Apple TV2 and Bandwidth Issues

[donmadrid1500]

I have an Apple TV2 and love it. Our wireless usage has gone way up over the past year in house with 2 iPads, iPhones, computers and now a Philips Airplay Ring speaker. The ATV2 is losing network connectivity while streaming films from iTunes on my laptop. The Ring is also losing it's connection to iTunes.

I have a pretty big house and its made of concrete, three floors. I have an Airport Extreme that is connected to an ADSL router located in our office at the lowest level. I have an Airport Express in our living room (extended network) that has the laptop with my music/film files and the ATV2. The living room is separated from the rest of the house by a thick concrete bearing wall and does not receive signal from the base station.

I think the problem is bandwidth. Maybe Airport Express just can't handle the traffic of streaming video and music simultaneously along with all the web surfing on various devices.

Should I get a new Extreme for my living room to replace the Express? Would that help with bandwidth?

I would eventually hard wire the two extremes together (office/living room) if that would help.

Any thoughts on this plan.

Thanks much

 

[DustinT]

Hardwiring the second Airport Extreme will definitely help. Each time the signal is repeated you take a significant performance loss, eliminating the hops by hard wiring things will make a difference.

Regarding your overall situation, it's not so much that the Airports are losing signal or don't have enough bandwidth. It's that 802.11n, the wireless system being used) doesn't have the requisite performance to handle that many systems in a house with concrete walls. In other words, there's not a wireless system on the market today that could do this.

Running Ethernet between the two main areas you mentioned will be well worth the effort. For the price of another Airport Extreme, you can easily buy the wiring, all the tools, and hire someone to install the wiring. It's just not too expensive or hard to do. And the difference in performance is quite noticeable.

I'd recommend you run a single ethernet cable from your DSL\Airport Extreme to the area where you have the TV and Ring speaker. Behind the tv install a very simple gigabit network switch. You can purchase one with 4 or 8 ports from a name brand for $20-40, if not less. That will provide you with the bandwidth from the Airport Extreme to the main usage area. Then, you can plug your current Airport Express into it and it will extend the network over ethernet, instead of the wireless. Plus, you'll be moving the Apple TV off ethernet and onto wireless which will really help matters.

In my experience, money and time spent properly running ethernet is never wasted. Due to the inherent physical properties of cables versus a wireless signal, ethernet always trumps wireless in home and business. Now, there's new specs for wireless coming onto the market constantly, including a major new revision called 802.11ac. That will certainly improve the situation but ethernet will still be less expensive, more reliable and much less prone to signal interference.

Do it.

 

[donmadrid1500]

Thanks for the response. My feeling was that this would be the best option in the end. Did I mention that in addition to all the concrete and rebar in my house, The Wife loves putting huge mirrors everywhere.

Thanks again.

Cheers.

 

[Bill.the.Cat]

In my experience, money and time spent properly running ethernet is never wasted...Do it.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Go shopping at Monoprice and get some cat6 or cat5e in bulk and keystone jack fittings. Two years ago I spend a couple of weekends sweating in the attic and some cursing at fish tape, the result being at least one ethernet drop in each room of my house. The top shelf of the pantry closet became a network device mounting area. Hard-wired everything is a marvelous luxury. Well worth the cost/effort.

 

[DustinT]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Go shopping at Monoprice and get some cat6 or cat5e in bulk and keystone jack fittings. Two years ago I spend a couple of weekends sweating in the attic and some cursing at fish tape, the result being at least one ethernet drop in each room of my house. The top shelf of the pantry closet became a network device mounting area. Hard-wired everything is a marvelous luxury. Well worth the cost/effort.

Yup, a single switch can handle an entire house easily. I've got an old 24 port gigabit switch from a closed business and I'll install that once I buy a place. I can put 5-6 jacks in my office, one at each tv, garage, bedrooms, etc... There's probably no way I'll use all 24 ports, but it's nice to have'em. And there's no reason I'll ever run out of bandwidth. Well, not in the foreseeable decades.