Airport Extreme, External HD, Apple TV, Wake on Wireles, existing Wireless Network

[pcorrado]

Forgive me for this question because I know lots of components of it have been asked before, I just can't figure out how it all pieces together! Here is my situation:

I have a new AppleTV set up in my entertainment center on the other side of my house from my office, where my MacBook Pro is. Currently I have my U-verse gateway(which has a wireless router built in) in my home theater. The AppleTV is wired into the gateway. The signal from the gateway does not reach my office so I was able to hack a linksys router into a repeater bridge (different SSID as my U-verse setup). This allows me to stream my iTunes library, which is stored on an external HD (1.5tb) connected to my Mac, to my Apple TV.

I have two problems with this set-up. The first is that I would like to share my iTunes library with other computers over a network - I use home sharing now, but would like to be able to turn off my MBP once in awhile or at least be able to move my MBP around and still access my iTunes/home sharing. Second, I would to be able to wake my mac from sleep over the wireless network for the convenience of Apple TV viewing (this also sort of solves my home sharing problem).

I know the answer to first - I either have to get a NAS device or a Router that supports USB Storage - the latter seems like the most cost effective.

My second - wake on wireless - appears to only have one solution, however, that solution also solves my first problem, i.e. an Apple Airport Extreme. This is where my real questions lie.

I know that in order to wake my MBP from sleep wirelessly, my MBP needs to be connected to a network hosted by the Airport Extreme, however, does that mean I can be connected to my current repeater bridge set-up and have to awaken? My instinct tells me no since the current set-up effectively is a separate wireless network that is joined to the main.

This makes me wonder if it is possible to connect an airport extreme wirelessly to the U-verse router and then connect my Mac to the airport wirelessly and still have wake on wireless, from the apple TV at least, possible? Now I am not against a wireless connection from the AppleTV to the AirPort, I just worry about speed and quality.

The whole situation I have is that my flat has about 65 feet of distance between my home theater set-up and my computer. It is an old, very well constructed building and I have yet to find a wireless network solution that gave me a stable signal with one router near the gateway (tried many routers including wireless "n"), however, my computer connected to the repeater (which is in the exact center of our home) works everywhere in my leading me to believe that a wireless connection between AppleTV and an Airport Extreme in this location may work - if it is even possible to set-up like that. In a perfect world - I feel more comfortable with the AppleTV at least partially wired even though I think the only benefit I get is wired internet access since the network stream is all wireless anyway.

I know this was long, but thank you for reading and I look forward to your responses, Thank you.

 

[pcorrado]

A Temp. Workaround I discovered

Well, I have been successfully able to wake my Mac wirelessly without an airport extreme or time capsule. It is not an elegant solution but it will work until I can figure out if the airport extreme will do the trick.

1) I enabled wake on lan in the settings for the repeater bridge I have set-up and enabled wake on network on my Mac.
2) I configured the Mac to a static IP via network preferences (not on my router - wouldn't hold for some reason).
3) While the Mac was awake I configured the Apple Remote App on my iPhone and iPad to connected to my iTunes library. I have tried it both through home sharing and a straight connection, the straight connection is more stable for some reason. The iPhone and iPad had to also be on the repeater's wireless broadcast.
4) Exist the app without changing the library.
5) Let the Mac do it thing and go to sleep.
6) Now if the Mac is sleeping and I turn on my AppleTV, no computers are recognized, however, if I open the remote app on either my phone or iPad, the Mac instantly wakes.

Like I said, not as easy as it would be with an airport express, but a solution none the less.

In addition, I think I may have another solution for my problem, I don't if it will still work, but what if I hardwired an airport extreme to my repeater bridge and then set-up the AEBS as bridge to the internet connection of the repeater bridge - hosting another wireless network - that should circumvent my whole set-up and give me everything I want (wireless internet, streaming, waking, storage). Although,every device I add sort of defeats the power savings I gain from sleeping my computer.