Home Network Advice

[MadDoc]

Hi,

I'm in the enviable position of renovating a house complete with a small home cinema.

I plan on having a (small) "server" room that will act as the central hub of all things electronic. In this room I will have the following:

• AV receiver
• PS3
• Wii
• Mac Mini connected to a Drobo via Firewire (for retro gaming, iTunes library + digital TV via EyeTV)
• Apple TV
• Blu-ray player
• Time capsule
• Phone port + ADSL modem
• TV port

Before you say anything - this cupboard/room will be actively cooled!

All the stuff with a visual output will by connected to the AV receiver. There will be a conduit from the server room to the cinema taking the speaker cables + HDMI out cable from the AV receiver.

We have three other Macs in our household and we are heavy internet users. I'm worried that putting the Time Capsule in the cupboard will seriously reduce it's WiFi range and I need it to reach over a three-bedroom house.

How do people recommend I wire stuff up to achieve the following:

1. Provide good strength WiFi signal to the whole house
2. Fast streaming of high bitrate media from the iTunes library on the Mac Mini to the Apple TV for output to my AV receiver

Any input would be really helpful.

Thanks,

 

[oculus42]

Buy a Switch

Get a gigabit switch and wire in everything that can be wired. Then put the Time Capsule as high up as you can finagle it and test your signal strength.

Don't be afraid of cabling.

 

[oxfan]

If the wireless signal from the Time Capsule isn't strong enough you could use an Airport Express to extend the wireless network.

 

[belvdr]

If the wireless signal from the Time Capsule isn't strong enough you could use an Airport Express to extend the wireless network.

Keep in mind that by extending your network wirelessly, you effectively halve your available throughput on the wireless.

Also, I'm not sure you thought of this, but by having the PS3 and Wii in another room, you may run into issues where:

1. The Wii sensor bar cable may not be long enough, hence the controllers won't work.
2. Any time you want to change a game, you're going into another room.

 

[satcomer]

If I were you I would buy an Airport Extreme beside the Time Capsule. This way you can use that Airport extreme to join the Time Capsule's network so everything is in one IP subnet. Then this way you plug in all the TV room equipment (maybe a unmanned switch like the D-Link Gigabit 8 port Switch to add to the number of ports available). THe WDS network then you can extend the same IP subnet any where you place the Extreme.