Cable Internet Question

[daepp]

We get the internet from Time Warner Cable. It works great, but in another part of the house I want to hook my home entertainment (Apple's iTV has an ethernet in connection) to the internet. At that location I have the legacy coax connection. Can I hook up a separate cable modem here to get connectivity for my home theater? Can you have two modems at one house? And would you have to pay a monthly fee for that second modem, or could you just buy an aftermarket modem.

And info would be appreciate.

David

[stomachmonkey]

I'm going to assume the TW supplied modem is wireless.

They pretty much all are.

The Apple TV has wireless. Is it too far to get a signal from TW modem?

I would just drop a wireless access point or repeater somewhere in between to extend the range of the TW modem.

Cable modems perform best when they are the 1st device off the split. Adding another one on existing, unknown integrity, coax drop could result in degraded performance.

A second modem will also need to authenticate back to TW so while it's certainly within the realm of possible you may get hit with a charge. Don't know TW's policy on that.

[OffCamber00]

I am using a Netgear Powerline ethernet pair for my apple tv. It uses your AC lines to extend a wired ethernet connection to anywhere in the house.

My apple tv worked pretty well over wireless but this is like having it wired directly to my router. I got them online for under $50.

[krystar]

i also use netgear powerline. it works great.

but the best solution is to run cat5e all the way over.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by NotaBRG

Tell me more about the powerline device. Can you have one attached to your router and two or more attached to devices? Or is a one to one pair relationship?

You plug one into an electrical outlet and run an ethernet cable to it.

You plug the other one in at the other location that lacks a network jack and run an ethernet cable out of it to your device which can be another router to handle multiple devices on that end.

[krystar]

it acts like a wired network extender. i have discovered that it does not like to be put on a power strip or other fused/grounded/switched power device. straight into the wall.

[daepp]

Stomach et al - the awesomeness of your answers is impressive.

I did not realize the apple tv was wireless - I saw the ethernet connection and just assumed.

But I really like the idea of the powerline device - I think that's the way I'll go.

BTW - I understand the connectivity of the powerline device - one "transmitter" plugged into the wall and the router. But how many "receivers" can you have

[daepp]

Anyone know if the standard cable supplied dvr can record from the iTV?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by DAEpperson

... But how many "receivers" can you have

I think that becomes a brand dependent question.

While there is interbrand compatibility not all brands have the same feature set.

IMHO extending wireless is the cheapest, easiest, proven route.

[daepp]

Extending the wireless will be of help to the other users on my wifi, whereas the powerline will not, so I see your point.

With a wifi booster/repeater, will I gain any speed, or just extend the range? The reason I ask is that at the home theater room there is a signal, but it's weak. However, at times I "think" we are maxing out the bandwidth with netflix streaming etc.

[rnln]

My home network is setting up as from cable modem to switch. From switch, it splits to a rounter and a laptop. The PC is plugged into the rounter. The laptop is pluged directly into the switch.
Can you see anything wrong with this? It was ok when I had DSL, but now with cable, the laptop is very slow.

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Cable modems perform best when they are the 1st device off the split. Adding another one on existing, unknown integrity, coax drop could result in degraded performance.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by DAEpperson

Extending the wireless will be of help to the other users on my wifi, whereas the powerline will not, so I see your point.

With a wifi booster/repeater, will I gain any speed, or just extend the range? The reason I ask is that at the home theater room there is a signal, but it's weak. However, at times I "think" we are maxing out the bandwidth with netflix streaming etc.

Your network will run at the speed of the slowest device.

What are you using to stream with in the media room?

Netflix has tiered streaming, meaning it will provide a stream from 1.5 mbps up to 8 mbps depending on what your configuration is.

What bandwidth are you paying for, getting with TW? I think their basic is up to 10 mbps, key words being "up to".

Have you ever run any speed tests at home to see what you might be getting?

[daepp]

Looks like I need to do my homework.

I think we are paying for the 10 mbs. We are streaming using an X-Box 360.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by rnln

My home network is setting up as from cable modem to switch. From switch, it splits to a rounter and a laptop. The PC is plugged into the rounter. The laptop is pluged directly into the switch.
Can you see anything wrong with this? It was ok when I had DSL, but now with cable, the laptop is very slow.

Hmm, is there a reason that you have a mix of equipment like that?

You have the cable modem which commonly acts as a router as well. Is it just a modem or does it have multiple ethernet jacks in back?

Is the "switch" a true switch or is it a hub?

Same question with the router the laptop is plugged into, is it a true router or a hub?

Hubs are pretty stupid devices, they pass network traffic to all available ports so in a busy network they will be a bottle neck. For a 2 device home network it's not an issue unless you need to keep the traffic separated for security reasons.

Switches are smarter, they know traffic from device A belongs to device A and will always route it that way which maintains max thru put in busy networks. Again for 2 devices not much of an advantage.

Routers are the smartest of the bunch, they provide firewall, DHCP and proxy services to the networked devices. But firewall and proxy services can affect thru put. But not likely you'd see that in such a small environment.

If it were me I'd run some speed tests the way you are set up now, then eliminate the router and plug the laptop into the switch, run sped tests, then swap the switch for router 2, run tests, also if your cable modem has multiple ethernet out jacks plug the PC and Laptop directly into that and run speed tests.

My gut tells me the 2nd router is the issue. It may be providing default services in conflict with the cable modem/router.

[stomachmonkey]

rnin,

If the cable modem is just a simple broadband modem with no routing capability then the proper configuration would be.

modem->router->switch

I read you have it as

modem->switch-> router.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by DAEpperson

Looks like I need to do my homework.

I think we are paying for the 10 mbs. We are streaming using an X-Box 360.

I know the PS3 supports 8 mbps Netflix streaming so I assume the Xbox does as well.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by DAEpperson

Can I hook up a separate cable modem here to get connectivity for my home theater? Can you have two modems at one house? And would you have to pay a monthly fee for that second modem, or could you just buy an aftermarket modem.

And info would be appreciate.

David

Yes and yes, yes, but you still pay for the access.

Why not run some CAT 6 cable?

[daepp]

I have considered running new wire but access is a real problem.

[daepp]

Any recommendations on a wifi booster? How do you determine compatibility?

[MysticLlama]

Don't get a booster, just get a new router/AP that's more powerful.

Try to locate the cable modem near the center of the house if possible and put in one of these.
PowerAPN-US - Indoor 802.11n Access Point USA

I have a smaller version on the far end of my house and have great signal 50' away.