Wifi support

[nirfish9]

hi everybody

I recently purchased a WD streamer model : WDBAAP0000NBK-EESN

I am pretty sure it supports Wifi , it sayes so on the manual I got , but when I go to settings I dont get the option to choose from

setting a wired/wireless network only wired (auto / manual).

I plugged a usb Wifi adapter model : TP-Link TL-WN620G , I know its not on the list of compatible adapters so it might not work.

My question is this : should I have the option to configure Wifi on my WD even if I havent plugged in an adapter or if I plugged in an adapter

thats not compatible ?  My common sense tells me that if I dont have the option than my WD doesnt support Wifi. please tell

me I am wrong . and if  I am wrong should I go  and buy one of the adapters on the list and it will work (?).

please help . thanks

[TonyPh12345]

No.  You will not see the wireless configuration options until you plug in a supported adapter.

[nirfish9]

thanks , by the way , does the WD work well in wireless mode ?  I dont want to go through all this trouble of buying a new

Wifi adapter and praying it will work with that specific model just to find out I am better off staying with a wired connection.

[janry]

nirfish9 wrote:

thanks , by the way , does the WD work well in wireless mode ? 

It can.  Your mileage may vary.   I have two WDTVs.  One is on wireless n and the other is on a powerline adapter.  They are in different rooms and just so happens, that is the way they work best for me, but wired is not doable for me.  If I were you and you can stay wired, I would.

[TonyPh12345]

I agree with Janry.

If WIRED is at all an option, use it.   It’s FAR less worrisome.

WiFi can work GREAT, but there are so many dependencies that are out of your control that it can be problematic.

[nirfish9]

thanks everybody for all the help

does it matter which wireless router I have ? or just the usb adapter mattres ? .

[Scandy]

I bought a simultaneous dual band wireless router (Netgear 3700v1) and a Cisco/Linksys WUSB600N v2 wireless adapter. This works really well because you can dedicate the 5GHz radio to video, and use the 2.4GHz radio for everything else. The router has options that allow you to specify that the 5GHz radio is being used to stream video. The router then uses built-in algoithms that give priority to the video streaming. There are other manufacturers that sell simultaneous dual band wireless routers that do the same thing.

However, depending on what you want to stream, you may not want or need to go that far. For example, if you just wanted to stream netflix, you really don’t need that much bandwidth and most any combination of router/adapter would work, but if you are trying to stream blu-ray quality, then…

[nirfish9]

thanks

so basically it will work with allmost any Wireless router I have but it might work even better with some routers

that support advanced features like QoS and so on . I dont need to pay so much attention to the list of compatible routers

only to the list of compatible Wifi adapters (?)

[Scandy]

nirfish9 wrote:

thanks

so basically it will work with allmost any Wireless router I have but it might work even better with some routers

that support advanced features like QoS and so on . I dont need to pay so much attention to the list of compatible routers

only to the list of compatible Wifi adapters (?)

Yes.

If you are going to get a wireless adapter, pay special attention to the revision numbers specified in WD’s list of compatible Wifi adapters. If you get a different revision number, there is a good chance that it will not work. The wireless adapter manufacturers have a bad habit of changing the chipsets when they change the revision numbers. They still use the exact same product number which makes it kind of confusing for the customer. What is even worse is that some manufacturers don’t put the revision number on the box, making it impossible to tell what you are buying until after you open the box.