XBOX 360 a good wireless extender?

[SJMaye]

I am about to move and do not look forward to rewiring another house for a wired network.  It seems the only thing I think I need wired networking for is the media center extenders. 

Can someone comment on wireless performance of the Linksys extenders vs XBOX360 ? 

[Aaron Ledger]

I advise extreme caution when considering wireless for video applications, particularly HDTV. It can often be problematic especially if there are other sources of interference and/or attenuation (barriers such as walls, cabinets, etc).

A reliable alternative worthy of consideration is MoCA. MoCA is a wired solution that utilizes coaxial cable wiring and can simultaneously operate with cable TV without creating an issue. I have been using a couple of NetGear MoCA bridges which easily transport Blu-ray video bitrates. The bridge will convert between the MoCA network and an Ethernet network.

[Matt]

Yep go wired, local streaming needs more bandwidth and lower latency than wireless can offer reliably.

MoCA kits are harder to find, so instead you may also want to try a HomePlug AV 500 powerline networking kit.

[Mike Garcen]

FWIW to the original question, i remember i tried the XBox 360 wireless adapter back in the day, and it was AWWWWWWWWWFUL. No experience with the other…but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t better.

[SJMaye]

That is what I was wanting to know.  Too bad wireless is still not a effective, but the other over-wire solutions sound really good.   I will give them a try.

Thanks for all the replies!

[einstein]

I have a new xbox360 and a Linksys extender. I have used both wirelessly. They are usually acceptable when my wireless router is 1 floor directly below them. The menus are pretty slow and laggy, sometimes frustratingly slow. If the router is a floor below and a room away, then anything high-def will drop frames, or usually the video slows down and the audio keeps playing, then the audio stops and waits until the video catches up. Then a notice pops up “network issue”. There isn’t much difference in wireless performance between the two different extenders. I would not recommend trying to use either one wirelessly as part of your regular setup.

[Aaron Ledger]

Regarding HomePlug AV, this solution is also prone to interference. I have been testing an item (review forthcoming) and the technology is unfortunately subject to problems when you begin dealing with bandwidth requirements over ~10 mbps. Like wireless, it can potentially be viable in the correct environment. With Powerline, you can have problems especially if you have a plasma TV. You also need to worry about other possible offenders (hair dryers, large appliances, etc.). With HomePlug, you must also be sure to have a free outlet to plug the equipment into as surge protectors will also decimate performance. 

[Xenor]

I have had success with my E4200 and a new XBox 360.  (I’m also enjoying my Killer Wireless-N 1103. 25-26MBps transfer from my WHS box).  Ultimately, I think it depends on a few things, including the source format.  I’ve had buffering issues, but mainly it has occurred when my WHS box is suddenly dumping a large file from a temp/swap drive onto the Videos volume.  Having both 2.4 and 5GHz spectrums to play in has benefited me as well.  I’ve had no issues gaming, but super HD content can sometimes be problematic.  Netflix comes out fine.

[SJMaye]

On the Actiontec MoCA-  Just need some clarification.

 

• Need one unit at the router.  Then I need one at each of my Linksys DMA2100s? 

• Any other hardware or splitters?

[Aaron Ledger]

I only have experience with the NetGear MoCA bridges. Take a look at the attached and you can see their performance during a file transfer. Unfortunately, I believe the NetGear MoCA products are discontinued. In theory, all MoCA bridges should be interoperable. I suggest getting MoCA v1.1 bridges due to their increased performance.

Just place MoCA bridges wherever you have coax and want Ethernet. You need a minimum of two. They will simply use the coax wiring to extend your Ethernet network.

One thing to understand about MoCA products is that they typically operate in the frequency range over 1GHz. Some, like my NetGear MoCA bridges can operate down to 850MHz. Most cable companies transmit their programming at 800MHz and below. Some may be using transmissions above 800MHz for VOD services. The MoCA products available should be “plug and play”, figure this out and configure themselves automatically.

That’s all well and good, but there are a some potential pitfalls that can easily be avoided. Note, you may not have any of these issues, I just want to bring them up in case you do or anyone else does. Cable installers and technicians also are not that aware of these issues because MoCA is so new.

First, some cable equipment (cable modems, STB, etc) may not perform optimally in the presence of a MoCA bridge because the nature of MoCA is to send a powerful signal. A lot of RF front-ends were not designed for this and thus, may not perform as well as they could.

Second, at least with my NetGear MoCA bridges (maybe this is why they discontinued…), they broadcast some spurious emissions intermittently in the CATV band (less than 800MHz). This ends up causing additional noise that can potentially be strong enough to disrupt the CATV brodcast causing video and audio issues to present.

Third, MoCA signals above 1GHz are typically filtered out by signal amplifiers (not splitters).

Fourth, if your neighbor has MoCA, you can potentially join their network and vice-versa.

The solution I advise for avoiding problems 1, 2 and 3 is to purchase a diplexer (such as this) for each MoCA product and place the “SAT” side on the MoCA product. The “VHF/UHF” side should go to your normal Cable products. “IN/OUT” goes to the wall. What this will do is separate the MoCA signal from the CATV signal so they do not interfere with each other. The filtering frequencies of the particular product I linked is between 5 – 806MHz on the “VHF/UHF” side and 950MHz+ on the “SAT” side. Ideally, it would be 1GHz and lower on one port and 1GHz and higher on the other for CATV and MoCA co-existence. All signal amplifiers should be behind the “VHF/UHF” port on the diplexer, otherwise, they are likely to filter out the MoCA signal.

Note: if your cable company happens to utilize frequencies above 800MHz (and you utilize the stuff that uses those frequencies), you may need to place that equipment in front of the diplexer. For example, a two-way splitter that places CATV equipment using above 800MHz on one port and the “IN/OUT” of the diplexer on the other port. For bonus points, you can place a 1GHz RF filter (AKA POE filter) on any cable equipment outside of the diplexer filtering.

Finally, to avoid issue 4, you should make sure to select MoCA v1.1 bridges that can be configured to encrypt the transmissions. For additional security, isolation and bonus points, you can add a 1GHz filter at the POE (Point of Entry of the Cable service to your home).

Again, these issues I have raised may not be valid for you or the majority of users, but if they do present themselves, they can be rectified using the methods I described.

I do not wholeheartedly recommend the NetGear MoCA bridges for the RF issue that I identified with mine. In my case, I rectified my issues with the diplexer solution and all is well. Perhaps I simply have a faulty set of units.

I recommend that you proceed with MoCA seeing as it is the only reliable alternative to Ethernet that I have found that can sustain the types of bandwidth required for Blu-ray quality video.

[SJMaye]

Hi Swoon,

I will try MoCA as it is my only real option.   Can you tell me if the devices used by FIOS are suitable to use or should I just get the Actiontec version?

[Aaron Ledger]

Can you provide a model# and/or link to the FiOS equipment you are referring to?

[SJMaye]

Hello Aaron,

Don’t worry so much about the FiOS equipment.  Not sure it is worth the trouble.  Unless you recommend otherwise I may just purchase the units reviewed here on MR.  MR and other reviews are very favorable.  The operate about the 1GHz frequency and are MoCA v1.1, too.  Only concern I have is the network security you mentioned.  I don’t want to chance someone accessing my network via this.  They do mention the ability for data encryption, but then go on to say this is not available to the consumer.

 

 

[SJMaye]

Another question on these devices- Say I use one to bring the network in to my home office.  Can I connect the MoCA adapter to a 4-port switch in order to connect multiple computers and printers to it?

[Aaron Ledger]

Yes. You can do that. I have many Ethernet devices plugged into both sides of my MoCA bridges and they can all communicate with each other as if they were plugged into the same switch.

Regarding security, if the units do not support encryption, you can physically make your network secure by placing a filter that blocks out frequencies above 1GHz at the cable drop. You just need to make sure that your MoCA adapters are communicating at frequencies above 1GHz to be secure. Here’s an example of a filter that is designed for this.

[Author]

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