Who's streaming media over 802.11G?

[crashwg]

I've got a couple XBOXs in the house that I use for streaming media among other things that up until now have been connected via wired LAN.  With a recent rearrange it would be much less cable-cluttered if I could use a wireless game adapter (wireless bridge) on the XBOXs to connect to the network.

So who has used 802.11G (the fastest wireless bridge I've seen available) for streaming media (xbox or not) and what have been your experiences?

I've heard that G is fast enough for most video files as long as you don't get up into hi-def stuff but I'm not exactly sure what that means...  I've downloaded xvid and divx files of all different sizes that have claimed to be "hi-def" that were about as average in size as any other file but also have seen some that were double in size, like for instance one episode of Bionic Woman I d/led was 700 some-odd MB compared to the 300 some-odd that they usually seem to be for a ~43 min show. 

Also, I rip movies to my computer.  Full disks (like 8GB) which I sometimes feel like watching before I shrink and burn them to disk.  Will those be watchable over G?

[Donkey_Kong]

Well this may or may not help you...

I ripped about 100 or so DVD's onto a 2tb Terastation and streamed it through the house over the 802.11G Linksys with Speed Booster. Worked great throughout the house until the terastation took a dump. It should work fine for you...Not sure if we had tried any high def files, but I don't see that being an issue either.

 
 

[SavannahLion]

I have an unmodded early gen WRT54GS. It runs fantastic when I'm wirelessly streaming video or data to/from a wired point. It doesn't do so well when I'm doing the same with two wireless points.

When I stream data with two laptops, there's no problems. It's only with the laptop and the wireless desktop. I haven't quite figured why this is.

[edwardvci]

I am also using 2 older wireless linksys G's  My htpc is storing my DVDs uncompressed and streaming to my laptop with no problem. Also divx is streaming OK also.

[btp2k2]

My fiber optic connection is over a 802.11g and it smokes.

I can download 4 gig files in about 10 hours and I am on the other side of the house from the base

[shmokes]

Well this may or may not help you...

I ripped about 100 or so DVD's onto a 2tb Terastation and streamed it through the house over the 802.11G Linksys with Speed Booster. Worked great throughout the house until the terastation took a dump. It should work fine for you...Not sure if we had tried any high def files, but I don't see that being an issue either.

 
 

Interestingly, I have nearly this identical setup.  I copy everything over the wireless network to a 2 GB Terastation.  There's a big block wall between my PC and TV these days.  Luckily, I've got my Terastation set up using RAID 5.  I lose 500 GB of storage, but theoretically I won't lose any data if mine ever decides to crash. 

BTW, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the Buffalo network bridge.  For one thing, it's got a four-port switch built into it, so you can bridge four things.  And it's as cheap as anything else on the market.  And it is better reviewed than any other bridge.

[Samstag]

BTW, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the Buffalo network bridge.  For one thing, it's got a four-port switch built into it, so you can bridge four things.  And it's as cheap as anything else on the market.  And it is better reviewed than any other bridge.

I second that.  I've been using one of these for a year and a half.  I can do a Tivo show download and watch a streaming movie on my Xbox simultaneously with no problems.

[jfunk]

I've got 4 old buffalo airstation g54's that I use to stream video throughout the house.  I've got 3 ReplayTVs and they stream with only the rarest hickup.

[ChadTower]

It is a bad idea to post your specific firewall model number on the internet, and it's nearly as bad to post specific WAP model numbers.  If someone were local and didn't like you it's not that different than posting the model and tumbler code to your front door lock.

[shmokes]

That's a bit melodramatic, I think. 

Linksys WRT54G.

I just posted the model and tumbler code to 50% of your wireless networks. 

[ChadTower]

It may be, yes, but that router has known holes in it that aren't hard to exploit.  This stuff is getting easier and easier to break into as time goes by.

[shmokes]

Right, I just mean that there are probably very very very few people with the technical skill to break into a network (with the tools readily available it doesn't take all that much) that would be stumped by not knowing the model of router or access point.

[meismr]

Security through obscurity isn't really security at all.

[SavannahLion]

Security through obscurity isn't really security at all.

That's the basic rule.

[ChadTower]

Right, I just mean that there are probably very very very few people with the technical skill to break into a network (with the tools readily available it doesn't take all that much) that would be stumped by not knowing the model of router or access point.

There are sniff, point, click, and enter tools out there that even an idiot with a pocketPC can use.  They work.  They do everything from detect the WAP, to sniff out the model #, detect if the default admin password has been changed or not, sniff out the netmask, IP, etc etc... all with barely any active knowledge on the part of the user.

...and that's not even accounting for the fact that even if the WAP is fully secure, on most home installations, few if any of the wireless clients are.  It's very easy to find the WAP, follow it to a client without a clientside firewall, and BOOM you're in via peer to peer.