WORKING WITH
WIRELESS
Wired is better, but wireless is a
decent substitute in a pinch. If you
absolutely must use wireless to
stream your video, here are a few
tricks that will help you get the
most from your network.If you absolutely, positively must use a
wireless connection for one or more of
your rooms, there’s a way to do it, but it
gets really expensive. The trick is to use
multiple access points to create a separate
Wi-Fi network for each room you want to
connect. Routers—like the one connected
to your DSL or cable connection—include
special hardware to share that connectionwith every machine in your home. Access
points, on the other hand, just create
wireless attachments points on an already
existing wired network.
Using multiple access points, you
can create separate Wi-Fi networks—
using unique SSIDs for each—on
non-overlapping Wi-Fi channels. We
recommend channels 1, 6, and 11—which
then lets you devote an entire 802.11g
connection’s worth of bandwidth to each
room. Of course, the obvious downside
to this approach is cost. Each access point
will cost at least $80.
When you’re shopping for access
points, don’t get suckered into purchasing
a more expensive MIMO access point. The
MIMO wireless gear works great when
used with a MIMO adapter, but none of the
streaming bo xes we’ve tested to date ship
with MIMO-friendly wireless chipsets. ■WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH WI-FI?
At first glance, 802.11g looks like it should have enough bandwidth to handle video and audio, but in
real-world testing, it just can’t hold up. With the extra overhead generated by lost packets and errors,
the 22Mb/s that G delivers just doesn’t deliver enough bandwidth. Use this handy guide to know
how much media you can stream wirelessly in the real world.DVD
Vide o
1 stream0 Mb/s 11 Mb/s 22 Mb/sDivx Video
2.5
streams
18:33Because none of the streaming boxes
support new MIMO technology, a
MIMO router—such as the Linksys
model pictured here—doesn’t offer
anything special.MP3
5 streamsReal-World 802.11g Bandwidth