HD Extender wireless solutions thread

[sandor]

how far do you need to cover with the router? i have found the N hardware really lives up to the greatly increased range that they advertise. i couldnt sit on my roof deck and get signal with my WRT54G, but i get full signal with the DLink 655.

i would get an N router first, test it, then see if you even need a bridge/extender. if you need the extender for a desktop computer, or for a printer, and not for extending the network, that is another issue and normal g print servers or a usb/pci N adapter will work just fine.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by 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.....

That is a bridge, and it is less than $200, lowest price I've seen for it is around $160. You'll be hard pressed to find wireless n stuff for a good price, as just now the wireless g stuff is starting to fall off. N is so new now, you'll have to pay more for it.

The nice thing about the bridge, for your living room, at least, is that if you have a gaming system and an HD extender, they can share the connection, since it has 4 ports on it. Kind of defrays the cost when you look at it like that... Not sure what I'll do for the bedroom, $160 just to get a network connection in there just for an HD extender seems a bit much...

I'm still considering using Cat 5e, but it won't be easy, but at least a one time thing...

[stevech]

Originally Posted by sandor

h
i would get an N router first, test it, then see if you even need a bridge/extender. if you need the extender for a desktop computer, or for a printer, and not for extending the network, that is another issue and normal g print servers or a usb/pci N adapter will work just fine.

11n is a new modulation technology, different that 11b/g - so the client device has to be the same vintage of draft 11n to get any benefit. An 11b/g client can associate to an 11n access device, but it will not be in 11n mode.

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by geogecko

That is a bridge, and it is less than $200, lowest price I've seen for it is around $160. You'll be hard pressed to find wireless n stuff for a good price, as just now the wireless g stuff is starting to fall off. N is so new now, you'll have to pay more for it.

I almost posted the same thing, quoting myself, quoting myself. I've seen it around that price as well; now if you don't have a wireless N network it'll cost you more but I think you get double speed out of two of them.

This is the first bridge I've seen that claims to work with existing wireless infrastructure.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by stevech

11n is a new modulation technology, different that 11b/g - so the client device has to be the same vintage of draft 11n to get any benefit. An 11b/g client can associate to an 11n access device, but it will not be in 11n mode.

Yes and No.

To get full benefit of N (which is backward compatible with B and G) you want all N hardware.

BUT....

unlike G ---> B, N will allow mixed networks with N hardware working at N speeds, and B and G working at B and G speeds (without affecting N speeds)

So having G devices on an N network is like having a 100bT device on a 1000bT network - the device will have lower theoretical speeds, but it won't affect the overall network.

(*** 5 ghz N is different, and won't allow G and B access, but i havent really seen any improvement in performance between 2.4 and 5)



My main point was that i bet he doesn't even need a bridge with an N router because of the increased range.


***EDIT
currently i have 3 types of N and 3 types of G on my Belkin N router - no issues. certainly the N products run much much faster, but the G works well (and, incidentally, about 700 KB/s faster than on my old WRT54G)

[sainswor99]

Sorry to revive such an ancient thread, but has anyone actually tested any of these solutions with the HD extender? Just curious to see if wireless-N holds up well.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by sainswor99

Sorry to revive such an ancient thread, but has anyone actually tested any of these solutions with the HD extender? Just curious to see if wireless-N holds up well.

I'm assuming that D-Link will be announcing the DIR-855 at CES next week, which will mean that it should be available soon. That is the wireless-n router I'm planning on buying, and then using with the HD Media Bridges that D-Link also makes...

Surprisingly enough, with a WRT54G router, and a Buffalo Ethernet Extender, I'm able to watch an HD show, but without sound...and it's slightly choppy at times. I doubt wireless-n will have any problems with it.