Common Wireless Antenna Connectors (Antenna to device connector)

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We've photographed and labelled the most common types of connectors you get on WIFI kits, so you can work out what cable you need to buy to join up your wireless card/access point and external antenna, replacements or better, more powerful aerials:

Type1.
N Connectors are usually found on external antenna and antenna cabling. It's usually cheaper to make your own cabling from RG-213 or LMR-400 cable and a couple of N-Connectors, than to buy fixed length cables from your Access Point manufacturer.

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Male N-Connector

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Female N-Connector


Type 2.
TNC connectors are usually found on access points such as the Linksys WAP11.
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Male RP-TNC

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Female RP-TNC


Type3.
SMA connectors are usually found on PCI wireless cards, such as the Belkin F5D6001 or the Netgear MA311.
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Male RP-SMA

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Female RP-SMA



Type4.
These connectors are usually found on PCMCIA cards like the Buffalo WLI-PCM-L11G.
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Male MC (Lucent) Connector

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Female MC (Lucent) Connector



The 'RP' in RP-TNC and RP-SMA stands for Reverse Polarity. Hardware manufacturers seem to love using connectors that are hard to find. Most commercial converter cables and pigtails, convert the antenna connector to an N-Type connector, as almost all external antenna (yagi,omni or patch) come with N connectors.

If you need to make an extension cable between the antenna and the pigtail/converter cable, we recommend using either LMR-400 or RG-213 cable as these are durable low loss cables suitable for 2.4 Ghz.