(Ethernet Wi-Fi Bridges)

[ATOMIC MALOO R8]

hi guys i want to connect my blu ray player X 2 AND MY WD TV live to the net wirelessly as the big blue 10m cable is giving me the S#%$% T what is the best brand of bridge to get ?
the signal has to go through a block wall from our ADSL thomson TG782T home network GATEWAY in a direct line its only about 4m
now we no longer have austar since they went over to foxtel and doubled the price per month ( as we were with austar for 15 year we had a special deal going ) im watching a lot of net tv and u tube stuff now
so need the net conection
cheers

[VT_SS_II]

Instead of buying a dedicated bridge device you can also configure a wireless router to work as a bridge. Really depends if you're prepared to fiddle with settings or just want something to work out of the box.

I bought a cheap TP-Link TL-WR841N Wireless router (about $30) an re-flashed the firmware with DD-WRT (http://www.dd-wrt.com).
After loading the new firmware it took about 5 mins to set it up as wi-fi bridge.

[macca_779]

Hang on a sec only 10m of ethernet cable and you can't see the Wifi. Or is the device ethernet only?

Wire ethernet through the wall.. Much better solution than a wifi bridge.

But if you aren't up for a little work have a read of this. http://www.cyberciti.biz/networking/howto-connect-two-wireless-router-wirelessly-bridge-with-open-source-software/

[ATOMIC MALOO R8]

well i don't want to but a hole in the walls
my 5 year old players dont have built in wifi only a port on the back to except the net cable so i need the receiver plugged in to them

[macca_779]

well i don't want to but a hole in the walls
my 5 year old players dont have built in wifi only a port on the back to except the net cable so i need the receiver plugged in to them

Never said to put extra holes in. Simple replace your tv ae with a double face plate so you can put the ethernet there with a tv point

For where the router is do the same with the phone port for example. You can use the existing wiring as the pull through too.

I did it recently at a mates place which is a rental.

[mummbles]

What about Ethernet Over Power ?

[HZforMe]

You can also get a small wifi adaptor that will plug into an rj45 network port.
Haven't brought one myself but it would be a simplier way to go.

[Davothegreat]

If you don't have to use wireless then avoid it, it will never be as reliable or offer the same performance as Ethernet. Also, if you've got underfloor access and don't want to drill through the wall and install wall plates you could go through the floor and under the house instead.

A couple of points to consider... if this is your house and not a rental and you're up for the job of running Ethernet cable around the place it would be wise to future proof the cable runs so as to avoid having to ever redo them. Best ways to do this are to run the cables from some sort of central location so they never have to be relocated (a closet on a cavity wall is ideal) and make sure you run more than enough cables in a single run to avoid having to buy and install switches everywhere. Wall plates can hold 6 Ethernet keystone jacks - make use of it. Running a single Ethernet line is asking for trouble.

When I starting running Ethernet in my house I used one of our builtin wardrobes that happens to have the side wall against a cavity wall and there was a power point inside too. I've now got 4x 6 port wall plates in the wardrobe running Ethernet around the place. Not all of the lines are connected to a switch at any one time (15 lines are connected) but the facility is there so if new devices turn up there's spare cables running to every bedroom and the lounge/entertainment unit area. And the best thing is I keep my comms equipment wall mounted on the side wall in the wardrobe so they're out of the way and never have to be moved if I decide to move things between rooms such as when we moved our home office between bedrooms earlier this year - I just ran additional Ethernet runs to the new room and the old runs to the old room remain as is.

Cheers,
Dave

[macca_779]

This is my setup Dave

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i39/macca_779/null_zps34378c3d.jpg

Left Wallplate: TV Antenna with booster / Phone line

Elgato Netstream so any device on the network (phones, iPads, Mac's, PC's can watch Freeview
Billion 7404VGPX ADSL2+ Router
Sipura SPA-3000 VOIP ATA (the internal billion one is junk)
3TB WD HDD
1TB WD My Book World Edition NAS/Media Server


Up top are
2x 4 outlet GPO's
16 port HP Pro curve gigabit switch
15 Port Patch panel

Cable runs into the roof through one of those round desk bungs

Whole house is wired with CAT-6 to 9 ports throughout. Only rooms with multiple are the study with 3 and the lounge with 2 (one on the floor for PS3/one behind the wall mounted TV for an Apple AirPort Express which runs all the WiFi (as the billion router is again crap) it also has a high end FM transmitter on it so I can AirPlay to any radio on the property. The TV connects to the AirPort which is bridged to the billion for DHCP duties for the whole network

The kitchen has a double point with ethernet and pots phone. Since I use VOIP the ethernet line is used to go to the ATA not the switch. I do the same for one of the ports in the study for a fax. But it uses the PSTN telstra line that otherwise isn't used for phone

I also have Ethernet over Power going into the Shed which isn't connected to the house (hence I couldn't be stuffed running CAT-6. I'm not using it currently but might get another Air Port Express. (Waiting for an upgraded model) as 5GHz Wi-Fi isn't the best out there

[Davothegreat]

Here's my backend.

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i397/davothegreat/DSC_0928.jpg (http://s1091.photobucket.com/user/davothegreat/media/DSC_0928.jpg.html)

Up the top
Watchguard x700 firewall (runs pfSense) and the cable modem.

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i397/davothegreat/DSC_0927.jpg (http://s1091.photobucket.com/user/davothegreat/media/DSC_0927.jpg.html)

Down the bottom
Cisco SPA122 VoIP ATA
POE injector for one of my IP cameras
16 port switch
HDHomerun IPTV tuner

The 8 ports near the top of the plates that aren't currently connected to the switch are from the old office room which is now a spare bedroom. Then there's 6 ports in the new office, 4 in the lounge room, 2 in the master bedroom, 2 in my son's room and 1 that goes out to the garage.

One of the connected lines that goes out to the lounge room has my wireless bridge on it and this has my A/V receiver, Bluray player, Xbox and Optus Femtocell connected to it. This is so our phones can control the receiver for Airplay etc. This uplinks to a separate interface on the Watchguard to everything internal so that wireless devices can only access the Internet and not anything of value. The VoIP ATA is also on a separate Watchguard interface.

Everything wired under the house is CAT6.

I have a PC that lives in the entertainment unit in the lounge room that acts as a file server and MediaPortal TV Server. Each TV in the house has a PC running MediaPortal Client. The server also processes and records content from my 2 IP cameras.

[ATOMIC MALOO R8]

wow you got some stuff there i've never heard of most of it HA HA

we are on a cement slab low set one level ,but looking at it i could use the existing power points to get into the walls and go up through the roof as all or wiring is in the roof and drops down through the walls and our built in tv cabinet has all the wires coming down in to the top of it from the roof JUST need a young guy to crawl up in the roof HA HA (im nearly 70 with a bad back ) so im not up to it
so wireless is not the way to go ? bummer it would have made it easy
cheers

[macca_779]

Here's my backend.

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i397/davothegreat/DSC_0928.jpg (http://s1091.photobucket.com/user/davothegreat/media/DSC_0928.jpg.html)

Up the top
Watchguard x700 firewall (runs pfSense) and the cable modem.

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i397/davothegreat/DSC_0927.jpg (http://s1091.photobucket.com/user/davothegreat/media/DSC_0927.jpg.html)

Down the bottom
Cisco SPA122 VoIP ATA
POE injector for one of my IP cameras
16 port switch
HDHomerun IPTV tuner

The 8 ports near the top of the plates that aren't currently connected to the switch are from the old office room which is now a spare bedroom. Then there's 6 ports in the new office, 4 in the lounge room, 2 in the master bedroom, 2 in my son's room and 1 that goes out to the garage.

One of the connected lines that goes out to the lounge room has my wireless bridge on it and this has my A/V receiver, Bluray player, Xbox and Optus Femtocell connected to it. This is so our phones can control the receiver for Airplay etc. This uplinks to a separate interface on the Watchguard to everything internal so that wireless devices can only access the Internet and not anything of value. The VoIP ATA is also on a separate Watchguard interface.

Everything wired under the house is CAT6.

I have a PC that lives in the entertainment unit in the lounge room that acts as a file server and MediaPortal TV Server. Each TV in the house has a PC running MediaPortal Client. The server also processes and records content from my 2 IP cameras.

Nice setup mate.

[HZforMe]

so wireless is not the way to go ? bummer it would have made it easy
cheers

Depends on what you want to do.
Wireless is not as fast as CAT5 or 6 but it may not be a problem if your not trying to send huge amounts of data with minimum lag.
Will have wired data in my new house but at the moment wifi suits me. Just a bit of youtube and on-demand tv on the PS3 but not hidef.

[Davothegreat]

Nice setup mate.

Thanks mate, it used to be tidy like yours with all the cables pinned to the wall (you can see some of the old cable clips on the ground) but every time I change something I get more and more lazy with tidying up the cables afterwards and now it's a mess of spaghetti.

[macca_779]

Thanks mate, it used to be tidy like yours with all the cables pinned to the wall (you can see some of the old cable clips on the ground) but every time I change something I get more and more lazy with tidying up the cables afterwards and now it's a mess of spaghetti.

Yeah I know what you mean. Just remember it's all tidy when you close the door

Power board were the most annoying thing for me. Hence I just put bigger GPO's in