networking

[sholling]

In other words; what is my best option to be able to stream HD movies to my LG and re-wiring the house is not an option.

Thxs in advance!

I just had a thought (scary huh?) I'm assuming you are streaming from your PC to the BD390. If so I wonder if that 4 port switch in the router is acting as a bottleneck. But I just can't guaranty that anything is going to be fast enough to stream HD.

 

[64met]

I just had a thought (scary huh?) I'm assuming you are streaming from your PC to the BD390. If so I wonder if that 4 port switch in the router is acting as a bottleneck. But I just can't guaranty that anything is going to be fast enough to stream HD.

I have given up trying to stream HD to the 390- its just too far away from the router and after my experiences with both netgear and linksys tech support in my attemp to get this to work I have come to the conclusion: Forget it!

I did have one other question that maybe you could answer: With the ever growing number of PC's on my system and various gear hard wired to the router as well. I have run out of ports (4 port router). I was considering a media server for my family and my pics; music; etc. and realized all my ports are taken! Is there a work around? In other words How can I expand my current router so I can add more toys? Thxs

 

[jonnythan]

I have given up trying to stream HD to the 390- its just too far away from the router and after my experiences with both netgear and linksys tech support in my attemp to get this to work I have come to the conclusion: Forget it!

I did have one other question that maybe you could answer: With the ever growing number of PC's on my system and various gear hard wired to the router as well. I have run out of ports (4 port router). I was considering a media server for my family and my pics; music; etc. and realized all my ports are taken! Is there a work around? In other words How can I expand my current router so I can add more toys? Thxs

Your "4-port router" is really a router with a 4-port switch built in. You can connect switches to each other to extend your network. So all you need is a switch, and pretty much any switch will do:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166035

Keep in mind that devices plugged into the router and devices plugged into the switch will all have to share the single 100 Mbps connection between the two. Personally, I'd connect one ethernet cable between the router and switch and plug all the devices into the switch just so all devices have enough bandwidth.

You can also splurge a little bit and get a gigabit switch:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166043

Not all your devices are gigabit, but I'm sure some are. So you might as well..

 

[sholling]

I really like these. By the time they get more in stock the rebate will be gone but they are really good switches. Plug 1 port into your router and hook everything else into the gigabit switch.

 

[bandphan]

A nice article on networks relative to AV.

http://www.cepro.com/article/designing_virtual_lans_to_bridge_av_ip_networks/D1/

 

[sholling]

A nice article on networks relative to AV.

http://www.cepro.com/article/designing_virtual_lans_to_bridge_av_ip_networks/D1/

Interesting article but not really practical for most home networks simply because of cost. High-buck installations yes but not your average home. You're looking at buying a fairly upscale business class switch that supports VLANs and then bringing in a professional to configure it.

Some home devices support QOS but it really slows things down. However I do like using dual band wireless for exactly this reason. I run my bridges on the 5mhz band and my laptop on 2.4mhz. It segregates surfing from audio/video.

Unfortunately I have no idea how much bandwidth it actually takes to stream HD but it has to be less than USB 2.0's real world 20-25MB/s (160-200mb/s) because I can play BD rips just fine from a USB drive.

A better than average affordable small-office/home-office network attached storage device (NAS) might be able to transfer 30MB/s which translates into 240mb/s (bytes v bits) which will more than max out what 802.11N is capable of in the real world. On the other hand gigabit Ethernet should easily be able to handle twice that. Enough to max out the transfer capability of one NAS box and still allow a couple of people to surf the internet comfortably.

References:
NAS benchmarks
Real wold USB speeds
802.11N real world speeds

 

[bandphan]

Interesting article but not really practical for most home networks simply because of cost. High-buck installations yes but not your average home. You're looking at buying a fairly upscale business class switch that supports VLANs and then bringing in a professional to configure it.

Some home devices support QOS but it really slows things down. However I do like using dual band wireless for exactly this reason. I run my bridges on the 5mhz band and my laptop on 2.4mhz. It segregates surfing from audio/video.

Unfortunately I have no idea how much bandwidth it actually takes to stream HD but it has to be less than USB 2.0's real world 20-25MB/s (160-200mb/s) because I can play BD rips just fine from a USB drive.

A better than average affordable small-office/home-office network attached storage device (NAS) might be able to transfer 30MB/s which translates into 240mb/s (bytes v bits) which will more than max out what 802.11N is capable of in the real world. On the other hand gigabit Ethernet should easily be able to handle twice that. Enough to max out the transfer capability of one NAS box and still allow a couple of people to surf the internet comfortably.

References:
NAS benchmarks
Real wold USB speeds
802.11N real world speeds

True, but Ive gotta make a living