a.ntivir.us wanted to use a different antenna for their Netgear mbr624gu WiFi router. Unfortunately, this model comes with an antenna that is not removable. As with other antenna retrofits, this involves no soldering. But because there is already a mounting area for an antenna, no case altering is needed either. After opening the router with a Torx driver it was discovered that the non-removable antenna was connected to the board with a mini rf connector (U.FL). The antenna and its mounting bracket were removed and a U.FL to RP-SMA adapter was put in its place using a washer to secure it to the rear plate of the router. Now any external antenna can be used and the router still looks brand new.
this would only be considered challenging or a “hack” if the person doing it was 5 years old.
R.I.P. hackaday.
@EdZ
… But it obviously was made to have a different antenna. They didn’t put the antenna in from the factory, but the holes and connectors are there. Sometimes factories make a universal case just in case they decide to add something in the future or use the same case for a different model. So I guess while you technically could call it a hack, you could just put stickers all over it and say the same thing.
Maybe we should have one site on which anyone can submit ‘hacks’ from which the HaD can pick to feature in HaD articles, acting as a kind of polished ‘Best of’ for the former site?
We could also start a wiki as a reference to the information held in HaD articles, one of the problems I have with some of recent articles is that it means searching through HaD articles isn’t as useful as it used to be, as there is now a lot of clutter. What Do You Think?
@CH: feel free to send us your hacks! We read every submission!
@Zach Banks:
But either you publish every submission, or you don’t. Publishing all would be undesirable, but some might still see value in those that don’t get published.
All of you bitching about the website can go choke on ten bags of dicks, fucking ingrates.
i am currently posting using a router which blew out its ADSL receiver chip due to a nearby lightning strike.
Found another similar Netgear with a blown chipset and swapped out the chip, worked fine. Wile I was in there changed out the main capacitor as it looked a bit bedraggled.
Saved throwing away an otherwise perfectly good RangeMax…
serious anyone who bitches about useless reading should do there own DIY and send it in..
The antenna and its mounting bracket were removed and a U.FL to RP-SMA adapter was put in its place using a washer to secure it to the rear plate of the router.
i was looking for a way to modify my netgear N300 to have an external antenna, visited about 10 google links looking for an answer and ended up here with the gold! Thanks so much for posting this, you have saved me (and im sure others too) the time and effort to get my wireless range extended easily. Anything outside of using an off the shelf product beyond it’s intended standard purpose (apple), is considered a ‘hack’ to me, so thanks for throwing this simple effective hack up on here.
Note to everyone bitching from ivory towers: this thread didn’t help me with my problem, specifically. It was, however, informative… and also one of the top Google returns for my query.
I’m not a technological professional or fanatic; but, rather, someone who enjoys new challenges as a hobby. That being said, I wasn’t looking for information that was far above my head (level of comprehension), so it wasn’t far off from what I was looking for.
For the elitists who likely spend hours trolling this message-board (for drama, not info)… I think that the title of the thread should have been sufficient as advisory that you need not go deeper.
You probably stopped coming here to learn long ago. If this is your greatest social outlet and/or your only source of pride and importance, then I pity you… and I guess I’ll let you have it.
I want to change antena on my netgear router too but there seems to be no way to open it up :-s
This is very useful information
thank you very much
Hey I just wanted to know if I could change the antenna on this device and this site said I could without soldering so Information was very useful.
I am not a 5 yr-old. I’m a 72 yr-old lady, and this was very helpful to add a Hawking 90º Hi-Gain corner antenna to a router. You pros need to go on to the more complicated stuff you like to do.