Have been lurking here for a while and reading a lot. There is a wealth of information here! I am considering upgrading my current home network to wireless N and would like some advice/guidance.
I have a 40 year old 2 story home. I need network/Internet connections in 6 locations of the house: 3 rooms downstairs and 3 rooms upstairs. Five of those locations have TVs. At each TV is a networked DVR (ReplayTV), and a couple also have Blu-Ray players that need an internet connection. Some of those locations also have PCs in the same room and my son has an xbox 360. I am unable to get the house wired for ethernet so instead I have setup a wireless G network as follows:
Downstairs-
Den: Cable Modem --> Buffalo WBR-G54 wireless G router as DHCP server
Living Rm: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den)
Office: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den and set as wireless AP)
Upstairs-
Kids Rm1: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den)
Kids Rm2: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den)
Master : WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den and set as wireless AP)
At each location the DVRs, Blu-Ray players, PCs and/or xbox in the room connect to the router via wire. One router downstairs and one router upstairs are also setup as a wireless AP for iphone and laptop internet use.
The ReplayTVs have the ability to stream their recorded shows to any of the other ReplayTVs in the house and we use that feature frequently. (i.e. watching TV in the living room streaming a show recorded on the DVR in the master bedroom).
This setup works ok but often we have problems streaming video from one DVR to another. Usually when other things are also using the network such as more than one DVR trying to stream, or my son playing xbox live. I am thinking that this is a bandwidth issue and I am wondering if I would see improvement by swapping out the Buffalo G routers for N routers. I am also a little confused about the difference between WDS bridging vs. repeaters. Is one better performance-wise over the other?
Suggestions?
I have a 40 year old 2 story home. I need network/Internet connections in 6 locations of the house: 3 rooms downstairs and 3 rooms upstairs. Five of those locations have TVs. At each TV is a networked DVR (ReplayTV), and a couple also have Blu-Ray players that need an internet connection. Some of those locations also have PCs in the same room and my son has an xbox 360. I am unable to get the house wired for ethernet so instead I have setup a wireless G network as follows:
Downstairs-
Den: Cable Modem --> Buffalo WBR-G54 wireless G router as DHCP server
Living Rm: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den)
Office: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den and set as wireless AP)
Upstairs-
Kids Rm1: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den)
Kids Rm2: WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den)
Master : WBR-G54 (WDS bridged to Den and set as wireless AP)
At each location the DVRs, Blu-Ray players, PCs and/or xbox in the room connect to the router via wire. One router downstairs and one router upstairs are also setup as a wireless AP for iphone and laptop internet use.
The ReplayTVs have the ability to stream their recorded shows to any of the other ReplayTVs in the house and we use that feature frequently. (i.e. watching TV in the living room streaming a show recorded on the DVR in the master bedroom).
This setup works ok but often we have problems streaming video from one DVR to another. Usually when other things are also using the network such as more than one DVR trying to stream, or my son playing xbox live. I am thinking that this is a bandwidth issue and I am wondering if I would see improvement by swapping out the Buffalo G routers for N routers. I am also a little confused about the difference between WDS bridging vs. repeaters. Is one better performance-wise over the other?
Suggestions?
