Networks Why 2 Aerials on Access points / routers?

Why are there 2 Aerials on Access points / routers?

I have a wrt54g and would like to know if both aerials have the same purpose. i.e. could I pipe one to the roof with coax cable and a big aerial/amplifier and have the other one for inside the house?

just a thought...

 

I haven't used one of these Linksys routers in a while now. I'm fairly certain that both the antennas are exactly the same although only the one which is being used most at that time will function.

 

it normally switches between them depending on which has the best signal

though on some aps you will find one is receive only and one is tran\receive

 

If you had to choose between a router that had the same specs and price but one had one aerial and the other two, which would you choose?

 

If they were identical apart from the aerials, I'd pick the one with 2. However, brand is much more important imho, so that's always a deciding factor, because no-one makes a router group with identical specs but different numbers of aerials.

 

The two antennae normally provide signal diversity so they can correct for multipath problems and signal distortion etc. having one inside and one on a piece of cooax somewhere is normally bad[tm] as if they can't see each other things can get a little screwy.

HTH

J