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scottishwatty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2008
5
0
I am currently searching for the best networking setup and hope that if anything sounds wrong in this description someone with experience may be able to guide me a little bit better.

I plan to :

Buy Apple Airport Extreme (N)
To this i'll have my home server (xp, P4 2.8ghz, 2GB, 1TB) connected with both Tversity & Itunes fully loaded. This will also be connected to my ISP. I am looking to stream music via itunes and high definition videos through tversity to my ps3.

Buy apple airport express (N)
Plug this in behind my home theatre system, with audio out going to my AMP and networking out going to my PS3.

Install apple remote on my iphone
This hopefully will access the itunes on my server and allow me to listen to it through my amp without turning on the plasma.

Questions:

1. Does this setup sound like it will work for music through itunes?
2. Am i right in presuming that going from airport extreme wireless to airport express then cabled to PS3 should be faster than extreme to ps3 wirelessly, and therefore increase my chances of getting smooth playback of HD on my ps3?
3. Would anybody suggest anything different? Cabling is not an option, and wireless distance is only 20ft max through basic flooring.


Thanks in advance to anyone taking time to read this.
 

Padraic

macrumors regular
My thoughts...

1. Yes, that was what the Airport express was designed to do...
2. It isn't going to be any faster, you're introducing wireless in both scenarious. Wireless is going to be your bottleneck no matter where you put it between your Airport Extreme and PS3, the Airport express doesn't do any type of buffering, that would be left up to your PS3. In fact, it should theoretically be faster to remove the Airport express and just wirelessly connect the PS3 to the Extreme, this would remove one extra hop the packets have to take. We're only talking milleseconds though...
3. If cable is not an option, I would connect the PS3 wirelessly to the Extreme, just use the express for music.

Just my thoughts..
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
this would remove one extra hop the packets have to take. We're only talking milleseconds though...

Is the Express a router? If not, the effect may very well be shorter than milliseconds. Either way, it's not anything that should impact performance.
 

scottishwatty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2008
5
0
Padraic, regarding using the airport express and ps3,

I agree that the wireless aspect will be my bottleneck between my airport extreme and ps3, especially as this will give me a maximum of a 802.11G connection.
Surely if i cable my ps3 to an airport express (which is 802.11N), the link between the express and extreme would be faster, and therefore a smaller bottleneck?

For example :

Extreme(N) --> PS3 built in wireless G = max of 802.11G
Extreme(N) --> Express(N) --> ethernet on PS3 = max of 802.11N

Thanks for advice so far.
 

itickings

macrumors 6502a
Apr 14, 2007
947
185
2. It isn't going to be any faster, you're introducing wireless in both scenarious. Wireless is going to be your bottleneck no matter where you put it between your Airport Extreme and PS3, the Airport express doesn't do any type of buffering, that would be left up to your PS3. In fact, it should theoretically be faster to remove the Airport express and just wirelessly connect the PS3 to the Extreme, this would remove one extra hop the packets have to take. We're only talking milleseconds though...
3. If cable is not an option, I would connect the PS3 wirelessly to the Extreme, just use the express for music.

I was under the impression that the PS3 is 11b/g only.

In that case, running a 11n-only network with the PS3 connected to the Express by wire will be faster than running the Extreme in G compatible mode...
 

scottishwatty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2008
5
0
I was under the impression that the PS3 is 11b/g only.

In that case, running a 11n-only network with the PS3 connected to the Express by wire will be faster than running the Extreme in G compatible mode...

Thanks itickings, i was hoping that my thought process was correct, and your comment reassures it.
Now the fun part, will i be able to stream HD video over this setup or is it time to give up, lol.
 

jaw04005

macrumors 601
Aug 19, 2003
4,513
400
AR
I recently tried to do this over the summer. However, the speed wasn't fast enough to stream most video. I kept getting buffering problems even with an AirPort Extreme (N) and AirPort Express (N) running in N 5Ghz mode.

I went back to Ethernet, but N had much better performance than an AirPort Extreme (G) connecting to the PS3 via G wireless.

By the way, the base stations were in the same room.
 

itickings

macrumors 6502a
Apr 14, 2007
947
185
Thanks itickings, i was hoping that my thought process was correct, and your comment reassures it.
Now the fun part, will i be able to stream HD video over this setup or is it time to give up, lol.

You're welcome.

Regarding the fun part, it is hard to promise anything. It all comes down to how much wireless interference you have and (most importantly) the bit rate of your HD videos.

I don't have any HD videos to stream, but sustaining file transfers above a couple of megabytes/second for extended periods of time is no problem at all in my 11n setup.
 

scottishwatty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2008
5
0
I recently tried to do this over the summer. However, the speed wasn't fast enough to stream most video. I kept getting buffering problems even with an AirPort Extreme (N) and AirPort Express (N) running in N 5Ghz mode.

I went back to Ethernet, but N had much better performance than an AirPort Extreme (G) connecting to the PS3 via G wireless.

By the way, the base stations were in the same room.

Thanks, it looks like im going to have to look at bitrate in a lot more detail, or just have a NAS with both ethernet & usb, to which i can use ethernet to transfer the HD files temp, then use the usb into the PS3 to get better transfer speeds. Again, since this is just theory based on facts, i'll probably have fun getting that to work too.

Then again, if i do this i'll have problems with some formats the PS3 doesnt like. Great. Looks like im talking myself out of stream HD.
 

yrsonicdeath

macrumors 6502
Jul 2, 2007
375
1
I was planning on doing this with a 360 as well. I've read the 360 doesn't play well with the Extreme and the added speed is a bonus as well.
 

scottishwatty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2008
5
0
I was planning on doing this with a 360 as well. I've read the 360 doesn't play well with the Extreme and the added speed is a bonus as well.

Just out of interest, have you ever had the xbox360 actually play HD content over a network?
 

soxfan143

macrumors newbie
Apr 5, 2011
1
0
As a total newb to the site I'm sorry for reviving an ancient thread but I am considering this setup for my home network. Here's the deal. I just recently purchased a Dell laptop, don't blame me lol, and I want to upgrade to wireless N because my signal and speed now where my PS3 and laptops are is terrible and I can't run them at the same time without connections totally failing. My current setup is the Verizon FiOS crappy router with a older Netgear G access point connected to extend the range because where Verizon installed the router for the bridge to the FiOS TV is about 80 feet and downstairs from my gaming room. This setup allows me to at least use one at a time but it's getting old. And the new Dell is dead slow at wireless g speeds. It's more setup for Wireless n.

Now, I have the old 60G PS3 with the wireless network card so I was thinking of doing the Airport Extreme as the access point off the FiOS router and plugging in the Airport express behind my home theater and PS3 and connecting the PS3 to the ethernet on the express. I know the speeds won't be super fast but it should allow the laptop to connect wirelessly to the express and still allow the PS3 to work as well. Correct? Also the wife has an older Acer laptop with a wireless g card. Will that stop working or no? And could I set the Airport express on wireless n only for the new Dell, my iphone4 and airport express/ps3 and keep the old Netgear running on the wireless g channel for her and not get any interference?

I'm not as well versed in this technical area as most people but I get the basics. But this is slightly beyond my pay grade. lol..

Thanks for any help you guys can share.
 
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