Wacky Wireless Networking

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Trestkon
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Wacky Wireless Networking

Post by Trestkon »

I find myself lacking in my knowledge of wireless networking and thought one of you fine folks might be able to help me out. I know a fair bit about a fair bit but I'm getting into a rather complicated situation.

The Current Situation
My fiance and I are currently living in the house next door to her parents. It's in the country to the distance is more than city-type houses, about 10 meters or so. Rather than get our own internet connection, we've opted to steal theirs. I currently have a Linksys WRT54G setup at their house with a D-Link 7dBi Omni Directional Antenna hooked up to extend the range over to our house.

The Plan
I'd like to get our TV hooked up so that it can play video over the network. We bought her parents the Western Digital TV and it's absolutely fantastic. Of course, it's not network enabled so you always have to disconnect it to load new content. You *can* get a network version, but it's ethernet only and our house isn't wired. However our new Bluray player has built in wireless n/g/b capabilities and can play content over the network. Sadly, the currently streaming speeds at our house are rather sad, likely due to the distance from the router and the fact that it's only wireless g.

What I'd like to do (and this is the part that has be a bit confused) is purchase a wireless N router and stick it in our house in some kind of repeater mode. So I'd like to have the N router pulling the internet connection from the parents house (the WRT54G router), but all the actual file transfers running over the N band. Video content would be stored on a network storage setup (likely this D-Link connected via ethernet to the N router).

I hope that makes some sense. Anyone with super networking skills care to chime in?
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Jaedar
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Re: Wacky Wireless Networking

Post by Jaedar »

Trestkon wrote:My fiance
Congratulations.

Unfortunately, I know not how to fix the problem. I tend to just hook up a portable computer to the TV when I want to watch internet on the big screen.
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Trestkon
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Re: Wacky Wireless Networking

Post by Trestkon »

Jaedar wrote:
Trestkon wrote:My fiance
Congratulations.
Thanks!
Jaedar wrote:Unfortunately, I know not how to fix the problem. I tend to just hook up a portable computer to the TV when I want to watch internet on the big screen.
Yeah, it's a bit more of a complicated setup than I've done before. I'm very hesitant to discuss something like this with the guys at BestBuy; their knowledge is often...lacking. I heard a guy yesterday telling a woman and her son that they needed a wireless N router because if they got a wireless G his World of Warcraft would lag. He explained that WoW was very "internet intensive" because it was an online game and always connected to the internet.
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Re: Wacky Wireless Networking

Post by EER »

The device I would be looking for if I were you is a "bridge". It is basically a wireless network card that converts the wifi signal to wired signal, hence you could attach a non-wireless-enabled device to a wireless network (assuming it does have an ethernet socket).

I am using this one:
http://reviews.cnet.com/wireless-access ... 60920.html

But other (cheaper) brands have them too, I have no idea on Canadian availability obviously.
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Trestkon
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Re: Wacky Wireless Networking

Post by Trestkon »

Hmm, I did a bit more research and a bridge would almost work. I think what I really want is a repeater...or some combo of the two.

The reason is that some of the devices in our house (the one where we want to extend the network to) are wireless (the BluRay player has wireless N build in) and some would be wired (like the network storage drive). I *could* run wires all over my house, but I'd rather not. Ideally I'd just situate the NAS (network accessable storage) right next to the bridge/repeater/whatever so that could be connected via cable.

EDIT: I think this would do: http://www.dlink.ca/products/?pid=DAP-1360 It has a repeater mode AND I think I can plug the NAS into it's one ethernet port. Although maybe the repeater mode would then limit me to a G network in our house.
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Re: Wacky Wireless Networking

Post by bobby 55 »

Would anything like this help? http://www.netgear.com.au/au/Product/AP ... es/ANT24O5

Perhaps Cisco or a similar company in your neck of the woods would stock them if they're appropriate and don't cost a fortune.
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Trestkon
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Re: Wacky Wireless Networking

Post by Trestkon »

bobby 55 wrote:Would anything like this help? http://www.netgear.com.au/au/Product/AP ... es/ANT24O5

Perhaps Cisco or a similar company in your neck of the woods would stock them if they're appropriate and don't cost a fortune.
Not really. I actually already have one (a 7db antenna, actually) on the WRT54G router to extend the signal over to our house, but I want hour house to have a wireless N signal for file transfer and somehow pull the internet connection from the WRT54G.

Thanks for the suggestion, though :-)
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