moosic:

My media center machine is plugged into the d-link media bridge, which is connected to the wrt600N via the 5 ghz radio.  The dma2200 is also running via the 5ghz radio.

You are getting only half the throughput you could because the media center PC is not plugged directly into the WRT600N.  The WRT600N should be hardwired to the media center PC or else the data has to fly through the air twice, eating up half the possible transmission bandwidth.

DeaneG:

jtpmelliott:

I've struck out with the Linksys WRT350N and the D-Link 655 (freezing and pixilation on HD content).  I'm running 1 lap top and a wireless printer on G, on N I have two DMA2100's a laptop and a pc.  With this setup, I'm asking a lot of any wireless router (even with QoS). 

I've ordered a WRT600N with dual radios (N and G) which I'm hoping will solve my problems.  I'll let you all know when I get it.  

Don't forget to hardwire your media center "server" directly to the router (rather than using wireless), so you don't need to fly data twice through the air to get to the DMA2100.

Ya, I have my media PC hooked up directly to the router.  If the 5Mhz doesn't do the trick, I'm on to the ethernet over powerlines.  If not that, then I hope they can drop CAT6 without trashing the $2K of insulation in my attic..... 

jtpmelliott:

Ya, I have my media PC hooked up directly to the router.  If the 5Mhz doesn't do the trick, I'm on to the ethernet over powerlines.  If not that, then I hope they can drop CAT6 without trashing the $2K of insulation in my attic..... 

I just replaced my media center<->WAP "g" wireless connection with a cat6 wire. Wish I'd done it a long time ago, it actually only took a couple hours to run the wire, which is less time than I've spent fiddling with the wireless connection.

Well I finally have success.  The WRT600N did the trick for my two DMA2100's.  I configured the following on the 5GHz dual channel radio under the wireless basic tab:

NetWork Mode: Wireless N Only

Radio Band: Wide 40Mhz Channel

Wide Channel: 38

Standard Channel: 36 - 5.180 Ghz

Under the wireless advanced tab, I reduced the beacon time to 50 from the default of 100.

I had to fart around with the antennas on the router and the extenders to get it perfect (while using the graph under the network tuning option).  There are random drop outs every 30 seconds or so but, it doesn't appear to impact the performance on HD over my CableCard setup.

I have all of my other wireless equipment (2 laptops, the x-box and a printer) on the 2.4 Ghz radio.

I can run CAT5 to my x-box so that will be the project this weekend.

Good info, thanks. I have a WRT600N in a box waiting to replace a netgear "g" router.

Update: I installed the WRT600N, now have 3x the bandwidth showing on the network performance graph compared to my old netgear "g" MIMO router performance. Plenty good enough for HD.

I recently upgraded my router to a wrt600n but so far have not been too impressed by it.  The 2.4GHz radio has pitiful range when compared with my old Belkin Wireless G Plus MIMO router.  The 5GHz radio has even less range than the 2.4GHz radio. 

I've messed around with some of the settings including channels and bands with no positivie impact.  One final thing I will try tonight is moving my xbox 360 from 5GHz (802.11a) to 2.4GHz (802.11g). 

Here is my current setup:

5GHz 

DMA2100 (802.11n) - 1st floor

XBOX 360 (802.11a) - basement

2.4GHz

2 laptops (WinXP) with 802.11g - all over

Wired

1 Vista Home Premium PC - 2nd floor

 

Any other suggestions on how to improve the range (antenna angle, band settings, etc.)?  The router is located on the 2nd floor of my home next to my Vista PC.  As I mentioned, previously I was using a Belkin Wireless G Plus MIMO in this same situation and I could connect to the network from all necessary locations.  However, that router's DHCP server was plain awful which led to many conflicts and frequent disconnects (several times a day).  These problems have disappeared with the wrt600n, but the range has significantly decreased.

Last night I moved my Xbox to the 2.4GHz band but it didn't seem to help much.  I'm starting to wonder if my wrt600n is defective as I had a 802.11n enabled laptop only a few feet from the router and it said the signal strength on the 5GHz band was only 40%.  Has anyone experienced such bad range on the 5GHz band? 

bkw:

Last night I moved my Xbox to the 2.4GHz band but it didn't seem to help much.  I'm starting to wonder if my wrt600n is defective as I had a 802.11n enabled laptop only a few feet from the router and it said the signal strength on the 5GHz band was only 40%.  Has anyone experienced such bad range on the 5GHz band? 

Is the 5Mhz radio still in 'Mixed mode' from running A as well as N?

If so switch it to N only and configure it to 40Ghz on the channel. 

My experience is that Mixed mode severely degrades range and performance with N.

jtpmelliott:

Is the 5Mhz radio still in 'Mixed mode' from running A as well as N?

If so switch it to N only and configure it to 40Ghz on the channel. 

My experience is that Mixed mode severely degrades range and performance with N.

 

But that will prevent Xbox360 from connecting via 802.11a and will probably not have sufficient bandwidth to stream HD over 802.11g.  This is also my configuration as of last night when I installed my WRT600N.  I haven't set up the Xbox360 yet, but I'm hoping mixed mode works OK for me.

WScottCross:

jtpmelliott:

Is the 5Mhz radio still in 'Mixed mode' from running A as well as N?

If so switch it to N only and configure it to 40Ghz on the channel. 

My experience is that Mixed mode severely degrades range and performance with N.

 

But that will prevent Xbox360 from connecting via 802.11a and will probably not have sufficient bandwidth to stream HD over 802.11g.  This is also my configuration as of last night when I installed my WRT600N.  I haven't set up the Xbox360 yet, but I'm hoping mixed mode works OK for me.

You are correct.  I had to go with CAT6 from the router to my x-box, the mixed mode and g bandwith didn't cut it with the 360 wireless module.

 

I have been playing around with my new wrt600n and the 5Gz signal will not even reach the 2100.  The 2.4Gz will reach but it is slow.  Is there a signal booter available?

Just thought I would chime in. I just recieved my DMA2200 this week. Until now, I've alway used my Dlink DI-634m MIMO wireless G router for everything. I anticipated that it might not be enough horse power for the DMA2200, but decided to wait until got it. I did this week and while it worked fine in the same room or close by, it wasn't good enough to reach to our second floor in my bedroom (40-50 feet through several walls and a ceiling). So I headed to my local *est *uy and picked up the Dlink DIR-655 wireless N router. Because my wife has a wireless G laptop, I have to run it in mixed mode. To my surprise I can stream HD using this router. For the perfect solution would be to go wired ethernet all the way, but it's too hard to run in my current house. This July we're moving and the entire house will be wired, but until then, I'll stream wirelessly. BTW, if I just couldn't justify getting the Linksys WRT600 series model or the upcoming DIR-855 from Dlink, just to much money. I'd rather drill a hole through the side of the house and run it outside to the downstairs room then fork out $300 plus dollars for a wireless router.

I too use the DLink DIR-655 with my DMA2100.  It works pretty well, but I do get an occasional network error.  Given the expense of the WRT600N, the occasional error is an acceptable tradeoff, IMO.

I went and bought the LynkSys DMA2100 yesterday and hooked it up. The software installation guide was wishy washy on how to set it up. But after reading the part "NOTE: If you see the error messgae "Extender did not connect" please return to Section 3, and follow the steps starting with INSERT THE CD-ROM." Sure enough tht was the biggest mistake in installing the media extender.

Anyway I am not using an N router I am using a LynkSys WRT54G router $40 and have it hardwired straight into the Extender. It does exactly what I want it to do. I get allot better picture quality than the straight hook up from the video card using the S-Video connection. No manipulation of the video settings either. I have had no problem with jerky video as of yet. No problems with sound either.

This is something I recommend to any one doing a HTPC