EtherDongle Advantage?

[tng5737]

If you are not going to do wireless, is there any real advatage to using an etherDongle over two pixeldongles and a couple of combiners?   I still would have to run a cat5 cable between the combiner to my first hub and another cat5 between my two hubs.   If I went wireless, then I can see the advantages and of course also the future development of the Etherdognle daughter-boards.   And if I understand the setup correctly - if I went wireless then I would need two Etherdongles plus the wireless gear.

[rm357]

Ether donglē = 4 pixelnet dongles + combiner

Wirless is cheap if caught on sale. I puchased a couple of wirless n adapters that can be configured as a receiver/bridge for under $20 each - that gives me spare... get on the mailing list for newegg...

RM

[lightingnut]

I'm confused,
If I use the EtherDongle I won't need to have a computer running to run the show. The show will be stored on the EtherDongle??

If the EtherDongle plugs into the RJ45 jack on the computer and my computer only has one jack how do I get internet? My RJ45 jack is where my internet comes into the computer?
Please explain.
Thanks

[RJ]

No the etherdongle does not play your show.

The conductor which gets plugged into the board inside the case runs your show but it is not avaliable yet. Soon to go to beta.

RJ

[mykroft]

I'm confused,
If I use the EtherDongle I won't need to have a computer running to run the show. The show will be stored on the EtherDongle??

If the EtherDongle plugs into the RJ45 jack on the computer and my computer only has one jack how do I get internet? My RJ45 jack is where my internet comes into the computer?
Please explain.
Thanks

You would either need another eth adapter for your computer OR just put the etherdongle into your hub/switch and the data will go thru your network without the need for a 2nd eth port on your computer. 

If you go directly to your cable/dsl modem and it does not have a router in it - then you will need to get a switch to allow the etherdongle to need the data sent to it.

most cable/dsl modems these days have a router/switch built into them with some extra ports for other devices on your network...

Hope this helps

Myk

[chrisatpsu]

even if you have a 2nd network interface card installed in your computer, won't multicast broadcast to all available nics?

[rm357]

For surfing the web and downloading files, it is doubtful that you would see any issues with one etherdongle. 1Mb per pixelnet universe + overhead is still less than 5Mb per second. If you've got pretty good wifi reception, your link should be able to carry many times that.

Where you are likely to have issues is if you are copying files between machines on your home network or streaming media from a home server.

Most isp connections are not going to saturate a home network.

If you have any issues, it is most likely going to be from poor wifi performance.

RM

[hbomb341]

Where you are likely to have issues is if you are copying files between machines on your home network or streaming media from a home server.

This is the BIG thing to pay attention too - I know uVerse and FIOS both use your data network for VOD - something to pay attention to.  I will post some great screenshots of HD VOD, HD netflix, and internet data transfer (Offsite Backup) MAXING out my router / ONT NIC (100MB)- impressive!  Not to scary anyone but to be aware a LOT more uses your data network then you think.

Harrison

[hbomb341]

Where you are likely to have issues is if you are copying files between machines on your home network or streaming media from a home server.

This is the BIG thing to pay attention too - I know uVerse and FIOS both use your data network for VOD - something to pay attention to.  I will post some great screenshots of HD VOD, HD netflix, and internet data transfer (Offsite Backup) MAXING out my router / ONT NIC (100MB)- impressive!  Not to scary anyone but to be aware a LOT more uses your data network then you think.

Harrison

Just because I like to show off ....

Harrison

[bcstuff]

Looks like it is time to invest in a gigabit switch Harrison.

That is a good problem to have.

[hbomb341]

Looks like it is time to invest in a gigabit switch Harrison.

That is a good problem to have.

Internal is ... the problem is my ONT (kind of like a modum) only has 100 - trying to justify 150 mb / 35 mb which means they would upgrade me to a gigabit port on my ONT and WAY more bandwitch. but YES this is a good problem.

Harrison

[bcstuff]

Your modem has the restriction so if you were to run the modem to the gigabit switch and then to your computer on a separate port your internal network would be gigabit. You could then run the ether-dongle off one of the ports on the gigabit switch. The data for pixelnet doesn't go over the internet so your modem 100mb restriction would not effect it.

Brian

[hbomb341]

Your modem has the restriction so if you were to run the modem to the gigabit switch and then to your computer on a separate port your internal network would be gigabit. You could then run the ether-dongle off one of the ports on the gigabit switch. The data for pixelnet doesn't go over the internet so your modem 100mb restriction would not effect it.

Brian

Brian ... not sure where you got the impression this is my setup ... It is ONT (100 MB) -> {100 MB} Router {1GB} -> {1GB} Switch - Network 1.  I have 6 different physical networks (all coming out of the router also) and 4 vLans onto of that along with 6 VPN connections / remote networks all linking (like a small company out of the house - also to make sure my media networks are able to push to the MAX without other interference) .... so I PERSONALLY am not worried .... for the troubleshooting and BEST PRACTICE will have a dedicated network just for the show so there is less of a change of an issue.  I was point all of this out for people who think their network doesn't have that much data but most people don't think the TV touches the data network.

Harrison

[SGInut]

Slightly off topic but is there a performance advantage to using the EtherDongle over USB dongles?  Does Vixen perform better?

[smartcontrols]

SGInut,

Yes, During Beta testing Vixen performed much better for me with the Etherdongle. The screen display could keep up much better and it responded to the keyboard instantly as well.

Also the updating of the channels was much smoother. You can read my post about testing and see some compare videos here
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That was my experance. I run a lot of channels so YMMV.

-Jeff