Isolating 5Ghz for media streaming

[scottyja]

I'm not sure if I'm looking at this correctly and would love some insight. I'm going to buy a Cisco EA3500 to replace my WRT54g (which I'll use for a guest network). The main reason is we're moving to a new house and will be using my Xbox 360 as a media center extender in the basement. It will be using the Microsoft wireless adapter, which is supposedly 5Ghz compliant. I anticipate we will be using the XBox as an extender quite a bit, streaming Netflix and recorded TV shows from Media Center computer upstairs.

My main question is if it's possible, or if it makes sense, to use the 5Ghz band only for the XBox to ensure better streaming and all other devices (mixed G/N) on the 2.4Ghz band. The other devices include a Wii, 3 Android phones, 1 Kindle and 2 laptops, none of which are heavily used or require high bandwidth. I've gone through the guides posted here and it sounds like there are issues combining G and N devices, so I'm thinking keeping the XBox separate would help. Will it?

Thanks for any help!

 

[thiggins]

See SmallNetBuilder's Wireless FAQ: The Essential FAQ5.

Note that 5 GHz has shorter range than 2.4 GHz. So depending on distance, home construction and the bandwidth requirements of your video streams, 5 GHz might not connect at all or provide low bandwidth.

 

[scottyja]

That's true. We're not in the house yet, so can't confirm anything, but the location would the next room over, but in the basement. I've been assuming it will reach. If not, is there a better scenario to ensure the streaming devices get the bandwidth they need?

 

[stevech]

next room over? Can't you get cat5 through the wall?

 

[scottyja]

next room over? Can't you get cat5 through the wall?

Well, next room over and down a floor. The house isn't pre-wired at all and I'd prefer to not run new cables if I can avoid it. To do it properly, I'd have to run the cable down an exterior wall, which I've heard is problematic. I also thought about doing powerline adapters, which I might do for upstair rooms, but the basement is wired to a separate sub-panel. I'm assuming I wouldn't get great bandwidths there.

 

[stevech]

can you do MoCA or HPNA via TV coax in both rooms?

 

[thiggins]

Try powerline
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/finders/powerline/view

 

[scottyja]

Thanks for the replies. For the powerline, I might try that upstairs, but the downstairs is on a separate sub-panel. I'm going to try it out, but don't have high hopes based off reviews I've read. The sub-panel feeds into the main panel, so maybe it will just take some trial/error.

Stevech, I had to look up HPNA - I didn't even realize the technology existed. Looks pretty interesting. There are plenty of coax connections in the different rooms, I'll just have to find where they all meet.

We move in the end of this month, so I'll be curious to see which of the options works best.