Need a solution for my Home Media Server and Roku on network

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Last response: February 12, 2013 7:07 AM in Wireless Networking

Jerry_03

February 12, 2013 2:24:21 AM

so for those of you who dont know, a roku is a little device that connects to your tv and allows you to watch streaming video to your tv from netflix, hulu+, vudu and with plex, local content.

so this is my current setup: both my roku and server are wirelessly connected to my network

needless to say playback, even local content is pretty bad. my goal is to get good playback of video on my roku that is being streamed from my server.

ive thought of two solutions, first,

Wired Connection to Repeater

connect my roku and server with ethernet cables to my wireless repeater

http://www.imageshack.us/a/img850/6007/wiredtorepeater....[\\img]

this would be the best economically as all i need is are two good sized length ethernet cables. however im a bit rusty on my networking and so i need some refreshing. would this solution actually create faster transfer speeds? if i remember correctly, the IP packets would first go through the wired connection from my server to the repeater, then wirelessly go to the router. after it gets properly routed, it would wirelessly go back to the repeater and then on the wire go to the roku. is this correct? or would it not have to go to the router at all because its all in the same subnet?

anyways, this is the second solution i thought of:

Bridged Network

buy a cheap router off of ebay and put dd-wrt on it to allow it to be a bridged network.

this way the roku and my server would be on its own separate network and wouldnt even need to go to the main router for playback of local content.

some of you maybe wondering why dont i just connect my server and roku directly to my main router, well its because it aint actually my router, its my landlords, i just set it up for him and its located in his room. im just renting a room, so I cant have ethernet cables running from my room to his, so im stuck using wireless, at least between the main router and me." alt="" class="imgLz frmImg" />

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Reply to Jerry_03

ngrego

February 12, 2013 7:07:54 AM

To begin with what kind of oruter is your landlord using?

This is a very important factor here because a simple (wireless G single antenna) router just wont do! 54Mbps is just not enough bandwidth especially if it is a single antenna model. You will need to have at least an N class (300Mbps+) mimo (muti antenna) router to handle the streaming and any other network traffic.

For local streaming (server to roku) the best option would be a switch (Gigabit if possible) on which you would cable your roku, server, PC and the repeater. This way the switch could handle the local traffic and only access the repeater for internet. Again this setup will improve your local network speed but streaming video quality from the internet will be entirely up to the landlord's router.