It's not any kind of hardware hack but I wanted to check how the dual band omni antenna from TP-Link WDR3600 looks like... and here it is:

Mmm... that does connect to anything inside the long part ?

I think you should cut it open to find out :-)

Nope. The long part is empty inside... I checked it with a small flashlight

BTW. WDR4300 has the same antennas...

(Last edited by pepe2k on 9 Apr 2013, 08:34)

I think those are just 5GHz 1/4 wavelenght antennas? At 5Ghz, it must measure about 15mm.
So, it looks ok.
Althought that antennas got around 3dB gain...Tplink could have done better!
The 2.4GHZ antennas are inside the router itself

Where? I don't see any kind of antenna inside, on PCB...

The wdr4300  (and i believe the 3600, but don't know) claims to have external dual band antennas whereas the wdr4900 (according to their website) uses the external antennas for 5ghz only and has 3 antennas internally for 2.4

Hi guys,

Old thread, but interesting photos and observations of the dismantled WDR3600 antenna.

Has it been ascertained (A/ B testing) that the plastic bits do nothing at all (decorative), or are they say, high carbon plastic (or some other RF conductive material), ensuring that they are an integral part of the antenna array?

Cheers

my wdr4300 has no 2.4G antenna inside and yes according to TP-LINK, it is dual 5dBi external antenna
does this mean cheating?

(Last edited by freewifimarketing.net on 7 Jul 2016, 10:07)

I know for a fact that both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz are using the external antenna ports as I have outdoor antennas connected and it clearly increases how far I can pick up the signals, particularly 2.4Ghz as my antennas are intended for that frequency.