WiFi

[kurt]

Anyone got any first hand stories with WiFi-ing the TV? Got a 100 year old building where the TV's gotta be in a specific location on an inner wall, no place else, and the location precludes anything other than WiFi or the unacceptable routing of coaxial thru walls and along the baseshoe or snaking down from the ceiling....the backing wall is 4 brick thick demising/firewall between the two sides of the building no way it can be snaked from behind, can't come up from below either....it'd trash another persons apt. Can't get there from here.

Tread the iO Gear and ActionTec reviews, various others @ the blurb spots. The stated "spec's" all make references to 100' (+-) thru "standard house walls". Best guesses on the new stuff working reasonably well if it's only broadcasting sideways <50' thru wood lath and plaster?

Can anyone divine the tea leaves?

[John Kogel]

I have no experience with any walls that are 4 bricks thick, unheard of here in the land of big timber.

But I would advise simply searching for WiFi in that location with a laptop. If you can get cable WiFi with the laptop, it should be available for the TV as well. No guarantee, tho. Depends on the strength of the TV WiFi unit.

We have Roku, a gift from our son. Roku and cable internet, a world of almost commercial-free viewing.

[kurt]

That's where I want to get. A Roku or similar setup. This my joint. Taking over the top west floor of the apartment building and going new urbanist ethic. I can't get a cable to the spot without some cable guy abomination. I can go to the roof and drop down into a closet where I could put the router and gear. If I could broadcast to the TV, it would remove a heap of pain of installation.

[inspector57]

I have AT&T Uverse wireless set top box in two of my rooms.

No different from the hard wired units other than a little bit of lag in the remote when flipping channels.

Mine is only 30' away with a bit of sheetrock and some brick through 2 to 4 walls between the router and the units.

Wireless to the front room is another story with solid mirrored wall and metal vertical ducts lining the entire separating wall.

[Marc]

You said the walls were multi-wythe masonry. Are the floors wood framed? Any poured concrete on them?

Modern routers can get through wood framed floors pretty easily.

I once had a problem with brick veneer attenuating my router signal. The router was within an addition to the back side of the house with the original brick veneer still there. I was able to fix it by plugging a repeater into an outlet where it had a line-of-sight view of the router via a window pane. That brought abundant signal throughout the interior of the original portion of the house.

If you can get enough signal through one floor, repeaters will allow you to get it all the way up.

Marc

[ghentjr]

I use the ATT wireless on my patio and in a guest bedroom but i'm not sure it would work through masonry. It has great reception through sheetrock and wall studs. You still need a hard connection from the TV to the wireless box.

[kurt]

So, I'm hearing they work ok in a wood framed normal house. I'm dealing with a lot of solid 12"-14" thick masonry, heavy framed, thick old plaster on wood lath.

I'm thinking my best shot may be coming thru the roof into a closet adjacent to the target room. It's about 15' to the tv thru one wall, plaster two sides. Still gotta get power to the closet tho.

[Jim Baird]

Roku works OK here but only have 3mb streaming so it bogs down sometimes.

[mlparham]

A router extender should solve your problem.

[Steven Hockstein]

We use WiFi for Netflix. Our TV has built-in WiFi. TV is 30 feet from the Router and two floors away (wood framed home). No complaints. Aside from making sure you have a good signal for the WiFi you should try for at least 5 Mbps rate for non-stop viewing.

Test the connection from your router with a smart phone. Ipad, or laptop.

[kurt]

I'm thinking I may just build a little weatherproof box and put the whole shebang on the roof over the target room and adjacent office. I could get power to there easier than to the closet. One layer of mod bit, roof deck, 8" of loose fill glass, lath and plaster, distance to tv would be about 12'. I got the faster type, whatever that is. I'm inclined to get a new tv wifi ready.

Would there be any temperature related weirdness? It is Chicago.

Thanx for the tips.

[David Meiland]

I have a house and a separate shop. Typical LinkSys router in the house, connected to the phone/DSL wire, another one in the shop setup as a repeater, with my office computer wired directly to it. Distance between the two is 60 feet or so, and there is plenty of wifi everywhere, inside and outside both buildings. We have no brick but the signal is going through three insulated walls. Seems highly likely that any half-decent IT guy can get you signal. Get rid of cable and dish and never look back.

[Marc]

I'm thinking I may just build a little weatherproof box and put the whole shebang on the roof over the target room and adjacent office. I could get power to there easier than to the closet. One layer of mod bit, roof deck, 8" of loose fill glass, lath and plaster, distance to tv would be about 12'. I got the faster type, whatever that is. I'm inclined to get a new tv wifi ready.

Would there be any temperature related weirdness? It is Chicago.

Thanx for the tips.

I don't know of any routers designed for outdoor use. Condensation issues in the winter, etc.

What about the basement, away from the boiler?

Marc

[kurt]

The 1st fl platform is 12" of concrete and terra cotta, and I'm two stories away.

Gonna look into repeaters and extenders. That's sounding like the best way.

[Marc]

'Repeater', 'Extender', and 'Range Expander' all refer to the same device.

Marc

[ghentjr]

I'm thinking I may just build a little weatherproof box and put the whole shebang on the roof over the target room and adjacent office. I could get power to there easier than to the closet. One layer of mod bit, roof deck, 8" of loose fill glass, lath and plaster, distance to tv would be about 12'. I got the faster type, whatever that is. I'm inclined to get a new tv wifi ready.

Would there be any temperature related weirdness? It is Chicago.

Thanx for the tips.

If the receiver is in the room with the tv and the small broadcast unit is also in a heated environment there should be no weather issues. The broadcast unit connects with an ethernet cable to your modem and the signal is received with a box that looks pretty much like a normal cable box. Distance, not temp would be the only problem. Keep the two as close together as possible.

[Erby]

See a lot of routers and modems mounted in attics around here! No one seems to have a problem with it even all the way down to the basement in a two story job. But standard construction.

I've noted that a few of the coffee shops and restaurants downtown, in old thick brick walled buildings, get their signal out to the parking lot at a good speed. Stop by them and use them now and then when I need a quick connection.