AVS › AVS Forum › Gaming & Content Streaming › Networking, Media Servers & Content Streaming › WD Live will connect to the G, but not to the N network
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WD Live will connect to the G, but not to the N network

post #1 of 2
7/4/10 at 8:04pm
Thread Starter 
Hello all,

I have a problem that is driving me to drink! I have a Netgear RangeMax WNDR3300. It has both G and N networks. I have absolutely no problem connecting all of my wireless devices to the N network. This includes Pocket PCs, desktops, and laptops. WDLive media player has no problem at all connecting to the G network (54Mbps). When I try connecting to the N network (up to 270Mbps) it will not connect. It finds the network fine and shows an excellent signal, after I enter my password, I choose automatic setup. Shortly thereafter I received the blue screen that says it cannot find an IP address. Now I have tried connecting manually, entering all of the network information using the on-screen keyboard, but still no dice. I am using an N One network adapter that has always worked fine and is specifically designed for the high-speed network. I've been through a lot of problems when I first received the WDLive, all of those were resolved about 6 months ago. I have the latest upgrade installed. I hope somebody can help me out. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Dennis
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post #2 of 2
7/6/10 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddluigi View Post

Hello all,

I have a problem that is driving me to drink! I have a Netgear RangeMax WNDR3300. It has both G and N networks. I have absolutely no problem connecting all of my wireless devices to the N network. This includes Pocket PCs, desktops, and laptops. WDLive media player has no problem at all connecting to the G network (54Mbps). When I try connecting to the N network (up to 270Mbps) it will not connect. It finds the network fine and shows an excellent signal, after I enter my password, I choose automatic setup. Shortly thereafter I received the blue screen that says it cannot find an IP address. Now I have tried connecting manually, entering all of the network information using the on-screen keyboard, but still no dice. I am using an N One network adapter that has always worked fine and is specifically designed for the high-speed network. I've been through a lot of problems when I first received the WDLive, all of those were resolved about 6 months ago. I have the latest upgrade installed. I hope somebody can help me out. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Dennis

The Netgear WNDR3300 is not a true Dual Band Simultaneous Wireless N network router.

The 2.4GHZ Band supports Wireless G and previous 802.11 A & B connections. Wireless N enabled devices can still connect to this band, but you will not be able to utilize the REAL 802.11 Wifi N features. If you use the Windows Task Manager and view network or any other wireless device utility you will see the transfer and connection speeds are only 54Mbps at the 2.4GHz connection. The reason being is also the max channel width is 20MHz. If you change the channel width to 40MHz only wireless N enabled devices can connect and no wireless G devices will connect. Again - the 2.4GHz band is not Wifi N - it is only a Wifi G on the WNDR3300. (You can look it up on CNET to verify my claim).

5GHz Band supports ONLY Wireless N enabled devices with 5GHz transmission abilities- on this band if you choose the highest setting (270Mbps) the Channel width is automatically set on 40MHz. Currently I have not find and have not seen any Media Player (including the WDTV Live) that can use or support a Wifi N adapter that transmit the 5GHz band.. They all currently only support and use the Wifi N 2.4GHz band connection. So technically your WDTV Live is not connected to a Wifi N network - it is only connected (if you do get it to work) to the 2.4GHz band which supports only Wifi G connections.

To fully utilize a Wifi N network you must use only WPA2 encryption, set the channel width to 40MHz and have no Wifi G or older 802.11 wifi connected. Otherwise it will not stream or tranfer files at the optimal speeds for Wifi N.

The only other reason I can think of is because you are using a Wifi Adapter that is not authorized by the WDTV Live or the WDTV Live's firmware does not support it. Or it doesn't support 5GHz transmission/connection.

I currently use a Netgear WNDR3700 which is the only true simultaneous Dual Band WiFi N out in the market by Netgear because you get Wifi N connections on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band - assuming you have configured the router correctly. I had a Linksys E3000 for a few weeks but I returned it because it had issues with my media players and SAMBA/UPNP network shares issues.

I hope this helps...
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