ALFA APA-L2458M912 12 dBi gain outdoor 2.4/5 GHz dual band WiFi directional panel antenna

There's not much info on the Alfa site about this particular model. I emailed both Alfa and Rokland with questions about the tech specs, and they both replied quickly with very detailed information including the lab test's results of this exact model.

So, I ordered right away from Rokland, and I've been running it 24-7 for a week and a half with a Mikrotik Groove 52ac to pick up signal from a normal household router about 40 yards away, using only the 5GHz band in 1x1 SISO mode (I use only one of the two N connectors, the horizontal polarization one) with Wifi-ac. The prior antenna was an 6/8dBi omnidirectional antenna made by Mikrotik that came with my Mikrotik Groove 52acn, and it was getting about -80 to -82 dBm signal on a noise floor of -103dBm. That's a pretty poor signal due to extremely dense interference from dozens of Wifi APs all around, and it showed up as slow performance with the stock Mikrotik antenna.

After installing this Alfa panel antenna, the signal and noise measurements didn't any better, BUT what I noticed over time was that the number of dropped connections and the CCQ (Client Connection Quality) were much better (67 connection drops in a week with stock antenna, 4 drops in a week with this Alfa antenna), and the overall performance as observed by the end user was definitely much better. The connection was not faster, but it was more reliable with fewer dropped frames, so the overall result was less buffering during videos and conference calls and more consistent downloads of large files.

I am extremely pleased with the Alfa APA-L2458M912. Yes, if I bought a better radio than the Groove 52acn that has MIMO capability, it would be able to use the full capabilities of the APA-L2458M912 and would get far, far better speeds just due to 2x2 MIMO. But for now, in SISO mode, it works great for my purposes and unlike a higher-gain SISO yagi cantenna that would get farther directional range, it gives me room to grow into 2x2 MIMO.

As soon as I received this Alfa 12 dBi dual band antenna, I tested it. I connected it to an Alfa ACHM dual band adapter, and WOW! It picked up many AP's in the area and at decent strength. It picked up Lowe's Guest Wifi signal (1/3 of a mile from me) on the 5 GHz band and I got good Internet and decent download speed. I'm using an old Dell Latitude D820 laptop (2006 model) which has an internal a/b/g wifi chip, which means it's dual band; (the "a" type signal runs on 5 GHz while the "b" and "g" run on 2.4 GHz). Dual band "ac" external wifi adapters and antennas can be used in old computers whose internal wifi chips have the "a" type along with the others, such as a/b/g; a/b/g/n; a/g/n. They will not work in computers whose internal wifi chips are b/g or g/n or b/g/n only, since the motherboards in those computers are compatible with 2.4 GHz only.