Saturday, October 16, 2010
COMING SOON: How to Connect Your 1st Generation WDTV to your Wireless Network
As of today, I have finally scraped together enough money to buy a Wireless-N USB Dongle for my 1st Generation WDTV
.
In the past, I was able to get an old Wireless-G dongle to work with my unit, but the connection would often be problematic. I avoided making any tutorial videos on the subject because I didn't want others dealing with the same headaches I had been having.
I should be receiving my new D-Link DWA-140 Wireless-N USB device in a week or two. I picked out this device because I had read several positive forum posts and success stories from other WDTV Generation 1 owners who were using the device. Many also noted that the P/N and S/N of the device didn't matter so much, they all worked well with the correct drivers.
This is in sharp contrast to many other devices which have the same unit name but often very different hardware under the hood, making the purchase of the correct device really tricky. Finding a device which is easy to come by for everyone is an important aspect of making a tutorial video. Finally, I was also able to pick up one of these adapters, used, for very cheap. (which is a big deal to me because I am always on a budget : )...)
Once I get the device, it will probably be another week before I am sure that everything is working and stable. After that, it will take me another week to make a full "noob proof" video tutorial (no small feat with this particular subject). I had a lot of headaches setting up my first adapter, something which I would like to spare my blog audience :)...
I will make a short post when I get my new device in the mail and then another as soon as I get it working. In the mean time, I will probably start making some short text/picture (maybe video) tutorials on how to access your router, change your security settings, and all that other good stuff, which is required pre-requisite knowledge for setting up wireless access on your WDTV.
In the mean time, if you want to go ahead and pick up one of these low cost (used) adapters, I have linked directly to their amazon page throughout this post and right here.
.In the past, I was able to get an old Wireless-G dongle to work with my unit, but the connection would often be problematic. I avoided making any tutorial videos on the subject because I didn't want others dealing with the same headaches I had been having.
I should be receiving my new D-Link DWA-140 Wireless-N USB device
in a week or two. I picked out this device because I had read several positive forum posts and success stories from other WDTV Generation 1 owners who were using the device. Many also noted that the P/N and S/N of the device didn't matter so much, they all worked well with the correct drivers. This is in sharp contrast to many other devices which have the same unit name but often very different hardware under the hood, making the purchase of the correct device really tricky. Finding a device which is easy to come by for everyone is an important aspect of making a tutorial video. Finally, I was also able to pick up one of these adapters, used, for very cheap. (which is a big deal to me because I am always on a budget : )...)
Once I get the device, it will probably be another week before I am sure that everything is working and stable. After that, it will take me another week to make a full "noob proof" video tutorial (no small feat with this particular subject). I had a lot of headaches setting up my first adapter, something which I would like to spare my blog audience :)...
I will make a short post when I get my new device
in the mail and then another as soon as I get it working. In the mean time, I will probably start making some short text/picture (maybe video) tutorials on how to access your router, change your security settings, and all that other good stuff, which is required pre-requisite knowledge for setting up wireless access on your WDTV.In the mean time, if you want to go ahead and pick up one of these low cost (used) adapters, I have linked directly to their amazon page throughout this post and right here
.
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Maybe I should have posted here...
ReplyDeleteWhat wired usb ethernet adapter can I use? Do I just install the wdlxtv firmware and plug in play?
Thanks!!
@Chris
ReplyDeleteWell... Actually you should have just posted on the "How to network your WDTV... Wireless" page but it really doesn't matter lol :)....
Anyhow, I don't know off the top of my head what adapters work and what don't. I do know that you will have a much easier time getting MOST wired adapters to work vs. fooling with wireless.
Furthermore, I am pretty sure that a broad range of adapters are supported for just simple "plug-n-play" as long as you have WDLXTV firmware installed.
Unfortunately, the handy "wiki" page that used to give a full list of supported wired adapters has disappeared. :(...
Generally it seems that adapters that are easily supported with Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, were also supported with the WDLXTV firmware.
I wish I could tell you more. It seems like someone said that the nintendo gamecube? had a usb-to-ethernet adapter that worked... and I am pretty sure several people mentioned an old apple usb-to-ethernet adapter that worked.
Good luck, please post back if you get something and it works (and it is cheap) as other people would probably like to have that info.
Cheers,
Roman