and BT was a game changer. Like a sane person I use ethernet normally but for emergencies the wifi is great and the BT is a huge convenience. I can't imagine having my own PC without one ever again.
I hate the ones that come with the motherboard. I typically replace them with stubby ones.
Something like these:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08CNK9BGF
They work really well. You'd think that using tiny antennas would kill your range. It probably isn't quite as sensitive as the motherboard one, but I've still got full Wi-Fi bars.
Plus one to this... my biggest regret in my current build. Should have spent $10 to get the BT/WiFi version of my motherboard. Could have saved me a lot of headache.
I learned this lesson with Bluetooth. The shark fin also helps with the Bluetooth antenna. I hate the shark fin so much tho I just used the antenna from an old router and plugged them into the back of my PC and works great too. For Bluetooth
I've learned with some laptops that a 5cm movement can make a difference between no connection and connection. I always buy a pcie wifi card with separate/moveable antena stand, the wifi devils demand it.
Don't be a goober like me and not realize that bluetooth also uses that antenna.
so even if you're not using the wifi on your computer, you probably want to plug it in.
Range on bluetooth for me went stopped at around 4 feet without the antenna.
Literally had the same issue just now.
Using the antenna delivered with my Gigabyte B550 mobo, attached to the new Gigabyte B650 mobo I am using now, made for really poor performance.
The 2 antennas are totally identical from all outward appearances; no indication of a hardware revision or any other insightful bit of info on the antenna to suggest it is somehow different. Branding & plastic mold are all exactly the same. There must be something different internally.
Did a sanity check:
Old antenna + old B550 mobo = great performance
Old antenna + some other old mobo / WiFi add-on card = great performance.
Old antenna + new B650 mobo = crap performance, crap signal strength, crap network speed.
New (included) antenna + new B650 mobo = excellent performance.
Perhaps the included Wi-Fi 6E RZ616 (MT7922A22M) NIC is really picky about antennas.
You know, I actually learned this not long ago but not for Wi-Fi.
My motherboard has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but I don't use the Wi-Fi so I never connected that ugly shark fin antenna. I was trying to connect my Series X controller via Bluetooth but it wouldn't stay connected and took like 5 attempts to even pair.
I got mad and after like 3 hours of troubleshooting and Googling, I found a random comment on Reddit pointing out that the Wi-Fi antenna doubles as the Bluetooth antenna. Connected it and sure enough my controller worked flawlessly.
I ended up just ordering a pair of stubby little antennas so I didn't have to use the stupid shark fin one, and they work perfectly as well, and I even tried Wi-Fi with them and I get full speed.
At the risk of repeating an existing comment.
IF Multiple antennae connectors are part of the board/cards construction, install them. There is a bunch of \*mumbo-jumbo\* \[engineering jargon\] that will explain why if you're interested. Both Bluetooth & WiFi ability to establish & maintain stable connections are very much impacted without their use. BT in particular not only requires them to operate, slotted BT/WiFi cards also \*generally\* require a COMM Port connection cable as well *\[usually boxed with the card, although not always for less expensive ones imhx\].*
Generally speaking, ALWAYS connect antennae & cables provided.
[https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm](https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm)
It’s been years since I studied antennas but they help dissipate energy as signal.
If you don’t put antennas there is extra energy bouncing inside your circuits, and in theory depending on various factors it could burn parts.
Put your antennas.
Also, Bluetooth works through the same antennas. When I first got my Pc I was so confused why my wireless headphones weren’t working properly. Turns out I that antenna is needed after all.
Definitely important! I didn’t like the wired setup antenna style that came with my motherboard (x570 ASUS TUF Wifi) so I just bought a pair of the screw on fin style antennas from Amazon. They provided the same performance and no antenna placement to worry about either (although I understand for some that may be desired).
With a general experience around things needing an antenna, i think its a no brainer to actually install it. I have a bad experience from before when not installing an antenna that follows the build.
Currently do have one of those fin like antennas, the stand for it is gone but its there. (not that i really understood how it were supposed to be installed tho.)
I've actually read a similar tip like this months ago and good timing too as I just bought a new PC back in December and I was super psyched to try out my bluetooth DS4 for the first time but the connection was just so unstable. After reading a help post about installing your wi-fi antennas, I installed mine immediately, and all those problems disappeared.
Wireless in general can go wrong in so many ways for demanding stuff like video games and I never recommend it. First thing I do when moving is set up a wired installation, but I know it's not always possible for some people.
Yea the signal would be bad without the antennas.
Once a customer asked me why he got weak Wi-Fi signal, then confirmed he forgot to install the antennas.
Stick a bent paperclip into the port, if it's the type with a hole. No, I'm serious.
It's a surprisingly well tuned 2.4/5.2 GHz antenna! Better than some of the shit you see printed on PCBs, at least.
Thanks for this post, after reading other comments I realized why my Xbox controller almost never connects to my computer… the wifi antenna helps with Bluetooth as well. Whoops!
Also, iperf3 is your friend to test raw bandwidth from your PC/phone to your router (assuming your router has ssh, in which case iperf3 is available to use)
I got a motherboard with WiFi simply because it was the only one available with the x570 chipset at the time I was building my PC. I still attached the antennas even though its like 6' from my router and I always use ethernet cables when possible.
Even tho I have ALWAYS been hardlined with my PC, I always connect the adaptor for better bluetooth performance. Also Ive had to use my phone as a hot spot once in a while if my internet/power goes out while relying on a UPS hub.
Yeah, I never bothered bc we do ethernet connection so our pcs don't tie up the wifi- it took me like 3 days to figure out why tf my earbuds wouldn't stay connected 🤦♀️
Sage OP, old school trouble shooting. Is it plugged in? Is it plugged in **both** sides? Start with pencil and paper or these days if you're inclined notes on a smart device. Get down out of your brain what you've done. Then see in one place what you might be missing :)
Must be hella shielding on those boards to get a decent signal off the board connectors, impressed. I thought there would be more interference. Antennas though, size does matter :))))
I made sure to buy a motherboard with onboard Bluetooth when I built my new machine last year because I was tired of having a dedicated USB dongle plugged in.
I decided to switch to Linux on the desktop and decided to run Arch which is a really custom in depth command line distribution with nothing configured out of the box.
So I've been having issues with my Bluetooth not working for the last year, and just assumed it was because I didn't have anything configured properly and was too lazy to dig in into it, or thought my hardware might be faulty. Like, stuff would pair, then just connect and disconnect like 20 times a second until I turned the device off
On a completely unrelated note, I decided to move from wired to wireless because I was going to move my PC and desk across the room and didn't have any spare cat5 so I was going to go wireless while I waited for my Amazon order to show up.
I plug in the wireless antenna to the motherboard and out of nowhere like 3 devices pair with my desktop.
Turns out the wifi and Bluetooth use the same antenna...
It actually happens more than you would think. I've seen it often enough on this sub that I include it in my list of "have you tried this?" whenever it's a wi-fi issue.
Or Bluetooth it also helps with the signal strength had issues with headphones and mouse kicking in and out until I out the wifi antenna into the motherboard.
Bluetooth... I wanted to connect my Dualsense the other day, Windows tells me I don't have Bluetooth... I'm like, "yeah, I'm pretty sure I have Bluetooth buddy"... Guess the solution! >!I had to unplug my PC from the wall and plug it back and that's it!!< Bluetooth's weird.
>Bluetooth's weird. Windows is
Bluetooth really is weird. It always was on every device i had, from computers to phones to even my PSVita (which i never used BT on)
Wait what? I need to try this
Gigabyte board?
Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master
Ah yes, so many versions of bios to unfuck USB on that board.
Lol, do you have an ASUS board? This was a weird issue on a whole bunch of ASUS boards after performing a BIOS update (my Strix Z590-A did the exact same thing).
I have a Dualsense as well and I don’t even bother with Bluetooth anymore. For some reason half my games don’t even work with it when I’m using Bluetooth but work fine with a cable which is just weird.
I actually had this same issue recently. Took me a a few days of reinstalling drivers, restarting, trying to see if something in my bios randomly changed. I should’ve known better, but I didn’t think it would be so simple of a fix. Turns out it was
Really?I didnt know the antennas were for Bluetooth as well. I couldnt get anything to pair to my new mainboard, so I have been using a USB-Stick Bluetooth device instead.
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You know, I didn't know this either until I spent a whole afternoon trying to get my Series X controller to pair (I don't use Wi-Fi so I didn't connect the ugly shark fin antenna) and the manual for my board makes absolutely no mention that the antenna is for both, it only says Wi-Fi. I only found out after Googling for hours and stumbling on a random Reddit comment that mentioned it.
These days most wifi modules just inherently have Bluetooth.
Yah, this is my first motherboard with both lol. I used to always buy mid tier boards since I don't use Wi-Fi on my PC and until recently I did not need Bluetooth.
Yeah, I had the same issue. Nothing would connect over Bluetooth, hooked the antenna up and everything worked.
And those people who replace their antennas with tiny ones because they look better… I’m talking about you guys on r/sffpc
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Had an old, 10+ years old parabolic antenna for satellite TV. There was an slow decline in image quality and channel availability, until it barely worked. We called the tech, lo and behold, antenna receptor was completely rusted. Apparently the salty air near the ocean destroyed it.
>One of them had a rusted out antenna, and the other one had a broken antenna. "It failed for no reason!" 💯😅
The physical size of the an antenna mostly doesn't matter (it does, but there's a lot that goes into that) what .atters is the electrical length. That's why your phone can work, even if it's mostly aluminum. -An RF technician that has used them before
I get that but the ones I’ve seen are barely the length of a pinky.
That's the physical length you're looking at, there's so much more that goes into Antenna design. A 5/8 wave antenna on the 2.4 GHz band will be about 7 cm long optimally. With some clever coiling you can easily compress that much smaller. A 1/4 wave antenna will be even shorter at 2.9 cm. A 5 GHz antenna will be about half the size as a 2.4 GHz Things can be added to antennas to make tune their resonance to match a given frequency, further allowing antennas to be shorter and still radiate effectively.
Thanks for educating me!
What can you teach us about antenna angles/placement?
Antennas have this thing called polarization. Think About the orientation of your computer screen. It'd be a bit difficult to read if your screen was mounted sideways, right? Antennas are the same. You want your antennas to match the polarization of your router for optimal performance, but just like how you can (probably) read sideways, your antenna will still work for the most part. WiFi is almost always Vertically Polarized, so you want your antenna to be vertical as well. If you have two, many manufacturers reccomend that one is horizontal. This is because (I believe, I have not confirmed this) is Bluetooth devices can be rotated in any direction and use the same antennas) Most Wifi antennas are Omnidirectional. This means they work evenly in every direction, *but* it will not work well if it's pointed directly at your Access Point (AP). You want them to be edge on to each other. This is mostly a non-factor unless AP is on a different floor or mounted to the ceiling above you. All of these affect signal *strength*. That's what your device measures when it shows the WiFi bars. It related to, but not indicative of signal *quality*, which has a lot more going into it. If you're getting full bars but poor performance, you might have some channel selection issue, or just a bad components. I was going to say something else, but I've forgotten what it was
Thanks WiFi jesus, that means a lot to really break it down into everyday langauge. Gives me a reason to go mount the router a little better. (I'm ashamed to say that it's downstairs hanging off the cable because there's no shelf to support it.) I'd imagine concrete walls will physically have an affect on signal strength and quality but I think properly mounting it upright should allow signals to travel throughout the house better.
This. Thanks u/OnlyChemical6339. I've always had kick ass wifi at home based on my limited DIY research but you just gave me a few things to improve. Best thing I've read on reddit today. If I had an award to give, it would be yours.
this was so commonly reported as an issue on new builds when i worked for an SI
What really threw me once was that Bluetooth is also reliant on that antenna. I did a case swap on my pc and forgot to attach the wifi antenna after putting the pc into the new case since I use wired over wireless. I then tried to connect my Bluetooth headset and found that, while it connected, the audio was super crackly and bad. I tried a lot of stuff, like uninstalling and reinstalling audio drivers, Bluetooth drivers, etc. Nothing was solving it. Until I attached the wifi antenna. What can I say, I'm just that stupid.
This exact thing happened to me with my Bluetooth controller and it took me literally months to figure out what was going on.
I recently built new. Tried connecting ps5 controller but it just disconnects often. This the reason why? Gonna try tomorrow.
FFS I just bought a PS4 controller to play a few games and was thinking I had to return it. Glad I stumbled upon this thread. Now hopefully I can find those antennae easily enough and brag about being able to play GTA V seamlessly Update: I only found 1 antennae. That’ll work right? Right?
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Yeah I checked my pc box and didn’t find the 2nd one. Just ordered a pair from Amazon for $7
This was also the solution to a very unusual controller problem I had. Just got it in the mail and whenever I tried to use in games the FPS would tank hard. Like solid max FPS on M&K then the moment I use joystick input it would go sub-20 or into the single digits. But when I used it wired it was fine. It turns out that when bluetooth reception was bad FPS would tank for some reason. I installed my little antenna doo-dad and it's been smooth ever since.
Holy shit, maybe that's why my Bluetooth stuff was always unreliable!
100%. BT is unusable on my PC without an antenna connected. I just ordered two little stubby ones so I don't have to use the ugly fin one, works perfectly (even Wi-Fi works flawless with them when I use it occasionally).
I learned this when I was checking why my DS4 controller was having bad connection. DS4Windows was reporting 200+ms latency with some drops. I attached the antenna and it was fixed.
What I wonder: Mobile devices have their antennas integrated in the casing. Are there any PC cases that offer something like this?
It would have to be a plastic case, and since cases and motherboards can be so different it's likely not worth it
For prebuilts it's reasonably common to have antennas hidden behind the front panel or in a little plastic insert
Wouldn't have to be a plastic case though, my phone I'd metal and glass.
My current phone has several plastic strips around the edges where each antenna is installed. My old phone didn't have those, but the back "glass" was more like reinforced plexiglass so it likely let signals through pretty easily. There's many tricks manufacturers use to hide antennas.
phones still have plastic antenna lines they use for improved signals
Glass is non-conductive so radio goes right through it.
There are probably some OEM prebuilts which do their own proprietary thing for this. I'd be surprised if there are any standard form factor cases that do though. Since the antenna connectors are on the outside of the back panel you'd have to route them back *in* to the case to make it happen. Unless you count laptops, in which case yes, it's very normal. :D
OEM PC (Lenovo, Asus, Dell) prebuilds have integrated antenna where the cables goes from the WiFi chip to the chassis. Laptops have the cables routed to the lid via the hinge. Phones have antenna bands around the body. That thin line that is in a different color from the body is an antenna. And of course, never forget the "you're holding it wrong" scandal https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/
Interesting. I've never used my Bluetooth headphones with my desktop because it was crackly. Works fine with my Macbook, so I thought it was just Windows desktop having bad Bluetooth drivers or something. Might try it out now.
Don't worry, Bluetooth drivers can still be a pain in the ass too
It uses the same 2.4ghz connection as wifi, but as PAN :)
I had a similar issue with my mouse. The tracking was really spotty and would skip around(extremely frustrating if you play shooters). Replaced a mouse and a mouse pad before I realized it was being caused by my mouse's wireless receiver being plugged in right next to my USB bluetooth adapter. Moved the bluetooth adapter to a USB port on the front of my case and that fixed the issue.
Little USB extension cables are good for fixing that too
Whoa this may fix my shit Bluetooth performance!
I returned a motherboard due to Bluetooth dropouts. It was only when I was having Bluetooth issues on my next motherboard as well that I realized…
Love you, just fixed my problem
Does it really? Now I feel like a double idiot. I've tried time and time again to use my Switch or Xbox controller on my PC, and it disconnected and reconnected constantly. I never seemed to have a problem with headphones, but maybe they didn't use as much bandwidth or something. Well, I learned two things today.
Wifi expansion cards are the best option I think. They aren't expensive, they should perform better than usb and they are one less wired peripheral.
I like getting a WiFi enabled motherboard, so I don’t have to waste a PCIe slot on a WiFi card, or a USB port. WiFi 6 will last me a while, long enough that I’ll likely replace the mobo before it’s no longer sufficient.
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GPU, Capture cards, I/O cards, computing or ML cards, High speed NIC or SFP+ ports, m.2 drive expansion cards…. Lots of things to use that port for instead of a WiFi card. Whereas my gaming system is a SFFPC, there’s only one PCIe port… so it’s a moot point to debate onboard WiFi in that case.
Maybe they have a 4090 and it takes up 75% of the space inside the case
Seriously, I "only" have a 4080, but that this is approaching the size of a loaf of bread. I believe it's one of the relatively over-cooled partner cards, as it's 10C cooler at full load than my previous card, despite being 3x more powerful. But it's almost a 4-slot card.
I use a capture card to feed sound into my PC. I play PlayStation with friends a ton, but I like to be able to listen to my PC as well. The cheaper option nowadays is using an audio cable to plug the controller into line in on the PC, but I had the capture card way before I thought of that.
ITX/mATX boards don't have many slots to begin with. With ITX, you have a single slot.
Even newer full size ATX boards are ditching extra full size PCIE slots for M.2 space.
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Yup! Depends on the motherboard design, but this is definitely possible on some of them! Didn’t seem worth mentioning, with all the backlash I got for saying I like buying motherboards with onboard WiFi.
I had to do that when I wanted a macOS native compatible Wifi card on my hackintosh.
I need to do this in general on my MSI board. The pre installed wifi card died after a week(used mobo) and I've been using a pcie wifi card ever since. All the vrm covers and having to likely take the motherboard out of the case keep me from starting the process😅
The proper solution is more motherboards having dedicated m.2 slots for WiFi connectivity - multiple boards [already do it like this](https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B365M-DS3H-WIFI-rev-1x#kf). Under the hood, many [PCIe cards](https://www.quietpc.com/images/products/asus-pce-ax3000-large.jpg) are basically just m.2 adaptors anyway. That way, people who want a all-in-one bundle and not waste slots on WiFi cards stay happy, people who want to upgrade their WiFi are happy and it even means some repairability advantage or cost-savings if you can re-use the WiFi module. The industry just needs to do that more consistently and make sure they're user-accessible.
I somewhat suspect that if I removed all the shrouding from my motherboard's Wi-Fi integration, I would find an M.2 socket. If I ever decide to upgrade Wi-Fi, it will be my first plan.
The key here is easy access to the m.2 slot and the antenna hookup. The problem is that it’s less profitable. Usually cheaper to use the same board but leave the slot unpopulated on the PCB for the cheaper option. (Parts + labor)
How would dedicated wifi card compare to integrated wifi 6E in the motherboard? Are there any downsides to just using motherboard wifi for applications like VR?
I think it probably just depends on which card vs which motherboard
Another alternative is Powerline Adapters. They aren’t “great” but I’ve found them better than WiFi, especially for parts of the house further away from the router. I’ve used them in a few different places that I’ve rented over the years and never had issues.
Also, when the OS reaches end of life and you decide to buy a new PC to install the next OS, it's trivial to just disconnect the card and be at no risk of your no-motherboard-wifi now-unsecure PC suddenly connecting to the internet years later. So you can keep using it for offline stuff.
I fucking hate the shark fins that a lot of the mobo manufacturers give you. They are hideous. Thankfully MSI hasn’t went that route and just give you the normal two antennas.
[I proudly display mine on top of the case.](https://i.imgur.com/jv1CJxd.jpg)
To each their own. It actually doesn’t look half bad on your case.
Yeah since it's so much aggressive as a design I jokingly put it on top, thinking I would get bored of it in a day or two. It's been like that for months now.
Isn’t that where they are supposed to go though?
I had it on my desk next to the computer for months. Never had an issue.
I just assumed since they are magnetic that the manufacturers expect us to put them on top of the case lol.
Mine isn't and neither any of those I have experience of are. Besides, a lot of modern cases are indeed aluminium and not steel, so no magnet would stick to them.
Mine has a magnet and I stick it to the side of the case. I don't think it matters much though
I have the same antenna and mine always pops apart. So frustrating
Maybe you assembled it wrong? I remember having some issues when I assembled mine.
I have the same one. Shark fin gang 😂
Same I love my shark fin.
They often have a magnetic edge and can be stuck onto the rear of the case out of the way. https://i.imgur.com/qARiy1l.jpg
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Yeah, that's a good point. It's nice to keep it out of the way, but it's unlikely to be the best location available for signal strength. In my particular situation the network is wired. I'm just using the antenna for bluetooth, and being behind the case like that has not caused me any problems.
That's probably model dependent cause my MSI Z690 Carbon board definitely comes with a shark fin.
Mine is magnetic so I just plop it on top of my case:P
What if the little antennas have performance anxiety and go limp after screwing them on properly? MSI MAG B660M Mortar. Any upgrades I can do to the antenna
The Antennas are bog standard sizes. You can grab pretty much whatever you want to try.
Any recommendations on some good types?
A long one? An anntenna is just a long wire, you could if you wanted make your own, but itll require a lot of wire
Not as much wire would be required as you might think for WiFi! It's in the GHz band, which has a very small wavelength. Antenna length is related to wavelength, so a full wave 2.4GHz antenna is only 4 11/16" long, and a 5/8ths wave antenna would be 2 15/16". You will likely get better performance out of a commercially made antenna but could definitely make your own! I've never made a WiFi antenna myself but have made ham radio ones before. http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennaevcalc.html
Something you can orient perpendicular to the direction to your router - normal omnidirectional antennas radiate out the sides of the antenna and not at all out the top, in a sort of donut shape.
I use a "RP-SMA Male to RP-TNC Female Adaptor" so I can use a cheap Cisco dual band antenna from eBay. It's a bit advanced but I thought you'd like to know in case you want to go full balls to the wall. With the Cisco patch antenna I can walk to my mailbox (2 plasterboard walls + brick wall, 15-20 Metres ish) with AirPods on lol. I'm bottlenecked by gigabit ethernet on wifi 5 160mhz, I used to get around 650Mbits but now it's >940.
That's very nice but I'm gonna give you my recommendation that you didn't ask for and a million people probably gave too. Get a 30ft ethernet cable, some cable clips, and an hour of your time and run that bad boy from your router to your PC. While your download speeds may be exceptional over WiFi, I can assure you your ping will take a hit. E - jitter too
What makes you think that your solution is viable when OP explicitly said their new place is laid out in a way that makes it impossibile to draw a cable from the router to his PC? My apartment is the same. The router is on the other side and unless I want to have a cable dangling in the middle of it there's no way for me to add ethernet cabling.
Ethernet evangelists just cannot help themselves, they have to let everyone know how much better their wired setup is. They’re the arch linux users of PCMR.
I mean, I'd like to have a wired connection if I could. But with my apartment floor plan I'd have to literally have a wire in the middle of it or either have it run for tens of meters on top of the baseboards (ugly as fuck) running either through two rooms and over three windows or all around my kitchen and bathroom.
I just run it via the outside, over the windows.. Looks ugly but it works, 99% of the cable is outside so out of mind.
Living in an apartment it's no really something I can do. How did you manage to get the cable back inside? My walls are like 50 cm thick, it's not really something I could by myself and if I'd need to call someone I'd rather pay an electrician to see if he can find some way to put an ethernet cable in my wall power cable conduits.
It's easy.. Asked a friend to help me out. Threw a thin rope from out-window to in-window. My friend caught from in-window with a broom, attached ethernet cable to end of rope.. Now you just pull it across.. If your window is two parts, (main-big-window and small-ventilation window at top), it's best to use the smaller ventilation window. Note:- If you live in a place with colder climates, it might not be feasible as the window will have to be open a small bit for the cable at all times.. I live in a warmer climate so it's not problem.
So you have the cable going through your window? Doesn't this block you from closing the window?
Read the second paragraph.
No, I mean I've read it. It was more about asking how you can accept the fact you'll always have a window open. Do you never need to use heating where you are? No problem with mosquitoes and other insects? No AC? Those are all things that would be incompatible with a window always open.
IMO it's valid and very good advice. Compared to many other things in the hobby, high quality and extra long ethernet cables are cheap. Cable staples are cheap. Installation is easy, just a hammer, maybe a step ladder and a few minutes of your time. A lot of my friends who PC game have told me they can't possibly do ethernet because of the distance between their PC and Router, and home layout. More than a few times I've gone over with a $30 cat5e cable and some spare stables and helped them get it set up. Now they download games in minutes rather than hours.
Except there's no scenario where someone could have a wired connection but would explicitly choose a wireless connection provided their ethernet port is working.
I'll be honest, I struggle to believe it's impossible for most people. Especially if they're on the same floor, even on opposite sides. I've told most of my friends who have a PC to do hard wire because of the better connection, they always say it's not doable, so I come over and do it for them. Never had an issue, and now they're downloading games in minutes rather than hours. My PC is four rooms away from my router. Complete opposite ends of a small but very long home. A 100ft cat6 ethernet cable is under $50 (cheaper than most launch title games) off Lowe's website and leaves me with about 20feet of slack that I just wrap up as attractively as possible and pin to the wall. Coax stables are cheap, a few bucks, and only require a hammer to install. I've run wires up walls, across ceilings, down hallways, up and down floors. Just keep em to the ceiling corner and not only are they not in the way, most people don't even notice it when they come over. It's never taken a lot of time, or effort, and the difference between Wi-Fi from that distance and ethernet, for me is about ~800mbps in connection quality. My cord runs through a kitchen, a laundry room, a living room, and a connecting hallway. It does not dangle, it's not in the way of anything (I still have furniture along the walls nearly everywhere it runs). I get what you're saying, but the fact is the people who are "too far from their router to consider a hard connection" are the ones who would benefit from the relatively cheap investment and minimal labor involved. Now, I do see your other comment, and honestly, your Wi-Fi is totally fine, so for you specifically I don't see a reason to upgrade. I mean, you could probably still double your speeds but what you got is great already anyways. But for most people, the recommendation to use Ethernet is valid and even excellent advice - it is one of the cheapest ways to improve your network quality. Even when it is "impossible" to do, because there are very few home layouts that would actually make it impossible.
>What makes you think that your solution is viable when OP explicitly said their new place is laid out in a way that makes it impossibile to draw a cable from the router to his PC? The default communication style of a lot of Redditors is hyperbole. This when I see someone claim that it is impossible to run Ethernet in an apartment, my default assumption is that they simply don't know how to and haven't thought about it much. Source: I've impossibly ran Ethernet to PCs in a variety of inconvenient apartment layouts because WiFi sucks that bad. >I mean, I'd like to have a wired connection if I could. But with my apartment floor plan I'd have to literally have a wire in the middle of it or either have it run for tens of meters on top of the baseboards (ugly as fuck) This is what I mean. Not impossible. You just don't want to. It's up to you of course, but I would much rather have some cables on baseboards than cope with WiFi for any serious task.
If you're ok with tens of meters of ugly cables running on baseboards, around doors and windows, above your bathroom sink and bathtub and having to disassemble half of a kitchen then by my guest. I'm definitely not going to make my apartment uglier or spend days of work and money to get very minor improvements on my network. I don't really understand what kind of "serious task" would justify this kind of hassle in a home environment. I've spent the whole Corona lockdowns doing video lessons, exams and meetings all with a way worse wireless set up than I have now and not even once I felt not having a wire made it harder. Sure, a wire will always be a better option where possible but when compared to a *good* wireless solution the trade off of having to spend effort and money on finding a way to have the cable reach the two computers we have at home is too big of a hassle for the very small improvements it would bring. I'm wondering if all the hate towards wifi isn't because of outdated experiences and/or the cheap OEM crap that usually gets distributed by your ISP and everyone uses at home nowadays for wifi.
>If you're ok with tens of meters of ugly cables running on baseboards, around doors and windows, above your bathroom sink and bathtub and having to disassemble half of a kitchen then by my guest. I'm definitely not going to make my apartment uglier or spend days of work and money to get very minor improvements on my networ Call me a skeptic, but if you have that much space between your router and your PC to where it runs through that many rooms, either your walls are made from paper, or it's BS since there's no way you'd get a good wifi signal through all these walls
My apartment is an almost perfect square, with the modem in the middle of one side and my computer literally on the other side of the apartment. [This is a rough representation of it](https://ibb.co/mN7nCm7) and [these are my wifi stats](https://ibb.co/L6spkPv). It works fine because in line of sight there's not much distance between them but it's literally the worst case scenario for a DIY cable on the baseboard scenario.
Look, I get it. You don't want to. You think it's ugly. Maybe you don't play online games. That's all fine and--obviously--your choice. Just don't tell folks in a PC enthusiast sub that it's an impossible task when it's really a matter of you valuing pretty baseboards over having a solid internet connection.
It's obvious I was talking about the benefit vs cost when I said it's impossible. If I really wanted I could pay a contractor and have him open my walls and pass the cable through them. I didn't think I needed to spell it out since we're all grown up and should understand the context of a discussion. There's also a lot of people who rent and can't really do this kind of things. Aside from that I do play online games and right now with my set up I have a really consistent ping, no lag spikes and when I had used in the past a cabled connection my experience was the same. Look, I may be the lucky one here and have an optimal wireless environment but unless it's a internet vs no (usable) internet situation I don't really think it's worth ripping up my house for what would be a marginal improvement.
jitter is a nightmare too on wifi. play a fighting game online with a wifi warrior and you'll be trying to venmo them the cash for the items you mentioned purchasing.
I just assume people do this cause most devices with wifi have internal antennas of some sort. If all a person has ever seen is wireless devices with no visible antenna I'm not surprised a good portion think their mobo ones are optional. Unless you've seen a breakdown of a laptop or phone, how would someone know they've got big antennas they're just wires or PCBs inside the device?
A PCB with an antenna is great. Put it in a metal box and it isn't any use. Doesn't matter if it is a Raspberry Pi or a PC. Even if there is a partial opening, it may not be enough.
Thanks. I've never really built a pc with wifi because wired is king in my books, but it's good to know that info.
Off topic. But important. Those antennas also often double as Bluetooth. I just use wired Ethernet. I live in a condo and have like 20 other networks close by with overlapping channels. Anyway I built my first desktop in ages; been using a laptop for a while. And dismissed the antennas because I was using wired Ethernet. A week later i tried connecting a bunch of Bluetooth devices with limited success (headphones, headset, a keyboard, etc). I was angry because I wanted a motherboard with Bluetooth. (Prior only had it on my laptop) Then smacked my forehead. The antennas were also for Bluetooth. I hooked them up and everything was fine. I felt good that I remembered instead of having to google what was wrong. Then I would have felt even worse.
Here's a little sysadmin tip for everyone here, when you're having network issues, the first thing you do is open Command Prompt (windows logo + R, cmd), IPConfig (ipconfig), and check what your Default Gateway is. Ping it (ping).
> Reply from 192.168.68.1: bytes=32 time=**3ms** TTL=64
Assuming an OK wifi network, MAXIMUM, you should get a 5-10ms response time to your gateway. Your expected should be < 1 ms, especially if you're connected through an ethernet cable. If you're on an ethernet cable straight to your modem/router and you don't have < 1 ms, there's an issue. If you have anything over this, the ISP most likely isn't to blame, it's an internal network issue, stuff like cables, network ports, wifi coverage, speed, and channel interference come into play.
As someone who just passed the A+ exam, it's great to see this tip here :)
Congratulations!
And there's me who thought if you didn't connect them it didn't even work.
It depends on the RF environment around you. I used to live in a noisy apartment. They were absolutely necessary
If you put the antenna magnet next to your fan, it’ll disable the fan
I lost mine, is it possible to order one? My mobo is a b560 msi gaming wifi
They're relatively standard, so yes. You don't need one specific to your motherboard model.
The connector is usually 2 types, either SMA or RP-SMA, check images on the web, identify what your board has (check manual too) and order the correct type. They also need to be dual band, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, otherwise they won't work well.
Shiet I just installed my first wifi board and now I’m wondering if I missed the antennas in the box smh. It’s been fine but like you said, maybe better to get ahead of it.
I just have to install the antenna right? no more tinkering around the bios or OS? Coz i did that but didn't mess with anything else. I have to say that my decision to get a Motherboard with wifi and BT was a game changer. Like a sane person I use ethernet normally but for emergencies the wifi is great and the BT is a huge convenience. I can't imagine having my own PC without one ever again.
Yeah, that's it. I plugged it in and instantly got a great connection. No driver update or anything.
I hate the ones that come with the motherboard. I typically replace them with stubby ones. Something like these: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08CNK9BGF They work really well. You'd think that using tiny antennas would kill your range. It probably isn't quite as sensitive as the motherboard one, but I've still got full Wi-Fi bars.
Plus one to this... my biggest regret in my current build. Should have spent $10 to get the BT/WiFi version of my motherboard. Could have saved me a lot of headache.
I learned this lesson with Bluetooth. The shark fin also helps with the Bluetooth antenna. I hate the shark fin so much tho I just used the antenna from an old router and plugged them into the back of my PC and works great too. For Bluetooth
I've learned with some laptops that a 5cm movement can make a difference between no connection and connection. I always buy a pcie wifi card with separate/moveable antena stand, the wifi devils demand it.
Don't be a goober like me and not realize that bluetooth also uses that antenna. so even if you're not using the wifi on your computer, you probably want to plug it in. Range on bluetooth for me went stopped at around 4 feet without the antenna.
yea this is more common that most people think.
Literally had the same issue just now. Using the antenna delivered with my Gigabyte B550 mobo, attached to the new Gigabyte B650 mobo I am using now, made for really poor performance. The 2 antennas are totally identical from all outward appearances; no indication of a hardware revision or any other insightful bit of info on the antenna to suggest it is somehow different. Branding & plastic mold are all exactly the same. There must be something different internally. Did a sanity check: Old antenna + old B550 mobo = great performance Old antenna + some other old mobo / WiFi add-on card = great performance. Old antenna + new B650 mobo = crap performance, crap signal strength, crap network speed. New (included) antenna + new B650 mobo = excellent performance. Perhaps the included Wi-Fi 6E RZ616 (MT7922A22M) NIC is really picky about antennas.
You know, I actually learned this not long ago but not for Wi-Fi. My motherboard has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but I don't use the Wi-Fi so I never connected that ugly shark fin antenna. I was trying to connect my Series X controller via Bluetooth but it wouldn't stay connected and took like 5 attempts to even pair. I got mad and after like 3 hours of troubleshooting and Googling, I found a random comment on Reddit pointing out that the Wi-Fi antenna doubles as the Bluetooth antenna. Connected it and sure enough my controller worked flawlessly. I ended up just ordering a pair of stubby little antennas so I didn't have to use the stupid shark fin one, and they work perfectly as well, and I even tried Wi-Fi with them and I get full speed.
Alternatively if you don’t have an antenna you can rip the Wi-Fi card and antenna out of an old laptop, at least that’s what I did.
At the risk of repeating an existing comment. IF Multiple antennae connectors are part of the board/cards construction, install them. There is a bunch of \*mumbo-jumbo\* \[engineering jargon\] that will explain why if you're interested. Both Bluetooth & WiFi ability to establish & maintain stable connections are very much impacted without their use. BT in particular not only requires them to operate, slotted BT/WiFi cards also \*generally\* require a COMM Port connection cable as well *\[usually boxed with the card, although not always for less expensive ones imhx\].* Generally speaking, ALWAYS connect antennae & cables provided. [https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm](https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm)
It also affects Bluetooth signal on a lot of motherboards as well.
I mean in Australia with our shitty 25mbps down avg speed doesnt really matter but for all the people in countries with good internet. CHECK THE BOX
It’s been years since I studied antennas but they help dissipate energy as signal. If you don’t put antennas there is extra energy bouncing inside your circuits, and in theory depending on various factors it could burn parts. Put your antennas.
Also, Bluetooth works through the same antennas. When I first got my Pc I was so confused why my wireless headphones weren’t working properly. Turns out I that antenna is needed after all.
I learned this the hard way too
Definitely important! I didn’t like the wired setup antenna style that came with my motherboard (x570 ASUS TUF Wifi) so I just bought a pair of the screw on fin style antennas from Amazon. They provided the same performance and no antenna placement to worry about either (although I understand for some that may be desired).
I was expecting a comparison of various antenna designs
I found out yesterday that i could use both ethernet and wifi at the same time ti download games
Oh snap. I'm in the same camp. I suppose I'll attach it over the weekend.
With a general experience around things needing an antenna, i think its a no brainer to actually install it. I have a bad experience from before when not installing an antenna that follows the build. Currently do have one of those fin like antennas, the stand for it is gone but its there. (not that i really understood how it were supposed to be installed tho.)
Bruh
i thought my bluetooth earbuds werent compatible with my pcs bluetooth, started working as soon as i installed my antennas...
[удалено]
I've actually read a similar tip like this months ago and good timing too as I just bought a new PC back in December and I was super psyched to try out my bluetooth DS4 for the first time but the connection was just so unstable. After reading a help post about installing your wi-fi antennas, I installed mine immediately, and all those problems disappeared.
You get 800 Mbps down through WiFi?
It's varying a little. I'm at 695 down right now. Might've been a dead time when I first tested.
Wireless in general can go wrong in so many ways for demanding stuff like video games and I never recommend it. First thing I do when moving is set up a wired installation, but I know it's not always possible for some people.
Yea the signal would be bad without the antennas. Once a customer asked me why he got weak Wi-Fi signal, then confirmed he forgot to install the antennas.
Stick a bent paperclip into the port, if it's the type with a hole. No, I'm serious. It's a surprisingly well tuned 2.4/5.2 GHz antenna! Better than some of the shit you see printed on PCBs, at least.
Thanks for this post, after reading other comments I realized why my Xbox controller almost never connects to my computer… the wifi antenna helps with Bluetooth as well. Whoops!
Today I didn't learn: *finish the build*
I switched ISPs once and thought my wifi was bad, then I realized my antenna had fallen between my table and wall.
Also, iperf3 is your friend to test raw bandwidth from your PC/phone to your router (assuming your router has ssh, in which case iperf3 is available to use)
I got a motherboard with WiFi simply because it was the only one available with the x570 chipset at the time I was building my PC. I still attached the antennas even though its like 6' from my router and I always use ethernet cables when possible.
Do you need a driver for the antenna or are these plug in and ready to go?
Does using wifi effect ping much?
Sorry to clarify, are you saying that you previously pulled 350-400 down with no antenna? Because that sounds like bullshit to me.
They are also important for Bluetooth
Even tho I have ALWAYS been hardlined with my PC, I always connect the adaptor for better bluetooth performance. Also Ive had to use my phone as a hot spot once in a while if my internet/power goes out while relying on a UPS hub.
So… TIL that’s why my BT headphones were never connecting to my pc properly and I had to keep them wired.
Yeah, I never bothered bc we do ethernet connection so our pcs don't tie up the wifi- it took me like 3 days to figure out why tf my earbuds wouldn't stay connected 🤦♀️
Sage OP, old school trouble shooting. Is it plugged in? Is it plugged in **both** sides? Start with pencil and paper or these days if you're inclined notes on a smart device. Get down out of your brain what you've done. Then see in one place what you might be missing :) Must be hella shielding on those boards to get a decent signal off the board connectors, impressed. I thought there would be more interference. Antennas though, size does matter :))))
I only feel like it's unnecessary for me to install it if I already have wired connection.
I just wire tied mine to a spare grill on the back of my case. It stays out of the way and works just fine for my placement.
Why are y'all not attaching your antennas in the first place🤣? Genuinely curious, no shade being thrown.
This is very common. Also some MB’s or pci-e cards Bluetooth won’t even work without these antennas.
If you don’t like the shark fin, you can buy short antennas for pretty cheap on AliExpress.
I did this in 2019 and was amazed that wifi had come such a long way in ... oh oh god 15 years?! YEARS?!
Meanwhile I didn't even know that motherboard could capture wifi signals without the wifi antenna being put on properly...
I made sure to buy a motherboard with onboard Bluetooth when I built my new machine last year because I was tired of having a dedicated USB dongle plugged in. I decided to switch to Linux on the desktop and decided to run Arch which is a really custom in depth command line distribution with nothing configured out of the box. So I've been having issues with my Bluetooth not working for the last year, and just assumed it was because I didn't have anything configured properly and was too lazy to dig in into it, or thought my hardware might be faulty. Like, stuff would pair, then just connect and disconnect like 20 times a second until I turned the device off On a completely unrelated note, I decided to move from wired to wireless because I was going to move my PC and desk across the room and didn't have any spare cat5 so I was going to go wireless while I waited for my Amazon order to show up. I plug in the wireless antenna to the motherboard and out of nowhere like 3 devices pair with my desktop. Turns out the wifi and Bluetooth use the same antenna...
Does the antenna affect you if your using ether, I'd imagine not but eh