Media Networking In Apartment

aiden1015

Honorable
Jun 18, 2013
3
0
10,510
I'm moving from a house into an apartment complex that has free wifi in the building. The problem I have is I stream a lot of media some from the internet, but mostly on my local network using a media server, homerun prime, and a media extender.

I have no clue if the internet is wireless G or N but I need a way to network all those devices together to stream 1080p media files. Currently I have everything connecting through cat5 cable with no problem. I'm looking for help on a solution on the best way to network in the apartment.

I could try and just get wireless to ethernet adapters, but my main issue with that is network security.

My other thought was to get a single adapter and my own wireless router so that I'm on my own network and use EoP to connect my devices around the apartment together on the local network and use the wireless to ethernet adapter to connect to the internet from my PC/media server.

Last thought was to just spend $30/mo on my own internet connection with a wireless router and existing completely on my own.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
If you are worried about security and want to stream HD, I would not use the free WiFi unless they specifically can tell you if there is a separate network for each apartment setup and what the bandwidth allocation is. If you connect to their WiFi, you are on the same network as everyone else. If you stick a WiFi extender with your own router in the place, you are going to be using double NAT which causes it's own issues, and also won't help in the speed area as you are still sharing that signal with everyone elsein the building.

If your internet connection has data caps, I would use the building wifi for tablets and smartphones and your own connection for the computers.
 

aiden1015

Honorable
Jun 18, 2013
3
0
10,510
Well for security reasons I want to use a router so that I have a firewall between myself and the other 5 apartments on the network. I'll have to see if I can do a speed test to see what the bandwidth really is. If they cheaped out on the wireless using 10Mbps for 6 apartments to share and have wireless G routers, I may have to just buy my own.

Should I be concerned about security? My PC/Media Server is password protected, but my homerun prime I don't think can be secured on the network, so theoretically other people could use the tv tuners and watch the TV I'm paying for on their computers.