How to select 3rd party outdoor antenna for SonicPoints
03/26/2020 
1117 
12690
DESCRIPTION:
This article will give you advises when you would like to select 3rd party antennas for your SonicPoint, while as SonicWall Support Service does not cover 3rd party antennas, once there are any issues related to the 3rd party antenna (e.g. Signal Strength), support may ask to install the original antennas for the further troubleshooting.
RESOLUTION:
To select 3rd party outdoor antennas, you may consider the following aspects:
1. Connector type for your SonicPoint. Below table lists the connector type for each different SonicPoint.
| SonicPoint ACe | SonicPoint N2 | SonicPoint N-DR | SonicPoint Ne |
| Antennas Connector type | 3+3 (RP-SMA 2.4 GHz + RP-TNC 5 GHz) | 3+3 (RP-SMA 2.4 GHz + RP-TNC 5 GHz) | 3+3 (SMA 2.4 GHz + RP-TNC 5 GHz) | 3 SMA 2.4 GHz |
Note: SonicPoint ACi and Ni are not listed here?as both of them support internal antennas only. 2. Local regulatory domain strategies. For example, in the FCC domain you can use an antenna with equal or smaller gain compared to the certified antenna ( e.g. choose 2.4G (3dBi) and 5G6 (dBi) gain respectively which SonicPoint antennas have).
3. Cable length. Feed line length matters greatly for the microwave bands. For instance RG213 has about 15 dB loss per 100 feet at 2.4 GHz and 28 dB at 5GHz. Cell towers typically use hardline that is over an inch thick. The type of coax chosen matters greatly. In general, keep the transmission line extremely short, mount the radio directly under the antenna. Or use low loss transmission line (e.g. LMR600 or even a LMR900).
4. 3rd party antenna should better support diversity and come with three connectors. The access point utilizes a technology MIMO in which all three antennas can send and receive. This helps the device become more efficient. When you take and put a single antenna which does not support diversity, it doesn't actually do anything... And in some cases will actually cause the device to degrade its abilities. If you are wanting to place the access point inside the building, then run an antenna outside, then it would be better to select an antenna that supports diversity and comes with three connectors, so you can plug all three antenna ports into one antenna.
Note?If you use this antenna externally with no diversity supported and leave the access point inside with the other two antennas connected, it will still function, but you could face a few issues with the distance of the signal, and the ability to handle more than 10 connections at one time outside.
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