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I have recently noticed that one of the Wi-Fi antenna cables in my laptop got snipped. The reception is not horrible honestly, but considering I have a 6E router, an AX200 chip and a 2.5 gbps connection, it makes me sad that I'm only getting 200 Mbit/s transfer speeds.

Now, the antennas are situated at the back of the monitor. But to remove the panel and switch the antenna is a huge pain as the panel is glued. Also this laptop model is rare so there are little to no guides on disassembly and I don't want to risk any damage, cosmetic or otherwise.

The question is, what are my options regarding new antenna placement?

  1. Can I just leave the antenna near an empty spot in the casing? (under the keyboard or battery maybe)
  2. If the casing would attenuate the signal too much, does it make sense to route the antenna under the laptop through a hole in the case (there is such a hole already), and somehow fix it there?
  3. Or should I just learn to live without MIMO and be happy that I get 200mbps bandwidth? Or is a bad antenna better than no antenna?
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  • I think it depends as much on the engineering. My ThinkPad X1 has the antennae in the lid and reception and speed is excellent.
    – anon
    Commented Feb 12, 2022 at 22:34
  • I posit that with MIMO a bad antenna is better then no antenna. If you are putting an antenna "where it doesn't belong" make sure you dont short anything or Block airflow. If the casing is plastic it wont attenuate the signal too much.
    – davidgo
    Commented Feb 12, 2022 at 23:11
  • Antennas are always placed on the sides/top of the monitor on laptops because it's the best place for reception since it provides more vertical service area to receive/transmit the signal. The monitor can likely be opened with a little patience and the correct pry tools (I'm partial to iFixit's) - when it's comes to casings sealed with adhesives for IP rating, an iFixit iOpener (microwaved) or iSesamo (lightly heated with a heat gun ) often does the trick
    – JW0914
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 5:23

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There are many variables for antenna placement, such as avoiding proximity to nearby metal or being covered with dielectric (e.g., the plastic shell), but you can do no harm by just adding a length of insulated or enameled (to avoid shorts) wire, away from parts likely to make electrical noise (RFI), such as the CPU, GPU and RAM. A theoretical half-wavelngth antenna for the 5 GHz band would be only 3 cm (a bit more than an inch), and for the 2.5 GHz band would be 6 cm, but length is not critical at all.

The ultimate criteria is: does it improve WiFi signal strength and quality?

  • Use a tool to measure signal strength, such as free wavemon for Linux or Nirsoft's free WiFiInfoView. If the signal is better, you've achieved you goal.
  • Check the browser's internet connection speed with SpeedTest.net or other speed test. Caveat: this may vary for other reasons than WiFi throughput, such as hardware limitations, but it should not be lower with your antenna than without it.
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