Best Wireless Router for Media Box?

[Sheep]

Hello,

I did a quick search and have been reading a little about routers lately but there seems to be a lot of differing opinions.

My main pc is wired to my current shaw modem (High Speed 20), but my Media box is at the other end of my apartment, and the wireless signal is only half strength at that point. It causes most video clips as well as music eventually to stutter and "catch up" (Video pauses for 30 or so seconds, then for fast forward to catch up to where it is currently playing). This is rendering this setup unsuable, and running a wire to the box is out of the question (can't cut walls, would run past the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom).

Just want to know what a good wireless router that can give me good signal strength and help me get this media box working properly (all that's left is getting the files to show up as wirte all the time).

The Media box is a WD TV Live. Also not looking to spend more then $100, at that point I'd buy a massive HDD and just update the content when I need to.

Thanks for the help!

[botat29]

May be an option is to not use wireless router, I have a friend who use Powerline to stream to is HTPC he like it. You plug a module in the power outlet near your router and the other one near your HTPC, and then you just connect them with a Network cable.

Newegg.ca - Powerline, Powerline Adapter, Ethernet Bridge, USB Powerline Adapter, Powerline Networking Kit, Powerline Ethernet Adapter


D-Link kit at $ 69

Newegg.ca - D-Link DHP-307AV PowerLine AV Network Starter Kit Up to 200Mbps

[Arinoth]

IF you are streaming 1080p content then you have to use some form of wired connection. Wireless N doesnt have enough reliable bandwidth to meet 95% of most people's 1080p streaming needs.

On the note of using powerline, that would be a great alternative to a wireless router, and it can give you guaranteed speeds up to 500 Mbps, whereas the theoretical max speed of Wireless N is 300 Mbps (aka no walls or EM interference)

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by botat29

May be an option is to not use wireless router, I have a friend who use Powerline to stream to is HTPC he like it. You plug a module in the power outlet near your router and the other one near your HTPC, and then you just connect them with a Network cable.

Newegg.ca - Powerline, Powerline Adapter, Ethernet Bridge, USB Powerline Adapter, Powerline Networking Kit, Powerline Ethernet Adapter


D-Link kit at $ 69

Newegg.ca - D-Link DHP-307AV PowerLine AV Network Starter Kit Up to 200Mbps

I've heard about this before.. Seems like a great idea, just unsure about how it will work going through surge protectors and apartment wiring. Seems like a great way to send internet though, thanks for the link!

Originally Posted by Arinoth

IF you are streaming 1080p content then you have to use some form of wired connection. Wireless N doesnt have enough reliable bandwidth to meet 95% of most people's 1080p streaming needs.

On the note of using powerline, that would be a great alternative to a wireless router, and it can give you guaranteed speeds up to 500 Mbps, whereas the theoretical max speed of Wireless N is 300 Mbps (aka no walls or EM interference)

Thanks for the information! Yeah there is no "walls" in the way, but the modem is in a corner of the dem, and would have to go out, and left, then straight to the other end to read the media box.

Most of my downloads are 720p or regular 480i (don't feel like buying stocks in HDDs), or under 1.5gb files for any given video. If the powerline one works through my surge protector and apartment wiring (which is a brand new building), I think I'll go that route.

Thanks again for the help!

[Chromey]

Hmm the powerling adaptor... Does it really work?,
110V can cause RF noise for routers, So its hard to understand how this could be clean signal.

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by Chromey

Hmm the powerling adaptor... Does it really work?,
110V can cause RF noise for routers, So its hard to understand how this could be clean signal.

From what I've just read, it seems that the apartments and condo's fair better then larger houses, especially older ones. This bodes well for my situations, but I'm unsire if I can get away with a 200Mbps adapter versus the 500Mbps one. I'd like the option to never bog down, but I think for what I do, with files under 2gb, I should be ok with 200Mbps.

Thanks for all the help! Made this much easier!

[botat29]

Originally Posted by Chromey

Hmm the powerling adaptor... Does it really work?,
110V can cause RF noise for routers, So its hard to understand how this could be clean signal.

It work so fine that in some countries the internet providers distribute internet to their users true the power lines of the electrical companies.

[The Quicken]

Trendnet 500MBs Powerline, I have 5 of these, 3 WD TV Live Media streamers of which 2 have 1TB HDD's attached.
PoE is a weird Tech but it's the next best thing to running Ethernet wires.

[Sheep]

I ended up purchasing the WD Livewire box as it was on sale at NCIX.

Been running steady all weekend and no longer have drop outs or freezing. It's been showing around 130-140Mbps speeds too.

If anyone has experience with the WD TV Live, can you give me some insight into getting my files to not pop up as read only? I've followed the steps provided for sharing files on XP, but certain ones still pop up as read only on the media box regardless of how they're shared.

Any insight will be greatly appreciated.