HD Extender wireless solutions thread

[Yooper]

I did use the Aurugrid unit - it helped and I got better coverage - but it was not a huge increase in the signal - but it was good enough to use a laptop anywhere in the house. I eventually strung cat6 cable and put in a wireless N unit. The cat6 cable gave me the flexibility to move the unit around until I got the best coverage. The newer wireless units seem to have better coverage.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by fyodor

My fiance would beat me like a drum if she found ethernet cables all over the house.

One of the benefits of 10 years of marriage, HawgGirl recognizes some sacrifices need to be made in the name of technology <g>. I'm reminded of the Taco Bell commercial with the tattooed chick & the dog.....

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by BBCritical

Has anyone had any luck with the Auragrid Home Network Extension Kit? http://www.smarthome.com/6404k.html

You could also use a MOCA adapter too. Verizon is using MOCA in their FIOS installs.

B

[fyodor]

Do they sell consumer MOCA adapters? I haven't been able to find any.

[fyodor]

Will the Aurugrid unit work with MIMO and 802.11n?

Originally Posted by Yooper

I did use the Aurugrid unit - it helped and I got better coverage - but it was not a huge increase in the signal - but it was good enough to use a laptop anywhere in the house. I eventually strung cat6 cable and put in a wireless N unit. The cat6 cable gave me the flexibility to move the unit around until I got the best coverage. The newer wireless units seem to have better coverage.

[BBCritical]

Has anyone tried the Zyxel PLA-400 adapters?

[bcjenkins]

http://www.smarthome.com/30000.html

http://www.corinex.com/web/docx.nsf/...blelan_adapter

Start here, I will post more links when I have time. I don't think either of these are MoCA devices, but I have something else buried in my mail box.

B

[Yooper]

No, the Aurugrid does not work with N. I think only B.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by BBCritical

Has anyone had any luck with the Auragrid Home Network Extension Kit? http://www.smarthome.com/6404k.html

Curious to know about Auragrid... Although there are signal attenuations in the 50-to-75 ohm splitters/combiners that they supply, and you probably shouldn't have el-cheap-o TV splitters in the coax run, the math makes sense. Cheap RG59 coax has about 18dB loss per 100 ft at 2.4GHz. Free space (air) loss (no walls) for 100 ft, at 2.4GHz is about 70 or 80 dB. You start with a WiFi at about +15dBm, subtract the loss in coax or air. With coax, add 10 or so dB of loss for the couplers. You still come out way ahead of free space loss (37 + log(2400) + 20log(100 ft). If there are drywalls, add about 4dB per two-layer wall. Floors are a lot more, depending on construction.

I wonder why Auragrid isn't more popular. Must be something I don't know. Or bad marketing.

11b/g/n should all work - as long as you don't use 5.8GHz version of 11n (rare today). coax and antennas only know frequency, not modulation method. And the Auragrid must be designed to pass all WiFi channels in the 2.4GHz band.

[geogecko]

WiFi-N is also 5.8GHz as well.

[sandor]

I have a Dlink 625? at home (gigabit router/802.11 n) and can wirelessly stream, uncompressed ATSC, to two Placeshifter clients on MacBooks with no problem at all.

3 full ATSC streams would only be about 7 MB/s, and i can sustain that with no problem throughout my house on 802.11 n - but more realistically, it seems most ATSC main channels are running about 9-10 mbps, making 3 streams about 3.5 MB/s, which makes 6 wireless streams possible on my 802.11 n network.


regardless, i am only looking for one wireless HD client at this point (server is running the DLP in my living room) so 802.11 n and a HD client will be more than capable for ATSC.

...my experience...

[sandor]

Originally Posted by autoboy

Do any of these N products actually work reliably? Are we out of the teething problems that we had with Draft N and on to ones that actually work? Does anyone use any of these N products for the clients?

I have had nothing but success with n/draft n (i think everything is still draft, right? no final approvals yet?)

I set up a 2-base station network (WDS?) at my wife's office with Apple Airport N routers - they can sustain about 10-12 MB/s read and 9-10 MB/s write. No problems whatsoever, has worked flawlessly for over 6 months.

At home i upgraded from a Linksys WRT54G (the second revision) which sustained about 2.1 MB/s r/w to a DLink 625 802.11 n with gigabit router. The DLink sustains 8-9 MB/s read and 8 MB/s write all throughout my house (bi-level, all metal studs).

HD streams over N to placeshifter (no compression/LAN setting) with absolutely no problem. I was debating setting up a house-wide network (an extra run of 5e was included with every cat3 phone run) but the 802.11 n has worked so well i havent even thought about it.

certainly, the 802.11 n spec is not officially finalized/adopted by IEEE yet, but it could be up to 18 months before it is, and i have a strong feeling all currently sold hardware will be able to be compliant with the finalized spec with a firmware update. Already, i have had 2 firmware upgrades for both the Apple Airport and the Dlink 625 to bring them up to date with the 802.11 n spec changes - i'm believing that at this point the hardware spec is set, and software/firmware is the open-ended debate.




my experience with SageTV and HD:

802.11 g - cannot get a good HD feed
802.11 n - tested 2x feeds, no problems at all, anywhere in the house

100bT - of course no problems
1000bT - can sustain multiple 60 MB/s copies to my NAS as well as multiple Sage connections as well as normal surfing and email...

[BBCritical]

Originally Posted by sandor

I have had nothing but success with n/draft n (i think everything is still draft, right? no final approvals yet?)

I set up a 2-base station network (WDS?) at my wife's office with Apple Airport N routers - they can sustain about 10-12 MB/s read and 9-10 MB/s write. No problems whatsoever, has worked flawlessly for over 6 months.

At home i upgraded from a Linksys WRT54G (the second revision) which sustained about 2.1 MB/s r/w to a DLink 625 802.11 n with gigabit router. The DLink sustains 8-9 MB/s read and 8 MB/s write all throughout my house (bi-level, all metal studs).

HD streams over N to placeshifter (no compression/LAN setting) with absolutely no problem. I was debating setting up a house-wide network (an extra run of 5e was included with every cat3 phone run) but the 802.11 n has worked so well i havent even thought about it.

certainly, the 802.11 n spec is not officially finalized/adopted by IEEE yet, but it could be up to 18 months before it is, and i have a strong feeling all currently sold hardware will be able to be compliant with the finalized spec with a firmware update. Already, i have had 2 firmware upgrades for both the Apple Airport and the Dlink 625 to bring them up to date with the 802.11 n spec changes - i'm believing that at this point the hardware spec is set, and software/firmware is the open-ended debate.




my experience with SageTV and HD:

802.11 g - cannot get a good HD feed
802.11 n - tested 2x feeds, no problems at all, anywhere in the house

100bT - of course no problems
1000bT - can sustain multiple 60 MB/s copies to my NAS as well as multiple Sage connections as well as normal surfing and email...

has anyone had any success with streaming HD content from the dlink 655 to a 802.11g super-g adapter?

[sandor]

Originally Posted by BBCritical

has anyone had any success with streaming HD content from the dlink 655 to a 802.11g super-g adapter?

as far as i have ever been able to tell, super g requires a super g router to get increased speeds, with a normal g router or an n router (which is set to allow g to connect) super g will work just fine, but only at 54 mbps, not 108.

I have had no problem connecting any g device to my n router, and haven't worried about using n only mode, because i notice no difference in throughput either way.



oh, and i have to add that i have the DLink 655 NOT the DLink 625...

[evilpenguin]

IIRC, Super G gets a lot of its "throughput gains" through on-the-fly data compression which won't work on already compressed material like movies, pictures, etc.

[BBCritical]

What about the dlink 655 with one of these ... http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=154416

It supports super g

[sandor]

Originally Posted by BBCritical

What about the dlink 655 with one of these ... http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=154416

It supports super g

i would completely ignore super g - it will give you no benefits over g when you combine it with an n network.

n is the way to go - it is faster and more robust and an actual industry standard versus the hodge-podge MIMO g's that are out there.

[BBCritical]

only problem with this is I cannot find any n wireless adapters on the market... only routers .. Im looking for an n bridge.

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by BBCritical

only problem with this is I cannot find any n wireless adapters on the market... only routers .. Im looking for an n bridge.

To quote myself:

Originally Posted by sainswor99

The Dlink DAP-1555 MediaBridge is supposed to bridge with any wireless-N router; if you've already got a wireless-N solution, you may only need to buy this one.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=570

[BBCritical]

Wow.. I completely overlooked that.. yeah that would do it .. now if I could find a bridge that was less then $200 (same price as the extender ) I'd be in HD heaven.....