# Will the Mini work with the Wireless N Network Adapter?



## tlwizard

I'd like to put a Mini in the bedroom. Don't have coax in there. Don't have ethernet in there. What I do have is the Wireless N Network Adapter that has the ethernet plug on it. 

I tried searching but couldn't find any reference of someone trying to use this setup. Since the Tivo views that particular network adapater as an ethernet connection, does anyone know if it will work?


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## moyekj

It might, but TiVo doesn't support it so you're on your own if it doesn't. But if you're talking about the USB Wireless N adapter then no that won't work with the Mini.


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## csell

What about using an ethernet of power adapter? Not suppose to be as good as ethernet over coax, but its better than nothing.


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## aaronwt

tlwizard said:


> I'd like to put a Mini in the bedroom. Don't have coax in there. Don't have ethernet in there. What I do have is the Wireless N Network Adapter that has the ethernet plug on it.
> 
> I tried searching but couldn't find any reference of someone trying to use this setup. Since the Tivo views that particular network adapater as an ethernet connection, does anyone know if it will work?


I setup up my two Elites and two Minis on wireless bridges for a couple of days. From a user perspective my performance was identical to being on a wired ethernet connection and on MoCA connection.

I was using unsaturated access points and uncongested wireless channels which is how a wireless network needs to be setup to avoid issues.


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## 2trill4925

I get all types of V401 (OTA Premiere connected to WRT600N) and V87 errors (Mini connected to WGA600N). My P4 is connected with a DDWRT3200N. All of this is running off the 5GHz band. I guess if it gets any worse I'll order Cat 6 from monoprice and tack it along the baseboards.

I'll add that I'm only streaming SD content (Nickelodeon for the kids). I haven't tested anything HD, and expect the performance would be worse 10 fold on my network.

If possible I'd recommend running an AC network as opposed to N. I guess you could implement an option to add another subnet to your network for Tivo purposes only (if it were me I'd place the Tivo equipment on subnet B exclusively unless you primarily use the apps for OTT content then go with subnet A to limit hops).


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## tlwizard

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll give it a test in a week or two once I get the mini. It'll be the only piece of electronics on the N 5GHz band so hopefully that will help.


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## 2trill4925

How did it go?

I noticed with my 2 tuner OTA Premiere that's directly connected to the WRT600N it streams without error. With that said my DD-WRTe2000 (I know I said e3200 by mistake earlier) does have a bad habit of scanning the 5 GHz band frequently. That's the only common denominator that I've noticed, and it seems like you should be fine with a special puporse bridge.

More than likely I'll move the WRT600N to the P4 and keep the WGA600N on the Mini.

Some other factors are that I run wide band channel 161. To my understanding this is an outdoor channel.


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## tlwizard

2trill4925 said:


> How did it go?
> 
> I noticed with my 2 tuner OTA Premiere that's directly connected to the WRT600N it streams without error. With that said my DD-WRTe2000 (I know I said e3200 by mistake earlier) does have a bad habit of scanning the 5 GHz band frequently. That's the only common denominator that I've noticed, and it seems like you should be fine with a special puporse bridge.
> 
> More than likely I'll move the WRT600N to the P4 and keep the WGA600N on the Mini.
> 
> Some other factors are that I run wide band channel 161. To my understanding this is an outdoor channel.


haven't gotten the mini yet. have been in the process of trying to change cable companies and waiting now until that all gets sorted out.


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## 2trill4925

Well I'm very pleased with the performance results after moving the DD-WRT E2000 to other duties. I still wish there was an option to toggle the the Live TV timeout, but at least my 5 year old can press live TV (hopefully my kids won't delete shows). Maybe, I'll look into opening the circuit on the remote to disable other buttons.

I do want to add the my living space is modest in size and the Mini and P4 are roughly 25 ft apart.


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## tlwizard

Two months later and I finally have it all setup. Works perfectly with the Wireless N Network Adapter. Only issue was setting the Mini itself up. Had to rename my XL4. But for anyone else interested, the adapter does work with it.


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## scsailor

aaronwt said:


> I setup up my two Elites and two Minis on wireless bridges for a couple of days. From a user perspective my performance was identical to being on a wired ethernet connection and on MoCA connection.
> 
> I was using unsaturated access points and uncongested wireless channels which is how a wireless network needs to be setup to avoid issues.


Could you send some details on how you set this up? I have two Netgear R6300's setup in bridge mode but when I connect the Mini on the remote network, it says it can't find the XL4 which is on the primary network. I think it's because the remote network has a different network address and I'm not sure how to get around this.

Thanks!


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## aaronwt

scsailor said:


> Could you send some details on how you set this up? I have two Netgear R6300's setup in bridge mode but when I connect the Mini on the remote network, it says it can't find the XL4 which is on the primary network. I think it's because the remote network has a different network address and I'm not sure how to get around this.
> 
> Thanks!


My wireless network is the same network as my wired network. So anything I connect to the wireless bridge is seen the same as if i connected it to the wired portion of my network. Everything is hung off of my main router.


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## ellinj

I have a mini arriving today. I plan to use it with my Tivo 802.11n adapter, which should appear to the mini as a regular ethernet device on my network. I'll let you all know how it goes.


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## Bigg

Pretty sure it won't work with a TiVo wireless adapter. With a wireless bridge, it can't tell that it's not on hardwired Ethernet, although it has to be a really good wireless link, otherwise things will start to fall apart. It would also be a bit easier with something like Comcast vice something like FIOS, as a Comcast channel is 2/3 the bandwidth of FIOS.


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## ellinj

Tivo 802.11n adapter is just a wireless bridge. It mostly worked ok but I was getting some stuttering on some shows, probably dependent on the bit rate of the show. I ended up switching to hardwired ethernet.


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## Bigg

ellinj said:


> Tivo 802.11n adapter is just a wireless bridge. It mostly worked ok but I was getting some stuttering on some shows, probably dependent on the bit rate of the show. I ended up switching to hardwired ethernet.


Oh ok, gotcha. I thought it was a USB adapter, like the old G adapters for the S2's.


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