Mounting internal wifi antenna

[GH0STce11]

Hey.

Recently I bought a Compaq Evo N610c laptop off of eBay for a good price (1.8GHz P4m/512RAM/30GB/DVD for $324 shipped) and it doesn't come with internal wifi built in.

Instead, Compaq uses a proprietary part called the Multiport, which is basically a USB 1.1 slot on the lid. But the Multiport Wifi was only made in 802.11b, and it's kinda big, and makes a nice lump on the lid, so im not going that direction.

And i don't really like the idea of having the PC Card sticking out the side.

So i decided to make internal wifi.
It has a MiniPCI slot, which had a fax modem in it, took that crap out, so now i have room for the MiniPCI card. I'm going with the Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g card. My dad's Dell has the same card in it, and it works well.

But since the option of internal wifi wasn't given, there was no need for internal antennas. so im going to have to add those myself.

I found a pair of antennas on ebay, which should do the job.

Which brings me to my actual question, where to put them?

The actual metal peice of the antennae is about 1.5in long, and not even a centimeter wide, so i think there should be a few places they could fit. But what setup would provide the best reception. I can completely take apart the base of the laptop, so anywhere there is fine. However, I don't wanna mess around with taking the screen apart, so both antennae will go into the base.

Thanks in advance!

[erhan28]

any pics.. it would help. Im sure you can stick it in the laptop with some electrical tape.

[GH0STce11]

I'll try to take some pictures of the base of the laptop disassembled tomorrow.
And my question isn't so muhc, how to get them in there, its where should i try to put them to get the best reception.
But here's a picture of the antennas:

[Mickwish]

My suggestion would be to place the antenna in the LCD housing, if you can. Discrete, out of the way and is upright when the lid is open. Best of all worlds!

If you can find a maintenance manual for the laptop somewhere I'm sure you'll be able to easily take the LCD housing apart.

In fact, there may even be a routing tunnel or something for such an antenna. There was in my old Thinkpad T22 when I took the LCD out, so I assume there will be in many other laptops.

Cheers
Mick

[GH0STce11]

i have the maintenance manual, and it tells how to get the screen off, but it doesn't tell me how to actually take apart the screen housing. I suppose I could try, but will there be that big of a difference if the antennae are vertical vs horizontal?

[DanU]

In theory the polarization should be the same on both ends. EG if the router antenna is horizontal, then the client antennas should be horizontal too. In practice, the RF scatter from walls and such is so great that the polarization tends to get randomized, so the antenna orientation is almost a non-issue.

[GH0STce11]

ok, thanks for that explanation! I'll just find a place inside the chassis to put them.
and would it help if i put the antenna on my router at like a 45 degree angle? lol i dunno, suppose ill get decent reception either way.

and are there any general guidelines as to which way i should face the antennae?
like one facing north/south like | and one facing east/west like -- ? or does it not matter?

[DanU]

Most people orient their router antennas vertically, so I would put your antenna vertically, too.

If you put it at a 45 degree angle, then in theory the router's antenna has to be slanted at 45 degrees IN THE SAME DIRECTION. If it's in the opposite direction, you'll get a degraded signal. Again, this is due to polarization, which tends to get randomized indoors so it probably won't matter much anyway.

[GH0STce11]

ok, vertical it is.

i ordered both the minipci wifi card and the antennas today, so they'll be here like mondayish.
i'll take pictures of the whole thing, so others can use it as some kind of guide, because there isnt much in the way of installing internal wifi antennas online that i could find.