Have a Humax 'smart' PVR which is cabled internet only - no Wi-Fi. Would like to use it where there is no RJ45 outlet. Is it possible to buy a Wi-Fi adaptor to RJ45 rather than USB? There is a USB socket on it - but that says for a keyboard.
You can get wifi access points which have an Ethernet port and an aerial. You can even use an old unwanted router as an access point, if you turn off its DHCP server and connect the PVR to a LAN port rather than (if it has one) a WAN port.
If you need and old router, just pay for postage then contact me. #reply here and I will send your details. Cheers
Yes. They sometimes call them 'gaming adaptor' (or did). Many Access Points can also be configured to do what you want. I used one years ago to make my Dads old CRT iMac 'wireless'. ;-)
I have a TP-Link WA801ND in front of me that I think is currently setup as you require (so I can access my mates network across the road, rather than having to go over there and using better antenna than typically on a laptop etc).
And unlikely to have the right drivers etc.
Cheers, T i m
You you just need a wifi access point used in "infrastructure" or "Bridge" mode - basically converting a wifi upstream connection to ethernet.
(or use a pair of homeplug devices as a ethernet bridge, that is often a more reliable connection, and has the advantage of upsetting some trolls with letters and numbers after their names :-)) )
Things that will do that are readily available. We use one in our living room, and another in an upstairs room to connect our non-wifi printer to make it available to every other computer.
TV, DVD, Chromecast and network thingy all plugged into one socket via a remote switch so everything goes off at night.
I have a Netgear AC1200 WiFi Range Extender Model EX6150 right in front of me. Used it when I set up my current computer a few months ago. The wifi card in the PC does not get detected and installed by Windows. So used this device with a short Ethernet cable to get going.
Or use a fair of Homeplugs, if you have them lying around perhaps?
Pair, not fair.
And hope and pray that the mains wiring between them is capable of carrying the signal. Our house is an L shape, with a long distance from the router at one extreme of the L to rooms at the other end. And the house has two "fuse boxes" with sockets at different ends of the L on different fuse boxes - though still all going through the same meter which I gather is the absolute show-stopper if you try to go between sockets on different meters.
When I tried it with Homeplug devices that were rated at I think 80 Mbps I got a transfer rate of about 5 Mbps with frequent drop-outs; to get 80 Mbps I had to be on sockets that were no more than a few yards apart. And that was using a Homeplug-with-wifi device that was in a socket on the *same* fuse box as the router, and even with a laptop a few feet from the Homeplug. There's something in our house wiring which seems to denature Homeplug even over distances of a few yards between adjacent rooms when both sockets are on the same ring-main.
So I abandoned the idea of Homeplug and tried a Linksys Velop mesh network which is mostly pretty good, though it took a *lot* of tweaking of positions of intermediate nodes to get them positioned correctly because they need to be as far away as possible so their 2.4 GHz networks don't experience channel clashes, but close enough that the 5 GHz (which is what is used for node-to-node comms) can still communicate. Quite a balancing act! My initial mistake was to assume that variable transfer rates and frequent dropouts of node-to-node comms was due to too *little* 5 GHz signal, when it was actually nodes perpetually trying to reconfigure themselves to avoid clashing on 2.4 GHz. I'd turn off 2.4 GHz, but my laptop and my security cameras don't have 5 GHz adaptors. And yo can't turn off 2.4 on selected nodes - it's either on all nodes or else none. So it now works well. The only problem is when there's a power cut, because I need to turn on nodes in a certain order otherwise one node may try (and fail) to connect to a node that is not its nearest neighbour and hasn't got the common sense to adjust once a stronger/nearer node has booted up.
Mesh is supposed to be used for a spherical/cylindrical topology where all the nodes talk to one central node and don't have to daisy-chain from A to B to C to D in a linear fashion, as is the case in our L-shaped house. I need to move my primary node (the one that talks to the ISP's router by Ethernet) so it has better wifi coverage, then I may be able to avoid nodes daisy-chaining and hopefully each node will each be able to talk directly to the primary; I may even find then that I don't need as many nodes. But that means buying and routing two lots of Cat 5 across the living room, which needs me to get a "Round Tuit". ;-) Two lots because I'd need to go from router to primary node across the living room, and then back to hub that feeds TV/PVR and my study next door (at present, router, primary node and hub are adjacent). And then find some way of getting mains for the node in its new position... I wish I'd gone for my original idea of running a long length of Cat 5 from one end of the L to the other, through the loft, and then using a simple access point from there for wifi coverage, given than I mostly need wifi at the two ends of the L (bedrooms at one end; study/lounge at the other) and not in the middle.
The joys of buying an old house with thick outside (and even inside) walls, which was built in two phases so the newer "wing" is on a different fusebox, and with modern heat-reflecting windows with "fake leaded lights" within the panes, which seem to severely attenuate 5 GHz as it tries to take the shorter route from one end to the other across the patio.
I also found difficulty with the old 80 mbps homeplugs. You'd think the higher speed ones would be worse, but on the contrary they connect much better.
We have a very thick wall running down the middle of our house, which makes a mockery of wifi. Hence my enthusiasm for Homeplug. :)
i use similar to this
Well John, I can give you chapter and verse on both.
First of all I bought ths little number (mains powerd via USB) to go on the end of long piece pfcat 5 for WiFi on the patio...
It works great.
Secondly I have two pairs of TP link powerline adapters - one pair of single ethernet sockets stuff works reliably, the other that had twin ethernet sockets in each unit (and a 13A socket) does not., After a while they just stop working and need rebooting.
Yup RouterOS devices seem fairly capable... and a fair bit of capability for the money.
(Although I would probably go for a PoE powered one in outside applications).
That may be a reflection on the people rather than the device. Their kit is aimed at the more tech capable user.
As is usually the case, your mileage may vary, although I have found the AV600 ones to be reliable (and have 25+ installed in various applications). I can't speak for all the model range, as I have not tried the higher speed ones.
If you have not already done it, installing the tpPLC management software will give you a good overview of what the homeplug network is doing - and will show the link speeds and quality of the links between all the devices.
That will work, although might be worth noting it might give lower wifi speeds for devices that connect to it in preference to the main router in some cases (from the spec it looks like it only has one radio).
They have certainly improved over the years (having gone through older
14, 80, 200AV standards etc)If its your own place, then there is a lot to be said for biting the bullet and doing a proper (structured) cabled network.
(from my point of view the joy of homeplug is the ease with which one can get a client to self install a working network without the need for on site support or any need for house bashing!)
Installing it on what? No winders here m8
Not got a pocket for a laptop in your hair shirt? :-)
The device plugged into the PVR needs to be able to connect to an existing access point, rather than generating its own. Many consumer routers (especially the ones from ISPs) won't do that. It should be feasible if you can put OpenWrt or DD-WRT on it.
(A common recommendation for that is the BT HomeHub 5A, which many people have lying around - I bought one on ebay with OpenWrt installed for 16 quid)
Theo
got a lappie and a phone. All on linux
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