Airport and WIRED Connections
Here is my network problem. I have searched the web for answers, but non are Apple specific and most information is very confusing.
My house is old and built mainly of brick and stone. Wireless connections work relatively well vertically, but not horizontally. I currently have Cable modem entering the house on the west side and own 2 apple airport base stations ( 1 dual band extreme, the other just extreme) Here is my dilema.
My winter Home Theater project is finally done (June). It is located on the far EAST side of the house, probably 100' (wired distance, 60 ' wireless distance) from my cable modem in the basement on the West side of the house. I had a WDS network setup and working well through out the house. However, the Home Theater (HT) in the far EAST Basement could not see the network, or when it did, the signal was weak and unuseable. I have run several ethernet Cat6 cables around the house during remodeling and have access to 2 lines from Cable modem access point to HT. I have connected Cable modem to Dual Band Airport Extreme in WEST basement. That provides wireless internet to WEST side of house ( Network 1). I also came out the back with CAT6 to HT, where it connects to Airport Extreme base station on East side in HT. Then from that to Mac Mini (HDMI) for HT. Speed is slightly less than maximum and seems to somewhat sporadic going up and down quite a bit on speedtest.net. I also created a wireless network on the HT Airport Extreme to provide wireless connection to East side of house. (Network 2)
I need to add more WIRED lines to this system using either a Switch, Hub or Router. I realize that Airport is a router, but not enough ports available. Questions.
1. Do I use a Switch, Hub or router.
2. Where do I put it in the network. I Need a 8 port in the West SIde near Cable modem and maybe a 5 port on the East side neat HT.
3. I still need a wireless signal from each Airport
4. Do I extend the same network ( Somehow ) or create 2 different Wireless networks (Since they can't see each other any way) 1 in West basement next to Modem, other in HT on East side.
5. I need MAXIMUM Speed in HT for Internet to Mac Mini video streaming. I have a 7MB connection on Road Runner cable and at the modem I get a solid 6.5mb consistently. WIRED connection as stated above, get bursts of 6mb with speed varying from 1.5mb-6.0. This leads to a lot of streaming delays and jerky video.
I think I may have something not hooked up quite right.
Current Setup
Modem->AP Extreme Dual->WIRED CONNECTION->AP Extreme->Mac Mini
I I
Wireless Network 1 Wireless Network 2
I know this is long winded, but I wanted to get all the info out there. There is probably a pretty simple setup, but I need to know the correct hardware I need and then what to do with it.
Many Many thanks in advance
Jim
My house is old and built mainly of brick and stone. Wireless connections work relatively well vertically, but not horizontally. I currently have Cable modem entering the house on the west side and own 2 apple airport base stations ( 1 dual band extreme, the other just extreme) Here is my dilema.
My winter Home Theater project is finally done (June). It is located on the far EAST side of the house, probably 100' (wired distance, 60 ' wireless distance) from my cable modem in the basement on the West side of the house. I had a WDS network setup and working well through out the house. However, the Home Theater (HT) in the far EAST Basement could not see the network, or when it did, the signal was weak and unuseable. I have run several ethernet Cat6 cables around the house during remodeling and have access to 2 lines from Cable modem access point to HT. I have connected Cable modem to Dual Band Airport Extreme in WEST basement. That provides wireless internet to WEST side of house ( Network 1). I also came out the back with CAT6 to HT, where it connects to Airport Extreme base station on East side in HT. Then from that to Mac Mini (HDMI) for HT. Speed is slightly less than maximum and seems to somewhat sporadic going up and down quite a bit on speedtest.net. I also created a wireless network on the HT Airport Extreme to provide wireless connection to East side of house. (Network 2)
I need to add more WIRED lines to this system using either a Switch, Hub or Router. I realize that Airport is a router, but not enough ports available. Questions.
1. Do I use a Switch, Hub or router.
2. Where do I put it in the network. I Need a 8 port in the West SIde near Cable modem and maybe a 5 port on the East side neat HT.
3. I still need a wireless signal from each Airport
4. Do I extend the same network ( Somehow ) or create 2 different Wireless networks (Since they can't see each other any way) 1 in West basement next to Modem, other in HT on East side.
5. I need MAXIMUM Speed in HT for Internet to Mac Mini video streaming. I have a 7MB connection on Road Runner cable and at the modem I get a solid 6.5mb consistently. WIRED connection as stated above, get bursts of 6mb with speed varying from 1.5mb-6.0. This leads to a lot of streaming delays and jerky video.
I think I may have something not hooked up quite right.
Current Setup
Modem->AP Extreme Dual->WIRED CONNECTION->AP Extreme->Mac Mini
I I
Wireless Network 1 Wireless Network 2
I know this is long winded, but I wanted to get all the info out there. There is probably a pretty simple setup, but I need to know the correct hardware I need and then what to do with it.
Many Many thanks in advance
Jim
Imac, Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook, Imac G4, Mac OS X (10.6.4)
