[seanrolsen]

Hello!

The situation:
I have a situation where I have 5 xbmc's networked together but 2 (especially 1) are a bit far away in cottages. The xbmc's are all on actual original xboxes. All of the video files (only thing really used for) are stored on a NAS (non-MAC iomega home media drive) located in the main house. In order for those 2 far xbmc's to get a better signal, I installed an additional remote access point in between the far ones and the local ones.

The question:
Is there a way to allow the 2 remote xboxes to grab movies from a second NAS attached to the remote access point? I would still like all the xboxes to get internet (to check weather).

What I got:
5 xbmc on softmodded xbox's w/ MediaStream
1 hawking wireless-N AP/Bridge with WDS ability
1 Cisco WAP4410N Wireless-N Access Point
1 Engenius 2Watt AP/Bridge *B/G only*
5 Linksys Wireless N bridges
tz170 router
2 iTB Iomega Home Media Drives NAS (no MAC)


Current Setup:
Tz-170 router connects the Hawking AP, Server, and 1 Iomega NAS with wireless disabled.
Hawking AP/Bridge acting as main AP (connected to TZ-170 router) at the main house in AP mode
Cisco wap4410N in the near cottage with the other Iomega NAS (cloned files) in bridge+ mode
Each Xbox has a bridge attached to it. The furthest xbox has the Engenius AP/Bridge in bridge mode.

Notes: :o
I just can't figure out the difference between all the bridge and ap and wds modes to figure out which one I need. I am hoping that the wap4410n can relay the internet connection to the cottages, while at the same time serving up the cloned Iomega NAS so that there would be less strain on the original NAS, and that the signal would not have to go as far. However, I can't get the xboxes in the cottages to see the NAS on the wap4410n (the one in the cottage.)

Thanks to anyone who can help. I am assuming that there is more information needed, so please ask away and I will provide what I can. Thanks guys!

[kraqh3d]

Yes you can do this, but you have different AP's so the terminology and configuration options of each will be different. Ideally you want to run WDS which is a "true" intelligent bridge mode, but I found that WDS isn't consistent across different types of AP's. I had to resort to using a master/slave like bridge mode which seems to mask the actual MAC address of the connected devices. I set up my internet connected AP as the master. All the others in bridge mode were seen as wireless clients of this master. For your distance problem, you should run the intermediate AP's in repeater mode. AP's in repeater mode just sit in the middle just to extend the range. I know DD-WRT firmware supports repeater mode.

[seanrolsen]

Do you think I should have the AP that the NAS is attached to in repeater mode?
What protocol do you recommend for the NAS attached to the AP?
The NAS supports UPNP... I will have to try that when I change the mode.

[kraqh3d]

Just a warning, repeater mode effectively halves your throughput, so don't use it unless you have to.

Anything that has an attached client (either wired or wireless) will need to be in a bridge mode of some sort.

I suggest you use google and find some wifi forums and ask there. You'll get much better help that way.

Personally, I would refrain from using UPNP streaming unless you only care about browsing a simple file structure to find and play a file.

[seanrolsen]

Kraqh3d -

Thanks. I will do that.

I figured upnp was fine since that is what playon uses, right?

The setup is .iso files for all movies.