Buying Advice Needed: Multiple Xbox 360s

[roberri]

Hi,

I'm in the market to upgrade my current wireless router and I'd appreciate some advice from the illuminated. I have three particular requirements;

- Streaming media delivered over wireless to N class clients

- Support three Xbox 360's with correctly port-forwarded connections to Xbox Live. *** Extremely important to me!!! ***

- Support for a number of G class clients as well, so I'd need a dual-band option right?

I understand Microsoft had a list of routers guaranteed to support multiple XBox Live connections at http://support.xbox.com/en-gb/pages...ng/network-hardware-compatible-xbox-live.aspx but it looks like they haven't updated it in a while as I couldn't see any of the newer models on the list.

Thanks in advance

 

[Rio Rebel]

Are your Xbox connections wired to the router, or wireless using a wireless adaptor?

Needing to have G connections doesn't in itself mean that you need dual band. You can use 2.4ghz for b,g, and n at the same time. However, your need to stream HD media puts the discussion in a new ball game.

For HD media, wired is of course the best and most reliable option. If you can't go wired, l suggest you take a look at MoCa. It can give very good, consistent speeds by sending the data through coax. Of course, this means you need coax cable at your locations.

If you must go wireless, you need the most stable throughput you can get...which means high transfer rates (at least up to a point), few or no drops, which usually means little or no traffic from other devices. THIS is why you would consider dual band - 5ghz is usually much less congested, but make no mistake - 5ghz doesn't send a stronger signal or higher throughput. If you aren't experiencing congestion at 2.4ghz, going to 5ghz may actually LOWER your throughput. So check that out first.

All that being said, from the reviews I've seen (and my own experience with a few routers), your best wireless option is the 3DHD kit from Netgear. Unfortunately, it's over $225 for the pair. The next best wireless solution is a top notch router, like the Netgear WNDR3700 or Cicso E3000, matched with a high quality N adapter and the router configured properly (best channel to avoid other networks, etc.)

So what are the "N class clients" you are connecting with? Specific computers with their own N adapters?

 

[roberri]

Thanks for the advice! The 360s will be using a mix of wired and wireless connections. The wireless 360 will use a 2010 airport express. The other N clients are a 2010 mac book pro, iPad and a mini.

I was edging towards the E4200 but I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Rio Rebel]

Actually, I made an assumption. For streaming non-HD media, almost any N router will do (as well as some G's). It's only if you plan to stream high definition that you need an incredibly stable and fast connection.

I've been streaming my dvd movie collection for years...but I don't yet have the ability to stream a blu-ray.