I’ve purchased a Linksys router and configured it; after installing wireless cards in my notebooks and PCs, I now have my very own wireless network.
I also bought a digital media adapter (more Linksys*), in the hopes that I could have a wireless cable connection – that is, that I wouldn’t need the coax cable from the cable jack going to both the cable modem and the tv, but that the router (connected to the cable modem) would wirelessly broadcast my digital cable to the adapter, which I’m trying to connect to the TV.
My questions are: Am I wrong about the purpose of the media adapter – will it not recive the digital cable signal? And, how does the media adapter connect to the TV/cable box? All of the obvious ways (like, say, those in the directions) don’t seem to be working. I’ve connected the media adapter directly to the TV (rather than to the cable box), and I’m told only that it’s “waiting for a host” – I’ve set it to DHCP and the correct workgroup and channel on the tv. I couldn’t run the setup disk for it, because the disk is designed for Win XP, not Me. Do I need to run this disk?
CATV networks use proprietary protocols for digital TV. There are actually several in common use. They include things like conditional access – who can see what – but are based on MPEG. Putting digital TV over a WiFi network is technically possible, but requires a whole lot of special equipment. Also, one digital TV channel uses around 3 Mb/s. Two or three channels would fill up an 802.11b link*. Most cable systems now transport several dozen channels.
Nearly all cable modems today are based on DOCSIS, which is an open standard. I’m not sure what a digital media adapter is and does. If the digital media adapter supports DOCSIS, you may be able to do what you want. You will need the cooperation of your cable company to tell you what frequencies they are using for your cable modem service.
Hope this is of some help.
802.11b is advertised as being 11 Mb/s, but IIRC has 6 or 7 Mb/s of useable bandwidth.
Forget the bit about the frequencies. You will need your cable company to authorize the digital media adapter (or whatever) as an allowed DOCSIS device on their network. (Once authorized, the CMTS will tell the cable modem what frequencies to use, etc.)
I get around 4 Mb/s from my 802.11b network. This is barely enough to stream one channel of medium quality Mpeg2 compressed video from my tivo to my laptop. (hacked Tivo with TyShow)
There is no way you will accomplish your mission of transferring the entire cable bandwidth over a consumer wireless network.
I’m familiar with the Linksys digital media adapter. It basically connects your home network with your Stereo and TV so that you can listen to the music you have stored on your PC or network (MP3 or WMA format) over your stereo. There are connections that go from the Linksys unit to your TV, but they are there for basically two reasons:[ul][li]So you can view your digital pictures (jpeg format) over your TV.[/li][li]So the TV can provide an interface so that you can navigate the songs on your home network and choose what you want to play on your stereo (the Linksys has no display of its own).[/ul] Unfortunately the linksys doesn’t give you the ability to view streaming video from your hard drive (because of the bandwidth limitations previously mentioned) and it wouldn’t connect to your cable TV in any way.[/li]
Hope that helps.