# Netrworking reciever to access 6000 streaming movie archive



## News Junky (Mar 16, 2005)

I saw a TV commercial saying D* customers have access to 6000 steaming movies at no extra charge. I'm a D* customer, started investigating and discovered this was in reference to the Cinema Plus feature. However in order to access it your receiver must be connected to the Internet. I called 800 DIR-ECTV and was told all I had to do was plug in a cat-5 Ethernet cable into the back of my receiver box and I'm good to go. This is very impracticable for me so I asked could it be done over my home wireless wifi. They said yes but I would have to order an $80 kit from them. I then asked would a regular wifi dongle from any electronic store work. She said, hold on let me check and came back and said yes. After thinking about it more, I know just enough about computers to be dangerous a started doubting since every wifi dongle I've ever bought needed to have a driver installed before it worked. With a D* receiver unless I'm missing something I can't see how installing a driver is even possible. Will a regular Linksys or Netgear wifi dongle work on a D* receiver?


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

No, a USB adapter will not work.

You need a wireless adapter like the WET610N or WGA600N. They are both supported and can be configured through your receiver. I've used an Airport Express in the past and it worked fine too. You just have to set it up separately.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

The wireless adapters can be had for less than $80 if you look hard enough.


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## xmetalx (Jun 3, 2009)

News Junky said:


> I saw a TV commercial saying D* customers have access to 6000 steaming movies at no extra charge. I'm a D* customer, started investigating and discovered this was in reference to the Cinema Plus feature. However in order to access it your receiver must be connected to the Internet. I called 800 DIR-ECTV and was told all I had to do was plug in a cat-5 Ethernet cable into the back of my receiver box and I'm good to go. This is very impracticable for me so I asked could it be done over my home wireless wifi. They said yes but I would have to order an $80 kit from them. I then asked would a regular wifi dongle from any electronic store work. She said, hold on let me check and came back and said yes. After thinking about it more, I know just enough about computers to be dangerous a started doubting since every wifi dongle I've ever bought needed to have a driver installed before it worked. With a D* receiver unless I'm missing something I can't see how installing a driver is even possible. Will a regular Linksys or Netgear wifi dongle work on a D* receiver?


Short answer: No. You will need something like a wireless 'gaming' adapter. The model that DirecTV sells is a Linksys WET610N I believe..


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

What kind of receiver do you have? If it's an HR24, you may be able to just get the internet connection kit from Ebay .. Most are going for around $15. It really depends on your setup as to if (1) it's possible and (2) what the final cost would be.


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## News Junky (Mar 16, 2005)

Doug Brott said:


> What kind of receiver do you have? If it's an HR24, you may be able to just get the internet connection kit from Ebay .. Most are going for around $15. It really depends on your setup as to if (1) it's possible and (2) what the final cost would be.


Thanks for all the good replies. I'm not home at the moment so I'm not sure but we have 5 rooms, 2 of which have dual input DVR receivers. There's a blue circle on the front panel that spins around when I turn it on. It look like this but I'm not sure if multiple models look similar.


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## News Junky (Mar 16, 2005)

Update: I was an electronic retail store the other day and started up a conversation with the attendant on this issue. He said they also sell the Linksys WET610N roughly priced at what D* sells it for but recommended something else as being a better solution. He said Ethernet was the best, a high end wifi like Linksys WET610N was good but almost as good as Ethernet was something called Powerline. The short version is it piggy backs your home's electrical wiring and uses adapters you plug in at electrical outlets that have Ethernet ports on them. According the the attendant its faster than Linksys WET610N and although slightly more expensive, if you have an entertainment system with multiple Internet access needs one can feed four devices, such as a Blueray player, D* receiver box, etc. instead of having to buy several separate Linksys WET610N's that aren't even as fast. Any opinions?


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## DogLover (Mar 19, 2007)

News Junky said:


> Update: I was an electronic retail store the other day and started up a conversation with the attendant on this issue. He said they also sell the Linksys WET610N roughly priced at what D* sells it for but recommended something else as being a better solution. He said Ethernet was the best, a high end wifi like Linksys WET610N was good but almost as good as Ethernet was something called Powerline. The short version is it piggy backs your home's electrical wiring and uses adapters you plug in at electrical outlets that have Ethernet ports on them. According the the attendant its faster than Linksys WET610N and although slightly more expensive, if you have an entertainment system with multiple Internet access needs one can feed four devices, such as a Blueray player, D* receiver box, etc. instead of having to buy several separate Linksys WET610N's that aren't even as fast. Any opinions?


Powerline adapters "can" be a good solution. However, much depends on your home wiring and what circuits they are plugged into. If you are going to try it, make sure the store has a good return policy in case it doesn't work in your house.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

DogLover said:


> Powerline adapters "can" be a good solution. However, much depends on your home wiring and what circuits they are plugged into. If you are going to try it,* make sure the store has a good return policy in case it doesn't work in your house*.


Needed repeating, as _the attendant_ doesn't have a clue. :nono:


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

Linksys WET610N in conjunction with a Linksys N router will smoke powerline adapters if the wireless signal is okay (which is much more likely in my experience than powerline working well).

And if you want to connect multiple devices to it, a cheap (~$15) switch would work just fine.


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