Can I bridge my Direct TV DVR to my network using a laptop as the bridge

Question

Can I bridge my Direct TV DVR to my network using a laptop as the bridge

The home network is Airport Express 802.11n. Set up for WPA/WPA2. I have a laptop connected to the network wirelessly. The laptop is located near my Direct TV DVR receiver. If I connect an ethernet cable to the DVR and run it to my laptop, can I access the network with my DVR? The Airport Express is connected via ethernet to a Cable Modem.

Ibook G4, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 6, 2011 2:59 PM

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Answer 1

Bob Timmons

Level 10

186,704 points

Jan 6, 2011 3:16 PM in response to Nicholas Tinling

Nicholas,

This is going to be "iffy". I've tried this in the past to answer similar questions, with my laptop located only 15-20 feet in direct line of sight with the wireless router.

The wireless signal did allow for v-e-r-y s-l-o-w downloads of movies, especially high definition. You did not mention what speed you have available on your internet connection, so that will affect things as well. For what it's worth, Direct TV discourages wireless as much as possible. That's why there is only an ethernet port on the DVR.

It couldn't hurt to try, I suppose, if you keep your expectations low. Once you've started a movie download, if you try your browser for other activities, it's also likely to be very slow.

You'll need to setup your laptop for Internet Sharing. Do you need some tips on how to do this?

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Answer 2

Jan 6, 2011 3:27 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks. Yes I do need information on how to setup the laptop to for internet sharing. When I tried to use the connection the DVR did not detect the network.
I have a decent internet connection through comcast. I get very good performance streaming video from NetFlix.
By the way, Direct TV now sells a wireless bridge for their On Demand. It appears to be a Lynksys WET610n. They want $100 bucks for it. This is my attempt to save the money.

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Answer 3

Bob Timmons

Level 10

186,704 points

Jan 6, 2011 3:40 PM in response to Nicholas Tinling

If you have Leopard or Snow Leopard installed on your laptop,

Open System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock

Open Sharing

Click on Internet Sharing (Do not put a check mark in the box)

Share Connection from AirPort

To computers using Ethernet (enter check mark)

Now put a check mark next to Internet Sharing

Click Start

You may need to restart the DVR

On the DVR remote, press Menu, select Setup, System Setup, Network Setup

Let us know how it works for you.

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Answer 4

Jan 6, 2011 4:11 PM in response to Bob Timmons

I did what you said. When trying the setup on Direct TV I get an error message that there is no internet connection, although it says that there is a network connection.

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Answer 5

Bob Timmons

Level 10

186,704 points

Jan 6, 2011 4:15 PM in response to Nicholas Tinling

Did you restart the complete network...everything?

If no help, do you have another computer there or can you borrow one to connect to instead of the DVR to see if you can get an Internet connection?

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Answer 6

Jan 6, 2011 4:30 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Shut everything down, modem, DVR, computer, and airport express. Restarted, with no change. Have a network connection but no internet. I then connected my desktop to the laptop with ethernet cable, turned off airport connection on desktop, and got a great internet connection through my ethernet connection.

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Answer 7

Bob Timmons

Level 10

186,704 points

Jan 6, 2011 4:40 PM in response to Nicholas Tinling

OK, that tells you that the issue is with the DVR.

Push the very small red reset button on the DVR inside the door on the front panel. It will will take the DVR 5-10 minutes to come back up.

Try again. If no luck, all I can suggest is a post to the Direct TV forum to see if the TechKnowGuy knows some tricks. The Internet connection on the DVR may be looking for a certain bandwidth capability or speed that would allow decent performance and not allowing a marginal signal to connect. This happens quite a bit since the bandwidth requirements for video are much greater than for simple Internet browsing.

http://forums.directv.com/pe/index.jsp

Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

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Answer 8

Jan 6, 2011 5:01 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thank you. I will do what you suggest. The IP and sub mask numbers I am getting from the Direct TV attempt to connect don't make much sense to me. They don't appear to be either the IP address of the laptop or the Airport Express. I would manually put them in but I don't know what they are asking for.

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Answer 9

Jan 7, 2011 1:05 PM in response to Nicholas Tinling

It is now solved. I attached the second computer to my laptop via ethernet and then wrote down the IPS, the sub mask, the router, and the DNS. I then plugged the DVR into the laptop via ethernet and went to set up of network and manually inserted the noted addresses. It worked.

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Answer 10

Bob Timmons

Level 10

186,704 points

Jan 7, 2011 1:08 PM in response to Nicholas Tinling

Glad to hear that this is working Hopefully, you will let Tesserax know about this on the other thread that you jumped in on.

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Answer 11

Jan 8, 2011 11:14 AM in response to Nicholas Tinling

Bob:
In my first download I recorded 3 HD movies. 5 hours worth and it took over 6 hours of recording time. Pretty slow. On the DirectTV forum, others complained of speed issues, even with direct connections. I routinely download to my AppleTV from Apple Store movies and the speed is much faster, using the same wireless network. Download speed from the Satellite to the DVR is acceptable. My conclusion, not enough servers at DirectTV.

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Answer 12

Bob Timmons

Level 10

186,704 points

Jan 8, 2011 11:22 AM in response to Nicholas Tinling

My conclusion, not enough servers at DirectTV.

That may be the case. On my measly 6 Mbps connection, a year ago I could download a 2 hour movie in about 30-40 minutes and it now takes three times as long.

You could also make a case that Direct TV has purposely slowed down the connection speeds to allow users with slower connections to be able to connect. As I mentioned, the wireless I was testing at the time was running at 5+ Mbps and the signal was barely adequate.

I do notice that Direct TV will no longer support wireless for the Whole Home feature, something they were doing during the Beta test, so the speeds on that setup have probably stayed up to normal.

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