Questions about connecting two 5040 Replay TVs via wireless

If your 'routers' support WDS bridging, the answer is "yeah".

There are no wireless G drivers for the replay, so how would that work? You need something that speaks ethernet 'wired' to the replay box, that's what the bridge does.

You will not be happy with performance in most instances, unless you use WIRED for your replay network.

John

another option that doesn't use the WDS system is the Zyxel P-330W. This is a wireless router that has a "wireless client" mode that lets it connect to an existing wireless network as a client, the same as a laptop connects. It will then act as DHCP server to any devices connected to its 4 wired ports and bridge them to the wireless network. I'm using one right now to connect the desktop computer i'm posting this with and it works great. I haven't tried it with replay yet but plan to soon.

The good part about this system is that it needs no special setup on the main router for it to work.

I second the Zyxel p-330. I've used both as a wireless client and in WDS mode between multiple Zyxels for my ReplayTVs. New firmware allows WDS mode and older models can be software upgraded easily.

My units were purchased for excellent prices after Rebates from CompUSA. Rebates came without any prompting.

I found this post on dslreports about why the DLink G810/G820 cannot be used to bridge multiple units. The part about encryption applies to all WPA devices.

Why not? I've had a wireless G setup since the fiasco days and literally have never had an issue with replay-replay streaming or DVA-replay streaming/saving.

Wired is always better, especially if you're using Gigabit ethernet, but if you're going wireless, get 802.11g or n.

I understand wired is better as a general proposition. But, what am I missing on RTVs whether I'm G or N or wired? That was the issue in the quoted portion.

I get about 15 Mbps throughput which is plenty for streaming even in high quality and is also plenty for DVA backups.

I'm not sure if others have experienced this, but I find that almost daily my two Replay TVs get "unnetworked".

I've gone completely wireless (use one Linksys WRT54G with Sveasoft as one ethernet bridge and a Buffalo Wireless G ethernet converter as the other bridge, use a Linksys WRT-54GS as the router). Although each ReplayTV usually still shows the channel guide of the other, when you try to access a show on the other Replay, they aren't talking. Usually requires a few DHCP renew/refreshes and/or contact ReplayTV before I can get them both to see each other on the network. Once they see each other, no problem in streaming shows between the two.

Anyone have any suggestions as to how to maintain connectivity between the two?

Off the top of my head, I would say that your problems are being caused by the dreaded "DHCP bug". Are you by any chance running a DHCP server on your network?

I think gweempose nailed it.

I run Belkins and don't have that issue, and I'm not running any DHCP servers on my network. Tne DHCP issue has been discussed quite abit on the older threads. You may want to check the archives.

I was not happy with performance due to distance over 2 floors.
At the end I went with Netgear's Powerline HD ethernet adapters.
Even with them I can't do high-quality streaming.
However standard quality works great.

Yes I do have a DHCP server. Based on some other postings, I've gone into the router and tied static IPs to the MAC addresses. I'll let you know if this clears up the problem.

It didn't clear up problem. Next try is to replace the Buffalo ethernet converter with another Linksys WRT54G with SVEASOFT. Read on another post that there were problems with the Buffalo ethernet converter.

Very odd. I do high quality streaming (that's the only quality I record nowadays) with my wireless G Belkins with no problem and can stream full movies recorded to 4.7 GB DVDs. I haven't tried streaming DVD9, but I would imagine I couldn't do that.

My main router and bridging router is one floor and 15 ft over.

In this case, too bad it wasn't the DHCP bug. I don't know what the Buffalo ethernet converter does, but the Buffalo routers worked well in this application. Maybe the Linky and Buffalo don't play well like you're assuming.

I hope you get it figured out. I was going nuts in the beginning when I was setting up my systems and was having some issues with it. sfhub was very gracious in helping me troubleshoot. This was a couple of years ago and things have been (knock on wood) rock solid since.

RTV's only do 10/100 though right? I'm missing how GigE benefits RTV's