Bridging my Home Theater

[StormEffect]

Hello! Longtime reader of SNB, this site has taught me an incredible amount about networking and has influenced my buying decisions for several households and clients over the last few years.

Let me give you a rough overview of my network:
Current Router: DIR-655 (A3 revision)
Current Wired Clients:
1. Tower PC next to router
2. Multifunction network printer. (7700 from HP, iirc)
Current Wireless Clients:
1. Tivo Wireless G adapter for Tivo Series 2 unit.
2. Tivo Wireless G adapter for HDTivo
3. Wireless G ExpressCard adapter for a 5 year old Alienware.
4. Wireless N on a 2 year old Macbook Pro running Windows 7.

Just checked inSSIDer on my Macbook Pro and it looks like I'm the only network in the area broadcasting on channel 1.

Very soon *fingers crossed*, I will be updating my Home Theater from a 10-year-old rear-projection HDTV, HDTivo, and ancient DVD/VHS combo player to an LCD HDTV, BlueRay Player, and the aforementioned HDTivo. This means I'm going to need a total of 3 network connections to my Home Theater.

My router is on Floor 2, the Home Theater is on Floor 1. They are separated by approximately 55 feet and pass through a complicated little vortex of walls and flooring (in other words, the signal goes through the floor, then a wall, and then another wall below that), I'm pretty sure it's all sheet rock for the walls and wood flooring for the floor.

The router is situated on a desk next to a tower PC (literally about 2 feet away from an Antec 900).

Currently, the only wireless signal that must traverse the Router-to-Home Theater obstacle course is the USB Wireless G Tivo adapter attached to the HDTivo. According to the infopanel on the Tivo, it typically gets a 45% signal. If I fumble with the orientation of the adapter itself and boost it up with a couple hard cover books, I've seen the signal go as high as 68%. This rarely lasts, however, eventually the signal returns to 45%. According to inSSIDer, if I put my notebook right where the USB Tivo Adapter typically sits, I'm getting signal strength of roughly -78 dBm.

That said, even with the dubious signal, I've had no problems watching streamed Netflix on my HDTivo, which is really the MOST intensive data transfer involved in this whole setup, I don't plan on streaming local media over the network.

Still, it would be nice to increase the signal, and possibly move up a quality bracket in Netflix streaming. I'm using the introduction of these new internet-capable devices as an excuse to buy a wireless bridge. This is an appropriate use, right? I would situate it in roughly the same area as the Tivo USB wireless adapter and connect the TV, Tivo, and BlueRay player to it's Ethernet switch.

So far the most logical choice I can come up with is the D-Link DAP-1522. It wont be able to operate in the 5Ghz band due to the DIR-655, but I assume that attenuation of the 5Ghz band by the time it has traveled to my Home Theater renders that point null anyhow.

So in other words, to simplify my incredibly long post, here is what I'm hoping to do, and I welcome suggestions.

DIR-655 Router (Wireless clients)
1. USB Wireless G Tivo on Series 2
2. Wireless G card in old Alienware
3. Wireless N MacBook Pro
4. DAP-1522 Bridge to HDTivo, LCD HDTV, BlueRay Player

Given all the junk I just wrote, any suggestions or warnings? I'm ready to buy the DAP-1522 or any suggested alternatives whenever.

 

[thiggins]

Your plan is basically ok.

If you're going to be streaming to G and N clients simultaneously, you'll want to add a G router to separate the networks. See Before you ask about mixing N and A/B/G clients.

But if you move everything to N or won't be running G and N simultaneously you'll be ok with a single N router.

I'd recommend setting the router to 20MHz bandwidth mode, not auto or 20/40 unless you're getting a medium to strong signal. Performance will actually degrade using a 40MHz bonded channel under weak signal conditions.

 

[StormEffect]

Thanks for the reply!

Rather than connecting a G-only router, would it be better to simply remove the two devices that are G from the network? I'm thinking this because I don't feel the DIR-655 is the best example of an N router due to it being 2.4Ghz only. In other words, if I split things up between N and G, I feel a little guilty and consider that maybe I should just buy a DIR-825 or DIR-855 or other dual band router for the N part rather than an old Draft N router. (Edit: Whoops, looks like you already answered this above.)

If none of that is possible, do you think I should simply turn the router into G-only mode, this is how I currently have it set, because I pretty religiously follow your articles and realized that G-Only mode would get me better performance than mixed mode when different types of clients are broadcasting. Then again, that was more appropriate when I had several other G-only clients broadcasting. I think I had at least 5 wireless G adapters at some point. It might be easier to remove the old two...

I'm not averse to buying another router for G-only, it just seems that buying a wireless N card for the old computer I've got and maybe trying to Ethernet the older Tivo would be easier and cleaner than doing that. Then again, whenever someone with a wifi enabled mobile phone comes around, I guess that will crash the network back down to sub-g speeds, right? So maybe I'm cursed to split the network whether I want to or not! CURSE YOU WIRELESS G! CURSE YOU!

Can you give me a recommendation for a router to use as G-Only? It doesn't need to broadcast as far as the N router.

EDIT: I purchased the DAP-1522, so that part is confirmed for now. I also got a wireless N card for the laptop, so I think the network should be running at N speeds almost all the time, except at around 3am when the old Tivo G adapter updates the Tivo. I'll post back later with results.