Need advice setting up home network

[jacqueg]

Hi folks, I need some advice and recommendations.

Right now, my home network consists of my MacBook Air and an Epson printer. I have a brand-new smart TV hooked up to a dvd player and a stereo. Currently, I have an iPod also hooked up to the stereo, but someday, that iPod's gonna die. Just about all of my music is from CDs and most of my movies are DVDs, although some music and movies were downloaded from the iTunes store. Currently, they're all on my laptop. I don't have cable, and have no interest in getting it. I do subscribe to hulu and hbonow, which I watch on my laptop. I'm the only person in my house, and it's a small house. I pay my neighbor for access to his internet (this is a duplex).

I run Carbon Copy once a week or so to a portable external drive and I subscribe to Carbonite. I don't use iCloud.

I know I'm going to soon need an external iTunes drive. So I'm looking for recommendations for that, and for the simplest way to be able to play music and vids stored on this drive, as well as the stuff I stream from hulu/hbonow, on the TV and stereo.

Do I need an airport for this, or is my laptop an adequate "base"?

Thanks for any help!

 

[LiveM]

Are you accessing Internet via Wi-Fi or LAN?

 

[satcomer]

Well since he has a Mac Book Air it should be wireless.

OP: what model of Mac Book Air are you using running what version of OS X?

 

[LiveM]

No, I mean accessing the modem, since it is his neighbour's.

Sounds like the best way is to connect the media drive to the TV and connect the TV to the modem. I would also get an Apple TV not just to Airplay content to the TV from the laptop, but to avoid having to use the laptop altogether and to control things with the Apple TV and its remote.

 

[jacqueg]

I join my neighbor's network through wi-fi in order to get on the internet. My personal network (so far, my MBA and printer) is also wifi, but I have to switch from my neighbor's network to mine in order to print, so I would also have to get out of my neighbor's network to use airplay to stream movies from my laptop. Which is OK by me, I am a bit of a luddite when it comes to having my TV talk directly to the internet.

Currently my TV is connected to a dvd player and the audio output from the TV goes to my stereo. My choices for getting videos from my laptop to the TV seem to be an AppleTV or a Thunderbolt-HDMI cable. I'm leaning toward the AppleTV, but I am unclear whether I can play stuff I've purchased from iTunes without an active internet connection - I gather that at least sometimes, movies/TV shows won't play unless AppleTV can check with the mother ship?

My understanding is that my laptop sends the movie to the AppleTV, which stores it temporarily as the movie is played, but the movie is not stored there permanently?

My MBA is mid-year 2013, running El Capitan, and as far as I can tell, airplay-capable.

 

[LiveM]

Yes, the Apple TV will only stream and cache.

If you had an Airport Express router, you could connect it to the neighbour's network in Client Mode and use the USB port for your printer and the audio out for an amplifier (plus the ethernet port for a network attached storage drive (NAS)). That way you never have to switch networks.

You don't need to be online to play iTunes movies.

 

[jacqueg]

Yes, the Apple TV will only stream and cache.

If you had an Airport Express router, you could connect it to the neighbour's network in Client Mode and use the USB port for your printer and the audio out for an amplifier (plus the ethernet port for a network attached storage drive (NAS)). That way you never have to switch networks.

You don't need to be online to play iTunes movies.

Thanks, I'll look into that! Would my little network still be shielded from my neighbor? IOW, could he accidentally send a print job to my printer instead of his?

And thanks for the info on playing iTunes movies w/out being on the internet. Some sources I've read have said that Roku is a better choice than AppleTV for this reason. Or at least, that's what I thought they were saying!

 

[LiveM]

I've played both rentals and purchases without a connection; you certainly won't need it for purchases.

Your neighbour could use your printer but I can't image in happening.

 

[jacqueg]

OK, I purchased a 3rd generation AppleTV, and connected it to my TV set. Then I turned off my external network, and turned on my personal network. But the AppleTV can't find it. I've tried several iterations of turning the AppleTV and the TV set off and on, no dice. What else can I do?

To reiterate, I have a MBA, mid-2013, running El Capitan.

 

[LiveM]

Sorry, what is your personal and external network?

Any reason you didn't get the latest Apple TV? You could use the HBO Now and other apps.

 

[jacqueg]

Sorry, what is your personal and external network?

Any reason you didn't get the latest Apple TV? You could use the HBO Now and other apps.

As I said in my first post, I will not be connecting my TV to the internet.

Also, again as I said in my first post, I pay my neighbor to share his internet connection. That is my "external" network. This is handy because it saves me a *lot* of money, since I have no interest in paying for an entire cable package and a phone landline that I wouldn't use. Because he is "first in line" when it comes to connecting to the internet, when he and/or his sweetie are at home, they are often streaming movies and TV, and my internet connection becomes pretty slow and unreliable.

And again, as I also said in my first post, my "internal" network consists of the wireless connection between my laptop and my printer. I am trying to get the AppleTV to join in. My understanding is that I can do this without an Airport.

 

[LiveM]

You can indeed Airplay directly from your Macbook to the Apple TV as long as you have the revised AT3, which will be the case if it's new.

To do that, you just choose the Apple TV as the Airplay target on your Mac. You don't search formthe Mac from the ATV.

You don't need to disconnect from the Internet.

Make sure Bluetooth is on on both devices and Airplay is turned on on your ATV.

 

[jacqueg]

Well, it turns out that I do indeed need an internet connection to stream movies and TV shows the 12 feet from my laptop through my Apple TV to my TV. This was confirmed after the 3rd Apple tech trying to help me do it without an internet connection finally consulted a higher power. iTunes needs to check with the iTunes store to make sure that I am really the owner of said content. I am told, however, that I can get a Thunderbolt/HDMI adapter and use my laptop like a DVD player, so that's what I'll do. Cheaper than an AppleTV anyway.

Now consider what Apple is telling me. In order to stream content *from my laptop* that I *already* own, I must pay $100/month (I can only get cable bundles where I live). The tech (a very nice person, BTW) says it is to prevent people from having access to content they don't own. Which is nonsensical, if you ask me. My laptop is portable, I can share my content with as many people who feel like crowding around it. Since the HDMI cables are portable too, I can share my content with anyone who has a TV with an HDMI input. I just can't do it wirelessly.

Seems to me this is monumentally DUMB.

 

[LiveM]

I can't agree with the tech guy. On my last intermational flight — last month — I watched movies I had purchased and rented without a connection.

It's the same for Apple Music for me. I never have problems playing songs offline that I have downloaded.

Nevertheless, you have no need to disconnect from the Internet. Playing directly to the Apple TV does not require disconnection as I said, and anyway, you could just tether your phone from time to time to do any checks required.

Rather than buy an adaptor, I would spend the money on the Apple TV.

 

[jacqueg]

I can't agree with the tech guy. On my last intermational flight — last month — I watched movies I had purchased and rented without a connection.

It's the same for Apple Music for me. I never have problems playing songs offline that I have downloaded.

Nevertheless, you have no need to disconnect from the Internet. Playing directly to the Apple TV does not require disconnection as I said, and anyway, you could just tether your phone from time to time to do any checks required.

Rather than buy an adaptor, I would spend the money on the Apple TV.

But setting up the AppleTV absolutely *does* require an internet connection. At a point in the process, you are asked for your AppleID, and then the ATV tries to connect to the internet. There is no way around this - unless the ATV can talk to the iTunes store, the ATV is just a pretty little brick, not even good for a door stop.

And of course you don't need an internet connection to watch your content *on your laptop*. What I am trying to do is watch my content on my *TV*.

 

[LiveM]

You have Internet, so you should be able to set up the Apple TV.

You don't need an Internet connection to Airplay to your Apple TV.

 

[jacqueg]

As I have said numerous times before - this TV is *not* connected to the internet, nor will it be.

 

[LiveM]

Not the TV - the Apple TV.