# Sticky  Wired or Wireless...



## Rich

This question just keeps getting asked: What's the best way to hook up our equipment, wired or wireless? The question has been answered many times here by very knowledgeable members but it gets asked over and over. Here's the best answer:

For the love of God go wired if you possibly can! A hardwired connection is always more reliable and much more stable. 

Rich


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## RAD

For the Genie's, totally agree. For the clients, especially if you can grab a C61W, from my experience they aren't as bad as some folks say as long as you make sure you have a good signal on the clients.


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## FarNorth

Can't go wired, Genie is on an inside wall. I really don't want to have an ethernet cable running from my home office across the floor to the TV. I have the dish on a hill behind the house, ran the coax along the bottom of the house, in across the ceiling of my garage and then up through the floor to the rcvr. If I absolutely had to, I could put a modem in the garage and run a cable up through the floor as well but I would rather not do that.

I live in Alaska, don't really want to have a TV on an outside wall near a very bright window. Doesn't get dark here for months.


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## MysteryMan

Rich said:


> A hardwired connection is always more reliable and much more stable.


Totally agree.


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## Rich

FarNorth said:


> Can't go wired, Genie is on an inside wall. I really don't want to have an ethernet cable running from my home office across the floor to the TV. I have the dish on a hill behind the house, ran the coax along the bottom of the house, in across the ceiling of my garage and then up through the floor to the rcvr. If I absolutely had to, I could put a modem in the garage and run a cable up through the floor as well but I would rather not do that.
> 
> *I live in Alaska*, don't really want to have a TV on an outside wall near a very bright window. Doesn't get dark here for months.


Been a while since we've seen someone from Alaska here. How is life there? Any peculiar problems with D*?

Rich


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## Rich

We could use some "pros" and "cons" about wired and wireless. I've had some wicked problems with equipment using wireless connections but for the most part what with the house blanketed with at least 200 Mbps down it's usually pretty reliable.

Rich


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## MysteryMan




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## carl6

First off, I totally agree with going wired if at all possible. That is ALWAYS the preferred option.

Wireless can work fairly well if you are in a relatively low interference environment. Your own house with plenty of space between you and your neighbors for example. Places where it tends not to work very well are high-density housing environments. Apartment and condo buildings where the only thing between you and your neighbor is a couple of pieces of plasterboard or sheet rock.

The closer you can put the wireless client to the access point (wireless video bridge), the better. Putting them on opposite ends of your house is begging for trouble.

Sitting in the basement of my own house, I'm picking up six wireless signals (2.4 and 5 Gig) on my cell phone. If I step outside, I see about 20. There are only a finite number of wifi channels, and as soon as another signal is on the same channel, it reduces the throughput and reliability you get on that channel.


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## dtv757

My setup is wired . Even all internet devices In my house are wired via ethernet 

But I do understand where some situations wireless would be better 

Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk


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## SledgeHammer

carl6 said:


> the access point (wireless video bridge)


This. You should always use a wireless bridge at your entertainment center vs using the wi-fi in each individual device. If you are going wireless of course. A wireless bridge will have better / faster rates and can do stuff the wifi in regular electronic equipment can't. For example, I use a wireless bridge and the backhaul channel to the main router is 160Mhz on DFS channels and use MU-MIMO, so there is ZERO interference from neighbors. Unless your neighbor is an airport of course. Most of the time, they're going to give you wireless-N in equipment as well. The higher quality stuff might have an AC wifi in it, but it'll be a ghetto implementation.


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## JerryMeeker

I use a wireless bridge in my equipment rack as well. It provides a wired connection to the AVR, Blu-Ray player, and the HR54. Only my TV and AppleTV 4K are using 5Gps wireless.


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## repoman75

Question. I have the issue where the main genie always loses internet connection (and i have to reconnect from the menu). I have a WiFi connection. 

I can’t connect via Ethernet since the modem is 2 stories up (and can’t move the modem). 

If I get a WiFi booster that has an Ethernet out on it and plug it in near my main genie and connect it to the main genie, would that improve the internet connection or can you only connect ethernet from the modem?


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## carl6

I would look at a wifi extender. Place it in the middle, one story up. I do not have one of these, and have not used one, but here is one example of something that might work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZMBMLX/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&smid=A12KYIM5CS8MDN

If you can get a wired connection on the middle floor, that would be even better. Then just use this as an access point rather than as a repeater.

Another option, which I personally don't care for at all but many people use them with no problem, is a power line ethernet extender. Carries your IP signal over the house wiring, with an adapter at each end of the connection.


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## repoman75

Thanks. Why are you against the power line ethernet extender? I 'm going to try this.


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## Rich

carl6 said:


> I would look at a wifi extender. Place it in the middle, one story up. I do not have one of these, and have not used one, but here is one example of something that might work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZMBMLX/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&smid=A12KYIM5CS8MDN
> 
> If you can get a wired connection on the middle floor, that would be even better. Then just use this as an access point rather than as a repeater.
> 
> Another option, which I personally don't care for at all but many people use them with no problem, is a power line ethernet extender. Carries your IP signal over the house wiring, with an adapter at each end of the connection.


I've tried extenders several times and had no luck. I gave up and bought two Netgear Nighthawks and installed them and have had no problems since then.

Rich


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## repoman75

Going to give these a try:

*Extollo Gigabit Ethernet Powerline Adapter LANSocket 1500*


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## SledgeHammer

repoman75 said:


> Going to give these a try:
> 
> *Extollo Gigabit Ethernet Powerline Adapter LANSocket 1500*


Powerline is terrible. You only get a fraction of the rated speed. Much worse then wireless. AV1200 for example sees a real world speed of about 120Mbps. You can get faster then that with an AC router. I mean a Wifi 5 router. Or even faster with a Wifi-6 router.


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## Delroy E Walleye

I think the DVRs probably only really need < 10Mbps per stream, for whatever that's worth. (Regular HD.)


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## veryoldschool

Delroy E Walleye said:


> I think the DVRs probably only really need < 10Mbps per stream, for whatever that's worth. (Regular HD.)


I'd bump that up to < 20 Mb/s.
VOD has been 16+ Mb/s


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## repoman75

CNET says differently but we shall see - they are ordered and I will let you know of the results.


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## veryoldschool

repoman75 said:


> CNET says differently but we shall see - they are ordered and I will let you know of the results.


As it uses your house wiring, the wiring can become "the wild card".


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## SledgeHammer

repoman75 said:


> CNET says differently but we shall see - they are ordered and I will let you know of the results.


Did you read the review? They said they got 404Mbps *in the lab*, under *ideal conditions* with the adapters *10 ft* apart.


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## joshualeecragg

For a new installation, what type of wire would be used to connect two 4K clients and 3 HD clients to a HS17? 

Building house from the ground up, all tv locations have two cat6 cables along with one RG6Q that run back to a sever room?


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## slice1900

joshualeecragg said:


> For a new installation, what type of wire would be used to connect two 4K clients and 3 HD clients to a HS17?
> 
> Building house from the ground up, all tv locations have two cat6 cables along with one RG6Q that run back to a sever room?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


What you have listed is fine, Directv uses RG6 to the clients. The only thing you want to be sure of is that the coax from your server room to wherever the dish is located (roof, backyard etc.) is solid copper center not the more common and cheaper copper coated steel.


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## joshualeecragg

slice1900 said:


> What you have listed is fine, Directv uses RG6 to the clients. The only thing you want to be sure of is that the coax from your server room to wherever the dish is located (roof, backyard etc.) is solid copper center not the more common and cheaper copper coated steel.


Awesome thank you for telling me. How do the clients connect, could I use cat6 or do they have to be RG6?

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## slice1900

joshualeecragg said:


> Awesome thank you for telling me. How do the clients connect, could I use cat6 or do they have to be RG6?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The clients only have a RG6 input, they don't have ethernet. There are ways to make that work using 'DECA' devices Directv offers that bridge between coax and ethernet networking if you REALLY wanted to, but it wouldn't be officially supported by Directv so why fight it if you are building the house and have the opportunity to put anything in the walls you want?


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## joshualeecragg

slice1900 said:


> The clients only have a RG6 input, they don't have ethernet. There are ways to make that work using 'DECA' devices Directv offers that bridge between coax and ethernet networking if you REALLY wanted to, but it wouldn't be officially supported by Directv so why fight it if you are building the house and have the opportunity to put anything in the walls you want?


No I agree totally in not fighting it I just wasn't sure what their method of connecting clients was! At my apartment we currently have AT&T U-verse over fiber, that goes to an ONT and then to a residential gateway, then to tv client devices via ethernet. Which we will have at our home for internet just not tv.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## carl6

My objection to powerline is there is so much crap going over powerline now it can be almost useless for something else. Interference can be fairly wide spread. If you are (or might in the future) use any type of home automation stuff that communicates over powerline, it will all conflict and interfere with each other. Given there are other/better options to get IP somewhere, I prefer those options.

With the right equipment, you can send/receive "wifi" for miles with true line of sight. Easily a few hundred feet through houses/buildings, etc. But the stuff you get at a big box store isn't "the right equipment".


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## repoman75

It's not that I don't get Wifi throughout the house, it's that I keep losing the HD DVR connection to the Wifi - the system disconnects, reconnects, disconnect, reconnects. It sucks. Only an ethernet will do. So yes, I could buy another wifi router I guess and have an ethernet off that to the HD DVR.. but I'm going to try the powerline and see what happens - they are coming today!


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## JerryMeeker

I tried the power line solution and returned it immediately. Throughput was anemic. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I use a wireless bridge in my equipment cabinet that provides wired connections to all my equipment. The wireless bridge links to my router, the throughput is excellent, and the connections to the equipment are rock solid.


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## SledgeHammer

JerryMeeker said:


> I tried the power line solution and returned it immediately. Throughput was anemic. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I use a wireless bridge in my equipment cabinet that provides wired connections to all my equipment. The wireless bridge links to my router, the throughput is excellent, and the connections to the equipment are rock solid.


Yup. We've told OP that a few times, but he doesn't believe us... yet .

I also run a wireless bridge at my TV and hardwire into that. Key is getting the right router for that. And I suspect OP didn't tweak his router settings correctly if he's dropping. Out of the box my small house had a dead zone where my phone got 0Mbps down. A few simple tweaks to the router and its maxing out at 220Mbps in the same exact spot (which is the most the phone can do).


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## repoman75

Powerlines work great. No dropping off an internet connection to the directv box. And speeds are good!


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## inkahauts

repoman75 said:


> Powerlines work great. No dropping off an internet connection to the directv box. And speeds are good!


That's not the normal experience. They work sometimes for some people but far more often they do not work well.


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## Delroy E Walleye

From reading around here for the past several years it seems the genies are _notorious_ for dropping their wi-fi connections.

That's why I've never even tried to use it and always gone wired (CCK).

Glad to read the powerline is working. (At least it avoids the flaky genie wi-fi.)


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## inkahauts

My WiFi genie hasn’t ever just dropped signal... not sure if call it notorious. A few reports here and there but it’s not a massive thing that plagues all. On the other hand, he’s lucky his power line works. When I sold them they had about a 95% return rate for the simple reason they usually suck.


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## b4pjoe

I think the biggest problem with wifi dropping is by cheap low quality wifi routers. You get what you pay for as the saying goes.


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## FarNorth

repoman75 said:


> Question. I have the issue where the main genie always loses internet connection (and i have to reconnect from the menu). I have a WiFi connection.
> 
> I can't connect via Ethernet since the modem is 2 stories up (and can't move the modem).
> 
> If I get a WiFi booster that has an Ethernet out on it and plug it in near my main genie and connect it to the main genie, would that improve the internet connection or can you only connect ethernet from the modem?


I use that setup on a cable TiVo that I have. For some reason, the TiVos available in Alaska do not hook up via wifi, only ethernet and without a connection to the 'net, the guide won't update. I installed a wifi extender, a NetGear AC2200; it has an ethernet connection out the bottom and it is flawless. Yes, I have both cable and DTV because I am a fanatic. I prefer DTV but I have the bare bones cable package 'just in case' my DTV fails before or during an important game. I disconnect after the Super Bowl.


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